Counter-Strike 2 is currently Valve's lowest-rated game since Artifact

Following the launch of Counter-Strike 2 on September 27th, the reception by the general public has been mixed, leading to Valve's sequel to CS:GO being their lowest-rated game since failed trading card game Artifact back in 2018. While this response is certainly a bit extreme, there are some legitimate grievances by the community towards the current state of Counter-Strike 2.

Taking a peek at recent reviews on steam, besides complaints about tried and true issues like cheaters and Russians flinging obscenities, complaints center around the discontinuation of support for CS:GO matchmaking, the likely-temporary removal of game modes, maps, and features from CS:GO, and potential "false marketing" over CS2 inheriting CS:GO's reviews.

Beyond that, reviews about the game itself focus on issues with the new subtick system, hitboxes, and missing config options like cl_bob and cl_righthand.

While it is clear that CS2's launch was less than perfect from Valve and even a step back in some ways, it must be remembered that Valve have been maintaining an unprecedented pace of patches to improve the game on an almost daily basis. Likewise, many do not remember the state of CS:GO when it launched in 2012 and are viewing CS2 through the rose-tinted glasses of its predecessor with 10+ years of development behind it. Therefore, while there is definitely room to improve the game, perhaps saying the game is on par with Artifact of all things is a bit hyperbolic especially when 1.2 million players are logging on every day to try it.