I've been talking a bit lately about returning to a game of my youth. Way back when, the other hosts and I went to a cyber cafe and played long hours of Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, shouting at each other across the room and generally having a grand ol' time. Given that we were the only ones there most days, I don't find it hard to believe that they went out of business, but it was one of my first encounters with the now bloated genre that is FPS games.
In preparing for this article, and to back up some wild claims I planned on making, I stumbled across this list, which is fairly complete, and highly informative. That said, Counter-Strike doesn't even make an appearance. Given that this was one of the most defining entries to the genre for me, I am a little surprised. I suppose it might fall under the tactical FPS genre, but I feel they're all fairly similar.
At any rate, I feel that, while it's definitely not the first, it might have been one of the most defining games for what we see in modern shooters today. I've played my share of Call of Duty, and have never found it terribly engaging. Yes, I'll play indefinitely, but that's only because I have some primal craving for competition. Really, though, I've felt these games somewhat lacking. I always feel sluggish, have a far harder time aiming than it seems I ought, and randomly get caught on obstacles outside my peripheral vision.
Counter-Strike, by contrast, feels clean and fast. Maybe it's just that I have a far easier time with computer controls, but there's a certain amount of frenetic energy in every match that I just don't get in a Slayer round, even though there's arguably more happening there. Zach pointed out that it's probably because of the size of the maps, and I would further add the effectiveness of almost every weapon over the range of the map. I think it would be folly to claim that the weapons behave realistically, but you can drop a guy from a fair distance away with a shotgun if you're persistent, which is a feat you should be able to accomplish if you were actually attempting it in our version of reality.
Let's break it down a bit. The weapons come in multiple flavors, and are grouped for you. I'll explain the mechanics of acquiring them in a moment.
Pistols are low in damage and fairly high in firing rate and accuracy. They're side arms, and are used as such. You won't generally have much use for them unless you need to reload in the middle of a fire fight, but having a good one can save your hide on occasion.
Shotguns are shotguns. Have you played an FPS? Then you're educated.
Submachine guns are good in this game at what they're supposed to be good at in real life. They're the every-man's weapon. They're great at mid to close range and allow you to spray bullets indiscriminately while more specifically armed teammates do the rest. There's rarely a bad situation for one, unless the other guy's got a sniper rifle and you haven't noticed him.
Rifles come in two flavors, but are lumped under the same category. Similar to SMGs, there are assault rifles. You can think of them as the big brothers of most SMGs. They've got a bit better accuracy at a distance, and some let you zoom your sight a bit.
Snipers, on the other hand, do massive damage from a range with insane accuracy. Additionally, all guns fire in the exact center of your screen within an error tolerance, so it's quite possible to noscope everyone if you're good enough.
Finally, there's a machine gun. Just one. It never runs out of ammo.
There are also some grenades, of the flash, smoke, and HE varieties. Buying some armor will often save you. Really, I didn't need to tell you any of this, though. IF you've ever played an FPS, you know this.
Counter-Strike, then differs in that every action may affect your bank account in some manner. By default, you have a limit of $16000, but you'll be hard pressed to get there very often. Killing guys gets you more money, as does completing some of the map objectives. By default, you start with a small amount and participate in what is known as the "pistol round." Because you have so little money, the only thing you may buy is a new pistol, and everyone tries to kill each other with them. It can be one of the more amusing moments in the game, but since the winning team of each round is awarded bonus cash, it can really decide the opening momentum of the game. The weapons between the opposing sides, Terrorists and Counter Terrorists, don't differ much, but I feel that the Terrorists have a better pistol available.
When you get enough cash, you can start buying your preferred loadout for the map. Some people love their shotguns, while others hang back with rifles and let others do the dirty work. It partially depends on which team you're on and the map style.
In the standard Source game, there are only two game types, but near infinite maps if you're willing to look. My preferred game type is CS, in which the terrorists must prevent the counter terrorists from escorting some number of hostages to escape zones. I feel there's a bit more strategy involved in this game type, and can lead to some interesting experiences.
The other game type involves the terrorists attempting to plant a time bomb and make sure it detonates before the counter team defuses it. You can totally be killed by the bomb. Watch out for that.
Really, though, it comes down to really fast matches and a lot of action. The downside is that each round is permadeath, so if you suck, you can expect to spend a lot of time not playing. That said, the online scene is fierce. The game's been around since '99, and most people who are playing it have been for a long time. It took me a bit to ramp up to a point where I could feasibly participate, but thanks to copious TF2 and a non-trivial amount of time playing against the remarkably decent bot AI before venturing online, it wasn't too bad.
By the way, this game has bots, and they're pretty good. If you're like me and have some irrational phobia of playing online, you can do that pretty much forever.
It's usually $5-10 on Steam, and not super graphically intense. If you've got a decent computer, you can prolly run this without much trouble, and it satisfies and itch I didn't know I was trying to scratch.
That said, if you prefer more specialization in your actions, I might recommend just picking up TF2 instead. It's pretty awesome, and free.
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