Counter-Strike - Review

Added December 8th, 2003 by Joel Kownacki

Introduction:

Counter-Strike, the most played PC game of all time has now made its way to our beloved Xbox with a huge emphasis on playing with people on Xbox Live. This first person shooter that focuses highly on teamwork and strategic combat is a perfect match with the live communicator. The transition from a PC mod to console game went over very well. I have played this game long enough to know that it wont be going on the shelve any time soon. Anyone that has Xbox Live, and likes first person shooters, this would be a wise buy. But if you don’t play online with your Xbox, this game might not be for you for the lack of a real single player experience. Counter-Strike isn’t the only Xbox live shooter that has been released this holiday season. As many of you know, Rainbow Six 3 also made a huge splash with Xbox owners. But I feel that game is targeted to a different audience. It is more of a tactical, slow paced shooter, were as CS is much faster paste. You really can’t go wrong with either one. But for the people that don’t have the patience required to play the Rainbow Six games, Counter-Strike for Xbox is for you.

Gameplay:

You might be thinking how the hugely popular C-S transfers to the black box. Well, in my opinion, it is one of the best PC to Xbox ports I have played yet. Anyone that has a feel for the Halo controls will have a great feel for the controls in CS. It feels like Valve drove over to Bungie, copied they're aiming code, and stuck it in there game. That in no way is a negative comment, but rather a compliment. There is a training mode in the game that gets you accustomed to the game types. The single player part of the game is pretty much the same maps that are online but instead of playing with real people, you play against bots. The game really isn’t focused on a good single player experience. Rather a fantastic online multiplayer competition. You can control the AI level as well as the number of bots you’ll face. PC fans will notice that the AI of the Xbox version is much more advanced and the bots almost seem to play as live players at the higher difficulty settings. The developers did a great job in this category. Single player is all about fine tuning your skills before entering the online arena.

Counter-Strike features 18 maps, including seven new maps exclusive to the Xbox. The PC favorites include Aztec, Airstrip, Dust, Dust 2, Havana, Italy, Chateau, Militia, Piranesi, and Prodigy. The newly designed Xbox maps are Corruption, Fastline, Miami, Stadium, Tides, Truth, and Vostok. Each map is well laid out and well balanced. There are spots for snipers to sit watchful over the area, as well as wide open areas for huge gun fights. Depending on the map, there are two different game types. There is Hostage-Rescue where you goal is to go to the enemy’s base and bring back the prisoners. The other mode is called Demolition where the objective is to have the terrorist team infiltrate a secure location with a high-powered bomb and detonate it. In both of these modes, if one team eliminates the other, the game is over. So there is more then one way to win a match. Counter-Strike is a great playing game!

Graphics:

The graphics are a nice upgrade from its PC brother. Everything was re-done from the character models to the environment textures. Its not one of the best looking Xbox games out there, but it does what it needs to do and does it well. The walls and floors for the most part have been bump mapped which adds more realism to the game. While I have been playing the game on Xbox Live, I have not noticed a single jaggy. The frame rate is locked at 60fps and never drops. This is extremely important when you’re indulged in a huge firefight. Unreal Championship suffered from frame rate drops which in my eyes killed the games playability. Counter-Strike supports 480p for the people fortunate enough to have an HDTV. It also is a very colorful game when you take the time to look at it all. One complaint is that the character and weapon models could have been beefed up a bit, but the gameplay more then makes up for its graphical weaknesses. Overall, it's one good looking game.

Audio:

The audio in this game does the job its set out to do. That being said, I was a little disappointed in the way the game sounded. The gun blasts sound very flat. It seems that the developers didn’t improve the sound very much if at all from the PC version. I was expecting them to take full advantage of the sound processing capabilities that the Xbox is able to do, but that was not the case. 5.1 DD does make up for some of it though. Having a 5.1 system helps out online a lot. Knowing what direction the footsteps are coming from tells me where I need to aim. Counter-Strike’s audio should sound fine to most of you. I just thought they could have spent a little more time on this area.

Controls:

As I mentioned before, the game's controls are top notch. Everything is well laid out and easy to get accustomed to. The buying menu is very easy to use and was a big worry for most of the PC C-S gamers. If you don’t know what I am talking about, here is a little break down. Depending on how well you or your team did in the last round, you get a certain amount of money to spend on weapons and gear. Teams with more money usually do better. Here is the control layout:

Right Trigger- Crouch
Left Trigger- Fire Weapon
Right Thumb stick- Look around
Left Thumb stick- Movement/Buy Menu
Start- In game menu
Back- Scoreboard
White- Drop Weapons
Black- Cycle grenades
A- Jump
B- Alternate fire
X- Reload/use
Y- Cycle Weapons

Replay:

This is where the game really shines. Everyone knows that Counter-Strike was never meant to be a good single player game, or even a good looker. But it was, and is, a great playing game with Xbox Live taking it one step higher. The fact that everyone has a headset and can talk to each other is awesome by itself. One reason that a lot of people are starting to stop playing Counter-Strike on the PC is because the number of cheaters seems to increase every day. This is not the case with the Xbox version. There is no way to cheat on Xbox Live unless you find and exploit a glitch, but this can easily be patched up with downloadable content. If you have Xbox Live this will last you until Halo 2 is released early next year. If you do not have it, but you and you’re friends get together every week to LAN it up a bit, then add another game to your list because C-S supports 16 player games over a Local Area Network. If you are one of the unlucky people without Xbox live or don’t have any people around you to play with then this game would be a waste of money.

Summary:

While the game has its faults, like every other game in existance, it does more things right then it does wrong. Counter-Strike for Xbox is an almost perfect port from the acclaimed PC version. While you can see that the game was created with an old engine behind it, I am still shocked with what they squeezed out of the old Quake 3 engine. For fans of the PC version turned off by cheaters, this version is your new digital crack. With downloadable weapons, maps, characters in the works which will become available via Xbox Live, you won’t get bored of this game any time soon. C-S is one of the best Xbox Live games to date and can recommend it to the online gamers. I'll see you online.