Our coverage of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive continues with a short history on the Counterstrike series, an overview of the CS:GO’s general features, the buying system and the recoil system.
The original Counter-Strike began as a humble modification of Half-Life back in 1999, and after numerous betas and official patches, the definitive 1.6 version of the game in 2003 has been lauded as one of the greatest competitive first person shooters ever made. The franchise spawned various derivations like an X-Box port, a lukewarm single-player remake, and even a Japanese arcade adaptation, but the true successor to Counter-Strike’s (from here on referred to as 1.6) popularity has been Counter-Strike: Source. However, to Valve’s dismay, the gameplay changes introduced in CS: Source polarized the CS community between 1.6 loyalists and Source advocates. CS:GO is Valve’s proposed solution of trying to bridge these two camps together into a single game.
Global Offensive will introduce two separate gameplay modes, and is the first game in the franchise to introduce a ladder system. The ladder system, called Competitive, will match players of similar skill levels in 5v5 games running the bomb defusal scenario. The other format, Casual, will have 32 player servers that are capable of running the VIP and hostage scenarios, as well as community-made modifications like Deathmatch and Gun Game.
The current version of the beta only offers Casual 5v5 de_dust, but beta users can try out Competitive mode on de_dust2 on single-player with bots.
The beta has been received with mixed reviews. The new recoil system is unfamiliar both to 1.6 and CS:S pros. Tactics like CS:S strafe firing do not seem to work, and even crouch spraying like 1.6 feels inconsistent. In 1.6, the recoil pattern of the M4 rifle’s bullets rose up into a relatively straight line up to five bullets before becoming random, meaning that the most accurate way to fire was in bursts of five. In CS:S, though recoil was more unpredictable, firing in general was far more accurate in all instances. In CS:GO neither of these rules seem to apply. The recoil rides up immediately and bursting even at medium range doesn’t feel like a viable option.
Although managing recoil without the help of iron sights is a key mechanic of the CS franchise, the buying system is the definitive feature that sets it apart from other shoots. Counter-Strike is played in rounds, and players earn money by killing enemies and completing objectives. At the beginning of each round, players can then use this money to purchase kevlar, weapons, ammo and grenades. Much of Counter-Strike's strategy revolves around spending money wisely and "spreading the wealth" by purchasing items for teammates who are in a slump. CS:GO's buy system has received some criticism.
Many PC gamers, on both 1.6 and CS:S, preferred the classic text-based buy menu of 1.6. There is currently no option for this in the Global Offensive beta, and its newly introduced radial buy menu is taken straight from the CS X-Box port. Armor is given for free in Casual mode but must be purchased by players in Competitive. Ammo is freely given in both gameplay modes, which has drawn ire from fans of 1.6's buy system, which forced the player to pay for ammo separately. Weapon models are also irritating. The AK-47 dominates half of the screen, and can only be remedied by enabling the developer console. This model size is fine for console players who are watching the game from a television set ten feet away, but to a PC player who is only half a foot away from his monitor, it is distracting.
That ends this day’s report on the CS: Global Offensive beta. Tune in next time to find out more about the beta bugs, available guns, new items and a more detailed explanation of the Competitive and Casual modes.
