Decent multi-player thrills
The now famous Counter Strike series originally grew out of a mod for classic shooter Half-Life but has since turned into a popular franchise in its own right. The games are multi-player shooters where intense and exciting deathmatches are the order of the day, with players joining either the terrorist or counter-terrorist side and choosing from a number of classes. This pack is basically a compilation of a couple of the earlier instalments which focuses on the multi-player aspect of the game, with an extensive array of maps and weapons, but which also includes a set of previously deleted missions that are linked together in the form of a story-driven campaign and which provide probably the biggest attraction here. There's not much else to be honest, beyond these new missions and maps and in many ways it's hard to see what all the fuss about the series actually is. While the shooting action is certainly fun in the way that the best multi-player deathmatches are, there's not much to differentiate this between later Call of Duty and Battlefield games at the end of the day. The visuals are decent enough, with some well detailed environments and with sound to match, while the levels themselves are generally well designed and balanced and with a lot of variety. If you're looking for an online multi-player shooter, this package is a good way to get into the Counter Strike universe but if playing solo, there are some issues with dodgy AI which need to be watched out for. At the end of the day, it's a solid enough shooter that doesn't do anything original but which does a limited job to a decent standard.
