Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive Mod Beta Released
Counter-Strike was born as a mod, and now modder L00T aims to unite the qualities of the original Counter-Strike 1.6 mod with those of Global Offensive in his recently published beta, Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive.
L00T’s original plan was to take the CS:GO engine and recreate CS 1.6 inside of it. However, as the project took shape, he realized that that would never be possible. As a result, he polled the community to discover that most of the players interested in his Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive Mod were more interested in a game that forged a new identity out of 1.6 and GO rather than one that awkwardly tries to copy 1.6 in a different engine.
The other two main reasons that L00T is trying to combine the good from both 1.6 and GO are balance and bugs. Many of the weapons in 1.6 were far more viable and useful than they are in GO. For example, you don’t typically see very skilled players use the FiveSeven or shotguns in GO unless they’re just messing around. In 1.6, these weapons had a specific purpose. However, there were many bugs in 1.6 that GO fixed, so by combining the consistency of GO with the balance of 1.6, you almost get an entirely different game.
Even though this mod is ultimately going to merge 1.6 and GO, L00T and his supporters still want to make Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive look and feel like 1.6. L00T is changing the CS:GO maps to more closely resemble their 1.6 counterparts, changing the player and weapon models to look a bit more like they did in 1.6, changing the sounds to those of 1.6 and eliminating newer GO weapons like the Tec-9.
Whether Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive has an impact on the future of competitive Counter-Strike or not remains to be seen. After all, Valve has been highly supportive of mods over the years and has incorporated many modders’ ideas into their official games. Get involved with the beta and give L00T any feedback you can to help make the mod better.