Counter-Strike is a first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation. It was initially developed and released as a Half-Lifemodification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe in 1999, before Le and Cliffe were hired and the game's intellectual property acquired. Counter-Strike was first released by Valve on the Microsoft Windows platform in 2000. The game later spawned a franchise, and is the first installment in the Counter-Strike series. Several remakes and Ports of Counter-Strike have been released on the Xbox console, as well as OS X and Linux.
Set in various locations around the globe, players assume the roles of members of combating teams that include counter-terrorists and terrorists.
During each round of gameplay, the two teams are tasked with defeating
the other by the means of either achieving the map's objectives, or else
killing all of the enemy combatants. Each player may customize their
arsenal of weapons and accessories at the beginning of every match, with
currency being earned after the end of each round.
Gameplay
Counter-Strike is a first-person shooter game in which players
join either the terrorist team, the counter-terrorist team, or become
spectators. Each team attempts to complete their mission objective
and/or eliminate the opposing team. Each round starts with the two teams
spawning simultaneously.
The objectives vary depending on the type of map, and these are the most usual ones:
Bomb defusal: The terrorists must carry a bomb, plant it on
one of the designated spots and protect it from being disarmed by the
counter-terrorists before it explodes to win. The counter-terrorists win
if the time runs out with no conclusion.
Hostage rescue: The counter-terrorists must rescue a group of
hostages held by the terrorists to win. The terrorists win if the time
runs out with no conclusion.
VIP escort: One of the counter-terrorists is chosen to act as
a VIP and the team must escort this player to a designated spot on the
map to win the game. The terrorists win if the VIP is killed or if the
time runs out with no conclusion.
A player can choose to play as one of eight different default character models (four for each side, although Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
added two extra models, bringing the total to ten). Players are
generally given a few seconds before the round begins (known as "freeze
time") to prepare and buy equipment, during which they cannot attack or
move. They can return to the buy area within a set amount of time to buy
more equipment (some custom maps included neutral "buy zones" that
could be used by both teams). Once the round has ended, surviving
players retain their equipment for use in the next round; players who
were killed begin the next round with the basic default starting
equipment.
Standard monetary bonuses are awarded for winning a round, losing a
round, killing an enemy, being the first to instruct a hostage to
follow, rescuing a hostage, planting the bomb (Terrorist) or defusing
the bomb (Counter-Terrorist).
The scoreboard displays team scores in addition to statistics for each player: name, kills, deaths, and ping
(in milliseconds). The scoreboard also indicates whether a player is
dead, carrying the bomb (on bomb maps), or is the VIP (on assassination
maps), although information on players on the opposing team is hidden
from a player until his/her death, as this information can be important.
Killed players become "spectators" for the duration of the round;
they cannot change their names before their next spawn, text chat cannot
be sent to or received from live players, and voice chat can only be
received from live players and not sent to them. Spectators are
generally able to watch the rest of the round from multiple selectable
views, although some servers disable some of these views to prevent dead
players from relaying information about living players to their
teammates through alternative media (most notably voice in the case of Internet cafes and Voice over IP programs such as TeamSpeak or Ventrilo). This form of cheating is known as "ghosting."
Valve anti-cheat
Valve has implemented an anti-cheat system called Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC). Players cheating on a VAC-enabled server risk having their account permanently banned from all VAC-secured servers.
With the first version of VAC, a ban took hold almost instantly after
being detected and the cheater had to wait two years to have the
account unbanned. Since VAC's second version, cheaters are not banned
automatically. With the second version, Valve instituted a policy of
'delayed bans,' the theory being that if a new hack is developed which
circumvents the VAC system, it will spread amongst the 'cheating'
community. By delaying the initial ban, Valve hopes to identify and ban
as many cheaters as possible. Like any software detection system, some
cheats are not detected by VAC. To remedy this, some servers implement a
voting system, in which case players can call for a vote to kick or ban
the accused cheater. VAC's success at identifying cheats and banning
those who use them has also provided a boost in the purchasing of
private cheats.
