CS2 broke away from the darker visuals of CS:GO and adopted a more vibrant and discernible environment. This change in the visual realm not only freshens the game's ambiance but introduces a new mood. Another noteworthy change was the removal of skyboxes, which served as invisible barriers when lobbing grenades.

Counter-Strike 2 features major technical improvements over Global Offensive, including a move from the Source game engine to Source 2, improved graphics, and a new "sub-tick" server architecture.