Dota 2’s CSGO mod is heading to Source 2 before the real thing

Dota 2 mod  Polystrike has joined forces with Garry’s Mod and Rust developers Facepunch Studios to bring the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive reimagining to Source 2.

Dota 2 has been supported by the Source 2 engine ever since Dota 2 Reborn, but Polystrike will bring Source 2 to CSGO in its own special way. The mod’s developer announced on Twitter that PolyStrike, a Dota 2 mod that transforms the MOBA into a top-down reimagining of Valve’s tactical shooter, will join Facepunch’s upcoming sandbox as an official mod.

In late October, Facepunch announced that it had negotiated a deal with Valve to use the Source 2 engine for its spiritual successor to the incredibly popular Garry’s Mod. It’s called s&box, and if it gets anywhere near the attention Garry’s Mod has for the past several years, it should enjoy a huge amount of popularity when it eventually drops. Facepunch founder Garry Newman even tweeted out that he had moved parts of Half-Life’s models into Valve’s engine.

Both Facepunch and the co-creator of CSGO’s popular Cache map FMPONE have publicly stated how impressed they are with how well the Source 2 engine functions in recent days, with FMPONE currently working on a mod for Half-Life: Alyx. Facepunch has decided to rewrite parts of the Source 2 engine to better suit their needs, but with the release of Source 2’s workshop tools to Alyx owners and FMPONE’s pretty screenshots, it’s hard not to be excited.

With Half-Life: Alyx now shipped and stable, Valve’s developers will look for other projects to work on, whether that be a new Dota 2 feature or something as impossible as Half-Life 3, no one knows. But even if Source 2 never comes to CSGO, at least Polystrike can fill the CSGO-shaped hole in the engine for the time being.