Half-Life: Counter-Strike 1.0

Including Counter-Strike 1.0, Team Fortress 1.5, Half-Life death match Footsteps rattle through the vent above the warehouse. The player guarding the hostages turns to cover it. Outside the back door, a second attacker has been waiting for precisely that sound. Counter-Strike puts two teams of human players on opposite sides of a modern tactical engagement, gives each side a job to do, and gives every player one life per round. Sometimes the teammate who wins the round is the one who gets the defenders looking the wrong way. On the original Dust, the Terrorists carry C4 through sunlit sandstone passages toward one of two targets. Crates break up the sightlines in the central hall, while the underpass leaves anyone emerging from it exposed to a defender above. Plant the bomb and the whole round changes direction. The attackers settle in to hold the site they just took. The Counter-Terrorists have to retake it with enough time left for someone to put their weapon away and defuse the charge. A defusal kit bought at the start of the round can suddenly be the most valuable item on the map. Hostage rescue gives those last few seconds a different urgency. On Assault, the roof vent and warehouse doors offer ways in, but reaching the hostages is only half the trip. Someone still has to lead them back out. Oilrig puts that responsibility in another player’s hands. One Counter-Terrorist becomes the VIP, armed with a pistol and dependent on the team for a safe route to the helicopter. An escort can clear most of the platform and still lose the round to the one opponent watching the final ramp. The next round begins with the consequences of the last one. Survivors keep their weapons. A recovered rifle can go to a teammate who can barely afford armour, and a team saving its money together can come back fully equipped one round later. Spare ammunition, flashbangs and defusal kits all compete for that same budget. Version 1.0 expands the armoury with the UMP .45, the Five-Seven pistol and the scoped SG-550, each suited to a different kind of engagement. Play over a LAN or the internet and a familiar map soon takes on the habits of the people playing it. The opponent who rushed the front entrance last round might walk quietly to the back this time. A radio call for backup might draw the only teammate close enough to help. When the warehouse finally falls silent, the question is whether you have cleared the building or whether somebody, somewhere, has simply stopped moving.