Recent reviews by garnix

To say that CS: GO feels stripped-back by comparison will come as no surprise; but to say it’s the most elegantly balanced, skill-oriented and thrilling shooter we’ve had the pleasure of playing for quite some time… Well, that’s a pill some might find hard to swallow.

The setup is simple: two teams – one terrorist, the other counter-terrorist – start at opposite ends of the map, with the two main objective modes involving either the terrorist team planting a bomb, or the counter-terrorist squad rescuing hostages. Kills and mission success reward players with cash to buy weapons at the beginning of each round, and with zero respawns, players are encouraged to be a little more cautious with their tactics.

This is where balance comes into play. Regardless of how many hours you have pumped into online servers, every player starts off on an even standing. That’s not to say that newcomers won’t feel the biting indignity of an early trouncing when they jump into the game for the first time – in fact, Counter-Strike players form one of the most hardened and elite communities in gaming. But CS: GO rewards time, patience and earned skill, which unfortunately has become something of a rarity in the genre.


Players can prolong being chewed up on servers straight away. Weapons Course acts a serviceable introduction to the fundamental mechanics and offers a fleeting appearance of Valve’s trademark laconic wit, and is particularly beneficial to introduce console players to the controls. Elsewhere, two new modes – Arms Race and Demolition – feel a little bit more relaxed than standard team deathmatch rounds. Both are derived from Gun Game, which has had something of a renaissance in recent years since Call Of Duty: Black Ops included it as a Wager Match, but it actually began life as a Counter-Strike mod years prior. Here, each kill rewards the player immediately with a new gun, with the first to cycle through all the game’s weapons declared the victor.

I think its a good game. The best FPS game there is on steam so far.
Overall I give it 9/10