CS2 Custom Modes: Simple Ways To Customize Your Playstyle

Everybody seems pretty familiar with Counter-Strike 2 and what it has to offer. The usual matchmaking and standard game modes, but if you’re looking for something different or an interesting way to sharpen your skills, creating custom game modes is your best bet. The best part is that you can opt to hop on a private server or take the plunge and create your own lobby that’s tailored to your needs.

What sets custom modes apart from the normal gameplay in CS2 is that it gives you the freedom to experiment and explore outside of the standard lobbies. You can load up custom maps from the Steam Workshop, add bots and set their difficulty to your liking, allow others to join you, and much more by creating your own custom lobby. Most players would use this as a chance to improve their skills, and others like it because it gives them a playground to experiment in without violating Valve’s rules. However, there’s always some good fun to be had.

Starting up a custom lobby is as simple as it can be: Launch CS2, click on “Play”, and then select “Custom Game” to get started. From here, you can adjust the lobby settings to your liking, ranging from maps to Bot Preferences. Whether you want to create a private lobby to get some interesting practice matches in with your clan, some solo practice to perfect your grenade throw, or just a fun round with friends, you’ll have full control of what goes on in your custom game.

Custom mode has its fair share of perks that would appeal to almost any player between noobs and veterans, and the biggest appeal in this regard is being able to freely explore the official maps. It gives you and possibly your teammates a chance to strategize while getting a feel for the battlefields you’ll be fighting in. In the case of CS2, a little strategy can go a very long way.

Although custom mode can be used for trying out new maps from the Steam Workshop or tinkering with strategies, there is another major factor that comes from the Workshop, too. Custom mode on CS2 doesn’t just give you access to new maps; you can also experiment with player-made game types. For instance, if you’re looking for something that’s a combination of Capture the Flag with Wingman elements mixed in, there’s probably a Workshop listing for it. This opens up the world of custom mode even more, essentially reviving the stale gameplay of CS2.

All that’s left is to invite a few friends to your custom lobby through Steam or simply send them the Lobby Code. Granted, to avoid any unwanted players if you want to keep your custom lobby private, you’ll need to specify your lobby permissions to be set as “Invite Only” or “Friends Only”.

At the same time, if creating your custom lobby seems like too much of a hassle, you can also take a chance with some of the public lobbies that are tailored for fun or have other interesting twists. These lobbies usually receive a lot of care and attention because of how they’re created, with some lobbies aimed at skill practice, such as cooperative climbing (teammates use each other to climb structures), or others aimed at movement practice and accuracy. 

However, while there are a good number of free-to-use public servers like the Bhop servers, there are also a handful that require a subscription. Paying a subscription might not appeal to everybody, but they could be well worth a shot if you want to experiment with more exclusive custom mode matches. While these subscription services can be expensive, they also sometimes offer a battlepass that you can level up to earn rewards from, but joining them isn’t mandatory.

Your last best bet if you want to create a custom mode with some extensive changes is to host a dedicated server (I used xplay.gg). This can be somewhat more complicated, but with how long CS2 has been around, there are hundreds of guides on how to do it. All that’s left then is to start building your custom mode and launch your server. However, it should be noted that creating a dedicated server can be quite hardware-intensive, so you might not want to run your server and the game on the same hardware. 

Regular CS2 matches might not always have what you’re looking for, but Custom Games came to the rescue with nearly endless flexibility and options to choose from. All that’s left to do is for you to go out and discover a new world of possibilities, be it through new maps or a fun round of experimentation through other means, and it’s made possible with custom modes.