Reviewed on: PC
Valve Corporation, Hidden Path Entertainment
Valve Corporation
Mid-2012
First Person Shooter
PC
Score: 3.5 / 5
You know the drill. T’s vs CT’s. Everyone who has played games of any sort or, heck, even used a computer in the last ten years has probably heard of Counter-Strike, or CS, as it’s often called.
But just in case you’re out of the loop, the Counter-Strike series of games are objective based multiplayer FPS’. There’s a few game modes, such as Defusal in which the Terrorists (T’s) must plant a bomb and the Counter-Terrorists (CT’s) must stop this by either defusing the bomb or killing the terrorists. There’s also the Hostage game mode in which the T’s must defend their hostage till then end of the round and the CT’s must try to get the hostages back to a rescue zone. Due to Counter-Strike’s popularity many community modes have spawned such as Gun Game, Surf, Minigames and the like.
Due to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive just being a new release of the same classic games, this review has been broken into sections for those familiar with CS to understand what it’s like.
Visuals:
Weird. I imagine the visuals will be appealing to most, and they are certainly up to par with most modern games, but to me at first they felt a bit cartoony for some reason. The updated models and textures are flawless so far, and effects such as smoke are much more realistic. The only flaw in the models I did notice were that the hostages are blindfolded yet manage to follow you around the map 
– 4/5
Audio:
Sounds are much clearer and realistic I think however unlike the old days of CS it’s somewhat harder to differentiate what gun someone is using just by sound alone. There’s not much to comment about sound, everything sounds a bit more realistic, except for the knife which sounds like you are attacking a bag of sand. 4.5/5
Weapons:
I’m not sure what exactly has been changed in terms of how they feel, but the guns feel more ‘floaty’. Each teams weapons are very balanced, with some guns having been replaced with newer guns, such as the M4A1 being replaced with the M4A4 – GIVE ME BACK MY SILENCER! Otherwise, the guns recoil and kick well and the crosshair has been updated to a more dynamic one (think Call of Duty style), however –thankfully- you don’t have to look down your iron sights. Also of note are the new weapons such as Incendiary Grenades and Molotov’s along with a new Zeus Taser which you can only use once per round but guarantees a kill if you hit your opponent. 4/5
Gameplay:
It’s probably due to the beta, but so far there are 4 modes. Casual Demolition, Competitive Demolition, Casual Arsenal and Competitive Arsenal. The demolition modes is just the old defusal mode and arsenal has come about from Valve implementing gun game as an official game mode. The difference between the casual and competitive mode is small things like money earned and lost from kills and deaths, whether friendly fire is on etc. 3.5/5
Welcome/Unwelcome changes:
- General physics have improved of certain items, yet have been completely disabled for some things. E.g. Can’t move large objects by shooting them.
- Silencer option has been removed from M4A4. I really miss this as I always played using the M4A1 with the silencer attached.
- Object physics have been removed. I quite enjoyed shooting barrels etc. in CS:S and I’m guessing these physics have been reduced for either less server load or to reduce exploits, but I really miss that feeling that you could control a bit of what’s around you.
So to conclude, CS:GO definitely delivers on most of the seasoned Counter Strike player’s expectations, yet some changes can be a downfall if you have become used to playing the CS franchise in a certain way over the years. As someone who has played CS for almost 7 years now, it would be nice to see the old options being available for those who want them. I’ll definitely buy the game on release but how much I actually play it will probably come down to the community. CS has always had an entirely different community compared to games such as Call of Duty and if the game itself becomes another CoD clone I’ll be sticking with Counter-Strike: Source.
Overall, I’d give CS:GO an 3.5/5 for now, but I’ll definitely keep an eye on the official release and see how much change there is.
