For almost thirty years, the concept of reloading your weapon in Counter-Strike has remained a simple, unchanged thing. But recently, Valve decided it was time to make a major change, adjusting how reloading works to make it more ‘high stakes’ and strategic, rather than an instinctive, throwaway command that you carry out without thinking.
Going forward, the ammunition left in your weapon’s magazine when you reload will be discarded, removing that count from your reserve supply. This will undoubtedly force players to make more than a few mistakes as they adjust to muscle memory movements built up over years of competition.
Why Did Valve Change CS2 Reloading?
In a new post on Steam, Valve revealed a major change coming to Counter-Strike 2, in the form of a reloading-based overhaul:
We think the decision to reload should have higher stakes, so in today’s update reloading has been redesigned. Now, when you reload, you’ll drop the used magazine and discard all of its remaining ammo. Instead of ‘topping off’ your weapon with a few bullets, a new full magazine will be taken from the reserves whenever you reload.
It was then explained that some weapons (it’s easy to figure out which) will have fewer clips to ‘reward efficiency and precision’, while others will have more clips to ‘encourage spamming through walls and smokes.’
The same update also added map guides to competitive matches. These are available for the first five rounds of your competitive fixtures, to help you figure out the lay of the land more quickly.
So, the reloading changes make the game harder, but the guides feature makes things easier? Got it.
In a post on social media revealing the changes, the team explained the gist going forward. As you can imagine, the changes were met with a mixed reception. One user wrote, ‘You should rename the update, ‘How to destroy a good game.’ Another wrote, ‘Actually a decent update. GG go next.’
The UI has also been updated to account for this change. You’ll now see your magazine count alongside your ammo count. It’s a simple change, but it’s proving to have made waves in the Counter-Strike community.
Do you think the new Counter-Strike 2 reloading changes are a W or an L? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that the LEC might be played online next year
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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