Global Offensive received positive reviews from critics on release, who praised the game for its gameplay and faithfulness to the Counter-Strike series, though it was criticized for some early features and the differences between the console and PC versions. A battle-royale game-mode, 'Danger Zone', was introduced in December 2018. The game also has matchmaking support that allows players to play on dedicated Valve servers, in addition to community-hosted servers with custom maps and game modes. There are nine official game modes, all of which have distinct characteristics specific to that mode.
The most common game modes involve the Terrorists planting a bomb while Counter-Terrorists attempt to stop them, or Counter-Terrorists attempting to rescue hostages that the Terrorists have captured. The game pits two teams, Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists, against each other in different objective-based game modes. Valve still regularly updates the game, both with smaller balancing patches and larger content additions. Developed for over two years, Global Offensive was released for Windows, macOS, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in August 2012, and for Linux in 2014. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ( CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter developed by Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment.
