Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a thriving modding scene, with a raft of fan-made maps and weapon skins hitting the FPS game’s Steam Workshop every week. A new creation that stands out is a weapon skin line that takes inspiration from one of CS:GO’s maps and the lore behind it, telling stories through the skins themselves.
CS:GO fan and creator Cimota has posted a preview reel (below) of their “Tales of Cedar Creek collection” on Reddit, which is a set of weapon skins for a handful of rifles inspired by the multiplayer game’s Nuke bomb defusal map. The first, called ‘Project Cedar, is an icy grey-blue skin “based around a board meeting; notes found within the map, how the nuclear reactor is made, possible cost reductions,” and, er, “too many chickens”. You can see notes discovered as part of the story scrawled onto the weapon skin, including one of those pesky chickens in purple.
The story progresses into the next skin – Cedar’s Decay – which, suitably, shows the weapon descending into a decayed state, with a rust-like coating creeping up its barrel.
The final skin, ‘Aftermath’, is themed on a stage of the plot that centres on the trophies seen in Nuke’s offices being not what they seem, pointing to some kind of secret and, then, an incident.
“The trophies, certificates…all lies,” the skin’s description on the Workshop reads, setting up the story behind it. It paints a picture of a conspiracy: “‘Shortcuts left and right. A plot is underway and I know it. I need to get this out before…'”, a “recovered audio log” captures, before gunshot and then static follow. Gulp.
If you’re keen to get a look at the ‘Tales of Cedar Creek’ collection, you can find the skin collection on CS:GO’s Steam Workshop here, and Cimota’s own workshop can be found here. Or, if you’d like to try something zanier, another creator recently turned CS:GO into Fall Guys with a set of vibrant maps, skins, and “30 minigames”.