Valve, one of the tent poles of the gaming industry, dropped a surprise on one of its larger communities, a surprise that players from this fanbase haven't seen in just around three years in the form of a new gun launched in the ever popular First-Person Shooter (FPS),
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (
CS:GO). After minimal updates over the course of the last calender year, the last few months have been refreshingly different as they brought about a
revamped UI (user interface) and a new gun, the
MP5-SD, an ode to an un-silenced version from previous iterations of the game (
Counter-Strike 1.6 and
Counter-Strike: Source namely).
The version in this game, will have a silencer that can not be removed, something that hasn't happened with any other silenced weapons added in the series so far. It will also share the same loadout slot as the MP7, another sub-machine gun, and will feature a little bit less damage for the same price, but of course will be silenced, making it harder for enemies to trace where the shots are coming from. It will also help Valve on the cosmetic front, as this gives them another gun to create new skins for, or pay top community skin designers for their work, which now must be flooding the Steam Workshop with amazing designs.
This may introduce an important shift in metagame strategy for terrorists as well, as it will be the first silenced weapon their side will have, possibly allowing for slower pace and sneakier strategies.
On top of the new updates, they've also had a steady presence on social media as of late, something that the community certainly must enjoy when they release teases like this before the update:
The last introduction of a new gun came in a December 2015 update when they brought in the heavy hitting R8 Revolver, which has a very niche use as it has a slow and delayed fire rate, which is much more important than its rifle-sized damage packed in a pistol punch.
The MP5-SD update was released yesterday, August 15th, and the game is only available in casual game modes, but undoubtedly will make its way to all other matchmaking shortly.