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Counter-Strike (video game)

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For the military tactic used in defense, see counterattack.

Counter-Strike (CS) is a popular team-based mod of Valve Software's first-person shooter (FPS) apor. This total conversion pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in rounds of competition won by completing an objective or eliminating the opposing team. The latest incarnation of the game, Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S), is based on the Source engine developed for Half-Life 2. CS is widely acknowledged as the most successful and popular of the tactical shooter genre. Signs of CS's wide influence can be found in mods for Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, and other standalone shooters such as Global Operations and Soldier of Fortune II.

Counter-Strike
Developer(s)Valve Software
Publisher(s)Vivendi Universal (PC), Microsoft Game Studios (Xbox)
Programmer(s)
Series
EngineHalf-Life engine (GoldSrc)
Platform(s)PC, Xbox
ReleaseNovember 8 2000 (PC), March 25 2004 (Xbox)
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

CS has been the most widely played online FPS for the past few years. In 2002 there were over 30,000 Counter-Strike servers on the Internet (second place was Unreal Tournament with about 9,800). In 2004, GameSpy statistics showed over 85,000 players simultaneously playing Counter-Strike at any point in time, accounting for almost 70 percent of the online FPS audience. According to statistics gathered by Valve's content-delivery platform, Steam, these players contribute to over 4.5 billion minutes of playing time each month, making it the most popular online FPS in history. CS was originally played online through the WON gaming service, but it was shut down in 2004, forcing players to switch to Steam (although some players responded by creating their own WON network, dubbed WON2).

Gameplay

Counter-Strike is a team-based First-Person Shooter (FPS) game in which players join either the Terrorists (T's) or the Counter-Terrorists (CT's). Server settings may cause the teams to automatically balance when one team has too many more players than the other. Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously. The default starting money for each player is $800. Counter-Terrorists and Terrorists start with an Heckler & Koch USP .45 Tactical pistol and a GLOCK 18c pistol respectively, each with two additional magazines of ammunition, and a Knife for close-quarters combat. According to server settings, players are given a few seconds before the round begins (known as Freeze Time) when they are allowed to buy equipment but not move. Players may buy equipment whenever they are in a buy zone for their team (some of which can be for both teams) and the round has not been in session for longer than a specified time (90 seconds is default). Surviving players retain their equipment but those who have died during the round only begin with the standard-issue pistol and combat knife the following round.

File:Counterstrike-comparison.jpg
Picture of a Terrorist using a Desert Eagle on the map de_dust in the original (left) and Source (right) versions

Standard bonuses are:

  • Win a round: $3500
  • Lose a round: $1500
  • Kill an enemy: $300

The scoreboard shows a table of all the players sorted by their team. This table displays the name, total kills, score and latency (ms) in the current map, total deaths in the current map, and latency (ping) of that player. Above each team's players' individual statistics is Counter-Terrorist or Terrorist accordingly, and the total wins for that team. The scoreboard also shows whether each player is dead, carrying the bomb (in bomb defusal maps), or the VIP (in assassination maps), although the player must be dead during the round to obtain this information of players on the opposing team.

Any players killed before the round is over become "ghosts"; their chat/voice messages cannot be seen/heard by the players still alive (unless the cvar sv_alltalk is set to 1) and they cannot change their names until they are alive the next round, but they are able to watch the rest of the round from multiple selectable views. Some servers choose to disable some of these selectable views such as viewing from anywhere in the map or from members of the opposing team, because dead players could relay information about living players to their teammates through alternative media (most notably voice in case of Internet cafes). This technique, known as "ghosting", is considered to be along the lines of cheating in many tactical shooters.

Counter-Strike has realistic aspects and others which merely contribute to more enjoyable gameplay in stark contrast to futuristic shooters such as Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament. At the same time, Counter-Strike's realism does not detract away from fast-paced action, unlike extremely realistic tactical shooters such as the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series. CS's balance between realism and fast-paced action has rarely been duplicated by other tactical shooters or "Counter-Strike clones". An example of realism in this game is that only a few shots are needed to kill, and shots to different parts of the body deal different amounts of damage. However, in Counter-Strike, damage has no bearing on the physical capabilities (speed, jump height, et cetera) of the player, which makes it just as fun (but more dangerous) for a person to play with few hit points remaining. A player with 1 hp can be just as effective as one with 100 hp, but might have to adopt different strategies to stay alive. However, movement is restricted 'while' taking damage from gunfire.

There are several game types in Counter-Strike which define the objectives of each team in the game, and rules which determine which team wins. Each map is of a single game type.

