Half-Life: Counter-Strike

"Most addictive and fun game I've every played!"

Intro
One of me friends introduced me to the game Half-Life, which I and many other people across the world love. After playing it at his house I bought the special combo pack of Half-Life (comes with Half-Life, it's expansions, TFC, which is another great Half-Life online game, and Counterstrike). I got home, installed it, and I was instantly addicted. This game is one of the best I've ever seen. It's an online game and in the game, you can chose to be a counter-terrorist or a terrorist. If you play as the terrorist, you try to: plant a bomb and protect it, kill a V.I.P on the other team, prevent cts from getting hostages from within the time limit, and just kill the other team. As the counter-terrorists, you just try to counter the terrorist (defusing a bomb, protect V.I.P, etc).

Gameplay: 10/10
Gameplay is what this game is all about! The gameplay is what makes it so addictive. The gameplay in this is the way all fps should be. You can choose from four different kind of terrorists or counter-terrorists. There are so many cool and tuff guns. The guns range from scouts to duals and there and so many to chose from! A cool thing about this game is that it involves money. At the start of each round, you can buy weapons with the money you've earned! The hotkeys are easy to use also. For example, B-Buy, get it!?This game never gets old. Figuring out a stradegy for you and your comrades to beat the opponent is really thrilling. You can: split up into small groups consisting of three to four people, be a loner (but that's not a good idea in this game since it's all about teamwork), go in one big group, or do a pinscer attack on the unsuspecting enemy group. There are a lot of cool maps to use these techniques on! I There are hundreds, maybe thousands of different maps to choose from. All of them are really cool. Some even have vehicles that you can drive and have a buddy do drive bys in the back and raid an enemy ground. As I said before, teamwork is a major part of this game, if you don't for together and think about your next move, you're probably gonna end up dead. Unless you have years of experience and talent, you'll lose. One last thing, this game requires actual experience to get anywhere and not some nooby tactic to beat everyone else.

Graphics: 6.5/10
The graphics in this game, aren't all that great. But hey, graphics isn't everything! Everything else in the game makes up for it. In fact, I almost threw up after playing it a little cause I have that disease that makes people sick from these kind of fps. After I got over it, I played this game at least 10 hours each day for the first few weeks (no joking, it's that addictive). The gun graphics are good looking though. Don't worry, you can tell if you see an enemy or not.

Sound: 9/10
The sound is ''stupendous''. The gunshots are realistic to their guns. The guns sound just like they do in real life. It sounds really cool hearing your allies fighting in the distance. Also, you can hear footsteps and know if an enemy is around, just like you could in real life! On some levels, there is music in some rooms, but there aren't in many. There are a lot of sound effects like lightning, screams, footsteps, etc. The sound can make you a killing machine.

Replayability 10/10
This game is so addictive you would give up doing drugs to spare some time to play this game! I've had this game for about a year and a half and I'm still playing it like a madman! Be warned though, once you play this game you may never stop.

Difficulty 10/10
There are thousands, even millions are hard-core pros waiting for a challenge out in the counterstrike world. Getting, even ok at this game, could take a year. Although it's still fun, it's also very competitive. Aiming your crosshair in this game is probably much harder than in any other game. When you shoot, your crosshair become wider, due to vibration and shake, making it much harder to shoot at a target. Not only that, but the other guy is gonna be shooting at you to and your guy will have an even harder time shooting, since getting hit will result in the gun wavering around while your trying to aim through all of the bullets flying past you. That's how realistic it is. But don't worry, soon enough you'll be good and be able to beat everyone.

Final Recommendation 9/10
This game is a definite buy. It is one of the best fps out there. As long as your old enough and you like realistic fps, then this game is the game for you. It is a true masterpiece. If you rented it, you'd be so addicted to it that you'd find yourself turning it in late. It is sometimes frustrating, escpecially trying to install it =) (believe me, I'd know, I spent about a month trying to install it), but that shouldn't stop you from buying this great game!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/26/03, Updated 04/26/03