Counter-Strike author ready for comeback

It’s been some time coming, but the original developer behind runaway classic Counter-Strike is set to be releasing a new game by the end of this year. Ranked 14th in IGN’s Top 100 Game Creators of All Time, Minh Le (aka Gooseman) is developing a game based on the Source engine, after some years in the wilderness. Having worked at Valve after the company snapped up the Counter-Strike title, Minh found himself unable to make the changes and additions he wanted to the game, given how negatively gamers reacted to any alteration to the game’s setup. Tactical Intervention will be the first title that he has worked through to completion since his success with Counter-Strike, after having previously scrapped a sequel and subsequently an independent project through lack of funding.

One big game play change being introduced in TI is the appearance of hostages. Expect active civilians within the map that run around, react to events happening around them (bullets flying by), getting in the way, and being used by terrorists as human shields. Another element is introducing dogs — not little Chihuahuas that the civilians carry but big dogs, German Shepherds or Rottweilers that players can command.

Having had a quick look and read over the news, I have to say it doesn’t look all that exciting. The theme and settings appear to be exactly the same, the graphics are entirely dated, and the new features and changes sound like little more than a mod of the original Counter-Strike. Whilst Minh deserves recognition for his achievement with Counter-Strike, in creating a mod that was so intrinsically essential to Half-Life’s extended success and Valve’s continued strength in the gaming world today, I can’t see this release doing anything to affect or attract that large, conservative corpus of CS players, nor offer anything that would appeal to a new gaming crowd.

[Via IGN]