A Call To Arms - The first major CS2 update

The first major CS2 update is called "A Call To Arms". It brings a mixture of playable content, cosmetic content and bug fixes to the game. We will go into all the news and changes in the update below, but let's start by saying that with a size of 8.6 GB, we can expect a lot from this update.

The Arms Race mode is back 

The eponymous game mode for the update is already familiar to all CS:GO players. Many Counter-Strike careers have started on the battlefields of the arms race. Now the game mode can also be played in CS2 and it comes with two revised maps.

For all those who are not yet familiar with the mode: In other games, this type of game mode is also known as Gun Game. Each player starts with the same weapon and is assigned a new weapon after 2 kills with this weapon. The aim is to make kills as quickly as possible in order to finally make a kill with the last weapon, a knife or taser, and thus win.

If you want to find out more about the Arms Race mode, take a look here: "CS2 Arms Race: The arms race mode is back" over.

Baggage and Shoots - Two old cards in new splendor

As already mentioned, Arms Race comes into play with two old but revised maps. These maps are on the one hand Baggage and on the other hand Shoots.

Shoots uses the assets from Ancient, while Baggage recreates a scene at the airport with lots of baggage carousels. The cards appear in new splendor after the rework and look really promising visually.

Individual sticker placement

This is the biggest change for skin collectors. Stickers can now be placed anywhere on the weapon and are no longer tied to predefined positions. In addition, stickers can now even be rotated and placed upside down, for example. It is also possible to zoom in when attaching stickers to the weapon in order to place the stickers with pixel precision.

In addition, each weapon can now accommodate up to five stickers. As previously described, these stickers can of course all be placed in individual positions.

These changes will redefine Crafts in CS2, as the boundaries have been expanded immeasurably through individual sticker placement and the rotation of stickers. Although there are some negative voices, many others, including us, are very excited to see what extraordinary Crafts we will see in the future.

Kilowatt" weapon box - Kukri knife and Zeus skin

The update also includes a new weapon crate. The name of the crate is "Kilowatt" and it brings 17 new community-designed skins to the game. The knife in this crate is the already long known Kukri knife included. The Kukri knife can be drawn in the 12 standard skins for knives.

Probably the biggest news in this box, however, is that it contains the first Zeus skin. Zeus skins have also been rumored since the release of CS2, and now they are finally here.

If you would like to find out more about the new crate in detail, for example which skins are included, then take a look at our Article about the Kilowatt weapon box.

Zeus Update - Reusable and the first skin

Let's continue directly with the Zeus. Along with the first skin for the Zeus, Valve has also made playing the Taser more attractive. The Zeus now has a cooldown of 30 seconds after use and can then be used again. This means that it is no longer useless and thrown away after one use, but can even be taken into the next round. We are very curious to see when we will get to see the first Taser Ace.

The view model for the Zeus has also been adapted so that it is now more prominent in the hand in first person. There are also new sounds, for example for recharging and when the Zeus is ready to shoot again. Stickers and name tags can now also be attached to the Taser.

XP Overload - A reward for active players

Before the update, after reaching the weekly XP of 11,166 and receiving the weekly care package only get reduced experience. This will not change, but every player who makes it to the reduced XP will now receive a Symbol next to his name is displayed. This symbol is displayed next to the name in the profile, scoreboard and kill feed and is therefore a reward for active CS2 players.

In addition, the symbol will improve for each consecutive week in which you collect enough XP. This means that active players can now collect a streak and show everyone in the game how actively they are playing CS2.

A new sticker capsule and new music kits

A Call To Arms also comes with a new sticker capsule. The name of this capsule is Ambush Sticker Capsule and it can be purchased for €0.95 in the CS2 main menu. With the sticker capsule you can get one of 21 community designed stickers.

The update also brings a new music box called NIGHTMODE. The music box contains six different music kits and can be purchased for €4.75 without StatTrak or €7.59 with StatTrak can be purchased.

Other changes (agent animations, shadow and peeker advantage adjustments)

In this section, we would like to briefly present what we consider to be the most interesting minor changes in this update.

Agent animations:

Some agents have been given an animation that is played at the end of a game if the game is lost. This brings us one step closer to Fortnite animations in CS2 ;D

Smoke shadow:

Smokes now cast a shadow, improving both visuals and gameplay, as Smokes can now block light sources. At the same time, the rendering and animation of the Smokes have been improved.

Refund All button:

All purchased items can now be returned with a single click. In our opinion, this is a great quality of life update.

Change loadout:

The loadout can no longer be changed during the search for a game so that the correct loadout is saved in the game. In our opinion, this is somewhat questionable, couldn't Valve have simply fixed it so that the correct loadout is applied?

New command:

With the Console command cl_ticktiming a report with a breakdown of the various latency sources is written to the console. This command may be of interest to some players.

Background options:

A separate background can now be selected for the main menu and for examining weapons. The backgrounds, baggage and warehouse have also been added.

Microphone settings:

The audio device for voice input can now be selected directly in CS2 and a microphone threshold value can be set.

Competition:

The range of ranked points that can play together in Premier Matchmaking has been adjusted.

Peekers Advantage:

According to the patch notes, the Peekers Advantage has been reduced by 16 ms. How these and other network changes will affect the game must first be observed and tested.

In addition to all these changes, there were many other small updates and, above all, many fixes for various maps. You can read the complete patch notes here: CS2 patch notes from 06.02.2024

Our conclusion on the first major CS2 update

In our opinion, Valve has released a thoroughly successful update with A Call To Arms. The update consists of a good mix of content and fixes. It was already clear in advance that there would be no new operation as Valve still has to improve some things in CS2 and the maps for a potential new operation are not yet ready.

Overall, we think the update is a step in the right direction and you can see that real work is being done to improve CS2.