Well, it’s all personal preference to be honest. Some people will absolutely love the Call of Duty series while others will think it’s trash, yet others will say Arma 3 is the only real FPS – some will say it’s trying too hard.
So, to maybe prevent the worst of the comments that will inevitably appear – this is an opinion piece – it highlights why, in our opinion, CS:GO is the best FPS game of all time. Let’s see how this plays out in the comments below!
Our prediction is, pretty badly.
1. The skins are just that
Far too many games these days make you pay for extra content, better weaponry, armour, etc. In CS:GO, that isn’t the case. Everyone has the exact same weapon selection at every point of the game – bar a few differences between the teams. A few weapons like the M4A4 have alternatives that can be changed in load-out, but these alternatives are available to everyone.
The skins that are available to change the appearance of guns, knives and most recently gloves, have no impact on the game itself. At most they’ll give you an opportunity to AWP someone that’s shopping around for a prettier weapon too much.
Skins can also be gained in different ways – a few will drop during gameplay and although you will never get anything good that way, you will definitely get a basis to trade up from. If you don’t want to grind for a better skin, you can buy the one you want in the community market. The prices are community driven, so they are as close to fair as it gets.
There’s also the option to open a case with a key – although the skin you get is likely worthless, you can get lucky and get one that’s worth a few hundred quid.
2. The matchmaking system works
The skill-based matchmaking system isn’t perfect, but it does work, and it pairs you with players with similar skill levels to yourself. While in the lower Silver-ranks you will still meet the inevitable trolls, Russian kids and the occasional smurf, you’ll usually end up in a game with people that are of similar skill to you.
The Prime-matchmaking system is a recent addition – despite the name it does not cost extra, it simply requires you to verify your phone number in game to reduce smurfs and hackers. The difference is notable in the lower ranks, and it is an easy thing to do for legitimate players.
The Abandon-system that punishes players for abandoning a match is fair too – the punishments increase the more often you do it, but you do get time to reconnect. All in all, it’s pretty solid. Other game have similar or even equally sophisticated systems, but Steam’s VAC system is pretty good for a game that came out five years ago and only costs around a tenner.
3. They’re still making improvements constantly
Similar to the point above, the game is still a work in progress. It wasn’t just put out and abandoned, it has one of the most active communities you can find – in fact that is another huge pro of this game – much of the content like maps and skins are community-made and can be voted in by players in the workshop. There are hundreds of custom servers available featuring innumerable maps, game-modes etc.
Prime matchmaking is a recent addition, and with the gloves there is not only the expected level of new skins, but even new types of skins available – as it is a Valve game, this shouldn’t be too surprising, however it really is regularly updated and improved, and even the special operations like the most recent Hydra remain fairly innovative and well worth the small additional cost of a pass. The most popular game modes of the last one were actually made permanent features – sometimes game makers really do listen!
4. Skill > Luck/Camping
In far too many FPS games a lucky 360 noscope to the big toe will be enough to kill an opponent. In CS:GO that just won’t do – sure, you can get lucky and pull off a near-impossible shot and yes, every once in a while an update messes with the hitbox placement, but all in all, the system is solid. The weapons each have a unique recoil pattern that takes a little time to master – that accounts for much if not most of the players complaining how unfair or badly made the weapons are.
Camping rarely works and certainly not for long as there are few spots that let you camp without the risk of being stabbed in the back. The maps often favour one side over the other, but due to the team change, that is not as big of a deal as it could be.
5. It tries to actively prevent cheating/smurfing
Sure, many games have anti-cheats in place. CS:GO has a few more options available though. In addition to the improved matchmaking and VAC-ban system, there are several options to report players suspected of cheating in-game.
These reports are then reviewed by experienced players and through several of these reviews a judgement is made. As for preventing smurfs – the game isn’t free which is already a big hindrance, and in order to play competitive matches, you need to amass a certain amount of exp – also discouraging to potential smurfs. With the new matchmaking they’d have to have two phones in order to be able to enter the second account to matchmaking – for what it’s worth, those are some pretty good odds.
