Everything You Need to Know About Broken Fang

On December 4, 2020, our prayers were heard and we received an event! Will the developers be able to surprise us this time? Meet the new Operation Broken Fang! I do not want to deliberately praise the operation simply because we have got at least something. Let’s be honest about it.

Purchase and first impressions

This time, Valve made a short introductory video for the new operation that appears upon entering the game. A trifle, but nice.

Here we are given a new icon. We will, as in previous visits, upgrade it by completing missions and earned stars up to a diamond one. To be honest, I still don’t understand the meaning of these coins. Yes, it will be remembered in the profile, but the awards are created to show them. How often do you look at another player’s profile and admire a diamond coin? The idea of ​​such awards can and should be developed further to somehow increase their importance and visibility in the profile.

Immediately, we are shown a screen on which we see the good old mechanics of farming stars ‒ the local currency. With its help, we will buy the very “goodies” that the developers have prepared for us: skins, skins again, then skins, stickers, cases, and other jewelry. Yes, we have skins for new operatives again. Last time, a similar innovation practically gave the owners of the last CS: GO operation Shattered Web the Pay2Win effect, because some of the operative models merged with the environment. Valve partially fixed this by increasing the contrast, but the residue remained.

The ladies’ model is again flawlessly executed: high visibility, contrast, and clear contours. The new skins for masked operatives are also pretty funny, although the contrast of white masks on a dark background is a little confusing. Most of the questions are raised by the collection of new “bear” type skins, which visually look more voluminous than the rest.

New Maps

So, we have seven new maps, but not all of them are for competitive mode. This is perhaps the end of the review of this item. No, I might look too toxic, but who plays them anyway? Yes, a couple of times as entertainment you can go to such a map, fly away from the local pros, and then return to your favorite matchmaking. In the end, young people and newbies look at players like s1mple, who hardly dreams of giving up everything at the tournament, going to Anubis, buying a machine gun, and mowing down the local silvers with wild laughter.

Players prefer to comprehend the seven maps that they see in tournaments, they don’t need anything else. As part of the new CS: GO operation, we are forced to visit new locations, but you do it reluctantly. I don’t want to study the structure of the map ‒ you feel constant discomfort because you understand perfectly well that you are unlikely to return to it in the future.

However, there is a new competency map Ancient, which painfully resembles Aztec in its design. It is graphically great (within the game engine, of course), with good textures and attention to detail. True, and it can gobble up FPS decently, but when did it stop CS: GO fans, right?

There are suspicions that they will try to promote it to the main map pool of the competitive mode, but it seems to me that it will suffer the same fate as other similar maps.

New matchmaking mode

At last! Hey, not really. Each operation pass holder will be able to play a special matchmaking game. No, cheaters will most likely get you there too. But now you can only play against those who have a Battle Pass! Eh, can you already imagine these races on the maps, where your teammates, in addition to the game, will try to complete some mission with a shotgun?

Also, now you run the risk of feeling like a real esports player because Valve added the ability to pick and ban maps after the start of a match in the prime mode of the operation. How do you like this battle of wits?

The idea of ​​choosing a map only after the start of the match is a great solution, no kidding. Such a tool will allow players to develop, not to get stuck on one map. This is a good way to learn how to play all maps, rather than launching five Mirages every day. Seriously, I have often found myself in matchmaking with “globals” who complained that they could not play Train, because they were only used to Dust2, for example.

On the other hand, players with weak computers run the risk of getting some Nuke and 60 fps, which will certainly result in baking in the chair area, as well as in whining and tears in the voices.

It’s okay, but Valve, don’t you think you forgot to add something? Well, that is, the decision to bring competitive play closer to the real conditions of professionals is amazing! I would like to see 128 tick rates, for example … What? Do we ask a lot? Sorry, it escaped.

Retakes

Valve seems to be heading in the right direction, albeit at the pace of a cautious agoraphobic hedgehog. In their actions with the release of Operation Broken Fang, a good message is guessed to develop players, allow them to learn. For example, we were given an official “retake mode”. The one where you need to choose equipment and knock out points on the maps. This is a great way of training, where you can work out the coordination of actions with teammates, as well as learn how to calculate the main positions of the enemy. The problem is that retake servers have been around for many years, they have shown their effectiveness and love from the community.

The question is, what’s next? In the next $15 operation, will we be able to play surf maps? Why are such ideas presented to us as innovation? Too many questions, too many hopes that CS: GO will turn from a match generator into something more. A tool where you can not only play but also learn something without additional investment. Something tells me that if amateurs do such modes on their servers, then it shouldn’t take much effort from the official developers of the game.

Missions

My favorite topic! The mechanics of the missions have not changed since the days of Shattered Web. For every week we get a certain number of missions, for the completion of which they give the very stars. I expected that we would finally see progress in a variety of missions, we would get something more creative than a simple grind, but it didn’t work out.

So what do we see? “Go kill there, and then go there, here’s a shotgun, get out as you like.” For example, you are sent to win rounds in competitive mode on the all-new Engage map, with 20 rounds to be won for three stars. Just imagine what will happen to people there, especially those who are afraid of losing their rank in matchmaking. Practical demonstration of the folk tale “Three Blind Mice”, when some globals will poke at each wall, trying to find their way to the site. Tantrums are guaranteed.

