The history of Counter-Strike is one that is being lost and forgotten, amidst the flurry and frenzy of the competitive nature of the Global Offensive release. The entire series began as a humble modification of Half-Life in 1999, to which Valve quickly acquired the rights to in 2000. Condition Zero was then released in 2004, along with Source; the latter being a remake of the original Counter-Strike, but utilizing (for the first time publicly) Valve's Source engine. It wouldn't be until 8 years later that Valve completely redefined the world of online, competitive first-person shooters with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Through an abundance of different maps and game modes, players will take the side of either the Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist in order to do things such as plant or diffuse bombs, get to the gold knife level, kill off the opposing team, and garner the most kills. Each side has their own guns, though they're mostly just renamed instead of being wildly different from each other. When it comes down to it, the game is really a vanilla experience that's easy to pick up, but difficult to master; getting to know the maps and all of their best kill zones is your easiest entry point. If you're planning to play competitive, be sure to come prepared with a headset.
Despite going on 5 years old now, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular on Steam; it has a massive, constantly active player base made up of a variety of age brackets, skill levels, and backgrounds. It is also one of the biggest competitive titles in the realm of eSports, and in fact there are a multitude of teams that face off against each other during seasonal matches. Bringing players back into the fight is also the inclusion of paid-for events, where you must complete varying objectives to raise your event coin to a gold level. Gamers take their competitive matches, and in some cases even their casual ones, extremely seriously; making Global Offensive one of the hardest FPS titles to get in to.
With such an overwhelmingly large community comes a substantial amount of problem players; running into any one of which could damage your competitive rank if you're trying to build it up. The biggest concern are cheaters, those who forego the warning of permanent VAC BANs and continue to use scripts for seeing through walls and assisted aiming; these people are found in abundance, especially on a few maps in particular. They're not always banned right away, and continue to wreak havoc on the community. The second primary problem are players referred to as smurfs, gamers that are particularly good at the game and create a new Steam account, buy CS:GO, and go into competitive matches to wreck newer, more inexperienced players.
The remaining issues with the CS:GO community can be grouped up into one final paragraph dump. The poor sports who will invite you to troll groups if you beat them too badly. The little kids who really shouldn't be playing the game, and not just because they're bad at it but also because they have worse potty mouths than a drunken sailor who has been at sea for three months. The griefers, oh dear god the griefers; the people who purposefully stand in front of your shots to try and get you kicked from the game for team-killing (competitive matches work on a three-strikes, you're out system) or just frustratingly troll your match in general. Let's also not forget the fact that the pricing for the skins on the market place are insanely inflated when it comes to knives, gloves, AWPs, and some certain skins/stickers/audio tracks.
In all honesty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a very fun and very addictive online team-based FPS that's equipped with a multitude of modes that really keep the game from becoming stale. Unfortunately, the entire experience can be marred depending on your brushes with the community; not everyone is unsporting, or a cheater, a griefer, a smurf, or a little trash talking kid. However, the fact of the matter is that a huge chunk of the player base are, and they have no problem making new Steam accounts and laying down $15 just to continue doing what they were doing once the BAN hammer gets them. It makes getting into competitive play exceedingly difficult, and causes casual play to be downright frustrating to new players. Due to the fact that overall the community is a toxic cesspool, and the market place is a huge money sink, I cannot recommend the game, despite how otherwise good it is.
And yes, I am aware that I have a plebeian amount of hours in the game.
Rating: 3.0/5.0 - Average, can take it or leave it.Enjoyed this review? Join my Steam Group!http://steamcommunity.com/groups/bhhreviews