When it comes to Counter-Strike maps, Chris Auty’s portfolio is most impressive. He
made Inferno, Vertigo, Thunder and a number of others which made their way into the early
editions of Counter-Strike. You may be familiar with another one of his maps, too- Aztec.
This map was part of Counter-Strike all the way through until late 2017, when it was taken
out, along with Dust1. I had some fond memories on Aztec, especially
back in Counter-Strike Source where it was quite a common choice in clan matches. You
could really lock down that map with a couple of good snipers in key positions. Evidently,
the map has fallen out of favour in more recent years, but it still has its supporters. Plus
its location was awesome and gave us lots of exotic plant props to map with!
But what you may not have known about it was that it had a sequel. He started work on it
in 2003 and while it was never officially included in the game, at some point it found
its way onto the internet and is still available for download from Chris’s own site.
I got this and ported it into CS:GO, keeping all of its original textures and stuff. It
was… more difficult than I had imagined and let’s just say it took quite a lot of
time which I’m never going to get back. And there are a few differences with it- I
had to redo the lighting, and it has the newer CS:GO Aztec’s skybox. But the gameplay should
hopefully remain unchanged from how he had envisioned it when he developed it all those
years ago. And in case you wonder why there aren’t
any sounds on it, it’s how he intentionally made it!
To play the map, check it out on the workshop in this video’s description.
He even did an interview with csnation back in 2004 about the map, going under his mapping
alias, ‘Narby’. At the time he hoped it would be officially included in CS:CZ, but
said that it was ultimately up to Cliffe. He developed this map to compliment Aztec
1, but to hopefully be a little bit more balanced- he got help from the Sclam Clan to get the
timings right and stuff. And simply with that, it has had more balancing than many early
maps did! He said that later patches to the map were always an option should it need them.
He drew some inspiration from Dust2, which proved to him that map sequels can be just
as fun as the first. He didn’t do anything too ambitious with Aztec2’s layout. He stuck
to something simple, with good variation in height. Which there certainly is- I chose
to split the radar in 2 to make the overview more understandable.
I’d describe the layout as a simple cross, with a long straight passage of water from
one end to the other, and plenty of passages and corridors leading through and around it.
On the Terrorist side, Aztec 1 always felt like it was forcing me around to the left.
But in this one, both sides of the map remain viable options- as well as charging straight
ahead if you’re feeling brave enough. The map is big. You only have to see the players
running about a bombsite to know that there’s plenty of space in this map- so snipers may
still be the preferred weapon of choice. He pointed out that too many entrances at
once can make players paranoid, so he hopes that with this layout, players will know where
enemies are likely to come from- which is better than stepping out and getting shot
from an unknown angle. I think there was meant to be more cover than
there is. He was told in an interview that the bombsites looked large and open and with
little room for cover and said that the ‘final version’ of the map would have more to hide
behind. But of course, that never came. So just in case you wonder why the bombsites
are large open platforms… now you know. And unfortunately, the version he has on his
site seems a little bit older than the ones seen in the previews. From this screenshot
you can see more arches, and a decoration on the far wall that isn’t in the map file
that I used from his site. And while my map has a stone walkway, it looks like he later
swapped that for a wooden one, more in-line with the one found in the first Aztec.
So in other words, if Aztec2 isn’t a good map, blame it on the early version.
Below bombsite B is an inaccessible room where Narby thanks the Sclam Clan, and Rizzuh. I
did a quick bit of Googling and it looks like Rizzuh worked with him on his Airstrip map,
and was actually in charge of the CSNation site for a while!
I love escaping from maps, and I noticed this barred entrance near CT spawn. It didn’t
dawn on me until I had finished porting the map across, but there’s actually no way
of getting to the courtyard on the other side of it! This whole bit of the map is just…
there. As a sunny, peaceful courtyard the CT’s can safely drop their children off
at before they go into combat or something. I love unused elements like this.
To end this video, I’ll upscale some of the textures just because I know some of you
would ask me to if I didn’t. I won’t be releasing the map upscaled, though. And before
somebody says it, it’s not just sharpening them! Look- this is what it looks like sharpened,
and here it is, upscaled. Clearly the upscaling also adds more detail and joins stuff together
better. Any way, that’s it for Aztec 2. Have fun!