I'm going to give my opinion, but here's the premise: I've played CS for about 8-9 years now. I only moved to Source last year but didn't like it at all and now I'm playing GO.
First: HE Grenade 'issue' people seem to be talking about. The HE Grenade doesn't function like your regular grenades in CoD or BF. It isn't meant to instantly kill people. The main criticism of this is that it "Isn't realistic". Well CS isn't meant to be realistic, it's meant to be competitive and precise. If you want this game to be realistic then you're not going to enjoy it at all, tell me how I can fire my AWP, switch to a knife and then back to the AWP and then have the bolt already pulled? The game isn't meant to be realistic. Think about if HE grenades functioned like they did in CoD: you would get every man and his dog lobbing senseless grenades getting cheap kills. That's NOT what this game is about, which is why there isn't a grenade launcher either. This game is about precise accuracy, team co-ordination and sound. Which brings me to my next point, the closer a HE grenade explodes to you, the more your sound gets impaired and sound is critical in this game. Sound gives away an enemies location, you can time the footsteps to deduce what gun that enemy MAY be using (i.e. If he is sporting an AWP the footsteps are sluggish), you can hear a reload, you can hear the particular gun he is using if he fires it (each gun has a unique sound). This is why a HE grenade is balanced: you deal some damage AND you can damage the enemies hearing for a short time. While the flashbang is more effective with regards to this disorientating function, the HE grenade deals damage and has a minor disorientation function.
Second: The guns.
I disagree with all the statements claiming many of the guns are useless (except the Bizon, that thing sucks). Sure, a game will often revolve around the AK, M4 and AWP a lot, but I like to think that this should always be the case: it's kind of like how in Starcraft you 'tech up' to the effective tier of lategame units. That's what those guns are for me, the final tier. However, the other guns are superb and I can often outplay people who can't use those weapons effectively. I posted this in a thread within our little subreddit so I'm going to copy+paste it here:
In particular, I love the new CT shotgun, the MAG-7. It gives you $900 per kill and only costs $2000, with exceptional damage at close-range and even comparable damage at mid-range (for a shotgun). This is personally one of my favourite guns in GO atm because it's so fun to use and looks awesome.
I was also surprised at how effective the P90 is. It gives you $900 per kill, costs $2350, but has a ridiculously tiny spread. It's deadly at mid and even long range. It's just amazing for stacking money to purchase weapons for your team. It's actually a great gun for new players too, because you don't have to tap-fire as much (i.e. you can hold a burst for longer and suffer less penalty than with something like an AK or M4).
The FAMAS has also received quite a good buff. The burst function of the FAMAS feels deadly at mid-long range when I aim for the head. Using the burst function reduces the recoil penalty somewhat (though bullets take a bit longer to reach their destination compared to a player controlled burst). A headshot with this gun's burst feature is an instant kill irrespective of a helmet, so if you have good accuracy use this beast. Though many players often swap it out for more powerful guns later on (AK, M4, Deagle, AWP, P90, etc.) it really feels more deadly in GO.
While the AK, M4 and AWP are still perhaps the 'best' guns to use in general, they are no longer the only viable choice, especially because the reward you get from scoring a kill with them pales in comparison to the reward you get with other weapons. For example it is riskier to go for an AWP because you are only rewarded $50. Thus, it becomes harder to purely save enough frag money up from an AWP to rebuy one if you lose it. Additionally, if you use an AWP it becomes harder to gain extra cash to purchase weapons for your team. Of course, a skilled AWP user can still decimate an entire team, but the negative outcomes of using an AWP have been increased with the reduced monetary rewards. Same goes for the AK and the M4.
Thirdly: The maps:
I like them. I've played CS for so long that it was nice that some of the maps got a facelift and minor changes. Some of them, like Dust, needed to be rebalanced which I think was achieved somewhat.
Fourth: Molotovs/Incendiary:
Fuck yes, what a great addition to grenade selection. You can control the movement of an entire team with this. You can cut off reinforcements. You can delay defusal. It's so much fun and makes for some interesting gameplay.
