Intro:
I remember when I first bought Halflife, which was at the "local"(miles away) Best Buy store. I was deciding whether to buy the intense game Halflife or another game, Barbies Playhouse by Matel. After long hours of deciding I chose Halflife. (For those who don't know me I was being sarcastic about Barbies Playhouse..).

After beating the game (Halflife), on all difficulty levels, I heard about a new modification called Counter-Strike Beta. To this day (as I am writing) Counter-strike version 1.1 is out, which I will now be reviewing.

Briefing:
The game is a free-modification of the game Halflife which can be found here: www.counter-strike.net . It features different maps which have scenarios like Hostage-Rescue, Bomb-Defuse, Assassination, or just regular "battling it out". This game type at first will remind you of games like Rogue Spear, Rainbow Six, Delta Force, etc.. but I believe that its of the same category, but of a different type. The action in Counter-strike is faster than the mentioned, which grabs your interests higher. What is also interesting is that you can buy equipment after each round, keeping your equipment if you live, but if you die, well it just sucks to be you.

Graphics:8/10
I usually hate seeing bulky or ugly looking gun models, but Counter-strike seems to have it on the "Okay" level which means great compared to other models as seen in games like: "Soldier Of Fortune" or "Project SGI" which look like a Lego block with a trigger. The player models are nicely smoothed out now (working with the Valve Team), and the graphics are great, though they roughly depend on which map you are on. Explosions and firing is shown well, nothing really to call your grandma about, unless she's into guns.
Most likely...

Sound:8/10
Included into the game are about 20+ pre-set radio messaged in the game, and you trigger them with keyboard commands, (ie: "I need backup") which may become useful, though are overplayed by fellow teamates who don't have a brain. The sounds are all done nicely, yet nothing to really call home about.

Control:9/10
The controls can be customly defined, and one can set "macro" functions to buy the necessary equipment with one key. It is very simple to control your character within the game, I personally use the WASD layout.

Playing:10/10
What makes this so fun, is the interaction with other people. If it were computer it would "feel" less real. Also the uniqueness, stupidity, or intellect of fellow players in the game adds to the game. You can have a friend on the game and have your own plan, go solo, or do whatever you want. Though there are a FEW bugs in the game and there is some cheating, nothings perfect, and its a fun game. The makers of Counter-Strike are continue to release patches to fix the bugs and cheats that may come out. Besides the game is free (If you download), plus its fun!

Cool Features:9/10
Selection of weapons and tools, ability to "spray" your logo over someone's "corpse", interactivity with several players, radar, different scenarios that you can create on your own if you have time, the amount of servers and players out there, it's free, and did I mention its free?

Conclusion:44/50=88%--rounded to--90%+
I really love this game and if I were to recommend a game to a friend, it would definitely be Halflife - Counterstrike.

Recommended: Yes