Counter Strike: Global Offensive Reviewed By Luke "Lukaz" Withoos

Rating: 80% (Ratings Key/Explanation)

I guess it’s time for me to come clean and admit something. I am a “Valve Fanboy”. I appreciate their games; their CEO Gabe Newell; their business operations model; Steam; and their repeated sales that have saved me so much money. There is so much good about their company and their products that it is hard to begin on this title without gushing even a little.

In the innocent year of 1999, two game modifiers named Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jess “Cliffe” Cliffe created a multiplayer modification for the Valve title “Half-Life”. The title was Counter-Strike; which went through many iterations until beta version 0.4 when Valve became personally involved in the creation of this game mod.

It is no small feat for any game mod developer to get recognised by the company that created the game you made the mod for, and this is no exception. It was during beta version 0.2 that I first played the Counter-Strike mod and saw the game progress in many different ways; but no update was released quickly until Valve became involved. By this point, Counter-Strike had already received numerous accolades from the gaming community for its gameplay, graphics and realism.

Since the release of Counter-Strike as a fully-fledged title, Valve released a single-player version of Counter Strike, known as Counter Strike: Condition Zero, which was the second title released by this name; but its popularity failed to compare with the original mod.

Zip forward to June 2004 and Valve has released the next instalment in the Half-Life series; built using a whole new game engine called “Source”. By this point in time, Valve had purchased the rights to reproduce Counter-Strike titles; and did so with this new game engine to coincide with the release of the new Half-Life title. This new version was Counter Strike: Source.

After 5 years of the original Counter Strike and 7 years of Counter Strike: Source, it was announced in 2011 that Counter Strike: Global Offensive was on the horizon. While the title would remain on the Source game engine; this highly refined iteration of the engine would provide considerable graphical and game-physics improvements that put this title far beyond any other title with this engine.

Now you are up to speed, and now that I have covered the last 13 years of the most crucial part of my gaming history, it is down to business.

The Source engine has received many improvements since its initial release and has spawned many titles; the Half-Life 2 series, the Portal series, Team Fortress 2, the Left 4 Dead series; just to name a few. While these titles have made use of many of the functions that the engine offers, in my opinion the graphical improvements in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive stand out far and beyond anything previously released with the engine.

Counter-Strike now has more detailed and refined player models, weapons and scenery than ever before. The lighting improvements make for clean and bright scenery along with a highly detailed HUD that does not distract or cause conflicts.

As a long time Counter-Strike player, I can honestly say that this is the most visually pleasing title I have played from Valve and am extremely pleased with how they have made the game look.

On the other side of the coin, my fandom has somewhat jaded when exploring the other components of the title.

The gun physics has changed quite considerably. While the aim of every Counter-Strike title was to focus on the realism of the title, Global Offensive has taken this to the extreme; where seasoned players are finding it difficult to make the switch to this new format.

The AK-47, a gun that is the preferred weapon for most players, was always considered to be a one-shot-head-shot weapon. This was due to the high accuracy of the rifle and swift accuracy restoration. This is no longer the case.

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, players who use the AK-47 are granted a single round of accurate firing; but the spray range of the weapon makes the rifle unusable after this first shot. While it is widely believed that this type of rifle is normally fired from the hip; and in turn this title attempts to impersonate that effect; the change is incredibly detrimental to players.

This complication makes it very difficult for many people who have played the title previously; however new players may not face the same issue.

The second criticism I have for the title is that the interface has changed considerably. While purchasing weapons at the start of each round was always a process that players could get through with hotkeys easily, this interface change (and major changes to hotkey groupings) has complicated my gameplay greatly.

I am not unfamiliar to change; especially since Counter-Strike: Source was released with a new interface; but this change is considerable; to the point where “Machine Guns” and “Shotguns” no longer exist and are replaced with a new “Heavy” weapons category. With some practice, I am sure I will get used to it though.

Valve has made a small change that many fans will be pleased with, however. The weapons used actually retain the real names of the weapons. They weren’t fooling anyone anyway. A Steyr AUG is not named a “Bullpup”. It’s an AUG; and everyone knew it. These names were used in the original Counter-Strike while it was in beta; but upon official release, the weapons were renamed.

Valve has also introduced another game mode with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive called “Arsenal”. This includes the game type “Demolition” and “Arms Race”. Arsenal is similar to a modification released for Counter-Strike: Source called “Gun Game”. This is now an official part of Counter-Strike and this is a very pleasing outcome for all Gun Game fans.

Overall, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a great title. The graphics are spectacular, the guns are realistic (though frustrating for series veterans), great for newcomers to the series and most of all, they have removed the Riot Shield completely.

I couldn’t be happier they got rid of that imbalanced, indestructible piece of metal.