Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is among the most competitive and popular first-person shooter games in the world. The game also comes from a long-standing series.

Does it deserve all the popularity? This review will have a storyline, gameplay, graphics & SFX and finally, a personal thought section. Without further ado:

Table of Contents

Storyline

The storyline is the simple and usual Terrorists versus Counter-Terrorists (CT) trope the series had since the beginning.

Gameplay

The gameplay is where all the game is at. The fact that you can be a Terrorist or a CT is not just cosmetic, you don’t just grab a few weapons and start slaughtering each other.

Each team has a different objective, a different start point and a few differences in equipment and weapon choice. Fortunately, to stay balanced, you’ll be playing half the game as one team, and for the rest of the game with the other.

Let’s start with their objectives:

There are (usually) two sites in any given map called the A Site and the B Site. The terrorists can use any of the two sites to plant their bomb. As a CT, your purpose is to guard both sites so no terrorists go through and kill them all.

If the terrorists get to plant the bomb, then the CT must defuse the bomb before it explodes in 40 seconds.

If the CT defuse the bomb they win the round, regardless of how many terrorists are alive.

Another alternative way of winning as a CT is to wait out the 3-minute timer, however, the timer is canceled if the bomb is planted.

The Terrorists have the exact opposite win conditions. They must either kill every CT or by the bomb exploding.

If the terrorists plant the bomb and then die, they can still win, as long as the bomb sets off.

As mentioned earlier, the bomb explodes in 40 seconds, and a CT need 10 seconds to defuse it without being interrupted (or 5 seconds if they bought a defuse kit).

There is a casual and competitive game mode, and they have quite some differences.

The competitive is the classic one; there are at most 30 rounds, but the games usually don’t reach that far.

The game is 5v5 and the first team to get to 16 points win. In the case of 15-15, the game is declared a draw. After the first 15 rounds, the players switch sides; the CT become terrorists and vice versa.

The ranking system is unknown as Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve maintain a silent state about it, but there are speculations. The general idea is that the better you play, the easier you climb.

The game is extremely competitive due to its complicated mechanics. Despite the objectives, it’s still not just a simple gun fest. The game has many micro and macro mechanics.

For starters, each game has a dedicated economy.

Each player has his own pot. You win money as a team based on a number of things like way of winning, the status of the bomb, opponents and allies alive, the weapons you use to kill and most importantly, early streaks.

There are many more things with the game’s economy that you’ll learn by playing. One simple thing is an “eco” round, in which you buy nothing to save money. The economy fully resets when the players switch sides.

You can use your money to buy a gun, a pistol, a Kevlar and helmet, a defuse kit if you are a CT, and up to 4 grenades (from a choice of 5).

The grenades are another thing on their own, as you have to learn how to effectively and optimally throw them, and their effects.

Each grenade is a lot different than the other, they even need a different number of bounces to explode. Some grenades can be used together as a combo.

The weapons are also quite complicated. As expected, each weapon has a different recoil, magazine, power, etc.

You will need to learn which weapon is optimal in which situation, when to burst fire, continuously fire, or one-tap (throwing a bullet at a time), which weapons can penetrate which materials, how much damage you deal and most importantly, where to aim to hit the head.

The game has friendly fire as well, this goes for anything. You lose money for killing a teammate and by killing too many teammates, or one teammate for too many rounds, you get kicked and banned temporarily.

Competitive requires A LOT of communication. The game has in-game voice chat, and you must use this to the fullest lest you want to lose every time. You must use it to give info on the enemy position, or enemy damage taken.

You can also use it when you want to cover a specific point, or trade a weapon, or before you use a grenade. Generally, you’ll want to use it as much as possible, as info is key to victory. I’m not even exaggerating!

It’s even possible to hear someone coming (unless he’s sneaking).

As you see, the game has a lot of macro (economy and positioning) and micro (grenade placement and weapon usage) to handle. That’s why I recommend trying out casual, despite it not being 100% accurate representation.

Firstly, casual games have half the rounds and the switch happens at 8 rounds.

Secondly, there can be up to 10 players in each team. The economy is also a lot different and there is no friendly fire.

There are also other game modes, like hostages and deathmatch. In hostage mode, the CT have to rescue at least one hostage and the Terrorists must make sure this does not happen.

In deathmatch, everyone spawns on random points in the map, with any weapon they choose (or a random one) and spawn immediately when they die.

The collect points by killing enemies. Deathmatch doesn’t have any competitive game mode, and hostages do have competitive but it’s not nearly as popular as the classic bomb scenario.

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Visuals

CS:GO has adequate graphics, especially for a game that can run on most PCs.

The maps are also well done, with some nice details along the walls and doors. CS:GO also has weapon skins unlocked either by buying them with real money or through various loot boxes that drop randomly when you play.

But to open them you need keys, which also cost real money. There are also some “stat-trak” weapons that count every kill you take with that specific weapon. The counter persists through games.

Personal Thoughts

CS:GO is a very well made game, and this shows as it is among the top 5 in the esports department. The game lives from the competitive nature, and is the go-to game for anyone who likes FPS games and competitiveness, especially now that the game is free.

Unfortunately, the game lacks in one department. Like every competitive multiplayer team game, the team will usually drag you down. Unless you have your own squad, be prepared for some serious trolls.

Final Verdict

Storyline: –

Gameplay: 9.0

Visuals: 8.0

General Rating: 8.5/10

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