CS: Legacy will be a complete remake of CS 1.6 and is scheduled for release in 2025. It’s even a standalone game.
It’s 2004, my parents are on vacation, for my friends and me that meant: LAN party. A good 20 teenagers gathered on the ground floor of our house with clunky computers and tube monitors.
Since we had a DSL connection, a cable was laid from the 2nd floor down, but due to the length of the cable, it ran through two open windows along the side of the house. In retrospect, this wasn’t our best idea at the end of January. But it didn’t matter at the time because we were playing Counter-Strike and we loved it.
Similar feelings probably also inspired the team of CS: Legacy to bring back the old Counter-Strike.
Counter-Strike like in the old days
CS: Legacy is a completely independent game, so it’s not a mod but a remake of Counter-Strike 1.6. Some of the developers are former members of the fan project CSPromod.
Legacy was, as stated in the first official trailer, “built from the ground up with 100 percent original code and game assets” However, it uses Valve’s Source Engine with “extensive rework of the renderer, shaders, and other systems”
A release on Steam is planned for in Early Access before the end of 2025, but there is no specific date. Patreon supporters will, however, receive early access to test builds. There is currently no information about possible costs.
Will Valve intervene there?
It was only in January 2025 that Valve put a stop to a fan mod for CS 2 that also wanted to bring 1.6 into the modern age. The developers claimed to have worked on it for eight years without any problems and with Valve’s knowledge.
CS: Legacy is optimistic and explains: “We own the entirety of our work, which guarantees the future and the unlimited potential of the game.” Whether this will prevent Valve from interfering with the use of their trademark remains to be seen.
