The new CS2 animations are good, actually – players just hate change

Last week, Valve released a new CS2 update that overhauled every single first-person viewmodel animation in the game. It has been a controversial change, with some claiming it has disrupted their muscle memory on the server, while others just don’t like the new CS2 animations.

The Counter-Strike community has been, well, the Counter-Strike community about it all. Complaints galore, forums filled with Valve hate. It’s very black and white. Sure, it’s fine to dislike some of the new CS2 animations, but there’s a lot of good to come from the update that shouldn’t be ignored.

The new CS2 animations update is good for the game long-term

On the surface, the new CS2 animations are just that. A freshening up of animations that haven’t been touched in a very long time. But under the hood, there’s a lot more than meets the eye here. For the uninformed, the latest major CS2 update started to transition the game from AnimGraph to AnimGraph2. In layman’s terms, the game’s entire animation system is being replaced from the ground up, and every animation is being remade as a result of that.

ALL NEW CS2 Animations ‼️

W or L changes? pic.twitter.com/xLj7ytm1KU

— Ozzny (@Ozzny_CS2) July 28, 2025

That means that the new CS2 weapon animations are just the tip of the iceberg; eventually, every animation will be remade from scratch, giving the game an entirely new flavour. This is particularly important for one reason: visual feedback. Counter-Strike is a game that relies massively on visual feedback at all levels. You make your next split-second decision based on what you see on the screen, and one mouse movement or key press can be the difference between life and death. But with CS2, there’s a feeling that the visual feedback is ever so slightly off. Upgrading to AnimGraph2 should give Valve the runway to improve the “feel” of CS2, which has been a common complaint since launch.

Every Counter-Strike game has unique animations – why not CS2?

It’s easy to forget that when it comes to weapon animations, but CS2 was still using holdovers from CS:GO nearly two years after release. Don’t fix what isn’t broken, right? But in reality, a new Counter-Strike game should mean new animations across the board, as it has for every single iteration of the game in the past. If Valve wants CS2 to feel like its own thing, then new animations are a complete necessity in my eyes.

The problem is simple: many Counter-Strike players are allergic to change. I think even those who fit this description would agree with that, too. It’s not that they’re sticklers for detail, either. Some fans just want to play CS:GO as it was in 2022 until the end of time, and will complain until that’s allowed to happen.

Over the years, there have been countless examples of Valve making changes to the game, from the old weapon sounds to the free sticker placement on skins, that have made fans angry. Usually, these changes cause a stir for a few weeks before being swiftly forgotten in favour of the newest thing to complain about. I’ve got no doubt that within a month, we’ll have forgotten all about the new CS2 animations update altogether.

In the long term, CS2 will get its own visual identity as a result of these new animations. I’ve seen some feedback say the new CS2 animations “look like a mobile game,” which, as a criticism, means next to nothing. Objectively, what does this mean? It can’t even be refuted because it’s so absurdly subjective. I could probably find you animations from mobile games that look like the new CS2 weapon animations, sure. I could probably also find you examples from AAA titles of animations that are similar to those found in the latest CS2 update.

These new CS2 animations are a way for Valve to find an original identity for the game. The quicker we as a community can accept that and move on to the really important problems (anti-cheat!), the happier we’ll all be.