Counter-Strike has been a huge part of PC gaming for over a decade now. It first rose to prominence as a mod for Valve classic Half-Life and has since been released as a standalone game on Steam, then as Counter-Strike: Source. The past few weeks (so long as you’re not a PS3 player in the EU) has seen the long-awaited publication of the latest game in the franchise: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . If you’ve been playing this franchise for a long time, there are parts of Global Offensive that you’ll definitely recognise. Some people call it lazy design – those people don’t appreciate quite how attached the core Counter-Strike community are to the staples of the series, however. Take away Dust, impossibly annoying headshots with Desert Eagles from across the map and add in down-the-sights aiming and you’ve got yourself a game the most fervent fans just wouldn’t be interested in.

CS GO vs CS Source

There are differences though, both graphically and in terms of the way the game is played. This week’s blog post is designed to highlight just some of the differences we’ve found as we’ve explored Global Offensive.

Graphics

The source engine has held up rather well. First playable by the general public with Counter-Strike: Source in 2004, it has since been used to power a myriad of games, not least Valve favourites like Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead and Portal 2. Considering the graphical variation between those titles, it shows that – visually – the engine has evolved quite naturally, offering something familiar while updating the textures etc. considerably.

As you’ll see in the screenshots accompanying this article and in the video as well, Counter-Strike: Source is anything but ugly. The textures seem pretty good (until you look too closely), the colours are bright – you can tell what everything is and then some. Lighting effects can be a little disappointing, especially when you enter buildings or tunnels, but for the most part it has been well maintained.

Global Offensive is in another league entirely. Granted, these games came out the best part of a decade apart and so comparing them is hardly fair, but for the sake of this article I’ll list the latest offering’s plus points. Again, colours are bright, textures are superb. Buildings look aged and damaged by war – a huge positive when considering how “clean” Source looked. This lived-in feel is aided by posters and graffiti adorning every wall.

It seems like an obvious thing to say, but Counter-Strike: Global Offensive really does take the series to a whole new level visually and, knowing Valve, it’ll probably look at least competitive for the next five-ten years.

Level Design

The example given in the screenshots and in the video is Dust and it remains largely unchanged. The main structures and passageways are still available and the main avenues for long shots are still an important part of learning how to play in Dust. There are a few minor alterations, mainly to make for quick and safe passage from one part of the map to the other without the annoyance of having to expose yourself (in the least naked way possible) to the enemy. The first example of this change in level design comes with the small wooden bridge connecting the sniper’s nest to the entrance to the main building. It’s a small alteration, but means that a player no longer has to walk all the way around to enter the main building from the left.

As small a change but equally important, the stairway connecting the lower level (beneath the tunnel) to the entrance to the main building means that players are no longer forced to choose between a long and dangerous path beneath the sniper’s nest or a long trek back to the other side of the map. It also opens up a new option to players hoping to sneak a sniper shot towards that area left of the sniper’s nest.

Asides from these minor alterations, there are also a ton of graphical changes, some of which we handled in the graphics section. Gone are the walls that look like they’ve been sponged off before players have been allowed to enter the arena, replaced by broken brick, graffiti and striking political posters. It makes for a more enjoyable experience visually and a more believable one.

HUD/Input

Once you’ve taken a moment to be shocked by the sexy new graphics of Global Offensive, you’ll notice there are a few changes to the way you interact with the game (and in the way the game interacts with you). Although the controls are fairly standard for PC shooters, things have been polished up a little so that things happen more quickly than in source. You no longer have to manually select a weapon when changing with the mouse wheel (moving to the right weapon with the mouse wheel and then clicking to confirm). Moving the mouse wheel now changes the weapon automatically. Again, small changes but things that can make all the difference when you’re in a close fire fight (especially if you’re a sniper).

More than that though, there are a number of small changes that will make all the difference if you’ve been Counter Strike Global Offensive playing for any length of time.

I think the most obvious part of the new HUD (when compared with the Source version of the game) is that the developer has tried to cut back on anything that could be obstructive or distracting, especially in the centre of the screen. The weapon list has moved from the top of the screen to the bottom right, the health/armour count has been made smaller and the map has been made a tighter circle, taking up less surface area on screen.

Oddly enough, if their intention was to reduce the stuff of screen, they’ve added a couple of unnecessary things to Global Offensive. With an always=on reminder of how much money you have, you can plan your next round in advance. This is a silly thing to have on at all times, mainly because after a number of seconds you are no longer able to buy things. Similarly, there’s an always –on score count, just in case you didn’t know which team was winning and you wanted to be distracted during the game.

Conclusion

Global Offensive is a massive improvement over Source, although I know there are people that don’t agree. In terms of user accessibility (the “quick game” option as opposed to having to find a server), graphics and the like, the two just can’t be compared. Of course, there’s also that decade between them that’s hard to ignore. Still, as we’ve proven today, it’s possible for a series as set in its ways as Counter-Strike to evolve. If you’re one of those people who believes Global Offensive has done nothing to expand the series, I can’t properly voice how wrong you really, really are.

Counter Strike official website