While competitive FPS games are everywhere nowadays, few compare to CSGO’s unparalleled attention to realistic gunplay. Shooting in any of the Counter-Strike games is rarely as simple as aiming at the head. Instead, it involves real-life gun mechanics. There’s recoil and bullet spread, and players must carefully learn to control weapon spray. It makes for a superior challenge, but with the Counter-Strike 2 release date inbound, there’s a good reason for the next Valve shooter to introduce follow recoil, and make Counter-Strike 2 a little more accessible for players other than pros.
The trick to managing spread may be the same, but in CSGO, every gun comes with a unique spray pattern. I spent my initial months in CSGO playing on recoil maps; shooting in strict lines and staring at meticulously placed dots to try and judge how best to combat my chosen weapon’s recoil troubles.
Follow recoil existed in CSGO, but was locked behind the ‘sv_cheats’ command after you fed ‘view_recoil_tracking’ into the console. In CS2, however, players can enable follow recoil simply from the settings menu, and it has the potential to be game-changing. Among many new ‘noob-friendly’ features in CS2, follow recoil nabs the top spot by dialing the complexing of shooting down to something more manageable.
What exactly is Follow Recoil?
In Counter-Strike 2, players can enable follow recoil from in-game settings to make their crosshairs follow the bullets. This way, they won’t have to guess when to reset, spray down, and even learn patterns for each weapon. The crosshair will be delivering all visual information in real-time. You can see a demonstration of follow recoil, courtesy of YouTuber Ross Courtright, in the video below:
With follow recoil, you don’t have to eyeball your bullets or adapt to patterns for each weapon. There’s only one rule: the crosshair should stay within the enemy’s hitbox. After the first few bullets, you’ll see your crosshair spreading out of the hitbox, indicating that the spread has begun, and you should start dragging your mouse downwards or managing it so that it stays on the head. These in-game visuals will make shooting incredibly easy, at least as compared to CSGO.
In theory, follow recoil doesn’t sound like it’s all that, but it will drastically change how CS2 is played. New players may find it easier to master shooting, and that will increase the incentive for them to stay with the game longer. Previously, high-level CS was for veterans. You needed a steely resolve to keep on losing, and returning the next day for more punishment. Due to the complex shooting mechanics, most new players would quickly throw in the towel.
But with follow recoil, green players will find it easier to finish off tenderised enemies, and the satisfaction will encourage them to stick around. Even those who don’t play FPS games will only need to remember the one guideline: whatever it takes, just keep your crosshair on the head, and you’re good.
However, there is a risk that follow recoil will also change how Counter-Strike’s skill ceiling looks right now. CS2 is still in beta, so it’s early to make any claims. But, if follow recoil is as powerful as it sounds on paper, CS2 may lose its unique gunplay essence. Shooting could become secondary if everyone can easily crack the code for perfect aim.
Follow recoil may be too OP
It’s not that newbies being able to get a handle on CS2’s shooting will be a bad thing. But the changes follow recoil makes to the delicate, carefully iterated Counter-Strike shooting mechanics and skill hierarchy could be overly severe.
Follow recoil boosts a player’s chances of landing a headshot, even during movement. For example, you are equipped with a weapon with extended spray, say a MAC10, and you’re running left to right while shooting. By strafing, you can avoid getting hit by bullets. And with MAC10’s magazine and follow recoil enabled, you’ll have better odds of landing an easy kill while on the move since your crosshair can guide your bullets.
Now imagine this trick on Negev. With 150 bullets in a single round, you get to shower shells at the enemy with higher odds of landing a headshot. You only need to keep the crosshair at the head; no more eyeballing and staying still to be accurate. Instead of learning proper rifles, new players may find these weapons more convenient. What I’m saying is, old-timers like me may want to prep for an SMG and run and gun meta, courtesy of newbies. The days of meticulous (and, arguably, obstructively complex) rifle mechanics in CSGO might be over.
But follow recoil isn’t all unfair. It could actually help the veterans fix their honest mistakes. For example, I often mess up my first few bullets, leading to an erratic burst of gunfire. Coming back from a lousy spray is not easy, but follow recoil can help with a quick reset. Since you have the bullet landing right on the screen, it’s pretty easy to manage a bad spray without pausing.
Generally, follow recoil may feel terrible for veteran, set-in-our-ways CSGO players, but it’s worth a shot no pun intended. It has incredible benefits, bolstering the CS2 player base and introducing a more diverse range of styles and approaches, which, in-turn, will demand more engagement from dedicated players, as we construe ways to conquer these new challenges.
We’ll see how it all shakes out once CS2 arrives in the summer. In the meantime, check out all the reworked Counter-Strike 2 maps, and the (substantial) list of Counter-Strike 2 changes, so you know precisely how Valve is planning to upend the game.
