Yesterday, Valve released the very first update since the end of Operation Shattered Web. For the past few months, the game’s community has had a few concerns in terms of weapon balances and map updates. In this recent update Valve has tried to address some of those things, and this week I’ll be writing about them.
The biggest change that was made in this update was to the SG553 which is one of the main rifles on the terrorist side. Before this update, the SG553 had undergone various amounts of usage despite not having it’s statistical values changed. In a past update, a change in price was made for the gun, creating more opportunities for players to use it. People soon realized its potential and it became apparent that the weapon needed to be changed in order for it to be more balanced. Valve did just that by reducing the fire rate and accuracy of the weapon, but now there’s concern that they may have overdone it. Now, the SG553 has become almost unviable in a lot of eyes.
Another big change that Valve made in this update was towards the Desert Eagle pistol. Being one of the most infamous pistols in the game there wasn’t much conversation about changing the weapon before the update. In fact, some would even argue that it was already overpowered. Instead, it was decided that the jumping accuracy of the weapon was increased. Now, it’s possible to hit very accurate shots while jumping in the air. Jumping and shooting have never been really synonymous to the Counter-Strike franchise, and the pistol’s update is quickly being compared to the R8 revolver update which was known for being quite terrible in terms of balancing.
Valve also decided to reduce the price of the counter-terrorist side’s M4A1-S which is an alternative version to the M4A4 which remains at its original price. For the time being this change doesn’t appear to be that big of an issue, but later on after more usage due to a reduced price; it is possible that rebalancing may need to occur. Personally, I’ve switched from the M4A4 over to the M4A1-S just to see how it compares, but so far the price difference hasn’t made that big of a difference in my opinion.
Overall, the only other notable things included in the update were small map related changes and a slight buff to the Tec-9 pistol and PP-Bizon SMG. I think that this update has definitely already shifted the weapon choices that players make, and we’ll most likely also see further changes in the following weeks. Right now, I think that Valve has tried to balance the old META, but they’ve already created new problems for themselves. As of now, we’ll just have to wait and see.