Bomb Defusal

One Terrorist begins the round carrying a bomb. The Terrorists' objective is to plant the bomb at a bomb site (of which there usually are two in a map, Bombsite-A or Bombsite-B), and ensure its detonation. If the bomb has not been planted, if all the members of one team have been eliminated, then the surviving team wins. If the bomb has been planted and proceeds to explode, the Terrorists win, but if a Counter-Terrorist defuses the bomb (Counter-Terrorists can purchase an optional kit to speed up defusal times), the Counter-Terrorists win. When the round time expires, the Counter-Terrorists win. Deaths due to the detonation of the bomb do not increment the player's death count. Maps of this type are prefixed with de_. Professional tournaments are normally only played in Bomb Defusal maps.

File:Counter strike screenshot.png
Screenshot from Counter-Strike: Source.

Hostage Rescue

The map has hostages (usually four) generally placed near the Terrorist base. The Counter-Terrorists' objective is to escort the hostages to a hostage rescue point on the map. If all the members of a team have been eliminated, the prevailing team wins. If all the surviving hostages have been rescued, and that number is at least half of the initial hostage count, then the Counter-Terrorists win, and each Counter-Terrorist is awarded $2400. When round time expires, Terrorists win. Therefore, the game may effectively become a 'Terrorist hunt' game if enough hostages are killed, although server settings may be such that players are disconnected (kicked) from the server after killing a certain number of hostages (5 is default). When a Counter-Terrorist 'uses' a hostage (i.e. begins to rescue it), the Counter-Terrorist is awarded $150. Upon successfully escorting a hostage to a rescue point, $1000 is awarded. Killing a hostage incurs a penalty of $2250. There is also a penalty associated with injuring a hostage by gun fire or grenade shrapnel (hostages do not take damage for falling). Maps of this type are prefixed with cs_.

Assassination

In this mission, one Counter-Terrorist member becomes a VIP; a player with 200 units of Kevlar and nothing more than the Counter-Terrorist standard-issue USP pistol with one extra magazine. The VIP may not pick up dropped weapons other than the VIP's own pistol. The VIP's objective is to reach an extraction zone (1, normally), in which case the Counter-Terrorists win. If the VIP dies, the Terrorists win. As usual, if all Terrorists die, the Counter-Terrorists win. When time expires, Terrorists win. The lack of ammunition for the pistol means that a VIP should not expect to escape without the team's assistance, however, the pistol in conjunction with the special armour provides adequate protection. Maps of this type are prefixed with as_. Assassination maps are the least played of the three types of Counter-Strike gameplay and they were not ported to Counter-Strike: Source, although a VIP mod is being produced by the community for Counter-Strike Source. The reason for their unpopularity is because the Terrorists would all just camp at the VIP's escape designation, shooting the VIP dead as he attempted the run to the exit.

Escape

Discontinued in the late-beta releases of Counter-Strike, this gameplay style put Terrorists against Counter-Terrorists in an escape-before-the-clock-expired mission. The Terrorists started in a position relatively far away from the Counter-Terrorists, unarmed and unable to purchase weaponry/equipment. Weapons, armour, and grenades were placed inside a hidden ___location near or around the spawn point of the Terrorists; the objective was for the Terrorists to secure weapons at the hidden ___location and then have all living members of the team reach an escape point before the clock ran out; eliminating all Counter-Terrorists would not complete the mission by itself. The Counter-Terrorist objective was to prevent the escape of the Terrorists. Escape was discontinued because such maps gave an edge towards Counter-Terrorists. Maps of this type are prefixed with es_. While not included in the current Counter-Strike distribution, this mode can still be played. The most popular maps of this type are es_jail, es_riverside, es_frantic, and es_trinity.

History

Version history

The Counter-Strike team was formed by Minh Le ("Gooseman") and Jess Cliffe ("Cliffe") in 1999. Counter-Strike Beta 1.0 was released in June that same year, followed by a relatively quick succession of the beta releases (by the end of 1999, beta 5.0 had been released). CS gained in popularity just as rapidly. The Counter-Strike team was acquired by Valve to turn the fan-created mod into an official mod for Half-Life. In November 2000, Counter-Strike 1.0 — the first non-beta, official retail version of the game — was released. The retail version was a standalone alternative that does not include or require Half-Life; alternatively, existing Half-Life owners can download the Counter-Strike mod free. Later, Counter-Strike was bundled with Half-Life and several other expansions in the Platinum Pack. The newest version of CS is 1.6 and was released in September 2003 through Valve's new distribution platform called Steam.

