Counter-Strike: Source

"Worst Swat Game"

Ever since the first Counter-Strike was released, it always tried to pass as a Swat alike game but unfortunately you are not provided with such tools to dispose of the enemies.

The game is played like any first person shooter, in fact, it doesn't offer anything new from any other FPS shooter. A game where knowing where your opponent is or learning how to approach a situation is critical but there's nothing basic like leaning left nor right. If there's corner all you have to do, like any old shooter, is show your whole body to the enemy and try to (again like any old shooter like DOOM) kill the enemy first before he kills you.

There nothing special or something that makes this product outshine other just the fake hype.

You are given a number weapons but only a few them are better than anything else. The best pistol is the Night Hawk .45C, best damage and can kill in one headshot. Shotguns are mediocre making the Rifles almost if not better than the shotguns same goes to the Machine Gun, for an anti-infantry gun it gets "outgun" by rifles and broken sniper rifles. Speaking of which, the best sniper rifle, Magnum Sniper Rifle(AWP), the one hit wonder, literally. You can and you will kill their whole team with this gun and with a sidearm like the Night Hawk, you are left with a One hit wonder and a head killer almost an unstoppable killing machine.

For backpack stuff you are offered an armor and helmet combo but you will still die by one shot of the AWP or be dead in 2 seconds with any gun, just dont buy the armor. Grenades makes an appearance but since you lack any ability to know enemies position(unless a teammate sacrifices him/her self every time theres a blind corner), you wont be able to pull a strategic attack.

Another problem with the game is the dying. Dying too early will get you stuck for more than 2 mins in a bench doing nothing but staring at your monitor, if you do this everytime, in a four hour playthrough, you have lost almost 2 or more hours staring at your monitor. And if you are the last ones dying, you will be bored waiting for a combat to happen.

In short you are left with a mediocre FPS that is not worthy of a swat alike game. This just a FPS like any other. On top of this vague package, Valve has not made any change whatsoever to the game so you will confront "1 hit kill every guy in your team" players, 5 mins campers, boring gameplay, lack of gameplay modes(only rescue hostages and plant bomb), lack of useful weapons, lack of updates, lack of Valve support and lack of balance.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/09

Game Release: Counter-Strike: Source (US, 11/16/04)