The game Counter-Strike is somewhat of an anomaly when speaking of videogames. If you don’t know its story by now, you should know that it simply started off with a group of guys that made a simple little modification (mod) for the PC game, Half-Life. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the game spread like wildfire. Counter-Strike went on to become the most popular online game ever, to this date, and even became big enough to garner a separate retail release from its parent game, Half-Life. When Microsoft launched Xbox Live, they knew that they had a big player on their side in Valve and Counter-Strike, and they have finally played that card to the gaming community. How did the result turn out? Read on and find out.
The graphics are probably the best part of the game to start the review off, because, let’s face it. Anyone who has ever played Counter-Strike on PC knows that this game is definitely not about the graphics. This game is pure “run-and-gun” gameplay, with some twitch and some teamwork thrown in for good measure. But, we do need to take a look at the graphics of the game, just because there are people who swear up and down that graphics can make or break a game. This is not one of those titles, and I am not one of those people. Counter-Strike on the Xbox has improved all of the maps in it with better textures in places, more polygons, and some new items in the maps that add for a little more diversity, and give the maps a little more personality than their PC counterparts, while still maintaining the general layout and strategy of them. The character models and gun models as well are upgraded over the PC version, which is a very nice addition. Still not great by Xbox means, but they do look better than their PC brethren. One little thing that is kind of cool is that players now only have one “skin” or model for each map, so all of the terrorists look the same, and all of the Counter-terrorists (CTs) look the same in each map. This helps in separating out who gets to die and who you want watching your back pretty easily, and it helps out a bunch in a twitch game like Counter-Strike. The framerate is smooth and steady, even with smoke grenades going on a 16-player server. Not the prettiest Xbox game by any means, but like I said earlier, Counter-Strike really isn’t about the graphics, so I’m going to give it a 12 in the graphics department.
Much like the graphics, the sound isn’t really anything that you’d show your friends to impress them with the power of your Xbox, but it’s nothing really horrible either, it gets the job done. All of the sound effects from the PC version have been ported over to the Xbox, including some of the voice communications such as, “Go! Go! Go!” or “Enemy Spotted” with the now famous radio voice. The guns still sound just about like they should, and you can hear people sneaking up on you if you’re listening for them, which is a really nice touch. The two biggest things that I can probably give praise to the Xbox version of Counter-Strike are the ability to listen to custom soundtracks in-game (by the way, Castlevania music goes great with CS), and the headset communication over LAN and Xbox Live. Now voice communication is nothing really new for Counter-Strike on PC, it’s been there for a few versions now. However, it hasn’t been implemented nearly as well as its Xbox cousin. Voice communication is a breeze with Xbox Live, there’s no button to press to talk, and you can mute those annoying people that keep singing, should you run into them. The sound, like the graphics, gets the job done, but doesn’t really impress very much in the end, so it gets a 13.
Now this is where things start mattering for Counter-Strike. Many people were worried about the controls and the speed of CS being compromised for the Xbox iteration of the game. Well, I can safely say that neither is true. The control scheme is simple, and quite intuitive. Experienced PC CS players will get the hang of it very quickly, and so will newcomers to the game. The simplistic control scheme works great, the aiming is pretty much the same as it is in Halo, which is a very good thing in the end. The Xbox version of CS feels and plays exactly like the PC version of it, which is one of the biggest compliments you could give this version. I spent nearly 2 years of my life on CS servers in the PC world my first few years in college, and the new Xbox version brings those feelings that I had with the game back then right back into my consciousness, much to the dismay some of my loved ones. I would say that the only drawback to this game is that there is almost no single-player mode. You do have the option of playing games with Bots on your side, but it just kind of looses its fun after a bit if you’re not playing against real human beings. Nevertheless, this game is solid, and deserves an 18 for gameplay.
The fun in this game is playing it online with others. Counter-Strike is one of the most fun experiences that one can have whilst in the world of online gaming, especially Xbox Live. Beating the crap out of other people while you hear them yell something about you being lucky, while you know all the time that it was your “l33t ski11z” that enabled you to splatter his insides all over the wall behind him just brings a smile to your face every time it happens. However, like I said earlier, the fun factor of CS is determinate on one big thing: Xbox Live. If you have Xbox Live, this is one of the best online games out for it right now. If you don’t have XBL, well, stay away from this game, because it won’t offer you very much. However, I do have Xbox Live, so I’m going to give the game an 18 for fun.
Replayability is much like the fun factor in that it depends heavily on the fact that the gamer either has Xbox Live or he doesn’t. If you do have Xbox Live, the game is seemingly endless, and every night you’ll play against different people if you want, or you can play with all of the guys on your friends list to use your “l33t str4ts” on hapless CTs. If you don’t have Xbox Live, well, you’re basically stuck to playing with bots, because the game only allows for one player to a screen at-a-time. But, like the fun factor, I’m making the score assuming that you have Xbox Live, so I’d give the replayability a 19.
In the end, Counter-Strike for Xbox is much like its PC counterpart. It isn’t the best-looking, best-sounding game out there, but it has the core gameplay and fun that can beat out many of the more aesthetically pleasing games out on the market on their respective mediums. The biggest thing I can say about this game is that if you have Xbox Live, you HAVE to get this game. If you don’t, you shouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.
Graphics: 12
Sound: 13
Gameplay: 18
Fun: 18
Replay: 19
In the end, Counter-Strike for Xbox is much like its PC counterpart. It isn’t the best-looking, best-sounding game out there, but it has the core gameplay and fun that can beat out many of the more aesthetically pleasing games out on the market on their respective mediums. The biggest thing I can say about this game is that if you have Xbox Live, you HAVE to get this game. If you don’t, you shouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.
