I'm sorry, but somebody has to say it: Counterstrike (CS) sucks rocks. It seems to me that much of the gaming press just can't stop fawning over this mod long enough to examine some of its core mechanics critically. I figure somebody has to speak up and say what needs to be said. In my estimation, for a game that prides itself on realism CS is a joke, and not a bloody funny one at that. Since I've just opened myself up to hordes of hate mail, I think it only prudent that I offer first my credentials with first-person shooter games in general, first-person tactical games in general and the specific examples of ridiculous gameplay found in CS that lead me to this conclusion.
Let me say first that I am hardly a newbie. I've been playing first-person shooter (FPS) games since before Quake, and I've done pretty well over the years. Anyone who doubts this is always welcome to go head to head with me in Unreal Tournament (or Quake III Arena if I hadn't uninstalled it from sheer lack of interest) and find out for themselves that I have some skills. I'm not going to be joining the CPL anytime soon, and the top 10% probably have nothing to fear from me. But in my experience, I generally fall out near the top of the heap if not at the top in most FPS games I play. This is similarly the case with Rogue Spear, the Alliance mod for Q3A and several other tactical shooters. I am not clueless when it comes to the run-and-gun style so potent in FPS games nor am I clueless when it's time to hold back and play with a one-shot-one-kill mindset.
Let me say second that I understand why lots of people do play CS. It is a very fast-paced game that is easy to join and easy to leave. It encourages success and punishes failure somewhat through an ingenious economic model that remains forgiving enough to keep hope alive for a losing team despite a string of costly defeats. Further, it seeks to provide a certain amount of realism with real-world weapons and interesting scenarios in which to use them. In short, its design has many brilliant facets. I sure wish I'd thought of it.
Having said those things, however, it's time to explain why I think CS sucks. It sucks because for a game that prides itself on realism, it is just utterly and completely bloody ridiculous. I have had a love/hate relationship with the game since the first time I tried it because of this. I fired it up last night after a long hiatus and figured I'd give it another look-see; you know, to see what (if anything) had changed. Sadly, nothing has changed. It's just as ridiculous as it used to be and perhaps more so if the prominence of the AWP rifle is any indicator.
My beef with the game comes down to one thing: the accuracy/damage model. Last night, for example, I loaded up with the killer shotgun, full armor and plenty of ammo after scrimping and saving for a few rounds. I picked my spot and decided to do a little camping as a CT. Sure enough, I was rewarded quickly enough by a terrorist stupid enough to wander down the halls of de_dust all alone. From a crouching position less than five feet away I centered my gun-sights on his upper back and pulled the trigger. And pulled it again. And again. And again.
I would have pulled it a fifth time you must understand, but by this time the terrorist at whom I'd been shooting must have found it tiresome. I say that because he spun around quickly and killed me with a single burst from his AK-47 while jumping up and down like a damned bunny rabbit. This prompts me to ask ever so gently: what in hell's half acre have the developers been smoking?! I'm sorry, but I have a long history with shotguns in the real world, and at that range I could almost be pointing in the opposite direction and still turn that guy to meat with the first shot.
I wish I could say this is the first time that such a thing has happened, but it isn't. Frankly, it happens to me again and again in almost every game of CS I play. The last time I played CS seriously some months ago I was put off by the most ridiculous thing I'd seen until then, which was actually quite similar. Again it was on de_dust. Again I was behind a terrorist. That time, however, I was even closer. I snuck up until I was easily less than one to two feet from him. I practically nuzzled the muzzle of my M16 right up to the back of his neck and pulled the trigger. The first three round burst apparently missed, as did the second and the third. Again, I would have continued firing, but the terrorist spun around in mid bunny-impersonation and drilled me between the eyes with one shot from a pistol.
Note well: It is completely damned ridiculous that anyone can hit the broad side of a barn while jumping around like a bloody bunny rabbit, just as it is completely damned ridiculous that one can miss again and again and again at point blank range with a bloody shotgun!!!
As if this weren't bad enough, after nearly an hour on the server an AWP whore showed up and started doing his thing. You haven't seen the ridiculous underbelly of CS until you've been killed by being shot in the foot with an AWP. I thought the developers were going to do something about this egregiously stupid little trick. Perhaps I was playing on an older server. I don't really know. What I do know is that I got killed roughly a half-dozen times within as many rounds by the AWP whore firing through walls to hit me in such essential body parts as my feet and arms, though to his credit he did manage a couple of headshots, which I surely admire.
Had I any brains, I would have been done with CS last night, but I decided today to play with a known bunch of guys whom I can trust not to be cheating and all that, namely, the CS platoon for my clan, Steel Maelstrom. All it did for me to practice with them, however, was to reinforce my belief that CS sucks. The most egregious example I can think of involved a terrorist on the cs_militia map. He was standing roughly ten feet away with his side to me while firing at two of my CT colleagues. I crouched and aimed my M16 right at his body center. I fired. And fired. And fired. My entire clip was shot off in short controlled bursts (never more than 4 - 5 rounds) while crouching. He turned around and killed me, seemingly unharmed, again while jumping like a bunny rabbit. I'm sorry, but that's just crap, pure and simple.
The net result is pretty simple: after today I think I'm done completely with CS. There is just no point to playing a game that is so stupidly inconsistent in its implementation and so downright hypocritical with its handling of weapon accuracy and damage. In the real world, getting shot in the foot with an AWP wouldn't kill you. In the real world, jumping up and down like a damned rabbit wouldn't keep you from getting hit, but it would ensure that you hit nothing. And in the real world, a blast from a shotgun at anything less than about ten feet just about guarantees a kill. CS sucks, and I shouldn't waste any more of my time with it. The only reason I may continue playing is because I just can't shake the feeling that the thousands who play it can't all be having as lousy a time as I do. At any rate, It's a pity that CS is a complete and utter sham where it really counts.
05/30/2001