CS2 vs Valorant: Shooter Comparison - Hellcase Blog

Shooters are one of the most popular game genres that have existed in the gaming market since its inception. During this time, they have attracted millions of players around the world and have become popular in competitive terms.

However, with the release of Counter-Strike 2, many people are wondering if Valorant will be able to maintain its popularity or if CS2 is out of competition and will become a Valorant’s killer”. In this article, we will analyze this thesis in detail and compare these two legendary shooters.

The Beginning of the Competition Between the Two Games

Before the release of Valorant, CS:GO was the leader in the niche of competitive 5v5 shooters. The evidence of this is the promotions on the broadcasts of the main tournaments in this discipline. Yes, and on broadcasts, the average number of viewers was great in comparison with other types of the genre.

But then, suddenly, Riot announces its 5v5 shooter and provides an open beta test for it. Thousands of players take part in it, and many people like the new shooter. Even when the shooter was at the beta test stage, it was dubbed “the CS:GO killer”.

The main reason for the emergence of such sentiments in the gaming community was the developers of Valve. They have not updated the game for a long time. For many players, it has already become boring. Moreover, technically, Valorant was better than CS:GO. All servers are on 128 tick rate, manual server selection, anti-cheat system, and we can continue this list further. Therefore, it is not surprising that after the release of Valorant, a lot of people switched to playing it. The same goes for the players as well. Many of them decided to change discipline and move to a new shooter. The truth, these were players who had not shown any results in CS:GO for quite a long time, mainly from the NA (North America) region.

The appearance of such a serious competitor in the face of Valorant made Valve understand that CS:GO needs an update. Therefore, they released a global update of CS:GO, or rather its engine. Let’s compare these two shooters and see who has what pros and cons.

What is Better, CS2 or Valorant?

We need to mention right away that we use only official information and announcements from developers. Will they be able to do everything they want – we will find out after the release of the game. For now, let’s compare what is already available.

Graphic

Many people think that graphics are not the main thing. The main thing is the gameplay itself and the in-game atmosphere. Yes, it’s true in some way, but only partially. If that were true, then everyone would still play CS 1.6. So the graphics matter too. Comparing them, we need to take into account the universe and the atmosphere of these games.

Valorant’s graphics are cartoony, but the universe is also about people who have superpowers. This casualness is not liked by many CSers, because they often prefer something closer to reality. But it is foolish to deny that the graphics there are quite pleasant.

There is no lore in CS2. It is clumsily simple, and only ardent fans try to dig deeper. Players prefer the new engine, lighting rendering, redesigned maps, and other things that make the game more modern. Grenades, skins, and other improved effects began to look more colorful and realistic in CS2. If you haven’t seen these updates yet, we advise you to check out our CS2 review . In summary, we put a plus on the new graphics in the atmosphere of CS2.

Now let’s compare these two games in terms of technical features.

Technical comparison

That is probably the most complex part of the comparison because it is impossible to check some elements of the CS2 update at the moment. For example, such anti-cheat “VAC live” . According to Valve, he will ban cheaters during the match, after which the match will be canceled. If this works, then in this aspect, СS2 and Valorant will be equal.

The server tick rate is a very important technical part of these shooters. The lower the response delay from the server, the more accurate the result of the player’s actions on the server. Valorant servers use a 128-tick rate. Those who played CS:GO on the FACEIT platform are well acquainted with it. In CS2, the developers introduced a new system of sub-ticks. It should instantly send information about the player’s action to the server. In this case, there will be no more situations, when your shot was not registered by the server. You can learn more about the sub-tick system in CS2 in our article. Overall, in this technical difference, СS2 has an advantage over Valorant.

Valve also announced that the sounds in CS2 will become faster and easier to orient in space compared to the previous version of the game. Where it will be better in CS2 or Valorant will become clear after the release. Only players who understand these two games equally well will be able to compare these systems. The same applies to the gameplay component.

Gameplay

Shooting and movement in these games are also different. In CS2, the shooting has changed a bit. According to professional players, shooting has become a little easier, but perhaps it seems so because of the unusual visuals. Shooting in Valorant is quite different from CS2. Here the main role plays counter-strafes and the spray is used in very few situations. While in CS, the spray is an important component, without which the player will lose some duels.

There is also no unequivocal opinion about the movement. Such fundamental features as bunnyhop and runboost remained in the new version of the CS. Valorant players also use bunnyhop. Although the mechanics work differently in this game, the essence is the same. And the ability for one player to climb onto the model of another in Valorant is completely absent. Most likely, Riot did this to simplify the balance of the sides on the maps.

And probably the most important thing that the CS2 developers have done is removing the skyboxes on all maps. That means that you can use grenades from almost any place on the map. An alternative to a utility in Valorant is character abilities. In this regard, Valorant is more interesting. After all, the abilities of agents can be used in different combinations, while in CS2, there are still fewer combinations with grenades. Perhaps the new smoke grenade mechanic can change that.

To Wrap Up!

There is no clear winner in this comparison. The two games have their strengths and weaknesses in every aspect. We will be able to find out how Valve implements its ideas only after the official release of CS2. You can form an unambiguous opinion about these changes only after a few more patches in CS2 are released when the game will work stably.

Will CS2 kill Valorant? Most likely not, and it will be the same as when Valorant was in beta test. But one thing is for sure, this change in the CS will be a motivation for Riot to develop his game, and we all will only benefit from this.

Follow the news on our website, as well as read our blog . There is a lot of up-to-date information regarding updates to the CS2.