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Review: Counter-Strike for Half-Life
By Chris "Pie4Foo" Abele

One year ago, on June 19th, a new modification was released quietly into the Half-Life community. That new mod would quickly grow to become one of the best user-created modifications ever, period. Originally created by Gooseman, a college-aged Canadian, the modification was based off of the old Team Fortress/Half-Life multiplayer gaming environment. What was new, so revolutionary? Basically, the modification was a whole lot less sci-fi, and a whole lot more first person tactical shooter.

Fig. 1. CT Works on Defusing a Bomb.

Known as Counter-Strike (CS), you and your multiplayer teammates faced off against another set of players, divided by a class: counter-terrorist versus terrorists. Both sides had their choice of real-world weapons, ranging from pistols to submachine guns to sniper rifles in effort to wax the opposing side of players. Sound familiar? Any fan of first person tactical gaming should recognize the relatively similar style of play first brought to the forefront of online gaming by Rainbow Six. While Rainbow Six may be a similar game, Counter-Strike offers a number of interesting differences that make it just as interesting and (most importantly) replay-able. This article will take a look at the phenomenon that is Counter-Strike one year after its release: a Rainbow Six-styled first person tactical shooter...that's free.

As I first explained, Counter-Strike is a modification for Half-Life. For those of you unfamiliar with the term "mods", don't be discouraged. It's a very simple concept, and more importantly, putting it in action is no big deal. Basically, a mod is change to a game in any fashion - in this case, we're talking about an entire change to the gameplay and environment. The creators of Counter-Strike took the original (and wildly successful) Half-Life and changed the environment to such a degree that only the 3D engine was the same. Everything was taken down to its most basic structure; what was built up afterwards was a remarkable mod that has taken the gamer's dream method of development. Built by a gamer, the game isn't being hidden behind any corporate walls; rather, the game continues to be released in stages, each a different beta build.

Fig. 2. The Reloading Process

The variations have gone from 1.0 up to the current 6.5 (released June 5th). Because each stage of the game is released in separate development, gamers get the chance to voice their own opinions on what's wrong with the game. Therein lies some of the popularity of the Counter-Strike mod: appealing to every gamer's desire to shape a game with their own ideas. Of course, the betas don't really go through development by democracy, and the original creators do have final say. Still, the developers are easily accessible through their websites (linked at the end of the article) and they are in the end, gamers.

What has set Counter-Strike apart? Certainly, the new found popularity of these one-shot, one-kill games (such as the Rainbow Six series) helped to encourage such a mod to come about for one of the best games ever, Half-Life. However, as we'll see, there are a number of different features that have pushed this mod over and above every other, making it as unique and superb as Half-Life itself. The press hasn't wasted any time picking up on it, either. Finally, a recent deal with Valve, the creators of Half-Life, has helped to secure the continued future success of the Counter-Strike game.