Counter-Strike 1.6 remake to be released on Steam — fans do what Valve doesn’t

The legendary Counter-Strike 1.6 will get a «fresh breath» — a full-fledged remake called CS: Legacy.

Today, Counter-Strike 2 is breaking records, and recently exceeded 1.8 million players online. Despite the huge success not all fans are satisfied with the direction in which the game is developing. A lot of old-school gamers miss the «soul» and atmosphere that was in the classic 1.6. Therefore, for those who love nostalgia (and are not sick of endless remakes) — CS: Legacy.

When asked what CS: Legacy is not just a mod or a remaster, but a full-fledged standalone game made from scratch. The project is developed by the developers of CSPromod, another fan project that tried to bring the spirit of 1.6 to modern versions of Counter-Strike. The new game uses the engine from CS: Source engine, but with custom changes to rendering, shaders, and animations.

The first official trailer for CS: Legacy is now available, and it shows a lot of familiar attributes:

• Classic maps: In the trailer, you can see a remake of nuke maps and the iconic fy_pool_day (but now with neons and a bar)
• Original sounds and animations: the death of characters resembles the animation of falling bodies (ragdoll) from 1.6
• New engine — familiar feeling: although the game is powered by Source, the team aims to preserve the physics and shooting of the original

Fans greeted the idea of remaking CS 1.6 with warmth and nostalgia. The general mood of the community can be conveyed in just one comment: «Can’t believe all of my childhood memories are in 4k textures now». By the way, some people have joked that the modding work now looks better than CS 2, «and probably runs better as well». For example, Counter-Strike 2 does not support macOS, 32-bit versions of Windows and DirectX.

But now the question arises whether Valve will block the remake of CS: Legacy? A similar project to revive the classic CS has already failed. Namely, the Classic Offensive mod tried to transfer 1.6 mechanics to CS:GO, but Valve blocked it. A more lucky Half-Life remake called Black Mesa — it was approved by Valve and even appeared on Steam.

We are still waiting for an official comment from Valve. But the development of CS: Legacy and attempts to return to the «times when everything seemed better than the» shows that fans don’t want to forget the classic 1.6. Judging by the trailer, CS: Legacy has every chance of becoming a worthy successor.

Currently, you can’t play CS: Legacy is not available right now. The project will go into early access in 2025, and the full release will take place even later. Players can already support the developers via Patreon and in return will get access to a closed Discord and other bonuses.

Source: Notebookcheck