The latest big game on Steam is Fragpunk, or as I like to call it, 'kitchen-sink Counter-Strike'

In your long history as a gamer, I'm sure you've played a game with a big head mode. But what about a small head mode? Or a 5v5 shooter where an ankle-height, knock-off Growlithe (that's a Pokémon) follows you around and spits fire at enemies? Or a competitive FPS where you can crouch to lay an egg that can be eaten to regain lost health? Or a shooter where using voice chat dynamically increases your movement speed?

You definitely haven't played an FPS where all of this weird stuff is happening at once. Fragpunk, which recently touched 113,000 concurrent players on Steam, is the FPS equivalent of a friend that makes being "so random" their personality. But despite their attention-seeking behavior, I like hanging out with the guy.

Fragpunk's "Shard Card" system is the source of this chaos. Instead of buying weapons (in this topsy-turvy world of Counter-Counter-Strike, guns are free), players pool their resources as a team to purchase single-round mutators that alter the match. Some of the 169 different Shard Cards are modest, like +25 HP for your side, but most are splashy: one makes limbs invulnerable to damage, another turns everyone on your team into a melee zombie after death, another gives everyone a sword with the bullet-deflecting powers of Qui-Gon Jinn. Real modest, restrained stuff.

These wild ideas, on their face, should be incompatible with Counter-Strike as a style of FPS, which Fragpunk unapologetically borrows from. Counter-Strike is all about purity, about the chess match of my aim versus your aim, about timing, map awareness, and a less-is-more emphasis on technique. One of the Shard Cards in Fragpunk ***removes an entire bombsite***. Another adds a third one to the map, spontaneously. This isn't chess.

But somehow, these wildcards avoid overshadowing the depth of Counter-Strike's form and feel. The foundation of memorizing gun recoil patterns, bombsites, mid, AWPing vs. rifles, and grenade play is all intact (though in the slightly altered form of grenade-launching pistols).

I'm finding Fragpunk fun because I get to apply those years-worn CS skills in a more relaxed setting. I've rushed B a billion times. I haven't rushed B while it's cloaked in dense fog, with damage-stopping turtle shells strapped to my enemies' backs, as my teammate throws out a healing mushroom.

But wait, it's also a hero shooter

This is on top of Fragpunk carrying a roster of ability-laden heroes who can teleport, throw out tornadoes, put up defensive walls, and send out little AI-controlled helpers to harass you.

Where Valorant got us comfortable with the idea of League of Legends-style abilities being stirred into CS' template, Fragpunk extends that concept to a power level that's probably a bit higher. Though there are no ultimates in Fragpunk, some characters' signature abilities resemble the ultimates in Valorant. Broker carries a rocket launcher that can one-shot enemies if it lands near their feet, weaker in damage than Raze's Showstopper ultimate in Valorant, but with two shots, so still quite potent.

It's a lot to take in at the outset. It didn't create too much frustration for me, but I did drop some rounds because I wasn't sure what an ability's particle effect meant, or how long an electric trap would persist on the ground, or whether my tripwire mines could be destroyed by abilities. Normal adjustments, for the most part.

The characters who can teleport or go invisible, however, are really powerful. Serket, the requisite extremely hot hero shooter character, can just invisi-run for about 15 seconds, then teleport to that location. Zephyr can go fully invisible and perform a one-hit-kill knife backstab, detectable only by Fragpunk's imperfect footstep audio. If anything requires getting used to for CS players, it's the volume of these location-changing character abilities at the outset, not the Shard Cards.

The other big format twist is Fragpunk's Duel finale, which settles any 3-3 tie in casual mode with a series of 1v1, Warzone Gulag-style firefights. These quick bouts are riveting, and a great payoff for a close match. I love the pressure of being the next person up, or the crushing disappointment of blowing it at a key moment. In true Counter-Strike style, the entire match is a peanut gallery of spectators as the 1v1s play out.

Extended club remix

I was expecting Fragpunk's aggressive remixing of Counter-Strike to feel more abrasive than it is, to feel like a cheapening of something that's been refined for 25 years. Honestly, I like turning into a dumb zombie after death. I like shooting enemies' giant heads after playing a card that made them that way.

The only truly disorienting element might be the monetization, which overwhelms you with achievements, events, currencies, tiered loot boxes, stickers, charms, emotes, and a Tamagochi-like imp you have to check in on every 24 hours. Most of the roster is locked at the outset, which surprised me. If you want to grab some free stuff, there are Fragpunk codes you can redeem.

What's fascinating about Fragpunk is how durable it reveals Counter-Strike to be as a style of shooter. Not only can CS tolerate the splashy abilities of Valorant, it can absorb those and having its ruleset remixed like a cheap pop song in a Vegas club every round.

My biggest complaint right now is that the audio isn't as high-fidelity as it needs to be—invisible characters, who still generate footstep noise, regularly waltz right up to me without me discerning how close they are. For now, Fragpunk is taking over for Marvel Rivals as the shooter I'm playing in 2025 (coincidentally, another NetEase game). Like Rivals, it's a design that challenges the notion that balance is the most important thing in competitive games, an idea I love seeing perpetuated.

We'll have a full review of Fragpunk going up very soon.