|
Counter-Strike Review for Xbox
Posted on Thursday, January 08, 2004 @ 03:42:29 pm E.S.TNot far back in the history of gaming, a modification pack (or mod) was made for the now-legendary PC game Half-Life, which was called Counter-Strike. It was created as a more modern, real-to-life version based upon the same game, featuring today’s sniper rifles and sub-machine guns instead of the plasma rifles that the futuristic game featured. Needless to say, the mod was a huge success, and still to this day goes down as one of the biggest moments in first person shooter games. Years later, at the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Microsoft announced that a console version of Counter-Strike would come to the Xbox. This marked a huge moment in Microsoft’s attempts to take the crown from Sony in the home console market, as one of the most popular PC games would come to the Xbox as an exclusive, hopefully helping launch Microsoft to a new height in popularity and bring in consumers from the PC market to make the Xbox a more viable competitor. Here we are, a year and a half later after the initial announcement, and Counter-Strike has arrived. But does it live up to the legend and the hype created by it’s PC predecessor? There’s no denying that the port has made its switch to the Xbox with excellence.
Counter-Strike successfully accomplishes the job that it was set to do, and that’s to make a successful transition to the Xbox from the PC. This is definitely a great thing, but there is one huge pitfall to this - there’s absolutely no improvement within the entire game. The reason that the mod on the PC was so successful was because of its online play, and that’s where the Xbox version succeeds.
This guy is packing heat.
However, even though it has its definite advantages within its Live play, the game provides a lackluster single player experience. The only difference between the two modes of play is that the single player game has your teammates and enemies as bots controlled by the computer all with the same ability and tactics within each varying level of difficulty, while the Live play has the obvious difference in ability and skill between each individual player, providing a larger amount of replay value and overall enjoyment.
Control within C-S is flawless, with just the amount of speed and smoothness that the PC version provided in its online play. This is very different than many FPS’s, such as the Rainbow Six series, in the fact that you’ll need to mix in speed in movement and a fast trigger finger to be successful in matches. Aiming is also first-rate, as it’s nowhere near as flawed and jerky as many other PC-to-console transitions have been. You won’t find yourself complaining about the aiming system once, which is a definite plus for the gamer that needs their FPS fix in a high-speed form. Valve did an excellent job in finding the right balance of control, speed and aiming accuracy to keep the frenetic action of the original PC version in tact here.
Talk about being a snappy dresser.
Graphically, Counter-Strike is surely not the game you’re going to want to show off to your friends to show them that “amazing lighting effect” or anything such as that. The game looks as if it was a launch title, which is nowhere near acceptable with the technological powerhouse that the Xbox is, especially as the console enters its third year of life. There is simply no excuse as to why a developer should not have the graphical capabilities of a console that has been out on the market down by now. If you put Counter-Strike and any other recent Xbox title side-by-side, Counter-Strike simply doesn’t have the ability to even come close to competing. However, the character animations, as simple as they are, are very fluid, which is about the only graphical plus-side in an otherwise large letdown for those that were expecting a beauty. Hopefully we’ll see higher quality in this department in any future iterations of the series.
The big surprise in Counter-Strike is by far the sound. The effects, from gunshots to the sound of footsteps from a jump, are done fairly well. But the biggest surprise is the addition of custom soundtracks, which really make this game far better than anyone could‘ve come close to expecting. Normally, you are provided with default music that fits in well in the battlefield. But with high paced action such as in this game, who wouldn’t want to bust out some fast-paced guitar riffs or some thumping hip-hop beats while fragging your most despicable rivals? The custom soundtrack option definitely adds some power and a nice adrenaline rush to your high-octane combat.
Counter-Strike does an excellent job at what it was intended to do, and that was to provide an experience for Xbox owners that was similar to the experience that PC gamers had when the mod was originally released. Some may be disappointed in the fact that Valve, the development team behind Counter-Strike, didn’t give an extra effort to include anything special for the single player experience. However, the online experience is one that is currently only paralleled by a few fellow first person shooters, and will provide any gamer with a Live subscription hours of awesome gameplay that won’t allow them to put the controller down for many nights. Live subscribers will get a lot of enjoyment out of this title, but anyone without the online benefits should consider investing in other first person shooters before picking up this title. Review By: Matt Hack - 2323 Reads
Counter-Strike Review Scores for Xbox :
| Gameplay |
| 8 |
| Graphics |
| 5.5 |
| Sound |
| 8.5 |
| Replay |
| 6.5 |
| Overall |
| 7.2 |
|
Go Back |
Reviews Index |
Post About It
|
