Remember Counter-Strike 2D?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

This was such a godsend.

Try entering the mind frame of someone whose computer was so incomprehensibly trashy that most people wouldn't even want to play a match of Counter-Strike with them, because every map would take up to fifteen freaking minutes to load... and the fact that the actual game ran as smooth as butter once that hurdle had been cleared was of little consolation.

But then someone pointed me to this thing and it was as if a switch had been flipped in my mind.

Not only could I play as many matches as I could ever want (in all the classic maps!), but I also could create and modify both bots and maps, so there only real way to stop my CS experience was by getting bored of it... and after having been so starved for it, that didn't happen for a whole year. Seriously, I made all the stupidest, most outlandish maps possible and I laughed my lungs off while I was at it, too. I even went as far as to create absolute death traps for the bots, so that the actual challenge would be part of the experience (those insta-kill floor tiles, man). I especially remember creating a map that was nothing but a large box-shaped environment with random insta-kill tiles and generous amounts of laser beams (the most powerful weapon in the game, a guaranteed one-shot kill) there for anyone to pick up... and then cramming up to 32 bots with me in an area that honestly couldn't have accommodated more than eight of us. It was the kind of madness I had signed up for.

Was this a replacement for the real thing? No, of course not - it didn't have nearly the user or player base to be a competitor and the game tended to be ridiculed among die hard fans of the original. But man... for the lower-spec, trigger-happy ones among us, this was such an amazing experience.

It really was the one time I could have a taste of multiplayer action that wasn't at all bitter. This wasn't the complete sexist, xenophobic show that so many other shooters were like back then. It was just a fun little shootout with friends.

And that has to count for something.

Here, have a watch:

 

[DunkeyKong]

It feels like I rediscovered a history
One of the first top down shooters I've played and I'm glad it's this one
It still is really good and still is getting updated

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

It feels like I rediscovered a history
One of the first top down shooters I've played and I'm glad it's this one
It still is really good and still is getting updated

Cool! Some people actually ported it to Android, too. It's just as frantic, even if the touch controls take a while to get used to.

 

[Cuestionador]

I never heard about this! Looks really good, i remember playing a Simpsons mod in a "Cyber Café", many years ago.