A classic of the genre that has become a legend. Think you know the game well? Then we will surprise you.
The hero of all first-person shooters that almost every gamer is familiar with is Counter-Strike. There are many interesting stories associated with this game that can be told for a long time. Here are the 10 best facts about CS!
Counter-Strike has been the flagship series since its inception as a mod in 1999, and remains the largest first-person shooter project ever since. Almost every gamer is familiar with CS. Today the most recent part of the game (CS: GO) boasts a huge player base and its esports direction is thriving. The franchise is so popular that most of its current cards, including Dust, Seige and Nuke, made by fans.
A game with such a rich history has a lot of little things that fans might not be aware of. Here are 10 things most players don’t know about the Counter-Strike series.
Fact # 1 – It was originally a Half-Life mod
It’s strange to look back and realize that Counter-Strike was not created as a standalone game. CS was originally a mod developed by Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jess “Cliffe” Cliffe for the popular Half-Life game.
After the release, the modification immediately spread over the network and began to attract a large number of players. It eventually became so popular that the rights to the mod were bought by Valve. This is how the first standalone Counter Strike game was born.
Fact # 2 – There is an Arcade version of Counter-Strike
Developed by gaming giant Namco, Counter-Strike Neo is an arcade adaptation of the original CS Mod. The game was released in 2005 and was only available in Japan.
It was one of the few games specifically designed for the Linux operating system. Counter-Strike Neo did not have traditional terrorist and counter-terrorist scenarios. All players were divided into two teams: CSF and NEO, whose visuals were based on the aesthetics of cyberspace. There was only one game mode (bomb defusal).
Fact # 3 – Several bots are named after real people
The names of some of the bots in the game were indeed borrowed from real people. There is a bot on the hard drive named Gabe, which is named after Gabe Newell, the founder of Steam.
There is also a bot named Dave who is the creator of the popular maps Dust, Dust 2 and Cobble. In expert mode, there are two bots named Minh and Cliff, whose names were added as a tribute to the original developers of the game.
Fact # 4 – Jeff Cliff voiced all voice commands
All radio commands and dialogs that players can hear in any part of the game were recorded by one of the creators – Jeff Cliff. Only in the Global Offensive version, each faction has its own unique voice actor.
By now, most of the voice commands have been replaced with newer ones, however some commands remain intact, for example “Counter Terrorist Win” or “Terrorist wins”…
Fact # 5 – In-game feud has become personal
In 2010, a man named Julien Barrot came into the spotlight after he slashed and nearly killed another person due to in-game feuds. Julien reportedly lost a virtual knife fight against another player.
This pushed him to act insane, and he stabbed an opponent in real life after tracking him down after 6 months of searching. Fortunately, the victim survived and Julien was arrested.
Fact # 6 – There were controlled vehicles in Counter-Strike
Since the original CS was a mod for Half-Life, it included all the elements of the original project. Also in the game there were controlled cars, the same as in Half-Life.
During beta 7.0, the developers officially added support for vehicles to the game so that players can drive them. but this feature has been removed in future updates, because it got in the way of proper internal competition between teams.
Fact # 7 – Valve never developed a game
Since the mod was bought out by Valve and turned into a full-fledged franchise, there was not a single game in the series that was fully developed by themselves… Despite the fact that the company helps in creating projects, most of the work is always done on the side.
This has been a trend since the beginning, and this also applies to CS: GO, a project that Hidden Path Entertainment has developed in partnership with Valve.
Fact # 8 – The weapon shown on the CS: GO logo is not available in the game
The official CS: GO logo depicts a man with a Scar-L weapon. Interestingly, that weapon model never made it into the game for unknown reasons.
Scar-L, commonly known as Scar-17, was dropped from the game during development, but the logo was never changed. Valve has never revealed why the logo was not updated, and at this point it is highly unlikely that they will change it.
Fact # 9 – The Counter-Strike name was inspired by a TV show
On March 15, 1999, the two developers discussed ideas on how to name their new Half-Life mod. Names suggested:
- “Counter-strike” (Counter-Strike).
- “Counter-terrorist”;
- “Counterterrorism”;
- “Impact force”;
- “Terrorist Wars”;
- “Terrorist Force”;
- “Counterintelligence”;
Ultimately, they settled on Counter-Strike as it sounded best. Coincidentally, this title was also on the Canadian TV show that developer Minh Le had watched before.
Fact # 10 – Bomb Defuse Cards were not originally part of the game
Initially, CS had only hostage rescue cards, and there were no maps based on bomb disposal. They were added in beta 4.0, and they quickly surpassed previous versions in popularity.
Interestingly, when the bomb defuse cards were originally introduced, players could place explosives anywhere on the map, and there were no special places for this. Later this was changed, and there were two special places for explosive charges.