During each round of gameplay, the two teams are tasked with defeating the other by the means of either achieving the map's objectives or eliminating all of the enemy combatants.

Counter-Strike is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game in which players can join either the terrorists (T) or the counter-terrorists (CT).

Each player begins with $800, two magazines of ammo, a knife, and a handgun: a Heckler & Koch USP for the counter-terrorists or a Glock 18c for the terrorists.

Players may purchase equipment whenever they are in a buy zone for their team, some of which can be shared by both sides and the round has not been in session for more than a certain duration, which is 90 seconds by default.

They may typically watch the rest of the round from a variety of chosen observer modes (free-look mode, locked chasecam and free chase chasecam),[10] but some servers limit some of these views to prevent dead players from conveying information about surviving players to their teammates via alternate media (most notably voice in Internet cafés).

[20] Three categories exist for weapons: Melee (knife), Secondary (handguns), and Primary (rifles, shotguns, machine and submachine guns).

Minh Le, the mod's co-creator, had started his last semester at university, and wanted to do something in game development to help give him better job prospects.

At the onset, Valve had not yet released the software development kit (SDK) for GoldSrc but affirmed it would be available in a few months, allowing Le to work on the character models in the interim.

Once the GoldSrc SDK was available, Le estimated it took him about a month and a half to complete the programming and integrate his models for "Beta One" of Counter-Strike.

[22] The theme of countering terrorists was inspired by Le's own interest in guns and the military, and from games like Rainbow Six and Spec Ops.

[22] The interest in the game drew numerous players to the website, which helped Le and Cliffe to make revenue from ads hosted on the site.

There are also Superhero mods which mix the first-person gameplay of Counter-Strike with an experience system, allowing a player to become more powerful as they continue to play.

The game is highly customizable on the player's end, allowing the user to install or even create their own custom skins, HUDs, spray graphics, sprites, and sound effects, given the proper tools.

With the second version, Valve instituted a policy of 'delayed bans', the theory being that if a new hack is developed which circumvents the VAC system, it will spread amongst the 'cheating' community.

[24] These cheats are updated frequently to minimize the risk of detection, and are generally only available to a trusted list of recipients who collectively promise not to reveal the underlying design.

[citation needed] When Counter-Strike was published by Sierra Studios, it was bundled with Team Fortress Classic, Opposing Force multiplayer, and the Wanted, Half-Life: Absolute Redemption and Firearms mods.

In January 2013, Valve began testing a version of Counter-Strike for OS X and Linux, eventually releasing the update to all users in April 2013.

[39][40] Some credit the move into professional competitive team play with prizes as a major factor in Counter-Strike's longevity and success.

[45] On January 17, 2008, a Brazilian federal court order prohibiting all sales of Counter-Strike and EverQuest began to be enforced.