Recent reviews by PlasticSpoons

Counter Strike: Global-Offensive is a competitive online first person shooter that was released by Valve Corporation. In the game of Counter Strike, there are two teams made up of five players each. One will be sublimated to the terrorist sides who’s objective to be to plant a bomb in a specific location and guard the bomb until it is set to go off. The other team being the counter terrorists are to protect these objective sites to make sure the bomb is to not be planted or if it is, defuse the bomb in time before it goes off. The game objections are easy to understand and may be rated on their game play, relativity, and attributions that may make the game different.

Counter Strike may be arguably the largest competitive shooter in eSports, competitive gaming, with the most resent prize pool of 1 million United States dollars to the winning champions of MLG, Major League Gaming, Columbus, Ohio. For the final match, there was a recorded 1.6 million viewers tuning in all around the world to view who would take the title of the current best team in the world. One may ask why this game excels past others in its genera in competitiveness and popularity. With the growing popularity of eSports and viewers around the world, it has propel this game from something familiar or what is considered a hobby to a career for what we call eSports athletes.

Counter Strike has been around for over a decade where most adolescents have grown fond of playing as well as improving and making it become a bigger scene. The game uses tactics and skill with very few RNG, random number generated, executions that can really display an individual’s skill and understanding of the game. Counter Strike is also a computer game unlike Call of Duty and Halo which makes it more popular with PC owners as well as having it be more assessable when it comes to online tournaments.

The mechanics and feel of the games have hardly changed through those years which leads to nostalgia for some players as well as Valve corp. recognizing any sudden changes may ruin the game and the competitiveness. Even with the game being introduced so many years ago, through its experience of adapting and learning what a game should and should not do, the Counter Strike genre has increasingly improved (Dyer). Balancing a game in competitive gaming is very difficult and if there are too many changes, the game may be imbalanced and there would be less strategy and more complaints from the community.

One feature that attracts individuals to the game is the marketing of skins that can be added to guns and knives. There are random boxes that players may open with a small fee of $2.50 USD, United States dollars, which can obtain a skin that is worth up to over $15,000. Of course this is part of the gambling process and an individual can lose a lot of money for skins as well which occurs more frequently. The market for each skin is determined by the rarity of each item and individuals may drive the market to sway a specific direction. Counter Strike skin gambling and box opening are considered very popular among viewers where some young adults make a living off of gambling these skins, trading and selling them off for real money that can be exchanged with bitcoin or paypal. The skin market is a unique aspect to the game that can only be related by hats in Team Fortress 2, another online shooter.

Even though there are various modes that Counter Strike has to offer the most widely played is the competitive five versus five option. The other modes are not comparable to other online shooters such as Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2. For a cheaper or free game, they have better options in areas such as Arms Race; where a player is given a gun and scales up and upgrades guns per kill they receive and whoever can reach the top gun on the list wins the race. Even though Counter Strike has a larger competitive scene, the casual factor can be out shined by these other games which compels the audience to rethink their purchase (Lahti). Individuals may feel bored after playing the same mode for a period of time and desire a change.

Some may argue that this game is dull and not action pack enough while others say that the only reason this game is relevant anymore is because of this skin feature. The ability of voice chat also discourages new players as well as those who may want to play casually because of the constant attacks and arguments among your team. Even with over a decade of success and playability, the Counter Strike brand is still around and growing every day. It is hard to ignore that this game may be on the top of all shooters with large price pools, organizations, and heavy sponsorships that pour money into Counter Strike teams.

The game has adapted through the ages very well with minimal change. Any development that is disagreeable with the majority of the community can be analyzed and improved on as well as the development of market and individual improvement and joy of the game. It takes more than just run and gun luck to achieve in this type of shooter. A player must be methodical as well as adaptive instinct for certain situation. For the cost of $15 United States dollars I believe this game is well done and achieves the entertainment that is obtained by the purchase. Is it the perfect shooter? I do not believe so. Not by far but it certainly extends past most.







Works Cited
Dyer, Mitch. IGN. 27 August 2012. 9 April 2016. <http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/28/counter-strike-global-offensive-review>.
Lahti, Evan. PC Gamer. 24 August 2012. 9 April 2016. <http://www.pcgamer.com/counter-strike-global-offensive-review/>.