These cheats are updated frequently to minimize the risk of detection,
and are generally only available to a trusted list of recipients who
collectively promise not to reveal the underlying design. Even with
private cheats however, some servers have alternative anticheats to
coincide with VAC itself. This can help with detecting some cheaters, but most paid for cheats are designed to bypass these alternative server-based anticheats.
Cheats
Counter-Strike has been a big target for exploitation by cheaters since its release. In-game, cheating is often referred to as "hacking" in reference to programs or "hacks" executed by the client.
Wallhacks allows players to see through walls. These work by
displaying objects that are normally obscured or by replacing opaque
game textures with translucent ones. As the engine renders only the immediate area around the player, this does not allow a player to see the entire level at once.
Speedhacks give the player increased foot speed. These work by sending false synchronization data to the server.
No recoil removes any recoil (and thus improves accuracy) from a player's weapon.
No spread is used to remove the random deviation normally experienced when the player shoots. This is similar to the recoil hack.
Aimbots
auto-target other players. Some include auto-shot. These work by using
the game client library to calculate an enemy player's 2D coordinates
from 3D space and automatically moving the player's mouse to the enemy
target. It also consists of headshot aiming where a player shoots a
bullet at the enemy which directly hits the enemy's head.
Silent Aimbots works with the way networking works in id Tech.
Viewangles are sent to the server via packets, and totally out-of-sync
with frames. Typically, multiple packets will be sent every frame.
Therefore, a hacker can manipulate the system and have different angles
sent to the server than the angles that are displayed on screen each
frame, making it appear as if your view isn't moving with the aimbot.
ESP
shows textual information about the enemy; such as health, name and
distance; also information about weapons lying around the map, which
could be missed without the hack. Most ESP cheats show info through
walls.
Barrel hack depicts an enemy's gaze as a visible line, this is also visible in the killcam.
Anti-flash and anti-smoke remove the effects of the flashbang and smoke grenade. Implementation is derived from the wall hack.
Unlimited HP and ammo are not hacks, but are server-side modifications.
Bunnyhop script a script that causes the player to jump
exactly when they hit the ground, this can be exploited along with
strafing to gain an unreasonable amount of speed (bunnyhopping can
commonly be mistaken as speed hacking). This can be done legitimately as
well, but is not nearly as effective. Players can navigate a map in a
fraction of what it would take normally via bunnyhopping.
No-clip allows players to move through the map without regard
to traditional wall boundaries. This means players are like ghosts that
can move through obstacles.
Series
Counter-Strike (frequently abbreviated as CS) is a series of multiplayer first-person shooter video games, in which teams of terrorists and counter-terrorists
battle to, respectively, perpetrate an act of terror (bombing,
hostage-taking) and prevent it (bomb defusal, hostage rescue). The
series began on Windows in 1999 with the first version of Counter-Strike. It was initially released as a modification for Half-Life and developed by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe, before the rights to the game's intellectual property were acquired by Valve Corporation, the developers of Half-Life. The game was followed-up with Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, developed by Turtle Rock Studios and released in 2004. Later that same year, Counter-Strike: Source was released by Valve Corporation. Released only eight months after Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, in November 2004, the game was a remake of the original Counter-Strike and the first in the series to run on Valve's newly created Source engine.
An arcade adaption of the Counter-Strike series titled Counter-Strike Neo was released in 2005. In contrast to previous iterations in the series, the game was developed by Nexon Corporation and published by Namco. With various parallels to Counter-Strike Neo, Counter-Strike Online was released in 2008, developed again by Nexon Corporation with oversight from Valve Corporation.
The fourth game in the main series to have been developed by Valve, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, was released in 2012 for Windows, OS X, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Hidden Path Entertainment, who also worked on Counter-Strike: Source post-release, helped to develop the game alongside Valve.
Announced in 2012 and aimed at the Asian gaming market, a sequel to Counter-Strike Online titled Counter-Strike Online 2 was developed by Nexon Corporation.