Counter-Strike

The Steam and Xbox releases of Counter-Strike are commercial standalone versions of the game, updated with a newer GoldSrc engine build. However, they omit the extra modifications which were available in the Half-Life: Counter-Strike retail releases that are not Counter-Strike itself.

The game itself is a multiplayer-only team-based first-person shooter. It involves players being split to terrorist and counter-terrorist teams, in 3 game modes:

• Assassination (map prefix AS): counter-terrorists attempt to escort a VIP to the escape zone, while terrorists try to kill them
• Bomb defusal (map prefix DE): terrorists attempt to plant an explosive in one of two predefined locations, while counter-terrorists try to prevent them or, failing that, defuse the bomb before the timer runs out
• Hostage rescue (map prefix CS): counter-terrorists attempt to rescue at least half of the hostages that the terrorists are holding, while the latter try to prevent them before the timer runs out

An alternate victory objective is eliminating all players from the opposing team.

At the start of each round, players get to buy equipment (weapons, armor, ammo...) with in-game funds they earn from the previous round (or a preset if it is the first round on the server).

The Linux and Macintosh PC versions were never available separately. When they were released, Counter-Strike could only be bought as a compilation pack containing both Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and the original Counter-Strike. However, existing players who only owned Counter-Strike thus received it for the additional platforms for free, even if they did not own the original Counter-Strike: Condition Zero or never bought the compilation pack.