Valve has also been attempting to cash in on the game's popularity by producing more Counter-Strike games. Valve released a version ported to the Xbox game console in November 2003. It features basic single-player gameplay against bots, but it focuses on multiplayer online play like the original. However, the Xbox version of the game (playable on Microsoft's Xbox Live online game service) has proved less successful than its PC counterpart for obvious reasons; the online Counter-Strike audience for Xbox is well outnumbered by the existing Counter-Strike PC community, a subscription cost required to pay online on Live (playing the PC version online is free), and mediocre graphics (only texture upgrades to original CS models) which are below what is expected for the Xbox. For similar reasons, Valve may have made no attempt to have Counter-Strike ported to the PlayStation 2.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

Main article: Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

A long-awaited single-player version of the game called Counter-Strike: Condition Zero was released on March 23, 2004. It had been plagued by numerous delays, most notably when Valve Software dropped Gearbox Software (who had developed the highly acclaimed Half-Life: Opposing Force) as developer in favor of Ritual Entertainment and when Ritual Entertainment in turn lost the project to Turtle Rock Studios partway through development. Condition Zero includes multiplayer bots as well. Though still very similar to CS 1.6, this game contains several graphical, sound, model and map changes. Condition Zero was developed by Turtle Rock Studios. Condition Zero was criticized for not being up to par in terms of quality (it retained the current generation of Counter-Strike graphics) and saddled with a long overdue release, it sold poorly compared to the original.

Today, Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Source servers produce more internet traffic than the entire country of Italy.

Counter-Strike: Source

In 2004, original Counter-Strike developers Minh Le and Jess Cliffe, along with members of Valve and the Day of Defeat team, brought Counter-Strike into the Source engine as an obvious choice for the multiplayer component of Half-Life 2.

Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S) has been released to ATI Radeon Voucher holders, in Half-Life 2 bundles available on Steam, and with the boxed retail version of the game. Changes include the improvements inherent to the Source engine (such as better graphics and physics) as well as updated models, animations, maps, sounds, and some small gameplay changes. The riot shield introduced in 1.6 is gone and dead players now drop grenades just like other weapons (as was introduced in Condition-Zero). The popular maps, such as de_dust and de_aztec, have the same layouts and size, but are revamped with many aesthetic additions such as glass bottles and 50-gallon drums.

For what Counter-Strike and its popularity is concerned the new Source engine heralds a new beginning for the most popular first-person shooter in history, a game which has been played throughout the world for more than five years. A small amount of vitality has been granted to what is now considered a dying game; previous predictions of CS's demise have been premature, and, in-fact, the number of CS 1.6 players (and servers) out-number CS:S's by more than a factor of four despite the supposed improvements brought by the Source engine port.

The players of CS:S use the new engine for strategic purposes. Since objects in a map can be moved and have realistic properties this provides greater gameplay flexibility. For example, in the map cs_office, the Terrorist players could "camp" in a room and barricade the doors with cabinets or chairs. The ragdoll physics are remarkable in that no two player deaths will be played out the same way. For example, with the gravity server variable set to low, a ragdoll propelled by a shotgun could be bounced off two walls, wrap several times around a pole, hit the ground, hit the skybox ceiling, and fall back to the ground.

Professionally, Counter-Strike: Source is experiencing a cold reception, primarily due to the various glitches still abundant in the game and its engine. Many notable professional players and clans are opposing a universal shift to Source at this point. This is reflected in the CPL's (Cyberathlete Professional League) decision to use Counter-Strike 1.6 in preference to the newer Source for it's World Tour in 2006. Because many existing professional players are not shifting their careers to Source, it is opening up opportunities for new players who are dominant at Source to begin a pro-gaming career. This may lead to an exciting period in the future of Counter-Strike, when 1.6 is finally made obsolete by Source, leaving old pro-gamers no choice but to migrate to Source, or retire. However, due to the CPL's decision to stick with 1.6, this may not happen, and it will be interesting to see whether 1.6 or Source win this battle of new age graphics vs old style gameplay.

CS:Source also has a love/hate relationship with many gamers due to its unnatural physics which result in just about anyone being able to jump off a ledge and aim at a slight offset to the targets head and score a headshot time and time again. The weapon balances can be confusing to new players; emptying entire clips into enemies can be unsuccessful even at close ranges. However, this occurance can attributed to the fact that shooting while running will result in inaccuracy.

At the moment there are only 14 official maps available, and most of them are remakes of popular maps from earlier versions. In a recent update the map cs_compound was added, and it is the first original official map to be released for Counter-Strike: Source. On 13 May 2005, the second original official map, de_port, was released along with an updated version of de_inferno. While Valve may continue to create new maps, Turtle Rock Studios continue to remake classic maps, although it is not known which maps they are working on. Below is the list of official maps for Counter-Strike: Source.

