CS:GO’s Operation Riptide revives the riot shield and makes a major change to Dust2
The riot shield was in all probability the most divisive item at any time added to Counter-Strike – and now it can be back again. New update Operation Riptide, out now, introduces the defensive product to Counter-Strike: Worldwide Offensive’s informal mode, alongside main tweaks to Dust2, new missions, shorter matches, and non-public matchmaking queues.
Ballistic shields were being launched to CS:GO’s Hazard Zone manner back in 2019, but Risk Zone is a very unique beast. Now they’re usable by counter-terrorists in informal hostage rescue matches, which means you can use them in maps like you could again in the initial Counter-Strike. 
The riot defend supplies protection from bullets when held in entrance of you. When place away, it moves onto your back again, and supplies safety from guiding. You are not able to shoot whilst holding it, that means it is really most valuable as a way to defend armed teammates as they choose address guiding you. It’ll crack following having a certain sum of destruction – and in Danger Zone at the very least, it isn’t going to shield you at all from melee assaults.
When launched to Counter-Strike, the riot defend ended up banned from just about all competitive matches due to the fact the playerbase felt it was unbalanced – or at minimum led to unfun situations. It theoretically encourages teamwork between counter-terrorists, but it could also lead to clumsy stand-offs or tail-chasing in one-on-a person circumstances.
Valve’s adjustments to Dust2 are equally substantial: they’ve additional a wall. Particularly, they have extra a wall that breaks line of sight concerning the terrorist spawn and the double doors in the vicinity of the Counter-Terrorist spawn. That means terrorist snipers should no for a longer time be equipped to headshot CTs as they operate toward one of the bomb web-sites 3 seconds into a spherical. Valve tweeted this online video to exhibit the wall in action:
We are introducing new maps throughout the Procedure and updating Ancient and Dust2. Here is a sneak peek at Dust2 modifications: pic.twitter.com/2nCfoFktYi
— CS:GO (@CSGO) September 22, 2024
I’m specially intrigued in the new “short matches.” When on the lookout for a aggressive match, players can now select involving the regular size and new shorter matches where a workforce only demands to win 9 rounds. Valve say that these matches usually very last about 25 minutes. I stopped participating in CS:GO pretty much solely when my child was born, and instantly carving out a concentrated hour of engage in grew to become difficult. 25 minutes seems doable. 
A lot more broadly, I’m just fired up to see these types of substantial improvements coming to a match that is now nine yrs old and which has earlier felt a small unloved. Procedure Riptide is just one of the greatest updates CS:GO has gained in a long even though. You can find out additional information over on its microsite, or by means of a changelog on the CS blog site. I have not talked about the now common upgradeable mission coin, or the new mission sorts, or the new group deathmatch manner, or so a lot more.
