Counter-Strike started out much like any other mod for Half-Life or Quake. A couple of guys thought that they had a good idea here, so they recruited some people to help them out with the implementation. What they had was not a good idea. What they had was pure genius.

The theme of Counter-Strike is based on real-world terrorist and counter-terrorist situations that involve hostages and the bombing of special targets (like a warehouse where a nuclear missile is kept). True to the theme, the team that works together the best wins the most. Because death is easy to come by, it is imperative that players learn how to work together lest they be gunned down alone.

The gameplay mechanics are well thought out and balanced: there is an arsenal of weapons and items that players can use, and each comes with its own price tag. Players gain money by killing players on the opposing team, rescuing hostages (counter-terrorists), keeping hostages (terrorists), and by winning the round by either killing the entire opposing team, rescuing all hostages, or successfully bombing a target (terrorists). The more money a player earns, the more he can buy. Never fear though, there is a cap on how much a player can have ($16,000), and in the interest of balancing a team that always loses against a team that always wins, the money system is generous enough to give the losing team a fighting chance.

Although the graphics of any modification are heavily dependant on the game engine that they are derived from, a mod wouldn't be a mod if there weren't custom models and skins. The models and skins in CS are of top-notch quality. There are two CT and T models to choose from in the game (Seal TEAM 6 and German GSG 9 for CTs and The Phoenix Faction and Durah Cell for Ts…yes, the Durah Cell is a joke). The weapon models are all finely detailed and match their real-world counterparts. There are also custom death animations in the game, and your enemies will die in a proper way depending on where you hit them and with what kind of gun. To add to the already large amounts of variety within the game, there are dozens of sites dedicated to making custom skins for character and weapon models (for instance, I like to use the Jolt Cola skin for my concussion grenade and the Farmer Bob skin for the scientist hostage models).

The sound in CS is excellent. The weapon sounds all sound real (real-life recordings perhaps?) and so do the dying groan of someone unfortunate enough to be in the path of a bullet or ten. There are also 16 radio voice commands that can be used by all the players. Ranging from things like "I'll take the point, cover me" and "Team, fall back!", the messages are perfect for when the action is too hot to take the time to type something.

And now, the really good stuff: weapons. There are 15 weapons to choose from, each in their own categories and each with their own strengths and weakness. For example, the AK-47 does tremendous damage at close range, but because of its inaccuracy and powerful recoil, is of little use at long range. There are 4 pistols, 1 shotgun, 3 submachine guns, 6 rifles (3 of which are sniper rifles), and 1 machine gun. Each side also has one weapon that only that team can use (only the Terrorists can use the AK-47 and only the Counter-Terrorists can use the M4A1 Colt rifle) All the guns are real-world based, and as far as I can tell, are accurate in their representations within the game. There are also a few other things that both teams can buy: a kevlar vest, a kevlar vest with helmet combo, a concussion grenade (blinds any who look at it for several critical seconds and shoots out shrapnel), a HE grenade (the kind that go boom), and night-vision goggles. Also note that the armor is exactly what it is: A kevlar vest is just a vest; it doesn't protect the legs or head, and it is of little use against high-caliber weapons (the Arctic Warfare sniper rifle punches through it as if it was a piece of boiled bread...or something), and the helmet protects the head but not the face.

Since its birth Counter-Strike has only gotten better. At the time of this review beta 4.0 was released 11 days ago and its taken the CS community by storm. With each new release comes more good stuff, such as new models, animations, skins, weapons, maps, objectives, tweaks, and fixes. Upon looking upon the Gamespy charts, Half-Life has always ranked number one of the top five games played (HL is always in the lead by thousands of players) such as Q3 Arena or Unreal Tournament. Once beta 4.0 was released, there were over 11,000 players in HL while the number of players in the other top four games numbered in the lower hundreds. The quality of CS cannot be over-estimated.

This is a professional/retail-class mod that stands high above any others and can be downloaded for free at the official Counter-Strike home page. If you have Half-Life and haven't played the CS mod, I strongly urge you to download it immediately before my violent impulses take the better of me and I….*ahem*. And if you don't have Half-Life, for whatever strange reason, I can realistically say that its worth buying just to get the CS mod (though HL in itself is an awesome game worth getting anyway). The Counter-Strike community is eagerly awaiting the next beta release by the hard-working CS team and I, for one, am part of that horde.

· · · Mithril