At this point, Valve hasn't given the ability to make assassination maps, however, LDuke has created a server plugin so you can play the VIP scenario on Counter-Strike: Source.

List of Official CS:S maps

  • de_inferno
  • de_prodigy
  • de_train
  • de_tides
  • de_cbble
  • cs_compound
  • cs_havana
  • cs_italy
  • cs_office
  • cs_assault

Weapons and equipment

Main article: Counter-Strike equipment

Available equipment in Counter-Strike includes firearms, grenades, body armor and other devices.

Map types

Main article: Counter-Strike maps

There are three official types of maps in Counter-Strike, along with many more user-created types.

Culture

Main article: Counter-Strike culture

Counter-Strike is famous for the culture surrounding it, which includes everything from professional gamers and leagues, to cheating and disruptive behavior.

Legacy of Counter-Strike

While Counter-Strike is nowadays perhaps the most professionally played computer game in the world behind StarCraft in South Korea, most players simply ignore the professional side of the game and play for fun. The success of the game among players of this attitude but also among those who do play more competitively highlights the wide appeal of Counter-Strike's simple game model. Counter-Strike has had a colorful and dramatic history which reaches far beyond what this document could hope to cover, and still remains extremely popular to this day.

Because its longevity as the most popular FPS far exceeded early expectations, many people wish that Counter-Strike would "die", thereby allowing a fresh new game to replace it as the leading multiplayer First person shooter (FPS) and Tactical shooter. While CS was realistic for its time, it has been frowned upon by a growing number who feel the Half-Life GoldSrc engine has reached its limits in its capacity to evolve and to stay updated. (Counter-Strike: Source has been criticized as failing to take full advantage of the Source engine). In addition, there is a growing frustration that the developers are unwilling to make official changes or add new features; maintaining the same map layouts and weapons to appease longtime CS players. There have been a multitude of games coveted by their developers, reviewers, and fans as "Counter-Strike killers", however none have seriously been able to dent its overall popularity. Server statistics in 2002 showed "Counter-Strike" servers outnumbered their Battlefield, Unreal Tournament 2003, or Quake III FPS counterparts at least 3 to 1.

At the same time, since Counter-Strike is based on the venerable Half-Life GoldSrc engine, almost any PC made in 1997 can play it since the game does not need a powerful CPU and video card required of many current FPS games. In 2000, the widespread popularity of the Nvidia GeForce and ATI Radeon hardware T&L graphics cards was expected to move the video game industry forward to the DirectX 7.0 generation. Older DirectX 6.0 and past generations of graphics cards were slowly being made obselete and gamers were expected to eventually abandon Half-Life (a DirectX 5.0 game) for newer DirectX 7.0 games that could make full use of the T&L capabilities of their GeForce and Radeon cards. Likewise, the advent of hardware graphics acceleration in 1997-1998 had fueled the rise of Half-Life and other contemporary games, which replaced earlier software rendering games such as Quake as the most popular. However, the universal shift to the DirectX 7.0 level and beyond has not happened, and the continued popularity of CS has given older video cards such as the 3dfx Voodoo 3, ATI Rage 128, and Nvidia RIVA TNT2 continued usefullness.

Graphics hardware aside, the prohibitively expensive cost of a gaming PC in general makes it unlikely that a "Counter-Strike killer" FPS will be found on the PC platform. Video game consoles such as the PlayStation 2 and Xbox are becoming increasingly popular as the PC gaming market stagnates, but the growth of online FPS action will still be restricted by the additional online fees.

File:Surf egypt0002.jpg
A sniper being slapped by the admin for allegedly 'unfair' reasons.

Mods and scripts

Even though Counter-Strike is itself a mod, it developed its own community of script writers and modders. There have been many different mods and scripts to:

  1. Improve gameplay
  2. Remove features of the games which players felt were annoying
  3. Give players superhuman powers (powers from units in Warcraft III, for example.)
  4. Make the game more humourous
  5. Create different modes of play
  6. Control players not following set rules
  7. Keep track of player statistics and scores
  8. Provide options for weapon improvement (AKA Skinning: Affects the way guns look and sound to the user but remain unchanged to anyone else in the game. Only the user sees the differences. The weapon's attributes remain the same.)

See Metamod for more information.

See also

Official websites
Community websites
  • HLForums.com — A popular Half-Life and Counter Strike community site.
  • CS-Nation — A popular Counter-Strike News site
  • CSBANANA — Another popular Counter-Strike website
Competitive Counter-Strike
Other Resources
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