Counter-Strike

"Marketing 10/10 the game...."

I have never ever played Counterstrike, until yesterday 11/19/03. I have followed the hype all the way up to D-Day! I have read magazines claiming that this game was the best online playing game in history. I read about features that would be implemented in to the xbox version that would blow the Pc version out of the water. I've been on the board here, chating with other fans anxiously waiting for this ''Game of all times'' to be released.
My first hint should have been the slow board, I thought it would have been at the top the way the hype was going!

Sound & Music (5) The sounds, oh you mean the pencil slapping a peice of paper, at higher or lower tones? Yeah I didn't even notice it. Okay if it's a lower tone paper slap, than it's a bigger gun...Vice versa. My first couple of games I played was almost silent, there was no music! So I set up my custom soundtrack and I was ready to roll. Thats the only reason I gave this section a 5, it would have been 1 (for the effort). Hey this was a definate plus in this game, I actually enjoyed gettin ''gangsta'', with ''the big payback'', by James brown blastin out the speakers as I was ''blastin''(I got ta deal wit'chuuuuu, I got'ta deal wit'cha). But thats my music, and my custom soundtrack, they just enabled it.

Graphics (3) IMO, a good word for this game would be ''outdated'', cause if these graphics blow the pc version away, they must have been stickmen. A good phrase for this game would be ''past it's prime''! First off technology doubles, every 2 years, and from my understanding, this game came out 4 years ago. Now they have the technology to quadruple what they did. They didn't...Everything looks generic compared to r63; wait no it looks just out of place with the any game out today. It reminded me of doom, with the numbers representing health. The words are big and blocky. and the blood looks like play dough when you get shot! Serious just imagine the KOOL-AIDE MAN tripping over your lan cord. The dying animations (pre-motion capture days huh?), are so choppy and slow, you don't know if you/they are dead until they lay completely down. I don't care were this game came from and how much it looks better from the PC, The Graphics Suck! They don't scream Xbox at all, they scream PS1. I mean where in the hell did they get the screenshots from? That's the game I want. The colors are bland, and the gun models are average. You'll actually have to get up close to the screen and exaine cause most of the MG's look the same to me. Who ever argues with that is a fan boy, really...

Gameplay (XBL 5)(NO XBL 1 for effort) I chose to rate this section like wazzupo, cause he has a good point

XBL: Was fun, I can't lie. It was much easier than Rainbow 6 3, and to me a lot less serious. I had my music blastin', and shootin people. Thats the core basic for me, Music + shootin people= Fun, (''sawed off shot gun hand on the pump... Cypress hill!). Communication between players was scarce, but just like in real life somebody has to break the ice. It could have been from everybody being new, and trying to concentrate. Hey surprise! The only way you can play 16 players is on a dedicated server! Oh this is not mentioned on the box either THE DEDICATED SERVER/HOST CANNOT PLAY! Now tell me how many gracious souls out there are going to do that? The main purpose of a game is to uh PLAY IT!
It was easy to figure out what I was doing thanks to the load screen instructions. So the crew and I had a couple of good games. One exciting part was watching two people have a knife fight in the first round cause they ran out of bullets! The menus and set-up were generic looking, block letters on a black background. I guess I was spoiled by R63.

No XBL: If you don't have Live, stay away from this, I mean it doesn't even have SPLITSCREEN!, You can Network with other XBOXSISIS. But let's get serious here; Who in this world has 16 friends with 16 xboxsisis, and all 16 have counterstrike? Right. One player? You complete the same objectives, that they have online HOSTAGE OR BOMB! Two choices... that is a crying shame, And I bet theres no reward for beating it, no extra mode, FMV, you know, to motivate you to play through it. There is nothing new, nothing exciting about playing matches with people that have no personality. I would play red faction 2 with the Splitscreen before I would play this offline. I personally will never play it on one player again. What a waste!

Play Time/Replayability (XBL 5) (Non 1) Play time will be very limited, maybe a fun interlude in between R63. I played for about an hour then put rainbow six 3 back in the Xbox, (where it has been for the past 3 weeks). Thats when I noticed how bad the graphics are in this game. I mean if you look at what they could have done and what they didn't do, you just feel tricked. I will play online just to justify my $50 I wasted on this. To chill out, listen to my music and have fun, there is no way I could take this game serious, why? Cause it doesn't look serious, it's not played serious, I mean the players jump around when your shooting at them.

Overall Counterstrike is a very uninspired FPS for the XBOX. Only rent this if you have XBL. They shorted the consumer on this attempt, they told us they would have a bunch of ''XBOX EXCLUSIVE'' great features, (the same features that made me want to buy this), but they never delivered.
Feature
CLAN SUPPORT....................................NOT THERE!
SPRAY PAINT.................................... NOT THERE!
CUSTOMIZABLE LOGOS (for clans)..................NOT THERE!
COMPLETELY OVERHAULED GRAPHICS..................NOT THERE!
1 PLAYER MISSIONS W/STORY.......................NOT THERE!
ESCAPE MODE.....................................NOT THERE!
VIP/ASSASINATION MODE...........................NOT THERE!
SECRET XBOX EXCLUSIVE MODE......................NOT THERE!
FLASH LIGHT FOR YOUR WEAPON.....................NOT THERE!
SYRINGE & MACHETE.....................NOT THERE!NOT THERE!
USER CREATED MODS...............................NOT THERE!

And thats straight out of XBOX Official Magazine Jack! (7/03)
They bamboozled me out of my money, so I feel the most remarkable this about this game was THE MARKETING!
XBL : 4/10
Non XBL : 1/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/20/03