Around the time Bubkez made Mirage, he developed another map, called Engage. Being from the
same era, and from the same person, who knows- it could be the next Mirage. Actually that
was Thrill. But the third Mirage, then! And now it’s been ported across to CS:GO.
The map’s development is split into 3 stages – Bubkez made the original, 10 years ago.
Rzl then took it, ported it across to CS:GO and made changes based on what he and Catfood
felt would improve the map. And then catfood decorated it too look prettier
and to improve readability. Thanks to him, it's no longer just a series
of rooms filled with boxes. But is instead a car factory, with half-finished vehicles
drifting along ceilings, and getting constructed by robots, piece by piece. Catfood says it’s
his most ambitious map so far, saying that it was hell to get the architecture to fit
the layout whilst still being believable yet unintrusive on the gameplay.
I asked where he got the idea for this theme from, and he said it was something he had
been wanting to try for a while and was delighted to finally get the chance when he was asked
to work on this project. Although he said it was hell to fit the architecture in, I
think maybe it was what made him want to do it in the first place 😉
He was tempted to visit Germany to do a tour around a car factory for inspiration, but
said that visiting Utrecht trainstation and viewing numerous documentaries
and videos about car factories was more than enough for reference.
He showed me a few of the images which inspired him most. This one here looks like something
straight out of Agency to me. He then got to work on some sketches to show rzl and Bubkez
the direction he was planning on going with the design. Something very important to the
map was the car tower at A. Not only is it this map’s iconic landmark in screenshots,
but it also helped players to get their bearings, so he ensured it could be seen from both teams’
spawn points.
When I played the level, I learned the layout extremely quickly. It doesn’t feel like
a load of corridors at all- but more like 3 main rooms. Bombsite A and middle both have
several floors to them, and several high-up windows to toss grenades through. These bits
of the map lead to all sorts of unique firefights where enemies were high above, or far below
me. And falling damage is a real threat! I couldn’t really think of much to compare
these rooms to, they seem so full of things to climb and places to reach that I can see
all sorts of next-gen strats being devised on them. Bombsite B is your flatter sort of
affair, with one T entrance, one CT entrance and another to be contested from mid, which
will be an important spot to hold if you wish to take this site.
To spice things up, both sites have a special drop-down that terrorists can use! In bombsite
B they can come out from a vent half way up the wall. Doing so leaves you exposed, but
what an after-plant position these vents would be!
And in bombsite A, they can come out of the door and onto this red platform, which did
remind me a lot of Mirage’s apartments. Like I said, most of this map takes place
in just a few rooms, but there are a lot of unique encounters to be had in each. I went
into this map expecting Mirage, but aside from one or two features it didn’t feel
much like it at all to me.
I was interested to know how much the map had changed from the original, and if so,
why the changes had been made. So I ran about the two and took a number of comparison shots
of key locations which you can see here. I got the feeling that it stuck quite faithfully
to the original, but apparently a number of changes were made to make it more compatible
with CS:GO. The middle floor on bombsite A has been cut back quite significantly, replaced
with a staircase which leads directly from bottom to top. And stairs were added leading
from mid to B short. So there have been some adjustments, but it’s still very much based
on Bubkez’s original vision, and on a layout that he designed at roughly the same time
as he developed Mirage. It’s hosted on the Mapcore hub now, which
will get it extensively playtested, so there may be more suggestions in the future that
will influence what this map ultimately becomes. Check out this video’s description if you’d
like to get involved over on mapcore’s faceit hub.
This map shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. Eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted this
poster on the map, Ruby, which was officially featured in CS:GO last year. And although
he hasn’t left any such hints in Engage, it sounds like his next project will be a
formidable task-can he manage it? It might require… brute force.