What started as a Half Life Mod on the PC turned into a gaming way of life for many players. The all singing all dancing Counterstrike. Developed by Valve this four year old game finally makes the jump to Xbox and Xbox Live. Now Xbox players can enjoy the delights the game has to offer free of cheating (as featured in the PC version) and also coming complete with some exclusive levels and character skins. Welcome to Counterstrike.

Gameplay:
What is CounterStrike? Well for those of you who dont know then as the name suggests is a First Person Shooter that pits two opposing teams against one another. One team being the bad guys (the terrorists) and the other team being the good guys (counter terrorists). The Xbox version currently has two modes of play which are hostage rescue and demolition. Hostage rescue involves the terrorists preventing the counter terrorists from rescuing the hostages. Demolition involves the terrorists planting a bomb at a certain location on a map and then preventing the counter terrorists from defusing the bomb. Confused? You shouldn't be as the gameplay is very simple. Playing far more fast paced than any Clancey game and being more akin to say Wolfenstein the onus here is kill or be killed. There is not much room for manoeuvre as if you or your opponent are spotted then you or they are usually dead 2 seconds later.

When you start a game either offline or online the player decides which team to be on. Once selected then its down to the player to select which weapons and equipment to purchase. This feature is neat yet a little simplistic. You see each player from both teams starts with an opening budget, lets say 1000 as an example. Prior to the round starting and usually within a small time limit players have the option to purchase weapons and items that they can afford. With 1000 this will be enough to buy a pistol and some ammo or perhaps body armour and a grenade. Each team having different sets of weapons available for them to buy.The first round is often pretty evenly matched as no team has an advantage at this stage. The winners of the first round get a bigger cash boost for the next round which enables them to start buying some of the meatier weapons such as SMGs, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles and heavy machine guns.

Playing counterstrike offline is fun for a while in single player as the enemy AI for the bots can be very realistic at times. The AI works in teams, camps in vital locations and generally acts almost human. However the lack of any campaign or story mode lets the title down, especially if you are looking for another Rainbow Six 3. There are a number of game options for the single player to tweak but the lack of game modes again lets the title down.

Graphics:
The graphics on display here are a mixed bag. My initial impressions were "hmmm dated" yet they serve their purpose well. Some levels looking better than others. Again Counterstrike has never been about graphics although many of you would argue that in this day and age Xbox games have raised the bar somewhat.

I was still very impressed with the character models which can be viewed in third person while you are waiting to join a game or waiting for the next round. Those terrorists with goatie beards, berets and shades looking convincing and perfect for my next tea bag exercise.

Sound:
This is another area that equally impresses yet fails to inspire at the same time. The actual sound FX especially the voice samples are terrible. There was obviously no effort put into re-recording these voices at a higher sample rate which results in voices sounding as crisp as something from an 80's home computer. Ok I may be exaggerating a little and perhaps overstating the importance of the voices but to me it smells of sloppyness.

What is an excellent move and perhaps makes up for the terrible sound quality overall is the fact that custom soundtracks are supported. This is well needed and adds some personality to the game. 10/10 for the inclusion of this feature.

Longevity:
Playing through the 16 odd maps in single player against bots is fun for a while but will only hold the diehard fans attention for limited periods of time. Sadly there is no splitscreen mode for those sessions with friends huddled around a single tv. System Link is supported which is great for those who use the feature on a regular basis. The main emphasis for the game seems to revolve around Xbox Live which the majority of Xbox owners dont actually have. It is here that the game comes into its own as a multiplayer frag fest. The whole concept of the game is well suited for Live as players can play games endlessly with others around the world (up to 16 players). However the lack of game modes also affects the Live aspect as well, with little variation to keep the non die hards interested for long periods.Also I found a distinct lack of communication compared to other Live games as most people opt to go gung ho Rambo style. Humans vs bots can be quite fun especially on the hardest settings and definitely calls for some teamwork. The hostage mode online is totally pointless as most players will eliminate each other before trying to rescue the hostages.

Downloadable content is on offer here and will hopefully add some new game types, although no one is certain at this time as to what the content will be. Overall a game to be played in small doses in my opinion.

Round Up:
Hopes were extremely high for this game prior to its release. With such a big name title being released on Xbox you would expect something special. Sadly what we have here is a standard port of an old PC game and it shows. I guess this is one of those games that you will either love or hate. The whole concept behind the game is excellent yet could have been so much more had some extra effort been put into its production. With games such as Rainbow Six raising the bar for Live play this game will sadly not appeal to the masses which is a shame really. I like the game but not enough to ignore its faults which sadly brings the score down. Again not an essential purchase and should be avoided if you dont have Xbox Live.

Pros:

• Fast paced gameplay
  
• nice character models
  
• varied maps
  
• The cash system
  

  Cons:
  

  • lack of game types
    
  • poor single player
    
  • not playable for long periods
    
  • lack of team communication on Live