Counter-Strike, arguably the most professionally played computer game in the world, is a team-based FPS (First Person Shooter). Two teams (Counter-Terrorists vs. Terrorists) battle in one of many gaming modes to complete their objectives. Standard modes are DE (Defusal), CS (Hostage Rescue) and AS (Assassination). The gameplay in each of these modes is completely different, both in the way they are played, but more obviously, the team objectives, as will explained later on this article.
Counter-Strike was originally designed and perceived to be a realistic game rather than the more futuristic FPSs such as Quake, Unreal Tournament, and more recently Halo. As time passed the game evolved, but not in a way to disrupt the original style of gameplay, and more tactical games, Rainbow Six and the Ghost Recon games series were released.
Each team starts with a pistol (Glock for Terrorists, USP for Counter-Terrorists) as well as their melee weapon, the knife. If you survive the previous round, all weapons, grenades and remaining equipment will be kept. You are given the opportunity at the start of each round to buy new weapons, additional ammo, armour and other equipment including grenades, flash bangs, defuse kit and night vision. In the most recent versions of CS a Tactical Shield has been added to the equipment list, however this is infrequently used, and currently serves no real purpose for both the professional and non-professionally played matches.
The in-game scoreboard, (Available by pressing the default key, Tab) shows each players Name, Score, Deaths and Ping / Latency, as well as if a player is the VIP or is holding the bomb. In more recent versions as way to try and make people complete the objectives additional points were given to the individual player who either defuses the bomb or plants it with a successful explosion.
Bomb Defusal All standard DE maps contain two bombsites, appropriately named A and B. The objective for the Terrorists is to enter one of the bomb sites, plant the bomb and cover. To win the round the Terrorists need to either kill the whole of the Counter-Terrorist team, or successfully plant the bomb and have it explode.
Counter-Terrorists need to either kill the Terrorists, or if the Bomb has been planted, defuse it. If the bomb is defused the Counter-Terrorists automatically win, the same goes for the Terrorists if the bomb explodes, regardless of the number of people currently left alive. To decrease the defuse time, Counter-Terrorists have the option of buying a defuse kit.
Deaths caused by the explosion of the bomb do not contribute to the deaths displayed on the scoreboard, however you are not given back any weapons of equipment.
Hostage Rescue Most hostage rescue maps start with Counter-Terrorists needing to attack the Terrorist spawn location where the hostage start. There are usually 4, in 2 groups of 2 placed close to and inside the Terrorist's spawn area.
The objective is for the Counter-Terrorists find the hostage and take them to the Hostage Rescue Points. If all hostages are rescued, or the Terrorist team is killed the Counter-Terrorists win. The only ways for Terrorist to win, is to either wait it out (once the round timer reaches zero without hostages being rescued, Terrorists win), or for the entire Counter-Terrorist team to be killed.
As an incentive to complete the objectives, money is awarded to the player who rescues each hostage, and as an obvious advantage could be given to the Terrorists for killing the hostage, money is removed for damaging and killing hostages, and on many servers, players are kicked after killing hostages, the default for servers is 5.
This is not the most popular mode for the professional, and even the beginner leagues, however there are leagues and divisions specializing in hostage missions, and of course there are thousands of servers all over the world running hostage rescue maps.
Assassination - VIP This game mode starts with a single player on the Counter-Terrorist team being assigned as the VIP. This player is not allowed to purchase weapons, ammo, or equipment and is also not able to pickup any weapons. This player is however given 200 armour, which is a lot more help than it sounds.
The aim for the Counter-Terrorists is protect the VIP, and escort him to the rescue point. If the VIP is killed, the round ends, and the Terrorists win. A new VIP is then assigned for the start of the next round. If the VIP does successfully escape additional money is given, on top of what is given for winning the round.
To win, the terrorists need to eliminate the VIP, or just stop him from reaching the rescue point before the time runs out. The Counter-Terrorists either need to successfully get the VIP to the rescue point, or eliminate the Terrorist team.
Escape This mode still exists, however the maps (in official distributions) were removed in the later betas, and work was not continued on this mode, however maps containing the prefix es_ are still played on a few servers on the internet. You can also download several of the maps from the internet.
Counter-Strike : Condition Zero This was a game which was in the making for many years, going through many developers. The final version of Condition Zero was by two developers, one for the single player, and one for the multiplayer. The multiplayer remained unchanged from the original, the difference lay in the sounds, and texture quality. The single player mode contained a selection of levels, with a few missions for many locations around the world, which you need to make you way though. The multiplayer version includes a Tutorial mode, where you are given a set task, whether kill a certain number of players, defuse the bomb, or use a specific weapon to kill people. You play in the same way as you would online except you play with bots.
Counter-Strike Source This follows the original idea of Counter Strike, however everything has updated. The most noticeable difference are the graphics. Based on the Half-life 2 engine, the maps look nicer, the players move differently and the weapon animations are better. The only real changes in the game itself, are the changes caused by the new engine, and the slight changes in maps because these are now support by the engine.
A version of Counter Strike on the HL2 engine called CS Pro is being developed which is being designed to have gameplay almost exactly like CS 1.6 however, will just look visually cleaner. Information on CS Pro will be published as soon as its made available, to see if will really serve its purpose of taking CS 1.6 into the future.
Well this concludes, our basic guide to Counter-Strike, hopefully this gives you a better basic understanding to the world of Counter Strike.
About the Author
I am a website developer, currently working on Routed Gaming - A large gaming community community network, which is what I have written most of my articles for.
