If you've never gotten to experience Counter-Strike and have an Xbox, this is a good place to start if you have Live.
Counter-Strike isn’t much more than a shooting gallery of terrorists versus counter-terrorists. The terrorists’ goal is to plant a bomb that detonates in forty-five seconds and be sure it doesn’t get defused. As you might expect, the objective of the counter-terrorists is to defuse the bomb before it goes off. Whatever team manages to win in this “contest” gets a point and whatever team gets the most points at the end of the match wins. Now, one issue that has to be addressed is that Counter-Strike’s single-player has no story whatsoever. No cutscenes, no main characters, no plot, not even the slightest attempt. In fact, the only reason to picking up Counter-Strike is if you have Xbox Live, otherwise you’re not going to get the same experience that those that play online have gotten out of it. While its single-player isn’t the worst you can find-trust me, there’s worse, it’s almost completely commercial; meaning you just run and shoot at AI bots hoping to not get killed in the process. And to tell the truth, that’s really all you do in Counter-Strike-just run around and shoot anything that isn’t one of your allies.
So with that in mind, you might be asking what’s so fun about playing a game that doesn’t even deliver anything beyond what other shooters do. Well, the answer is that Counter-Strike is a very addicting game since it’s one of the simplest shooters out there. Part of what’ll strive you to keep playing the game is that you get money for killing your enemies. Money is like your fuel in the game since it’s what you use to buy weapons and equipment. There are plenty of firearms and equipment at your disposal in Counter-Strike, including assault rifles, submachine guns, automatic and twelve-gauge shotguns, shields, armor and more. Each weapon has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages, but most of the time you’ll be picking between assault rifles and submachine guns until you find the one that fits best with your style. Yet it’s this simplistic way to playing the game that makes Counter-Strike so fun and addicting, since you don’t have to worry about complicated mechanics getting in your way while playing to screw you up while playing. The action in Counter-Strike doesn’t really ever get to tense since most matches have you playing with about seven other gamers online. But the moments that you do get into those big firefights are very rewarding and give the game a real action movie-like feel.
While Counter-Strike is certainly fun to play, the game doesn’t do anything to make use of the Xbox’s power. As a result, the game looks pretty rough and grainy, especially when getting a close look at the game’s below-average visuals. The character models don’t look too shabby, but even they lack quite a bit of detail. The environments look decent and detailed at a distance but up-close they’re pretty ugly and it almost looks like you can see lines going through them. As for particle effects, well, there are barely any with the exception of a limited amount of blazing gunfire, light smoke effects and a bit of blood. In-general Counter-Strike just doesn’t cut it as far as being a looker on the Xbox.
Sound-wise, Counter-Strike sounds good, but very by-the-books. The guns sound like they should and definitely more realistic than most shooters, but the assault rifles and submachine guns will all start to sound similar after awhile. As far as music and voice-acting goes Counter-Strike is very limited since voice-work is reduced to brief chat over the radio via the D-pad and the music is only used at the main menu. There’s just not much to say about Counter-Strike’s sound other than it’s very standard and is full of gun noises and lots of footstep noises.
Counter-Strike is a very standard, by-the-books shooter that although doesn’t do much out of the ordinary, offers an addicting online experience that any avid Xbox Live owner who’s never experience Counter-Strike before should definitely check out. Although, if you don’t have Xbox Live or just aren’t fond of it you may want to sit this one out since its single-player isn’t anything to write home about and since there’s no split-screen.