Counter-Strike introduced several new concepts to multiplayer gaming, most notably the buy zone at the start of each round where players buy their equipment using money gained. Then there’s the respawn rules, if you get killed during a round, even if it is thirty seconds in, you are dead, completely dead with no respawn and all you can do is watch your team until the round ends.
The combat is on the realistic side and tactics definitely work so teams that communicate well and cover each other generally win. The weapons are all based on real world weaponry so there are Desert Eagle’s, AK-47’s and flash-bang grenades to blind the enemy. Each side has different weaponry available and they earn money as the rounds advance which can be spent on better weaponry in the next round.
Key to the success of the game is the maps. Games are played on a variety of maps and each is perfectly balanced to give both sides a reasonable chance of victory. The tactics people have developed for individual maps are complex and varied. In my experience each round starts with a mad dash to a choke point where the majority of the combatants are gunned down, then the rest of the round plays out as an agonizingly slow cat and mouse game with crouching, cautious gamers circling around each other. Due to my trigger happy nature and impatience I’d often find myself felled in the first skirmish but being able to observe your team in action for the rest of the round is a good way to learn maps and tactics and before long I was learning basic military principles.
