With the release of Counter-Strike on Xbox Live, how will it stand up to the other shooters presently on Live, and compare to its PC cousin?

Counter-Strike is a modification (MOD) to the excellent game Half-Life. It modifies the multiplayer aspects of Half-Life to bring to it a more team-oriented gameplay. Counter-Strike provides the player with an experience that a trained counter-terrorist unit or terrorist unit experiences.

The MOD features one team playing the role of the terrorist and the other team playing the role of the counter-terrorist. Each side has access to different guns and equipment, as well as different abilities. Maps have different goals such as: hostage rescue, assassination, bomb defusing, Terrorist escape, etc.

Weapons include the usual assortment of pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, grenades, and demolition devices. Each side has access to a different subset of weapons so for example only the counter-terrorist can use the M4A1, and only the terrorists can use the AK-47.

You start the game with the option to be either a Counter Terrorist, or Terrorist. After choosing your likeness it follows the same blend of any other first person shooter, but with a twist. CS is not about gun blazing warfare, but rather tactical execution to complete your goal. As you accomplish the maps mission, or kill an enemy you are awarded money to be used to purchase your guns and armor.

The single player will make the decision for people who still have an eye on this title. It is essentially no different from the online game, only all you play is bots. The bots vary in difficulty and range from being too easy, to on par with a human player. While this is a nice touch for people who wish to “warm up” before playing online, if you do not have Xbox Live, and do not plan on acquiring it, do not buy this title. The multiplayer is where it is at.

The controls are Halo compliant and should offer anyone who has ever played the game, or any other FPS using the same control scheme any problem. It was tough to be in the CS world and not use a mouse and keyboard, but I was able to adjust quite well.

With Xbox Lives’ voice chat capabilities Counter-Strike goes from being just a direct clone to a totally new experience of the title. While PC players do have the option of using voice communication, it is not widely used. Pretty much everyone on Live was using this feature and it really added to the team strategy. While on the PC you typically play on the same servers and learn your teammates tendencies, on the Xbox version there is almost no need since you an audibly hear what is going on.

Graphically the title is still based on the Half-Life engine, which uses the original Quake code. Still though the game fluid and has no frame rate issues. Although the models have more poly counts on the Xbox, they do not move as fluid as they do on the PC. Models slide more than run, but it does not distract from gameplay. As anyone who played this title on the PC will tell you, you do not play for the graphics.

While the sound in most games would warrant an entire breakdown, Counter-Strike really only offers you a handful. Gunshots will help you recognize what type of weapon is opening fire on you. With each having a distinct sound, over time you can recognize the fire, and use the guns weaknesses to your advantage. Foot steps sound like, well footsteps. That’s about all that comes from your speakers!

Overall with 16 maps and more being available for download on Xbox Live the game offers more than enough for fans of the title to play online for sometime to come. The problem with reviewing this title though is that Counter-Strike really does not dictate the score of this review; it is based more on the community. As said before the single player in this title is only a tease, the real fun comes in the online play.

Counter-Strike on Xbox does not disappoint and it a quality port of the addictive PC title. Only time will tell though how CS stands on the Xbox. If the community stays active playing this game online then it is a must buy. Only we can add to that community though which is why I would recommend anyone who was a fan of the PC game, or anyone who wants to see what made it the top played game even today to pick this title up!

Counter-Strike is the best first person shooter on Xbox Live. While the single player is more of a training program, the real meat is found on Xbox Live. This is the definitive online shooter for the Xbox.