If you’re a gamer who grew up in the 90′s chances are you’ve heard of or maybe even played Counter Strike. The long standing tactical FPS has been revered as one of the best in the genre, as well as having a strong community of players behind it, who still support the franchise to this day. Counter Strike fans can rejoice because  CS:GO has brought the franchise back to the front lines and looks to be a game people will be playing for a very long time. 

Counter Strike: GO is the freshest breath of air in the FPS genre in quite a while.  If you are a fan of the franchise and for some reason you don’t already own a copy of this game; please it’s Counter Strike, GO out and buy it. For those of you who don’t know Counter Strike is a simple but rich FPS where skill,teamwork and tactics define the winners.

There are just multiplatyer game modes there is no single player campaign, but there is a bot mode that allows you to play offline and practice your skills or familiarize yourself with the maps. There are 4 games modes that will keep you entertained for hours;

  • Arm’s Race, a death match mode where instead of picking a load out you earn new weapons by getting kills and the only way to win the game is for a player to get a kill with all the weapons. The action is fast paced and extremely addictive. Once you score a kill you instantly change to the next gun. After a player gets a kill with all 26 guns he has to win the match by getting the final kill with a knife. Its’ hectic,fun and a nice change of pace from the normal Counter Strike.
  • Demolition, your standard death match but the same new gun after every kill rule still applies, but instead on instantly you get a new gun at the start of each round based on your kills. This will be a much more familiar game mode to Counter Strike veterans.
  • Classic Casual, the same old Counter Strike you know and love but the ‘lite’ version if you will.  It’s the classic game of Terrorists against Counter Terrorists, won by either eliminating the enemy team or completing one of two objectives. There are fewer rounds than in ‘Classic Competitive’, and  instead of just being able to talk to your team you can will talk to everyone in the game room including your opposition. If you are new to Counter Strike this would be your game mode to try and get your skills up and join the veterans in the Classic Competitive mode, which plays just like and old Counter Strike Source LAN match.

The thing that concerned me the most wasn’t if Counter Strike: GO would be good, it was if it would be a good port. The answer to that is an astounding YES. The graphics are average by today’s standards, but  with the intensity and fluidity of the gameplay how the game looks in comparison to Battlefield 3 will the the furthest thing from your mind when you’re playing.

Playing online was always smooth, I can say that the experience on PS3 is near perfect, though I have heard some complaints about lag and connection issues on the Xbox 360. I played for days, hundreds of matches and I never experienced any lag or frame rate issues. I even tested out the Keyboard and Mouse feature on the PS3, which works well and is a great way to get more people playing on consoles if they are used to the  K/M set up. In some way’s its a little more advantageous because of the ability to set hot keys, and the accuracy of a mouse, but really it’s personal preference.

Final Thoughts

Counter Strike:GO is a gem for only $15, the amount of time you will put into this game makes it well worth the price point. I’ve said it before if you’re a fan of the franchise and you don’t already own the game go and buy it now, If you’re new and you haven’t played a Counter Strike before try it it out, you will not be disappointed.

9/10