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Sound: 7
Gameplay: 8
Value: 5
Reviewer's Tilt: 9
Overall: 7.3
The object of the game is simple. Counter-terrorists vs. terrorists. You're either going to be playing bomb defusal or hostage rescue. And that is all. Terrorists plant a bomb at one of two bombsites in a map, and the counter-terrorists have to defuse it. Or you can rescue hostages from terrorist strongholds. That's pretty much all CS is. Whether you think the amount of gameplay options is limited or not, one thing can be sure: CS is one addictive game. If you can find a server with great players with good communication skills and little lag, you can have a blast with this game. No pun intended. So if any PC gamers were wondering, no the Xbox version does not get any new gametypes. Both versions of the game lack the variety that is expected from online titles these days.
Thankfully, there have been two maps to download with Xbox Live as of now, one of those being Office, an old-school ownage map that PC gamers probably know by heart. Hopefully additional content will come out within the next few months to keep this baby afloat. With Halo 2 on the horizon, it is hard for me to think about coming back to Counter-Strike, unless some great new content is available. Maps are nice, but new gametypes would just rock my world.
Don't even bother getting this game if you don't have Xbox Live. The single player game here is laughable. It's basically just matches between you and the bots. That's all. No campaign, no story-driven missions, nothing. At least the bots are extremely skilled, much like the human players who experience this game on Live. Still, I briefly remember being told about a single player campaign; someone announced it at E3 if I recall. Well it's not here. Apparently Condition Zero for the PC is going to be seeing that, not Xbox people. Will these missions be released for Xbox later this year in downloadable form? Of course not.
The graphics are a minor upgrade from the PC version, however there are still a limited number of polygons, so this game can't look as good as it should. The textures are very basic with some bump-mapping that can only be seen up close. The worst part is that all the players look the same! I'm not talking about the way that they dress; these people all look the same. I like the lighting though. There is a bloom effect that acts like the retina of a human eye, and it adjusts to light. This was a cool trick for going into dark rooms. Where the hell is the flashlight anyway?
The weapon sounds are incredibly realistic, but besides those sounds, this game is pretty minimal when it comes to audio. There isn't much to hear outside of weapons except for maybe footprints. Of course you can hear other players in the headset, but that was a given. I wish there were more commands to be given in this game through a menu--much like the PC version--but instead we just get a measly 4 commands to be given using the D-pad. This makes commanding bots in single player almost impossible. Clearly, this game was only designed with online play in mind.
I'll leave you with this thought: will you be willing to spend $50 on a game with no real single player, two gameplay types and an extremely outdated presentation? If you're a CS fan, then there's no stopping you. The rest of us might want to settle for Rainbow Six 3. That game has one hell of a campaign, several excellent gametypes and the best online play yet seen on a console. It's your choice.