Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike (CS) is the generic name given to a series of team-based tactical shooter games which originate with Counter-Strike, a total conversion mod of Valve Software's first-person shooter Half-Life. The series also includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source.

Counter-Strike 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.

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 (1), 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 FPS in which players join either the Terrorists (T's) or the Counter-Terrorists (CT's). Server settings may automatically balance when one team has more players than the other. Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously, as one of eight different default character models (four to choose from for both Counter-Terrorist and Terrorist. Counter-Strike: Condition Zero added two extra models, bringing the total to ten). Each player generally starts with $800, two magazines of ammunition, a knife, and a pistol: a Heckler & Koch USP .45 Tactical for CTs or a GLOCK 18c for Ts. Players are generally given a few seconds before the round begins (known as Freeze Time) 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 in the next round; those who have died begin anew with pistol and knife.

Picture of a Terrorist using a Desert Eagle on the map de_dust in the original (left) and Source (right) versions Picture of a Terrorist using a Desert Eagle on the map de_dust in the original (left) and Source (right) versions

Standard bonuses in the game are:

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

The scoreboard shows team scores plus data for each player: name, score, deaths, and ping/latency (ms) on the map. 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.

Players killed become "ghosts" for the duration of the round; they cannot change their names, nor can their chat/voice messages be received by the live players (unless the cvar sv_alltalk is set to 1). They are generally able to watch the rest of the round from multiple selectable views, although some servers disable some of these views to prevent dead players from relaying 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 cheating in many tactical shooters.

Counter-Strike is meant to be more realistic than futuristic FPSs such as Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament, but is also built to keep the action flowing faster than more realistic tactical shooters such as the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series. For example, relatively few shots will kill a player, and shots to different parts of the body deal different amounts of damage, but damage has no bearing on ability to run or jump, allowing a player with just a few hit points remaining to keep fighting. 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_ (e.g. de_dust and de_inferno). Professional tournaments are normally only played in Bomb Defusal maps.

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_ (e.g. cs_office).

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 and surprisingly for some, is being greatly anticipated. Members of the community who dislike the scenario argue that the Terrorists would just camp at the VIP's escape destination, 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, armed with only knives and Glocks and unable to purchase additional weaponry/equipment. Weapons, armour, and grenades were placed in hidden locations 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-Terrorists' 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

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 was labeled Source, released in November 2004 through Valve's new distribution platform called Steam. Counter Strike:Source was developed using the new Half Life 2 enhanced graphics and physics engine (Source).

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

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 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.

Though still very similar to CS 1.6, Condition Zero contains several graphical, sound, model and map changes, as well as including bots. However, the game was criticized for not being up to the standards of graphical quality expected of current commercial releases, due to the limitations of 1998's GoldSrc Half-Life engine. It sold poorly compared to the original.

Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S)

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. Following a period when the game was available to select 'beta' testers, the alpha version of the game was released on October 7th 2004.

Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S) was 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. It is available today for download over Steam, bundled with Half-Life 2, or purchased in a stand-alone retail box along with Day of Defeat: Source, another game converted to the new graphical engine.

Map types

There are three official types of maps in Counter-Strike, along with many more user-created types. The three official types include "cs_" (Hostage rescue), "de_" (Bomb defusal), and "as_" (Assassination). In earlier beta versions of the game another official type called "es_" (Terrorist Escape) also existed.

Player models

Corresponding player models for both Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists have appeared through development. The following eight are the original models which were to be (or are in the process of being) reproduced in Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source. Condition Zero also added two additional models; the Midwest Militia for Terrorists and the Spetsnaz for Counter-Terrorists.

On the matter of the best model for competitive play in Counter-Strike, Whisper's Wiki recommends that:

Firstly, all players on one team should choose the same skin. As Terrorists you should choose the Elite Crew model. And as Counter-Terrorists, the GIGN model. "5 guys popping in and out 1 at a time will look like the 1 guy if you all have the same skin. Elite Crew is the skinniest and hardest to see model most of the time, and the GIGN model has the smallest head for Counter-Terrorists."

Counter-Terrorist models

All names are taken from real groups.

  • SEAL Team 6 - First appeared in initial CS beta.
  • GSG-9 - Added in CS beta 6
  • SAS (Special Air Service) - Added in CS beta 5
  • GIGN - Added in CS beta 3

Terrorist models

All (understandably) fictional.

  • Phoenix Connexion - First appeared in initial CS beta
  • Elite Crew - Added in CS beta 3
  • Arctic Avengers - Added in CS beta 6
  • Guerilla Warfare - Added in CS beta 6.5

Other models

  • Hostage - used in maps prefixed 'cs_' eg: cs_italy.
  • VIP - Used in maps prefixed 'as_' eg: as_oilrig.

Culture

Counter-Strike is famous for the culture surrounding it, which includes everything from professional gamers and leagues, to cheating and disruptive behavior. Certain professional teams (such as SK, Team 3D and Team NoA) and players (Ksharp and HeatoN, for example) have achieved a measure of fame.

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 both casual and competitive players 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.

Half-Life and other contemporary games took full advantage of the advent of hardware graphics acceleration in the late 1990s, replacing earlier software-rendered games such as Quake. Likewise, gamers were expected to abandon the DirectX 5.0 Half-Life and its mods in favour of games utilising the hardware T&L capabilities of DirectX 7.0 graphics cards such as the Nvidia GeForce and ATI Radeon. 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 usefulness. Indeed, one possible reason for Counter-Strike's continued popularity is that almost any PC made since 1997 can play it since the game does not need the powerful CPU and video card required of many current FPS games.

But as the the criticisms of Condition Zero showed, many players feel that the GoldSrc engine has reached its limits in its capacity to evolve and to stay updated. Counter-Strike was realistic for its time, but is dated in comparison to more recent first-person tactical shooters. 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. Even Counter-Strike: Source has been criticised for not progressing the gameplay enough and failing to take full advantage of the Source engine.

There have been a multitude of games claimed by their developers, reviewers and fans to be "Counter-Strike killers", but none have seriously been able to dent its overall popularity. Server statistics in 2002 showed that Counter-Strike servers outnumbered their Battlefield, Unreal Tournament 2003 or Quake III FPS counterparts at least 3 to 1. The prohibitively expensive cost of an up-to-date gaming PC makes it unlikely that another game will become as popular as Counter-Strike has been.

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. Add robot players to make a LAN game multiplayer although there is only one computer
  2. Improve gameplay
  3. Remove features of the games which players felt were annoying
  4. Give players superhuman powers (powers from units in Warcraft III, for example.)
  5. Make the game more humourous
  6. Create different modes of play
  7. Control players not following set rules
  8. Keep track of player statistics and scores
  9. 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.)
  10. Give server administrators more flexible and efficient control over his/her server. "Admin plugins", as they are mostly referred as, have become very popular. One of the most successful, if not the only one, "Mani Admin Plugin", is met on nearly every dedicated server nowadays. Features include: varieties of teamkill punishes, auto-kick by certain triggers, rank system, advanced map changing and voting etc.

See also

External links

Official websites
Similar Games

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