This shooter video game is not only the game - it is a real epoch, cult entertainment for millions and millions people all over the world. From 1999 year and up to the present simple, but super-exiting CS has been attracting the attention of different-aged gamers, and even after one dozen years it didn't go out of date. Let's try to trace its storyline to find out the secret of Counter-Strike popularity.
As you know the first version of Counter-Strike was just the Half-Life modification. That's why the list of weapons was a little bit poor, and the maps were far from the ideal. But nevertheless the game became extremely popular almost in a few days, and there was no secret at all. At that time Counter-Strike was the only one interesting multiplayer game, and it just had no competitors. Counter-Strike was fresh, bright and exciting, it had easy gameplay and allowed users playing with each other. And till now Counter-Strike is popular because it is the multiplayer game, and just a little part of gamers like playing solo against bots.
The developers were at the height of the success, but they kept upgrading Counter-Strike. There were a lot of game's version, but the most important ones were 1.3, 1.5 and 1.6. The developers tried to fix bugs and to add something new to the game, and finally they created CS 1.6 - not only the game, but the legend.
For a short period of time there were no significant updates of Counter-Strike, but in 2004 the developers created very specific add-on - CS: Condition Zero - that had to become the single-player version of original CS. It is no wonder that the game was failed. As we have already mentioned, no one likes playing Counter-Strike solo, and after a while even the inveterate fans have forgotten about Condition Zero.
As the developers realized that Counter-Strike had to be only multiplayer game, they began working on another game's version. And in the same 2004 they released completely new CS: Source. At the first time this game was released to the owners of CS: Condition Zero and Half-Life 2, maybe because it was written using the Source game engine, originally developed for Half-Life 2. While Half-Life 2 became very popular and received the highest marks from critics, the success of CS: Source was in doubt.
The main concept of CS: Source was really brilliant. The developers wanted to save the original Counter-Strike, but change the game engine. Frankly speaking, they had no choice. If the developers had changed the usual gameplay or the sacred atmosphere, the main part of fans would shower them with rotten tomatoes. So they tried to be nice for everybody and created almost the same version of Counter-Strike as they had released before. Excited gamers were playing Counter-Strike: Source for a month or two and then realized, that CS 1.6 still is the best.
Counter-Strike: Source is not exactly unpopular. Now maybe a half of the whole fans like and prefer this game. And we can definitely say that the newest version of CS - Global Offensive - was created especially for Source's fans.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released on 21-st of August, 2012 and is a little step from the shooter of previous century to the modern gaming reality. The game is based on the Source game engine, but the graphics of this version was slightly improved. Now the textures are more clear and the colors look closer to the real ones. The map remained almost the same, but those, who knows all the locations by heart, wouldn't find some boxes and walls. The physics of the game changed a little, and the gamers notice that in CS: GO it is rather difficult to hit the target.
Some changes touched the weapons, and also in new version we will get several new grenades. The most interesting ones are Molotov cocktail and false bomb. First grenade speak for itself - it causes the great explosion that is very helpful in tunnels. The second one doesn't hurt anybody, but sounds like the gun burst and can disorient your opponent.
Also in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive we will get two new modes: Arms Race and Demolition. In Arms Race mode you can't buy any weapon, but you will receive it after each murder. So, the more people you killed, the more weapons you would get. In Demolition mode you will get new weapon in the end of the round.
The official trailer:
And this is how fans see new Counter-Strike:
With Global Offensive version Counter-Strike became a little bit better, a little bit more interesting and realistic. But in comparison with many other similar games, that appeared during the last 10 years, this one doesn't look contemporary. It is interesting only for old fans, but when there are millions of them, the game still remains popular. But Counter-Strike is a legend, and as every legend sooner or later this game will become a history.
