A new, fan-made map for Valve’s free shooter Counter-Strike 2 has a unique spin on the game’s popular Hostage Rescue mode, having players instead rescue dogs in danger.
The “Shelter” map (via Dexerto) takes place in a fictionalized suburban animal shelter, as players race to stop “Phoenix Biotechnical” from kidnapping animals for medical trials.
As you can see in the walkthrough video below, Shelter is a large, impressively detailed map, featuring all manner of indoor and outdoor spaces. The attention to detail is notable, as you can see in the video that there are even “kennel cards” for the dogs in the facility that are only visible when scoping in. These are complete with descriptions like, “Very energetic and loves to run around.”
It’s also grim and sad to see the areas of the shelter with medical equipment where the kidnapped animals are tested on. In terms of gameplay, a video shows that players rescue the dogs and carry them on their shoulders to safety. If the mode is similar to regular Hostage Rescue, one team will try to rescue the dogs and the other team will try to stop them. I wouldn’t want to play that side.
Counter-Strike 2 has more than 1 million people playing it concurrently right now, making it Steam’s most popular game by far.
The new Shelter map comes not long after a story about dogs being rescued from a medical research facility garnered international headlines. More than 1,500 beagles were released from the Ridglan Farms facility in Wisconsin this year and have been put up for adoption, with many heartwarming stories of pups landing in good homes.
