After reading my review you are probably wondering why I am writing a CounterStrike (CS) Review. Well, this game simply deserves it. It's that damn good.

In CS you are placed on one of two teams. Terrorists(T's) or CounterTerrorists(CT's). Depending on the map each team has specefic goals. There are 3 types of maps. They are bomb/defuse, hostage resuce, and VIP or escort.

Get out of there, it's gonna blow!
Bomb/Defuse
The CT's must kill all of the T's before they can plant the c4 explosive. If they fail to do that then they can defuse the bomb, however that can be difficult at times, because there will often be T's guarding it until the last possible second.

Let's get the hell outta here
Hostage Resuce
The T's will usually start in some type of building with several hostages in the building with them. The T's goal is to simply kill all the CT's and not let them rescue the hostages. The CT's objective can prove to be much more difficult. They must enter the building and either kill all the T's or find and rescue the hostages by escorting them to a hostage rescue zone. The T's have it easy in this type of map because they can "camp" and/or hide, and wait for the CT's to come to them.

Follow me, Sir
VIP/Escort
In the VIP/escort style maps one member of CT team is randomly chosen to be a VIP. The VIP must be escorted to a specefic "safe" location on the map. The VIP is only armed with the standard USP pistol that the CT's start with. He can't buy or pick up weapons. The T's must kill the VIP before he reaches the "safe" zone on the map.

In CS all matches are made up of rounds. You only get 1 life per round, so if you die you sit and spectate until the round is over. A round is done when all members of one team get killed or when one team completes its objectives for that paticular map. (e.g. CT's rescue the hostages) Rounds usually are about 2-4 minutes in length.

CS, unlike most other First Person Shooters out there on the market is very realistic. Consider this a multiplayer version of Rainbow 6 that is say, oh, about 100 times better. There is 5 classes of guns. They are Pistols, shotguns, SMG's (sub machine guns), rifles, and machine guns. Another thing that sets this game apart from other First Person Shooters is the aiming physics. Duke Nukem and Quake like tactics won't work here. Running and jumping around like a jackrabbit while shooting will get you no where. And going full auto with a AK-47 or a Colt will get you no where as well. After about the 4th shot your bullets will be hitting nowhere near you crosshair. Ducking while shooting short, quick 3 shot bursts is the best way to go. Finally, the damage in CS is second to none. Even with full kevlar armor + helmet don't expect to take to many shots in the chest + head area. about 5 bullets and you are done.

The graphics in CS are surpurb even for today, and CS is several years old. There is a fair ammount of gore, bullet holes, flying cement, sparks, realistic looking smoke and more. This may seem standard with newer games such as Solder of Fortune and Max Payne, but keep in mind this is a game that is several years old.

The sounds are excellent in CS as well. There is no background music, and quite frankly, thats a good thing for a couple of reasons. One is that First Person Shooters have failed in that department time in and time out, and secondly, you need to be able to listen to everything to become a good CS player. Listening to footsteps, gunshots and even enemy radio transmissions(if you're close enough) will help you locate opponents. If there was background music you obviously wouldn't be able to hear such remote things as footsteps.

However, like any other game, CS has some problems. Well, accually it's only one problem. Cheating. CS does not have good protection against cheaters. There are several cheats on the net that have the CS community up in arms. Cheats like aimbot that automatically aims at the head of an enemy and shoots for you with little to no recoil, and wallhacks, that allow you to see through walls are tearing up the community. There have been attempts to remove the cheating, by making anti-cheat programs like punkbuster required on servers, but the best of cheats will get around the anti-cheat programs.

Gameplay - 5/5
Controls - 5/5
Sound - 5/5
Graphics - 5/5
Overall- 20/20

Recommended: Yes