Counter-Strike
| Article Published: Tuesday, September 19,
2000 (Vol.6 No.181) |
| Game Review By Alex Dennis |
| E-mail: alex_bigballer@yahoo.com
|
| Publisher: Sierra Online |
| Developer: Valve |
| Similar to: Team Fortress |
| System Requirements: P233, 64Mb RAM, Win 9x |
| Category: 3D Action |
| |
The realistic nature of today's games is absolutely
astounding. The intense excitement and suspense that is brought
out in action movies can now be experienced, maybe even more
so in games. Many people who watch such movies get totally drawn
into the excitement, they even begin to visualize themselves
in the situations they witness. Well, gone are the days of imagination
because with the aid of technology people can now almost literally
experience such situations for themselves. Instead of merely
just watching the good guys fight against the bad guys, the
average person can become a part of this world, ducking behind
corners, climbing ladders, defusing or planting bombs, rescuing
hostages; strategically planning their survival and at the same
time working towards accomplishing their mission. Sierra has
released a game called Counter-Strike that puts the gamer into
such a realistic world. A modification (MOD) to the multiplayer
capability of another extremely popular game, Half-life, Counter-Strike
allows gamers to play with other gamers through teamwork across
a network. This in itself increases the realism because there
are no computer-generated players in this 'reality', only real,
live, human players. Each player chooses a team from either
of two choices, counter-terrorist or terrorist and together
each team launches attacks on the opposing side, with the hope
of being 'the last team standing.' Although the main objective
of the game is to eliminate the members of the opposite team,
additional objectives are assigned to each team depending on
the game mode of a specific map.
Counter-Strike has numerous maps available for
game-play and with each map comes different mission objectives.
These objectives are categorized under four headings Assassination,
Bomb/Defuse, Escape, and Hostage Rescue. Each map is specifically
designed to fall under one of these categories. In the Assassination
mode, one player on the counter-terrorist side is given the
role of VIP and his team members must safely escort him to an
escape point. The terrorist aim is simple, to prevent the VIP
from escaping to this point by assassinating him. The VIP player
has no weapons except a knife and so must rely on the teamwork
of his teammates to remain alive and to escape safely. In Bomb/Defuse
the terrorists must plant a bomb in one of two locations that
have to be bombed. The counter-terrorists must attempt to foil
their plan. This is a very exciting game mode especially since
the terrorists have to get to the bombing site safely, then
protect the bomber and then protect the bomb, so it won't get
defused. After the bomb is successfully planted, the counter-terrorists
must try to disarm it before it goes off. Escape missions require
the terrorist group to attempt to escape through certain escape
points on the map but on-route they will encounter the counter-terrorists,
who aim at preventing the terrorist from reaching their destinations.
The counter-terrorist must prevent at least 50% of the terrorists
from escaping; once that is accomplished the only way that the
terrorists can win is by eliminating the counter-terrorists.
And finally Hostage Rescue, which is pretty self-explanatory,
is when the counter-terrorists must rescue some hostages, while
the Terrorists try to stop them in their tracks. In Counter-Strike
you earn money from accomplishing these tasks. The money that
you earn is then used to buy bigger weapons, armor, ammo and
other military goodies. To buy a weapon a player will select
a buying menu, usually by pressing the letter B on the keyboard,
at the start of the game. These weapons include a large assortment
of pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, sub-machine
guns, machine guns, grenades and demolition devices. A player
is only allowed to carry two weapons at any one time though,
i.e. a primary and a secondary weapon, but during game-play
they can exchange the weapons that they have with ones that
they find on the floor. Each side has access to a different
subset of weapon so for example only the counter-terrorist can
buy the M4A1, and only the terrorists can buy the AK-47. AK-47
Playing Counter-Strike requires serious tactical skill. The
players must ensure that they don't accidentally wound or kill
their teammates and at the same time react fast enough when
an enemy comes into their line of vision. This requires concentration
and total alertness, especially since it takes anywhere from
one to a couple shots or stab wounds to kill a player, depending
on the severity of the wound (whether it was a head wound which
is fatal or a leg wound which is not so fatal). Unlike most
other games, in Counter-Strike a player cannot re-spawn or come
back to life after being killed. After a player is shot or knifed
dead, game-play continues and the dead player becomes a ghost
with the ability to float around the map, even through walls,
and watch the rest of the players in action or familiarize themselves
with the map for the next round of play.
Note: The following range from one to 5 stars
(*), lowest score (*) to highest (*****).
Graphics: (*****) This is a very beautiful
game. The graphics are stupendous and very realistic. I especially
like the attention that the developers gave to the scenery and
the weapons.
Interface: (*****) Really easy to use.
It's very similar to most other first person shooting games
and just like most other games the controls can be reconfigured
to fit a players style.
Game-play: (*****) Extremely fun! Even
when I was being killed regularly I still found this game extremely
entertaining.
Sound FX: (****) The sound effects, just
like everything else are very realistic. They even help with
game-play, special attention must be paid to these effects if
one hopes to stay alive. Intelligence & Difficulty: This is
hard to assess mainly because the difficulty and intelligence
of the game depends on the difficulty and intelligence of your
opponents, which simply means that the more experienced your
opponents are is the less chances you have of winning.
Overall: (*****) This has got to be the
best game that I've ever played. It is so realistic that I couldn't
ask for more. The only problem that I have with it is that it
doesn't do well on a dial-up connection, forcing people in Jamaica
to rely on LAN or other such local networks, instead of the
Internet, the latter being more convenient because then one
who doesn't have a local network in their house, which is most
of us, could play within the comfort of his/her own home.
