De_darkness – Counter-Strike’s spooky map ghost story

The ghost stories, rumors, the details that are sometimes known to be made up by gamers about the games they are passionate about … always create many interesting colors for the virtual world. Its purpose is not simply to scare people, but it also shows how popular the game itself is and has a great impact on the fan community. Story about de_darkness is a prime example of that as it demonstrates community Counter-Strike how passionate and imaginative.
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de_darkness​

Call me old-fashioned, but Counter-Strike is one of my favorite games. Sitting in the dorm until 3 am with the volume on max is a habit I can never give up. To this day, the habit remains, almost becoming a routine. After a long day at school, I usually turn on my phone at 10 pm, surf Facebook, watch 9gag or Youtube until there is nothing left to watch, then I will turn on the “old” Counter-Strike.
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But tonight while surfing Facebook, a friend pm me. “Hey there’s this new map of this CS”. Also an addict of the first version of CS, I immediately clicked on the link and downloaded it. Excited with the new map to play with, I immediately entered CS without thinking. Called de_darkness, this map truly lives up to the name it carries. With a night scene, de_darkness brings countless dark corners that are difficult for the human eye to see clearly. The only light source in the map is the blue sky and a few lampposts somewhere along the way. In the middle of the map is a series of tunnels connecting with the dimly lit area getting denser and denser..

However, around this area are high positions, allowing snipers even with a good level to easily kill a few lives below. But in fact, Darkness has 2 ways to play, one I call the “vile” style, that is, “camping” on high positions and killing the opponent below. This way of playing is really very easy because in those positions there is often darkness covering the whole body, making it difficult for the enemy to detect.

The second way is of course more challenging and thrilling, which is to rush straight into the maze below and face the opponent directly. This style gives players the startling phase of being “hooked” or facing directly and throwing the whole ice at the target without having to focus on aiming. I always keep the first position or I will also rank 2nd when I constantly switch back and forth between these two ways of shooting.

But it wasn’t until game 5 that I started to realize something was wrong.
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While going back and forth in Darkness, I discovered a creaking sound… a language that I had never heard in CS before. The player’s footsteps also gradually become different. Instead of the typical sound of the soles of military boots, it resounded with the clatter of metal despite no one approaching. And then, I started seeing something in Darkness.

When I was standing at a high position around the map, I discovered a shadow outside the edge of the forest, where there was no way to reach because it only acted as a background scene. When using AWP to zoom in on that silhouette, it suddenly disappeared.

But in the next game, this figure appeared again..
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This time it was only a few feet away, so I could see more clearly. Covering this figure is a layer of clothing that covers from head to knees with tight buttons. Although he had a constant smile on his face, he had almost no lips. The whole rest is covered with a dull blur effect… I thought to myself: Who is this? A machine character? A bot? A gamer? Or is the creator of de_darkness trying to introduce a new game mode for Counter-Strike?
But no matter what the answer is, like anyone on the map, I immediately raised my sights and pulled the trigger. But strangely from one tablet to another, from one bandage to another, his thin, sticky body, nearly 2 meters high, did not move at all. Before I could try another way, another player jumped in and killed me.
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Right after that I spent all my time in CS just to find that shadow and do whatever it takes to kill it, even though that could lead to negative net and low placement in the rankings. This mysterious identity bearer has a rule that only appears in random dark areas throughout the map. Many times he deliberately played with me. Even though I stood still and didn’t move, but no matter how much I tried to run closer, the distance between him and me remained the same.. It was like I was running in place.. Many other times when trying to When he tried to fire bullets at him, he only jerked up strangely, as if swallowing all the bullets into his body. However, no matter what happens, there is only one outcome: I can never kill this monstrous figure..

It’s probably been 1-2 hours since I tried to chase that figure in the Darkness map to no avail. That hopeless job gradually made me tired and wanted to turn off the computer and go to sleep. All excitement, all curiosity about Darkness and the mysterious figure that seemed to be programmed by someone else also cooled down. So I decided to quit the game, “shut down” and go to bed. But when I was about to turn off the phone, I realized that something was still in the right corner of the screen. Yes, it was the same black man with that savage smile. What the hell is going on here? Now even my laptop is broken?

Then the figure grew larger and larger, giving the impression that it was walking towards the screen from the other side. Now the face of that foreign object was taking up the entire screen, staring at me with deep eye sockets without pupils and a lipless mouth with a strange smile.

And then I realised…

It’s the mirror image on the laptop screen.​