Global Operations Updated Preview

The amount of people who still play Counter-Strike to this day, two and a half years after its first release, is a testament to the game's staying power. There's no doubt about it--the game is fun and addictive, and the gameplay never gets old. But to be fair, there's another reason for Counter-Strike's popularity: It's the only one of its kind out there. Sure, there are similar shooters available like Wolfenstein and Ghost Recon, but their focus is entirely different from Counter-Strike's, and anyone who wants a fast-paced team-based shooter with modern-day settings and weapons doesn't have a whole lot of options right now. That'll all change early next year with the release of Global Operations, a first-person shooter that pits terrorist against counterterrorist in one of 13 modern-day scenarios. Sound familiar? The similarities between Global Operations and Counter-Strike aren't an accident, as this game is being developed by Barking Dog, the same team who worked on beta five of the popular Half-Life mod. Having said all that, however, the two games have some core differences, not the least of which is Global Operations' class-based system. We'd heard the designers of the game talk about its different classes before, but during a recent multiplayer session at Electronic Arts, we were able to experience this unique aspect of Global Operations for ourselves. (For details on Global Operation's core gameplay, be sure to read our original preview.)

There are 13 different levels in the game, all of which are modeled after real-world locations.

This system works in pretty much the same way that Wolfenstein's multiplayer component does: pick a map, pick a team, pick a class, pick a weapon, pick a fight. Like in Counter-Strike, the levels are split up into different gameplay modes, including bomb defusion, hostage rescue, assassination, escort, and so on. The maps are all set in current global hotspots like Mexico, Chechnya, and Sri Lanka, and each of these 13 levels has a unique terrorist and antiterrorist group that you can play as--some quick arithmetic will reveal the total number of teams to be 26, significantly more than Counter-Strike's eight. What's more, these 26 teams are all specific to their level's location, so if you choose to play in Chechnya, you'll get to choose to fight as either the Russian Army or the Caspian Freedom Force. The actual breakdown of the classes, however, is the same across all 26 teams. Specifically, each side has six player classes that you can choose to play as: medic, heavy gunner, demolitions expert, sniper, commando, and recon. These six are the developer's means of ensuring that players play as a team, because while one skilled person can technically keep his or her team winning in Counter-Strike, one sniper or one commando in Global Operations can't.

In between matches, you'll respawn in a few area.

These different specialties aren't determined by what weapons the six classes can or can't carry, but by genuinely unique attributes that affect how they behave on the battlefield. Barking Dog compares the class system in Global Operations to choosing different races in role-playing games. For instance, while certain classes aren't capable of buying certain weapons on the menu screen, anyone can pick up any weapon that's been dropped on the field of battle. But that doesn't mean that they'll be able to use it as proficiently as that weapon's previous owner, though. For instance, a medic isn't allowed to purchase anything more powerful than a submachine gun from the buy menu, but if he happens across a dropped sniper rifle in the game, he will be able to pick it up and even use it halfway decently. A sniper, however, will be able to use a sniper rifle with a greater degree of ease, as he can reload faster, aim with a steadier hand, and move faster with that weapon than any other class can. Let's take a more detailed look at the six classes.