In 1998, the first person shooter genre was revolutionized with the release of Half-Life. Players fought human beings and alien hordes and other various types of opposing creatures as they explored a secret base called Black Mesa. The popularity of Half-Life sparked many new talented developers. In 2000, the action video game genre was defined with the Half-Life modification of Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike featured an extremely addicting and superior gameplay that before hasn't been seen since the release of Pong. An entire culture seems to have been formed because of Counter-Strike as it's seen today, and now it is the most popular online action game in the world. Half-Life 2 featured stunning graphics and physical gameplay which gave Valve the signal that their new game engine, Source was a huge success. The next major project Valve decided to work on is Counter-Strike: Source, a completely overhauled and remade version of the legendary Counter-Strike with the Source engine. However, Valve knew that it would be a challenge both carefully keeping the sensitive gameplay intact that has been released years ago and both upgrading the way players play without the game becoming a failure. So, how did Valve do with the late 2004 release of the highly anticipated release of Counter-Strike: Source?
Before any quick conclusions are made about the game, players should know that it is actually still in development. The game is frequently updated by Valve with content additions and enhancements and maps that have not yet been ported to the Source engine yet. However, players will be happy to know that the major maps such as Dust2, Aztec, Office, and many others have already been ported to the new game. Only the least popular such as Siege have not yet been added to the game as of August of 2006. Players should be rest assured that the remaining maps should and most likely will be ported to the game.
So, why did Valve decide to release the game only partially developed publicly? There has never been an official answer to this but most players speculate because Valve is eager to know the public reactions to the game. When Counter-Strike: Source was barely released it only contained several maps available to play. Valve seemed to want to know what players thought of the game before they finish completing it. If the game appears to be a failure to the public, Valve would know if they had to scrap the project, but if generally positive reactions came from players, especially veteran Counter-Strike 1.6 players, Valve would happily continue with the remaining development of the game. With this said, the positive has happened. Generally, Counter-Strike: Source was accepted by fans, and Valve continues slowly with the development of the game.
Counter-Strike: Source as already very much known continues with generally the same gameplay of 1.6. If it did not, it wouldn't be deserved to be called "Counter-Strike: Source", but "Counter-Strike 2". Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists face off in map skirmishes with an arsenal of weapons available for purchase. Depending on either what of two possible map types they are playing in, the terrorists will either have to plant a bomb in one of two bomb spots in the map, or in the other game type the terrorists will have to protect usually four hostages that are in a specific area of the map from the counter-terrorists rescuing them and winning the round. Or, in both types, a victorious team can be declared simply when one has completely killed the other opposing team. As Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Source is a highly fast-paced shooter.
Unlike the Halo series where players will often both explore landscape and at the same time take on enemy foes, in Counter-Strike you can expect to be on your tiptoes the complete time you are playing. It only takes a few shots to the chest and only one to the head to die in Counter-Strike, which can sometimes be the focal point of the anger in the game but also helps drive the addicting gameplay of you having to always be on caution and keeping your reflexes sharp to survive the round. Counter-Strike is a very skill-orientated game, a newcomer can expect to easily have only one kill per ten deaths, but a veteran and highly experienced player can easily produce up to thirty kills with only one or two deaths.
While both Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source have a fairly large community, as a whole, the community is one of the rough parts of the game and at times is not very "newbie-friendly". Cheating using out-of-the-game programs called "hacking" is on an all-time high. But thankfully, Valve's VAC2 anti-cheat system does a fair and adequate job of catching cheaters and permanently banning them from the game. The VAC2 modules are frequently updated and are becoming more and more intelligent everyday, and if this goes at this rate, players can easily expect for the VAC2 system to catch virtually every single cheat in existence.
As from Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source contains the same technological advancements of Half-Life 2. Players will see both physics and the upgraded graphics from the Source engine. To set the answer to the first question straight, Counter-Strike: Source as Half-Life 2 is a major technical accomplishment. From the definition of the textures, to the particle effects and to the ragdoll physics, Counter-Strike: Source as Half-Life 2 is a benchmark in PC gaming. It is without doubt that players will enjoy and be amazed at what Counter-Strike: Source has technologically to offer. The first time a player under a bridge shoots and kills an opposing player, sees the body dynamically and fluidly drop down the bridge and adjust its skeleton to the irregular landscape, the player will drop their jaws. Valve's physics portion of the engine both contains an enormous amount of dynamicness in objects and the bones of models. When a player throws a grenade down an alleyway that is filled with barrels, bottles, and other objects, the objects will fly into the air and drop down into a unique position that before has never been seen in video games. The engine's ragdoll physics also contains an incredible amount of fluidity and dead bodies can die an infinite amount of ways. Over a ledge, down a slope, or simply just drop down on the ground, they will always have a unique position.
The Source engine also as known in Half-Life 2 before features eye-popping graphics. Valve completely remade the textures that were used in Counter-Strike, and this is the major difference graphically of the 1.6 version of Counter-Strike and the Source version. The textures now really look more lifelike and clearer which makes the game look a lot more attractive. Valve also did a good job developing special effects in Source. From particle effects from bullets to the vivid volumetric smoke, it has all been carefully created. Whether you are standing behind a metallic surface or a soft sandy surface the proper effect on the texture will be created when bullets are fired on it. Players will see the bright-white ricocheting effect on metal plates or the dust that pops out of weak, stony surfaces. Players will also see that there is a nice smoke effect that comes from both an after-effect of a grenade, but more specifically the popping of a smoke grenade. The smoke actually has volume and depth to it and players can walk and notice that they are actually walking through a field of smoke rather then just a cheap dust effect that has been seen many times in past games.
Another quite noticeable and somewhat controversial change in the Source version of Counter-Strike is the displeasureable effect a player experiences when he is affected by a popping of a flashbang. In 1.6, players would be blinded and only see white for a few seconds, but still be able to hear and could more easily retreat by thought before the enemy rushes out in the open. However, in Source, a flashbang is much more effective in disorientating the enemy. A flashbang is not only much longer in Source, but also completely disables your hearing with a high-pitched scream. This entire effect can easily disorientate an entire enemy team with just one flashbang and can easily completely confuse a new player. In addition to the disorientating effect of the Source flashbang with the extended flashed time and the loss of hearing, players will also see that a flashbang continues to try and confuse a player by before returning his hearing and vision, an early image of where he is standing will bleed onto the screen making the player think that he has recovered whereas he will then move, but then notice that he has been tricked because he has not fully recovered, his senses will then finally return and he will notice where he now is.
A possibly overlooked point of Counter-Strike: Source is its audio. The Source engine supports a wide range of fluidity and dynamicness of its sound effects. Most of the weapon firing sounds have been copied and directly imported into Counter-Strike: Source from Counter-Strike 1.6. But most have actually seen the remake with Source. The well-known and highly-realistic firing sound of the AK-47 from Counter-Strike 1.6 has been made to sound even more deadly and clearer when redone with Source. Explosions from grenades and other things in the game can sound quite realistic at times. Depending on where you are, a proper amount of amplitude will be made that you will hear from the distance you are standing from. The Source engine also supports a very realistic surround-sound feature. Players can easily depending on what they hear make out what position it is in at the map.
The Source engine of course, does have its flaws, whether they are minor or major.
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