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Have you ever wanted to feel once more the same thrill and nostalgia as back in the days during your old school Counter-Strike adventures, but on a next generation engine and modern appearance?Well, have no fear, as this time has come and we have exactly the thing you have been looking for all of these years... or at the least the base of it.Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive is a modification currently in early beta development byZooL that strives to bring back classic aspects and elements that exist in the previous editions of the Counter-Strike franchise to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, while in the same time preserving some of the current version's successful and tested features and respective.This includes features like significantly enhanced movement, upgraded wall penetration, the community favorite and familiar to most of us sounds from the previous versions, simplified maps and improved overall visibility, a new wave mode called "Guardian" and last, but not least, the all time favorite SMG, the MP5!I had the opportunity to test the game during the closed beta and after a bit more than an hour of playing it, I was pleasantly surprised to see how less of an adjustments are needed to make such a big difference. Scroll down below to see what the key features of the Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive project are to this date.The first thing you are undoubtedly going to notice is how much the movement has been improved compared to CS:GO's default. It resembles the one from the original Counter-Strike to a degree, as you can now consistently and smoothly maneuver while in air, allowing you to do things like evading a fight situation by strafe jumping around corners much more efficiently, or enter an opponent-held territory a bit safer and much faster than you could before. This improvement also allows you to peak corners on a whole different level, which in result can give you the upper hand in many different situations unlike in Global Offensive. Although that bunny hopping is not as consistent as it should be due to engine limitations, it is still overall better than the one present in CS:GO. Unfortunately due to the same reason duck jumping, also known as "Russian Walk" to some, is not present in this version.The second huge difference that exists in Classic Offensive is one that I always wanted to have in CS:GO. That is consistent wallbanging. Yes! You can now shoot through corners, concrete walls, crates and other sort of obstacles that may occur in your way in a nearly perfect fashion. You must however note that is it by far not as extreme as in Counter-Strike 1.6, which means you cannot simply do damage to a player from miles away or anything alike, but regardless it gives you the chance to play certain situations in a straight fight, as I believe it should be, rather than hide and seek. This is Counter-Strike after all.There are other lesser changes that have been applied to the game's mechanics and gameplay, some of which are not mentioned in this article, but you are welcome to go ahead and explore them.Currently only the original weapons from the previous games, excluding the tactical shield and nightvision goggles, are available in the modification and none of the extra weapons that were added in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.We are welcoming back the M4A1 as the one and only primary assault rifle for the Counter-Terrorists. You can no longer choose between two different version, as this one is a replica of the one from the original version. You can now also quickly take on and off the silencer. As mentioned above, we are also welcoming back the most used sub-machine gun back in Counter-Strike 1.6, the MP5. The difference between these weapons and the one from the original version is however that all of them are using tweaked CS:GO patterns rather than CS 1.6's ones, which makes them just as useful as they were in CS:GO and thus maintaining another important factor, balance.This also means that the accuracy and recoil of all weapons is nearly the same as in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a few slight adjustments here and there, but is more controllable to a sense.There are currently only four maps of the series that have been redesigned and added as official in Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive. These are in no particular order Dust II, Inferno, Mirage and Italy. There are also two community created maps added as well as special winter edition of Dust II right in time for Christmas!All maps have been simplified, redesigned to have nearly the same outline as the ones from Counter-Strike 1.6 and most importantly cleaned from needless resources and props, which not only improves the overall gameplay and visibility, but also helps with in-game performance. The levels are slightly brighter and should be nicer for your eyes.You should also be able to play the majority of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive maps on this modification as well.There are four modes that currently exist in Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive:- Deathmatch- Guardian- Demolition- Classic (Casual/Competitive)Three of these modes are in no need for an introduction as they are already well known and present in CS:GO by default and feature no significant changes. The fourth however is exclusive for the Classic Offensive modification.Guardian is a wave mode that simulates a bombsite defense scenario in which you can practice site holds against AI players alone or with teammates.Please note that matchmaking is currently unavailable in Beta 1.1b. More information will be revealed soon.The aim of the Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive project is not to replicate Counter-Strike 1.6 or any of the other previous version, but rather to add major features and aspects based on them to the Global Offensive respective, unlikeAlex Garfield's ProMod for instance.For example you can still pick up weapons by pressing the use key or throw grenades with the right click and enjoy all the other features that were added in CS:GO, but also do so with some of the classic aspects that made the Counter-Strike franchise what it is today.On the other hand, the game brings back elements such as the same radio commands as in CS 1.6, classic player and weapon models, adjusted Glock and Famas' burst fire and more.Unfortunately the engine that renders CS:GO is not as open and customizable as the one of Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source, which massively impedes the development progress and goals of Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive. The majority of the aspects are still heavily dependent on updates delivered by Valve Corporation and elements such as boosting, also known as player stacking, is nearly impossible to replicate.The GUI (Graphical User Interface) and HUD (Head-Up Display) are also limited to customization and for this reason the appearance has not changed much.I am fascinated of what the project has achieved so far for this short period and I am definitely looking forward to see the progress of it. As an experienced former professional Counter-Strike 1.6 player I do believe that the modification is being pulled in the right direction and has a bright future as an entertainment project and I encourage all players, especially those with a competitive background in the previous versions, that are still looking for that CS 1.6 nostalgia to try out this classic based skin-free game and share thoughts with us!The modification has now been released to open beta and is available for download, so do not hesitate to head over moddb.com and take a look for yourself. Feel free to provide feedback and tell us your opinion via the comment section below or throughout our social medias.Furthermore SK Gaming will soon release an in-depth interview with ZooL to provide more information about the project and more. Stay tuned.