“Haven’t had much of a chance to play CS:GO over the past few weeks. But a few more thoughts on strategy and risk and reward in the game. My friends may make fun of me for being much worse than them but at least I can write analytically about the game and develop a high-level understanding that cannot be substituted by skill, :)!
Risk and reward of pursuing alternate routes: For most maps, there are some pre-established routes that you take and areas that you cover. But, if you hang back for a moment and leave the starting zone a little bit later or choose to take a more circuitous route you can actually evade the full intensity of the initial firefights that break out. On rare occasions, you can wrap around the enemy team and lay into them from behind. In a strange way, this is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. If you do manage to break through enemy lines and take out a bunch of them or pick off the bomb carrier and ensure that it can’t be retaken you’ve done your team a great service. Yet, if you venture too far off to the corners of the map you may end up being way too far out of position to help your team when the bomb site is being assaulted and end up being the last individual standing with 4 low health enemies on the other team guarding the objective and a complete lack of positional advantage. It’s up to you, be the lone wolf or run with the pack. But remember, there’s always a tradeoff between the decisions that you are making.
Impact of movement: Movement is a simple idea. You push W, A, S or D and your characters goes in whichever direction pleases you. And in many games that’s the long and short of it. But CS:GO, true to it’s nature and delightful complexity goes one step further. The base form of movement is a run and though it may get you places a lot quicker it also creates audible footsteps for your foes to tune in to and inform themselves about your potential approach (as well as hugely reducing your accuracy if you fire while moving). This makes the run very useful for traversing large distances in areas that you have confidence are safe to move in but it is dangerous option if you are anywhere near to the enemy. In those cases, you would be better off walking or crouching in order to couch the sound of your footsteps and give you the ability to aim more precisely. This mechanic has created some of my favourite moments as only two players are left on either team and they are carefully crouching and checking around corners hoping to spot their rival before they spot them. You’ve got the rest of your team carefully listening for footsteps as they try their best to help their last remaining comrade. It’s quite the experience and makes something as arbitrary as movement yet another important consideration when playing CS:GO.
That’s all for now. Have a pezant day!
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