Before Valorant players started arguing over which anime agent could outshoot a toaster, there was Counter-Strike 1.6—the undisputed king of tactical shooters that turned cyber cafes into warzones and friendships into bitter rivalries. Despite Counter-Strike 2 taking the spotlight, a dedicated group of fans refuses to let the classic die, bringing us Counter-Strike: Legacy, a full-blown remake that aims to preserve the magic of 1.6 with modern enhancements.

The game, developed by the same folks behind the Counter-Strike: ProMod project back in 2006, runs on Valve’s 2013 Source SDK codebase and isn’t just some lazy reskin. According to its Patreon page, every 3D asset, texture, map, and UI element has been painstakingly recreated from scratch. The developers also promise revamped shaders, a reworked renderer, and a host of technical upgrades that bring the ageing classic up to speed without ruining its charm.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. Valve has had absolutely no involvement in CS: Legacy, yet it’s still planning to launch on Steam, with early access dropping this year. This, of course, raises the million-dollar question: Will Valve let it live?

While the trailer has been met with enthusiasm—even from one of the original Counter-Strike 1.6 co-creators, who praised its faithful animations—history isn’t exactly kind to fan projects that get too ambitious. The gaming industry is littered with the corpses of mods and indie projects that got a little too close to the sun, often shut down by the very companies that inspired them. We’ve seen Palworld face heat for its Pokémon-esque creatures and Baldur’s Gate 3 modders hit legal snags.

However, Valve has traditionally been more lenient toward mods, and Counter-Strike itself was born from a Half-Life mod. So, if the gaming gods are feeling generous, CS: Legacy might just pull off the impossible—bringing Counter-Strike 1.6 back to the masses in glorious HD. Fingers crossed that Valve doesn’t decide to slap it with a cease-and-desist before it even leaves the spawn point.