Fifth: Graphics:
I've never really cared too much about the quality of textures for competitive games, but it was nice to have an updated CS. It looks a bit better than Source, but feels more like 1.6, which is great!
Sixth: The competitive scene:
Okay so this is my biggest gripe with the game. I'm in the DotA 2 beta. The interface for DotA 2 is amazing: it integrates the esports side of the game within the client itself. You can watch live games, stream tournaments, stream casters, watch replays, etc. What did CS get? None of that. I was expecting big things from GO because of what I saw in DotA 2. DotA 2 makes it so easy to support the esports community AND participate in it. But in GO we have a server browser and quick matchmaking which doesn't seem to have any real ranking system in place. Sure, we have a leaderboard, but that's it. I wanted streams, tournaments, ladders and everything that would fit so well with what CS is all about: competition! But we got nothing, and for that I am severely disappointed. I put in 200+ hours into the GO beta. Months ago I kept telling myself that something big was coming, but it never did. Very disappointed, the game could have been a massive part of the scene, but now I fear it's just subsidiary.
Seventh: Skins+Voices:
I did NOT like them at the start. Especially the T skins in office. But then I realised: the skins match the setting/context of the map. After realising that I kind of began to enjoy them (though I do miss picking l337 kr3w for every map
). My favourite has to be the British SAS with the little Union Jack on their outfit ("WE'RE IN THE CLEAR, LADS!"). All the voices are different for each skin, which is, for the most part, excellent (excluding the Office T's). I also like that each grenade has a different voice clip attached to it (much better than "fire in the hole!"). I like that when you see a grenade incoming your character will automatically call it out. All good stuff in this department.
To the new players:
I've stomped people in games that call me a 'hacker', or say that the game is unfair, or that the game is too hard without ironsights, or that hitboxes are too small to hit a head. It's all excuses for being a bad player. If you're new to the game you're going to play shit for a while, this isn't an FPS you can pick up quickly like CoD or BF. This is a game that takes practice. I was shit for years, and now I can finally say with confidence that I'm pretty decent, good even. After 8+ years of this game I'm just 'good'. That's how it is. This game doesn't need big changes, this will ruin its chance at having a good competitive scene: I despise games like LoL and HoN where they release a new hero every second week to capitalise on the buzz - that's stupid because the metagame is thrust forcefully into changing and there's no time to work out the real deep intricacies of what is currently available. This game has had years of experience which culminated in its release. They learnt that it ruins the competitive scene to make the game too casual with massive hitboxes and low recoil. They also learned that the competitive scene can grow stale if the only decent guns in the game remained the same. They've balanced GO very well and it shouldn't change just because there's a new influx of people who can't handle the fact that they are playing an FPS that doesn't rely on farming points to unlock the best shit: it's a game predicated on playing smart. I bet every person new to this game who complains about the hitboxes of the head runs around with their gun pointed below the head -this is a mistake that costs you critical milliseconds of time because you need to readjust your aim to the head. If you change little things in your playstyle and get better it will feel immensely rewarding!
To the old players:
This game is like an updated version of 1.6. But there's going to be those of you who are too stubborn to change. That happens with a lot of games. Nothing new is never as good as the original. To those people there's no convincing. But to the people who have played 1.6 and have an open mind this game is good. Play it. That's it.
I'm not going to conclude with a TL;DR because if you really cared about the topic you would read my post. But I will conclude by saying that a lot of people aren't going to like CS. Many new players will hate it because it's 'too hard', when in reality they cannot accept that they are bad at the game and are just too used to having their hands held by other FPS games. Many old players will denounce it because it isn't 1.6, and to that I cannot say anything: if you love 1.6 so much you are unwilling to try anything else then you should just stick with 1.6. There's going to be people who say this is just a copy+paste of Source and they are fools. This game takes the best of 1.6 and Source and smashes it together. This is my favourite game ATM. But it needs to improve how it presents the competitive scene, or else it won't last like DotA 2.
