Counterstrike Global Offensive Beta First Impressions and Review

By Tim. S

Few gaming series’ have enjoyed such an enduring legacy as has Counterstrike. From its humble origins as a mod released in 1999 for Valve’s hugely successful Half Life, creators Minh ‘Gooseman’ Le, and Jess ‘Cliffe’ Cliffe could have never foreseen the legions of diehard fans that ensued, nor their own ascension to cult-icon heroes.

Counterstrike as a series is something I’ve had a very personal connection to over the years; Counterstrike first entered my life way back in the year 2000, when it was only in Beta 7 release; I was 14 at the time and the Sydney Olympics were all over the TV; from my older brother, I’d heard of a new game, an add-on for Half Life (which I’d only played through earlier that year) which created an unbelievable new experience; after he’d installed it, I couldn’t believe what I saw; an ultra-realistic online multiplayer game played with real people around the world. It was an experience like no other.

Now officially out of Beta phase, Counterstrike: Global Offensive has seen official release across the world, and fans everywhere are absorbing and processing this new experience with wide-ranging feedback reaching extremes on each end, with some players hailing it as the greatest online experience yet, while others deride it as a cheap cash-in attempt on the recent Call of Duty styled gameplay.

For the uninitiated, Counterstrike is an online multiplayer game pitting a team of Terrorists and Counter-terrorists against each other in a variety of worldly locations and scenarios; for instance, one level, set in ancient Aztec ruins involves the terrorist faction fighting their way into a historic site to complete their team objective of planting a bomb, while the Counter-terrorist team must eliminate all the terrorists, and, if the bomb has been armed, defuse it before it detonates.

And wild gunfights. All the time.

Another scenario involves a scenic old Italian neighborhood, where Terrorists have taken a group of hostages; it’s up to the Counter-terrorist team to fight through the Terrorist faction, and rescue the hostages by making contact with them and leading them to an extraction point. The Terrorists must prevent the Counter-terrorists from reaching and rescuing the hostages. As simple as it sounds, further complexities arise amidst a detailed economic system revolving around money earned from eliminating enemies, as well as completing objectives and winning rounds, which allow you to purchase better weapons and equipment. Money is still awarded to the losing team, though not as much. The scenarios take place across a number of rounds on a singular map,

Perhaps equally legendary to the Counterstrike phenomenon are it’s hard-core community of followers, who, irrelevant of other gaming releases and milestones continue to slug it out in the most raw of all Counterstrike experiences; the very first iteration, Counterstrike 1.6 affectionately referred to simply as ‘1.6’. In that sense, I don’t expect the old diehards to warmly accept the latest addition to the Counterstrike family; it’s already experienced significant criticism from the old guard about the new sense of weapons handling, and its new environmental and character designs.

I remember back in highschool, after the seeds of Counter-strike had been sewn throughout, it became commonplace for kids to sneak off during lunch break into the netcafes in the city to game on for the rest of the afternoon; kids would be drawing their favourite guns inside their folders, and discussing new strategies at recess; it single-handedly spawned the internet café culture; it brought otherwise isolated people together. It wasn’t always good, numerous stories surfaced about people getting stabbed in net cafes over cases of alleged cheating or ‘hacking’ accusations. However, the culture prevailed, and internet cafes have remained a safe haven for gamers of all calibers since Counterstrike opened the doors for everyone.

A big question I had about the veritable resurrection of the Counterstrike franchise was “What relevance does Counterstrike have in today’s gaming climate?” Gaming has changed in absolutely unpredictable ways since the last iteration, Counterstrike: Source was released in 2004; the overall culture and expectations of online multiplayer videogaming has changed; it’s easy to say that 2004 was a simpler time for gaming, and in some ways that may be true, but in the years that followed, many developments took place- the proliferation of World of Warcraft became something of a black hole for gamers, as well as a rise in networked console gaming, and being on the cusp of release of the Nintendo DS, promising global multiplayer meant that gamers had more choices than ever for their networked gaming fixes; and I’ll admit, I did my fair bit of straying from the dingy estates, the sunset oilrigs, and the sandy dusts of Counterstrike in search of greener pastures; Yet, I always find myself returning, like some kind of homing pigeon, to the series that piqued my interest in networked gaming so long ago.

A major focus for Global Offensive’s firearms was to simulate more realistic weapons handling and ballistics, and it’s worked to great effect; the feel of the weapons is much tighter than in previous iterations, and the general behavior of firearms feels like it’s based off more real-world observations than arbitrary calculations.

He also murdered me. Many many times.

