Game Reviews

Counter-Strike

Platforms: PC
Rating: 9.5 out of 10 stars

Counterstrike is probably the best and most widely played multiplayer game over the Internet. It has more players than Quake III, Unreal Tournament, and Tribes combined! That alone speaks for itself. You play as a SWAT team member, or a terrorist, and the wide variety of maps range from huge maps with up to 30 people on them to small one on one map that all you and a friend to duel to the death. The objectives range from protecting a VIP to rescuing hostages, or to simply kill every member of the opposing team. Die, and you are out for the rest of the round. As rounds are only about 3 minutes, this isn’t that bad. When you are dead, you can follow around a specific person or “free-look” throughout the map, allowing you to go wherever you want, to get a good picture of all the action.

Bullets do more or less damage depending on where they hit, making the game more realistic, and the terrorists and Swat team members can each purchase different weapons at the beginning of the round. The weapons range from small, cheap handguns to sub-machine guns to expensive and large machineguns. A coordinated team can arrange themselves with “tanks”, people with machine guns, and snipers, and create tactics and strategy that can seem unbeatable. You can also buy flash-bang grenades and other explosives, giving yet another spin on the game and how it must be played. Tactics are almost limitless, and since you can hook up a microphone, you can change tactics and notify teammates of enemy movements instantly.

With or without a suppressor, it’s your choice.
You can play the game with as little as a 56k modem, but lag can hurt you in critical times. The graphics are good, I wouldn’t say the best, but if they were too much better there would be too much lag for even the best connection. Counterstrike is one of the most addicting games to play over the Internet, and one of the best in general. Your friends will quickly become bored of you telling tales of how you kill 6 terrorists in one round, but Counterstrike is still one of those games that you don’t let go.

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Website: http://counter-strike.net/