In Counter-Strike 2, Valve is walking a potentially difficult line, one that few developers ever tread. It's not often that a game is designed to out-and-out replace its predecessor, for a sequel to render the original so theoretically obsolete that the game that came first is all-but abandoned; left to gather dust on the even-more-rare occasion that it's left online.
Such are the fates that have befallen the likes of Destiny, Overwatch, and the original Warzone. Whether by aging tech, avid fans, or rabid shareholders, Bungie, Blizzard, and Activision were all pushed to overhaul their games and replace them with something new. The successes have been mixed: Destiny 2 continues to be best-in-class, its somewhat poorly-received Lightfall expansion not really distracting from its overall quality; Warzone 2 is chugging along, although hasn't yielded quite the same reaction as its original did around its March 2020 release; and then there's Overwatch 2, about which, well, perhaps the less said there, the better.