A friend and regular game bud, Disruptr commented to me after his first round that the game felt more ‘aggressive’ than previous iterations, that the combat felt closer and more “in your face” than before, and I tend to agree. A few little changes, like distance fog, scoped weapons having a more limited field of vision, plus most sub-machine guns and shotguns granting significantly higher monetary rewards (and the camper’s favourite – the AWP granting significantly reduced monetary return on kills), as well as the knife’s new ability to potentially grant (extremely lucrative) one-hit kills all attest to the fact that you’ve more reasons than ever before to get right up close and personal.

But I got him! Sorta..

One point I picked up on early beta feedback was that some players felt the environment was too ‘distracting’ or detailed, over previously simpler visual schemes for levels; geometrically, the classic levels have hardly changed from their Counterstrike: Source counterparts, but technologically, Global Offensive showcases significantly improved visuals, sporting highly detailed shadow effects, an advanced lighting engine, high-poly player models and custom, map-specific skins and voice samples for both the terrorists and counter- terrorist teams.

In some ways, the beta feedback is indeed accurate; with higher levels of atmospheric particle effects and distance fog (presumably to discourage ‘campers’ – players who occupy a single location for a prolonged length of time), combined with a more detailed, vibrant environment means that there are potentially more things that can be mistaken as enemies.

However, I don’t think that’s an entirely bad thing- it helps to keep the experience fresh, and gives veteran players something new to learn and process- exactly what do enemies look like? What do environmental artifacts look like? What do decals/environmental skins look like? I think it works to keep things fresh and exciting.

Another element that keeps the experiences of maps unique is the map-specific Terrorist and Counter-terrorist skins and voice samples; this creates a deeper sense of immersion and sense of place than in the previous iterations. Aside from the sense of immersion, the unique player skins actually provide a vital role of differentiating friendly players from the enemy faction, as each side is designed around a specific colour scheme and general ‘shape’ that’s distinctively different from the opposing team; this was personally one of my biggest gripes with previous iterations of Counterstrike, as I’d felt certain player models looked far too similar, and though most servers ran with Friendly Fire set to off (so teams can’t damage each other), this often led to many misfired shots; while this may sound negligible since no damage was dealt, I felt it was actually quite disruptive to the gameplay, as players adopted a ‘shoot everything that moves’ mentality, which risked players being left under-armed to deal with potential enemies approaching, as well as undermining careful target discrimination.

Most CS:GO beta servers I played actually had Friendly Fire switched on, which was met with significant hostility from most players, as those migrating over from Counterstrike Source were far too used to friendly units not dealing damage; and since Friendly Fire on the final release varies from server to server, it’s definitely worth getting your aim right and not shooting everything in sight (use that RADAR, people!).

However, with Counterstrike Global Offensive it isn’t all praises I’m singing; infact, there’s a few incredibly frustrating elements of the game; firstly, at the time of writing this there’s been no major distinctions between the pre-release Beta, and the commercial release; though there’s been some tweaks to the weapons handling and recoil patterns, flinching/aim punch when damage is taken, as well as improved netcode and a creative slew of selectable punishments for team-killers; the game just doesn’t feel substantially progressive from its Beta form. No new weapons, no new skins, no new modes, maps, or anything.

I was hoping from release that there would at least be some new maps (hell, not even NEW maps, just some recreations of old fan favourites would have sufficed); instead we’re stuck with the eight ‘Classic’ maps (recreations of six defusal maps, and two hostage rescue maps), and eight ‘Arsenal’ mode maps. As I mentioned above, I didn’t care for the Arsenal modes; it baffled me why Valve chose to include this server mod as an official game mode, while ignoring one of the series’ most unique gameplay modes – Assassination. I don’t get why this mode has never resurfaced since its humble origins in the original Counterstrike’s Beta (with five maps, cut down to only as_oilrig in the final release).

This sight still breaks my heart

Counterstrike was the game that changed the face of networked videogames; it brought people together, it introduced an unprecedented level of precision and tactical response never before seen in games, and has secured one of the most devout followings of all time.

How does this stack up now, 12+ years after the original release of the game that changed the world? At the end of the day, you can’t reinvent the wheel that is Counter-strike, though you can recast it with new alloys, retread it, or replace the rubber altogether with a much smoother driving Kevlar blend. It drives smoother, feels better and looks nicer, though not essentially a fresh experience.

With the resurrection of Counterstrike, I hope we can look forward to a fresh beginning, a new Counterstrike experience with ongoing developer and community support, the same kind of support that Valve juggernauts such as Left 4 Dead 2 and Team Fortress 2 have enjoyed. I can only hope that soon, new content packs will emerge addressing the limited map roster. The new weapons are a welcome addition and handle nicely. I can only sit and wait in anticipation of what brave new directions the series will take with this new breath of life.