Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a great game and a solid upgrade from the original Counter-Strike, that I also played a lot. It is a timeless classic that can be played anytime, any day.

The principle is the same as the original game; pick your team, consisting of terrorists and counter-terrorist and battle it out on the map for the most round wins or kills. Place bombs while playing as terrorists and defend the bomb site(s) from the opposing team. Rescue hostages or become a living, moving target. You can choose your weapons at the start of the round and can experiment with them to get a feeling which one(s) suit you best. The round starts and off you go, looking for something to shoot.

Although the game has a simple principle in which you just shoot people and defuse bombs, you can use tactical approaches and teamwork if you are playing with a group of friends for example. I had matches in which I was defending my little bomb site, and I saw an absurdly well-organized squad of counter-terrorists approaching from different sides, each backing each other up. I got my ass handed to me and I was not even mad, I respected the team play at work at that moment.

Of course, there are game modes in which you just need to achieve the highest kill count and go guns blazing against everyone, but in the team modes of the game, your approaches and ways of playing are endless.

The graphics in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive look nice and smooth. It is nothing special compared to games today, but it still holds up, outputs a steady and solid FPS and is overall just perfectly playable. Animations are still a little stiff, but a game like this does not need fluent animations anyway.

The sound effects are really cool. Gunfire sounds different for every weapon and all give satisfying feedback when fired. Especially the sniper rifles, which release a roaring bang when fired. Grenades and explosions also sound fine and overall, the sound design holds up well to this day.

I also like the fact that this game is not that heavy and can be played on many older systems without issues. It looks more than fine and plays fluently for almost everyone.

The controls are fluent and easy to learn. A good mouse is recommended to react quickly when someone start hailing bullets at you (or just one between your eyes), because you only have about 0,5 ms to respond to them.

The only thing that I do not understand about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the trading of gun and knife skins. They sell for outrageous prices on the Steam Market and I do simply not get the hype.

One downside with the game that I frequently had was the stupid idiots in the voice chat that keep trolling the matches, people who got their mic stuck in their ass, screaming children, and other morons that spoil the fun sometimes. Although nothing new, and surely present in other games, with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, I experienced it the most.

I admit that I really suck at the game sometimes. I just need to git gut, but for me, this is still a learning curve. However, despite this, I still feel that I have a fair chance at getting some frags, I still feel that my deaths are my own fault and that I can do better next time, a feeling that I greatly missed in the Call of Duty series and especially Battlefield.

In the end, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is an excellent online First Person Shooter that inspired many players to try it, gives everyone a fair chance and offers a rewarding experience.

Definitely recommend it.

This game brought revolution to multiplayer fps gaming. I can see why. Even though now the gun mechanics feel old.