I would like to highlight a couple of unobtrusive modes that you can play in co-op with a friend: joint raid and the “Guardians” mode. In the first case, with a friend, we will go to fight bots on the map in a simple storyline mission, in the second ‒ a classic survival against the oncoming waves of the enemy. Funny, but also for one evening.

Valve, where is creative? Why create “splash pools” in which skill players and beginners will come together in a fight? The first will be bored, the second will be offensive and very difficult. Perhaps you think that in this way you bring variety to the life of a gamer, but I’ll tell you a secret: most CS: GO players are shaking for their rank, ELO, and other things. They are tired of losing, tired of toxic teammates, and this is exactly what awaits them during grinding missions on new maps.

All of this painfully resembles quests from the earliest MMOs, where the developers did not get worn out and just sent you to kill 60 boars nearby. And then again, and again, and again … The cherished desire to get an asterisk does not let go, therefore, despite the rejection, you will continue to enter such modes and grind rounds, frags, and so on. Painfully reminiscent of a joke about mice (hmm, mice again) that cried, injected, but continued to eat the cactus.

Statistics

Let’s move on to one of the most interesting innovations. Those who play on FACEIT know that they can track their statistics in detail there, especially if you have a subscription. The percentage of headshots, KDA, and other things that are useful not only for self-development but also to once again humiliate your teammate for bad numbers. But those who conquer matchmaking have been deprived of such an opportunity for a long time, although earlier this thing was present in CS: GO, albeit quite general.

Now owners of the Broken Fang Battle Pass have been given an incredible stat tracking tool that will make FACEIT jealous. A beautifully animated table in which you can find out everything about yourself, including what teammates usually say about you in matchmaking. Various performance charts and the ability to take into account your mistakes ‒ thanks Valve! No sarcasm, this is a cool innovation.

It is not yet entirely clear whether the developers are going to introduce such a function in the future for all players, regardless of whether they bought the new operation or not. Hopefully, this is true. This innovation is a pen test that they want to try, improve, and implement on an ongoing basis.

In addition to all the polygons, skill strengths and other things have added another fun and useful innovation to the game ‒ a heat map. On it you can see your main habitats on the maps, places of effective collisions, hit markers of your hits (where you most often shoot), and much more.

Imagine what a heatmap would look like for players who like to play “rat” ‒ one big bold dot on the map for 30 rounds, that’s awesome! 

Dota 2 with guns

This is a new level of performance. To encourage players to communicate during the match, we added a message wheel to the game! Yes, like in Dota 2, like in APEX and other games. The essence is as follows: you see a point of interest on the map, want to draw the teammate’s attention to it, look for the necessary command in the chat wheel and a mark appears in front of the teammates’ eyes.

Yes, I understand that sometimes there is a language barrier between players, not all gamers are open to communication and all that. But, Lord, why? Now, are we going to mark each other on the map? Poke a button: “There is an enemy spotted, shoot there!” Really?

One of the key factors in a good CS: GO game is communication between players. Verbal communication! A person must navigate in time, give the necessary information without garbage, and continue the game. How do you even imagine the possibility of using such a wheel in matches where fractions of a second count?

Maybe I’m a little too old-fashioned, but even asking for a drop verbally is considered good form. That’s why we love CS: GO ‒ it brings people together and makes them communicate with each other. Too console approach, Valve. I sincerely hope we never see this in Competitive Mode.

Conclusion

CS: GO developers are like dads who can’t keep up with their brainchild. The uniqueness of the game is that it develops itself, without their participation, fueled by the love of the community. Here the “folk” shooter has already run ahead, here are the retake servers from the map makers, a bunch of cool maps like kz, surf, and others, third-party platforms for the game, cool story maps from the workshop. The players were having fun as they could for several years, but then Valve looked around the corner and said: “Guys, retake mode!” And we say so thoughtfully: “Uh … well, ok, thanks …”.

My point is that many of the features that Valve added in this new CS: GO operation should have appeared in the game many years ago without the need for separate announcements. This is not an innovation, this is not a breakthrough ‒ we have already seen all this in other games ten, or even twenty years ago. It’s time to look at the game not only from the point of view of casuals from publics for 32 people, to listen not only to the recommendations of professionals. There is a large segment of players trying to play competitive mode. Some for titles, others for skills. They just need the opportunity to develop and improve their game. When the opinion of this array of gamers begins to be taken into account, then CS: GO will again begin to breathe freely.

Our verdict:

• Pleased with: a cool tool for tracking player statistics, cute skins in a new case, and two collections of weapons. Finally, we added a retake mode for training.
• Upset: boring missions again, the almost useless prime-game mode for pass holders, a casual idea with a chat wheel, the need to grind extraneous maps to get stars.

The $15 Battle Pass offers quite a bit of entertainment content. While Dota players “loot” cool sets in Battle Pass and events like Diretide, we get nothing for the same money, going to routine farming. These are not sweet grinds for you. Yes, pumping can be accelerated simply by purchasing stars, like the levels of the compendium in Dota, but taking out beautiful and memorable things from the operation will turn out to be much less in percentage terms.

On the other hand, the operation looks livelier than the previous one. Here the skins are prettier and the innovations are cool. If you have not regretted the money spent on Shattered Web, then Broken Fang will find something to do.