Intro:

In this article, I want to examine what makes CSGO so unique. CSGO is a game that has been around for nearly 5 years and, despite that, remains relevant, maintaining a popular competitive scene even in the midst of an ephemeral, ever changing eSport/videogame landscape. What compounds this and makes it even more fascinating is that CSGO is a first-person shooter, traditionally a genre reserved for games that have a high turnover rate, coming in and then leaving in a couple of months. Today, I’m going to compare CSGO to various other multiplayer first-person shooters (Overwatch, PUBG, TF2, Halo, Call of Duty, Tribes Ascend, and one of the forefathers: Half Life), and try to encapsulate what makes CSGO such a multifaceted and unique first person shooter game.

What Makes CSGO Unique:

CSGO is a game that owes its origins to a mod of Half Life, alongside TF2. It borrows quite a few concepts from Half-Life and even today, there are still some lingering effects. Unlike the other mod, which became TF2, a more cartoonish and fast paced game, CSGO slowed down gameplay, offering a unique bomb defusal mode where Terrorists were given 2 minutes to try to attack the Counter-Terrorists’ bomb sites, plant the bomb, and successfully detonate the bomb. Each round win would add one to the respective side, and the losing team would get less money than the winning team, limiting their ability to buy up certain weapons and utility. While Quake, Tribes Ascend, and later, Battlefront 1942, COD Modern Warfare 4, and Halo would arrive on the scene with their respective transformative mechanics and updated graphics, Counter-Strike kept a foothold in the FPS genre.

Text on Dust 2 which translates to "Freeman was here", a nod to Half Life.

1. Simple and Sustainable Model of Development:

CSGO is a game that was only released due to needing to update the engine/graphics for CS 1.6 and CS: Source. As a consequence, many of the core features of CSGO are the same as its predecessor games, with a few notable exceptions (weapon removal, movement mechanics, etc.). It was a game made to be sustainable, not part of a franchise that must push out additional sequels. COD, Halo, and other various games are meant to be games only on the market for a year before a sequel is then produced.

They are much like iPhones as there is always one more coming on the horizon. This creates a feeling of expendability, as the patches come slower and lower quality until they stop coming at all for that game. On the contrary, CSGO is continuously updated by the devs and carefully tweaked according to audience feedback. As much as we hate on Valve, they make a conscious effort to make their game better through the years, even though they sometimes make some boneheaded decisions. The game is always growing and changing in little ways, making us keep coming back as the other games stagnate in their development, remaining the same.

2. Realistic, Simplistic and Appropriately Paced Gameplay:

H1Z1 and PUBG require a lot of time to play because of how the game is set up. You have to scavenge resources and supplies needed to survive in the beginning and the action is intermittent, killing a few people in a short time, and then waiting for the next action to happen as the bubble shrinks smaller. You never respawn and instead must search for a different game. You can't shoot when you are running or moving, emphasizing that you strike when the opportunity arises, but must bide your time in the meanwhile. Utility is used situationally and there are so many items that help your health, armor, or modify your gun.

The skill floor in these type of games is quite high as you have to learn a lot to even jump into the game and not die near instantaneously. Contrary to this, COD, Halo, TF2, OW, and Tribes Ascend are all fast paced with near instant respawns. You can move and shoot without any penalty, emphasizing running around taking gunfights. You set up your various items, modifications, and perks before game and can switch classes in between respawns. The exhilaration of fast paced gameplay means that it is both easy to take up and play casually, making the skill floor quite low. CSGO is a game that offers a nice in between for these games. You can move and shoot; it is just highly inaccurate. Your skill in this game determines how the later rounds play out as you are forced to adjust your purchases and strategies, contrary to the other games where you scavenge your weapons or respawn with the same weapons.

Rounds are 2:00 minutes, long enough to punish you for dying early in the round, but not long enough for you to lose interest or have to go seek out another game. The skill floor is quite high, but once you overcome the initial learning curve, it is a relatively simple game that has a nice blend of pace and appropriate gameplay wrinkles.

3. Extremely High Skill Ceiling:

Despite the relatively simple core concepts of the gameplay, Counter-Strike is an extremely hard game to master, not holding your hand and assisting you with a scope or various perks to even up the playing field. There are no ultimates/abilities like in OW, no unlocks like in COD and TF2, and relatively low variance/luck like in PUBG and H1Z1 with the spawns. Even with the aim based nature of the game, it still requires you to master the mechanics of movement (bunnyhopping, boosting, etc.) and spots for smokes/nades.

Your game sense and your ability to outsmart your opponents plays a huge factor in your ability to play the game as well. Recoil, crosshair placement, retakes, clutching, executions; all these are terms that mean something once you start learning the game. All this culminates in a feeling of gratification when you hit that Deagle headshot with one bullet left or your clutch 1v5 in an important round.

Valve adjusted matchmaking, allowing for people to test their skill against similarly skilled players.

Conclusion:

What makes CSGO so relevant is that it possesses all of these well thought out features, not just a few of them. By combining all of these tweaks and quirks, CSGO has somehow managed to attract us, even half a decade removed from its launch and 17 years removed from its first launch as the Counter-Strike on Half Life. We all love CSGO, and hopefully, will continue to love it. Long live CSGO.

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