24| CounterStrike: Global Offensive

Released: August 21st, 2012

Definitive Version: PC (All major OSes); Also on: Xbox 360, PS3

There are very few game franchises that have the legacy of CounterStrike. While most gamers today will think of Call of Duty being the undisputed king of first person shooters, the reality is that not only is CounterStrike tethering with that mantle, but has been so for years. It may seem like an odd comparison to make, but I have always seen CounterStrike as the "King of Fighters of First Person Shooters." I realize this statement will make a few people raise their eyebrows, but bare with me here. What I mean by that comparison is that while CounterStrike is reasonably popular in the major mass market countries, much (if not most) of its popularity comes from players in "non-traditional" countries. While Call of Duty lights up the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom, CounterStrike is on fire in Russia, Poland, Brazil, and various other nations. The global player base really helps put the "Global" in "CounterStrike: Global Offensive."

Now there have been multiple CounterStrike titles since its debut. But for the longest time the players were divided into two camps. CounterStrike v1.6 or "Classic CounterStrike" and CounterStrike: Source. CounterStrike v1.6 was the final version of the original CounterStrike game while CounterStrike: Source was the newest entry made for Valve's then hot and sexy Source engine. That said, few 1.6 players jumped the boat to Source. Most complained about the game's funky hitboxes, lack of recoil on the weapons, and the butchering classic of maps. In contrast, Source players stayed away from 1.6 due to the game's primitive physics ("watermelon grenades"), '90s era graphics, and relative lacking mod support. For almost a decade these two groups were in some sort of Super Smash Bros. esque rivalry with one another. With the players of the older game decrying the newer version as a "casualized" and "watered-down" version of their favorite classic game. While the players of the newer game kept telling the older players to "get with the times" as they believed that there wasn't much difference between the older version and the newer one. Technically there was also a third game titled CounterStrike: Condition Zero, but few people played it as most agreed that it was the "worst of both worlds" in terms of comparing it to the other games in the series.

Valve recognized the rivalry and split player base between the two games. As a result they attempted to create a new version of the game that would appeal to the Source players with modern physics, graphics, and mod community, as well as appeal to players of the old game with tight hitboxes, strong recoil, and competitively designed maps. This usually seems to be a common story for developers and almost always ends in two ways. It either ends with the players of the new game jumping onto the newer game, while players of the old game stick with their tried and true. Or at even worse, players of both the new game and the old game stick with their respected games while the newer game just dies off after a year or two. Either way, Valve decided to release CounterStrike: Global Offensive on August 21st, 2012. Miraculously, Valve did the impossible. They managed to get both the new and old CounterStrike players on board with the game, connecting the two communities together, as well as bringing in a bunch of blood. The game was and is wildly successful.

As someone who used to play all the games in the series frequently, except Condition Zero, there are a few reasons that explain Global Offensive's success. But before explaining that, I think it would be best to describe the kind of game CounterStrike is. CounterStrike is a relatively simple game. Players are divided into two teams as they are split across the map. One team plays as the terrorists while the other plays as the counter-terrorists. The game has a few modes, but really only two are played. The most popular mode is the bomb defusal in which terrorists plant the bomb in either of two specific places in the map. It is counter-terrorists team's job to kill off all the terrorists before they plant the bomb and it detonates. The other mode is the hostage rescue in which terrorists guard hostages while the counter-terrorists have to break through their formation and lead the hostages to safety. Again, these modes are simple but very addicting.

What leads to CounterStrike's addiction is how it successfully marries its punishing deaths, corridor map design, and tactical team work all in one perfect formula. Unlike in other first person shooters, when you die in a round of CounterStrike, you die. No respawns, no continues, no nothing. You sit and watch the remaining players until the end of the match. This may seem morbid at first, but it makes the players time on the maps that much more intense. To add to the intensity is that maps are designed with a lot of corners and side rooms. Meaning that players rarely know what is going to be ahead of them beyond a few yards. This leads to a lot of tension approaching rooms and corners and often leads to standoffs. The final piece of the formula is team work. Obviously in a game with few opaque spots and punishing deaths no one is going to charge in alone. You need team work not just to win, but to even take down the opponents in the first place. As a result players will constantly find themselves on chat and coordinating with their team. All of this adds up to a very addicting formula and lots of "one more game" nights that turn into play sessions until the sun is up.

Obviously all of these things make CounterStrike into a very peculiar game, which makes few people acceptant toward change. This makes Valve's success in creating a game that branched the two camps together all the more impressive. The reason why both groups jumped in on Global Offensive is simply because it is the best game in the series. It took everything good about the previous games and discarded everything bad. Global Offensive improved on 1.6's hitboxes, recoil, and maps, while also updating Source's physics engine, graphics, as well as lowering the barrier of entry for modding. It truly is a best of both worlds type game. Sure there were some changes, but most were for the better. Classic maps got updated in a big way and are much more enjoyable. This is very apparent as servers are no longer only populated by just two maps (de_dust 2 and cs_office). There are also a few new modes for players to sink their teeth into such as arsenal and demolition (though admittedly many of these new modes are based on existing mods).

That said, Global Offensive isn't without its faults. The biggest is that it contains a microtransaction economy that has poisoned so many similar titles in the genre. Admittedly it doesn't seem to affect Global Offensive's quality much, but there are occasional snipits of it here and there. There is also the game's artstyle which while works in its favor a lot, there are times where the color tones of certain maps are way off. Particularly in any map located in the desert. Everything has a washed out, bluish grayish tone to it, much like Metal Gear Solid 4. It is very distracting at times, especially when certain characters wear clothing that matches the tint. I am sure there are mods out there that fixes this problem, but still.

All in all, CounterStrike: Global Offensive had huge shoes to fill. Not only was Valve dealing with a legacy franchise, but they were dealing with a legacy franchise that was divided. Not only did Valve manage to fill in the shoes and bring the player base together, but they also managed to recruit tons of new players along the way. It has been close to twenty years since the original CounterStrike debuted and the series has never been more popular. There are always around at least half a million players playing the game at any given time and it constantly fights its way in being the most popular game on Twitch. It is arguably the most successful first person shooter of all-time in terms of player base size and consistency, as well as global popularity. And being completely honest, it deserves all of it.