A “small update” for Counter-Strike 2 this week reintroduced classic map Train with a brand new modern look. Train is a staple of the early shooting days that has been kicking around in various CS incarnations since about 1999.
Train is a famous map in the history of esports because of how many iconic and downright memeworthy plays came out of its tight corners and relatively small battle arena—like the infamous Summit1g molotov death during the era of CS:GO.
Train’s new design emphasizes color variety over the more staid, concrete-and-light version of Global Offensive’s heyday. The new weather and light effect is the big change, with a rainy overcast sky casting an almost haze-like effect over the entire map. There are also more practical considerations: Ladders were just never working well in an aggressively competitive game.
The release of Train also comes with one of CS2’s fancy new map guides, which helps you learn the common strategies for a map. This one has four simple grenade strategies for the Terrorist team. If you’d like to try the map guide for Train, go to Play, then Practice and toggle Load Map Guides on.
It is of course still a redesigned Train, which I’m sure veterans will notice first and foremost. There just aren’t as many of the ridiculous nooks and crannies that often made low-player-count matchups more of hide and seek than tactical shooter.
“There’s plenty of classic Counter-Strike in every inch of this map—but we also made sure to mix up the gameplay a bit to keep you Train veterans on your toes,” said Valve.
You can find Counter-Strike 2 on Steam for free and read the update notes there as well.