Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve Corporation. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series and was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in August 2012, with the Linux version released in September 2014. The game pits two teams against each other: the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. Both sides are tasked with eliminating the other while also completing separate objectives, the Terrorists, depending on the game mode, must either plant the bomb or defend the hostages, while the Counter-Terrorists must either prevent the bomb from being planted, defuse the bomb, or rescue the hostages. There are eight game modes, all of which have distinct characteristics specific to that mode.
Global Offensive has matchmaking support that allows players to play on dedicated Valve servers, as well as allowing members of the community to host their own servers with custom maps and game modes. Global Offensive has a competitive scene, with Valve-sponsored tournaments being the premier competitive events for the game. Global Offensive received positive reviews from critics. The game was praised for its overall gameplay and faithfulness to the previous iterations in the series. Some of the early features were criticized, and while the console versions received positive reviews, reviewers believed there were obvious differences between the console and PC versions of the game.
Gameplay
Global Offensive, like prior games in the Counter-Strike series, is an objective-based, multiplayer first-person shooter. Two opposing teams, known as the Terrorists and the Counter Terrorists, compete in game modes to complete objectives, such as securing a location to plant or defuse a bomb and rescuing or guarding hostages. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. Uncooperative actions, such as killing teammates, results in a penalty.
An in-progress match on Dust II, in which the player is using an AK-47
There are five categories of purchasable weapons, four being guns and the final being utilities: rifles, sub-machine guns (SMGs), heavy, pistols, and grenades. All guns have different stats and all grenade types have different in-game effects. The hand grenade deals damage in a small radius, the smoke grenade temporarily places a smoke screen, the decoy grenade emulates the player’s primary gun, the flashbang temporarily blinds players who look at it explode, and the Molotov cocktail and Incendiary Grenade set a small radius of the map on fire for a short period of time. Alongside all of these weapons, the Zeus x27, a taser, can also be purchased.
Global Offensive contains eight main game modes: Competitive, Casual, Deathmatch, Arms Race, Demolition, Wingman, Flying Scoutsman, and Weapons Course. Competitive mode pits competitive players against each other in two teams of five and roughly 45-minute matches.The Casual and Deathmatch modes are less serious than the Competitive modes, and do not register friendly fire against or collision with other players on the player’s team. Both are primarily used for practice. Arms Race mode is similar to the “Gun Game” mod for other games in the series. It consists of players racing to upgrade their guns via killing enemies. Demolition mode is again like the “Gun Game” mod though players are able to plant and defuse the bomb too, and only receive a gun upgrade at the start of the round if they killed an enemy the last round. Wingman is a two-on-two bomb defusal game-mode taking place over fifteen rounds. It is similar to Competitive in the sense that players are paired based on their skill levels. Flying Scoutsman is a low-gravity mode in which players are equipped only with a SSG 08 and a knife. The Flying Scoutsman, Demolition, and Arms Race game modes are placed in the War Games tab. The Weapons Course is an offline practice mode designed to help new players learn how to use grenades and guns, and learning how to defuse and plant the bomb. Apart from the Weapons Course, all seven other game modes can be played online or offline.
Matchmaking is supported for all online game modes and is managed through the Steam software, and runs Valve Anti-Cheat to prevent cheating. In the competitive modes, players are encouraged to act more cautiously in Global Offensive than in most other multiplayer games due to the inability to respawn once killed. When playing competitively, each player has a specific rank based on their skill level and is paired up with players of around the same skill level. Another form of matchmaking, known as “Prime”, permits matches to be played only with other users with the Prime feature which results in more equal matches as there are fewer “smurfs“.
The PC version of Global Offensive supports private dedicated servers that players may connect to through the community server menu in-game. These servers may be heavily modified and can drastically differ from the base game modes. There have been many community made mods for the game, one of the more popular ones being known as “kz”, a mod which allows players to complete obstacle courses that require advanced strafing and jumping techniques.
Over time, the community developed strategies for competitive play. When trying to capture a site, a common strategy used is called “rushing”. Rushing is when a player or group of players move into a choke-point on the map as fast as possible. This strategy is used commonly when one of the teams is running an “eco”. An eco occurs when a team has a lack of money to buy weapons, utility, or armor, forcing the team to be left with minimal rifles and little utility. “Eco” rounds are those in which a team will buy very few or no guns in order to save money for future rounds. Occasionally, when a team is low on money, the opposition will purchase “anti-eco” weapons which perform well at close range to prevent casualties and financial bonuses. Rushing is also used if there is a lack of time on the clock and the bomb needs to be planted or defused in an act of desperation. Another common strategy for taking a site is using predetermined smoke grenades and flash bangs to hinder enemies’ sight.
Global Offensive saw the introduction of new weapons and equipment not seen in previous installments, most notably the firebomb for each side (referred to as a Molotov on the Terrorist side and as an Incendiary Grenade on the Counter-Terrorist side). These temporarily cover a small area in fire, dealing damage to anyone passing through. Global Offensive also saw the introduction of a range of new guns, including shotguns, pistols and sub-machine guns, along with a taser. Two new game modes, Arms Race and Demolition, both based on mods for previous iterations in the series, were added alongside a total of eight new maps for said game modes. Global Offensive saw the removal of features seen in previous iterations of the series. The ability to freely explore the map when dead was removed from many modes, though server hosts are able to change this setting. The unsilenced USP and the MP5 were replaced by other guns. The tactical shield was also removed. The concept of sprays were not present in the game until the addition of consumable items called graffiti.
Development and release
There were plans for cross-platform multiplayer between Windows, OS X, Linux, and PlayStation 3 players, but was ultimately limited to include only the PC versions because of the difference in update frequency between the systems. On August 21, 2012, the official version was released on all platforms besides Linux, which would not be released until September 23.Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the sequel to the popular first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Source, developed by Valve Corporation. Global Offensive‘s development began when Hidden Path Entertainment attempted to port Counter-Strike: Source onto video game consoles, prior to the end of their lifespan. During the development, Valve saw the opportunity to turn the port into a full game and expand on the predecessor’s gameplay. Global Offensive began development in March 2010, and was revealed to the public on August 12, 2011. The closed beta started on November 30, 2011, and was initially restricted to around ten thousand people who received a key at events intended to showcase Global Offensive. After issues such as client and server stability were addressed, the beta was opened up to progressively more people, and at E3 2012, Valve announced that Global Offensive would be released on August 21, 2012, with the open beta starting roughly a month before that. Before the public beta, Valve invited professional Counter-Strike players to play-test the game and give feedback.
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DanDanial 