Since 2000, the Counter-Strike series has brought together many a gamer in both union and argument with its amazing titles, both online and locally. From 1.6 to Global Offensive, the Counter-Strike games have made use of Valve’s amazing Source Engine, both new and older versions, and used the tools at hand to create amazing locations, enthralling gameplay and a game built for both fun and competitive playing. When Global Offensive was first announced, many wondered if Valve could continue to pull of their seemingly endless chain of Grade-A games, and now we have an answer.
Counter-Strike Global Offensive started as a mere Counter-Strike console port, but moved then to a full new title, first being announced in August 2011, and followed by an invite-only Beta starting in November later that year. The game was released fully on the 21st of August 2012, allowing those who pre-ordered it a week’s early access and a promotional item in Team Fortress 2.
Now, when judging this game, one must first look at it as a game of its own, and then get more serious and take a look at how it holds up to the standard set by the series. On its own, this game is perfection. The visuals are great, yet it can be run on a low-end machine with fairly good performance; the gameplay is top-notch with fully customizable control mapping between a Keyboard, X-BOX 360 Controller and a Movement Device and the game itself is small in size yet large in capability. Most bugs are fixed within a day or two with a simple small update, and the game has both matchmaking, which could still be worked on a bit, and a server browser. The gamemodes featured are the original Counter-Strike Hostage Gamemode, the original Counter-Strike Defuse gamemode and Arms Race, which is Global Offensive’s take on the popular mod for many games named Gungame. All these modes have two settings – Classic Casual and Classic Competitive. In Classic Competitive, all of the game settings are the same as in the original Counter-Strike games – player clipping on, team killing on and a few other features. In classic casual, all of these settings are off, making the game slightly less serious and easier to adjust to for newer players.
Does it hold up the good name the series has set? At the moment, sadly not. The game had a small number of maps released with it, and while more are in the making, it’s taken them more than a month to get them done, causing the community to rely on community-made maps for variation, which while good can also be quite buggy as none of the people making them are doing it as a job. The game itself seems to be held in a low regard by veteran players. While many of them see the potential, they do not feel that the game matches up just yet, however is still fun to play and could very easily become the new Counter-Strike which replaces the old.
Other than that, the game is a little harsh on new players, with the weapons course being way too basic and the game’s mechanics a little hard to learn. Then again, if you play with people better than you, you will undoubtedly learn something about the game.
