“Urban back alleys and loading docks host the close-quarters combat of a daring hostage rescue.”
―Global Offensive Journal Description
Backalley (cs_backalley) is a Hostage Rescue map featured in Counter-Strike. A community remade version was reintroduced in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive through Operation Vanguard, known as Backalley ("Back Alley" in-game).
Overview[]
The map is set in an urban area at night, in and between plenty of apartment blocks. It features many vertical elements and cramped hallways.
Counter-Strike[]
Terrorists spawn in the indoor basement area, below the buildings holding the hostages, while the Counter-Terrorists spawn outdoors, where they have two paths to choose.
The right path leads to a small alley where Counter-Terrorists need to descend the ladder from the balcony to proceed. After that there is a staircase leading to a hallway where they can choose either to enter the Mid alley or to go inside the Apartments.
The left path leads to a bigger alley, with a tunnel leading to Mid and an adjacent ladder to climb to the vent which leads to the Upstairs balcony above mid. The Mid alley is vertical with two floors, and Terrorists can camp the windows or ledges of the Apartments. If Counter-Terrorists go left in the Front hall,they arrive upon a ladder leading to the second apartment floor.
Hostages are located in the two buildings on separate sides of the Alley, in the main room just in front of the sliding door. Behind the room are staircases. The staircase in apartments is connected to the back hall, Terrorist spawn and second floor while the other building`s staircase only leads to the Terrorist spawn.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive[]
The map has been remade with visual and layout improvements, with some areas completely cut.
Changes[]
- The left path from Counter-Terrorist spawn now leads to a ramp instead of the former ladder to avoid fall damage.
- The second apartment floor is removed,along with the staircase leading to it. Instead, a hallway connects the Terrorist spawn with the vending machines room and the back hall.
- Terrorist spawn has been simplified and now consists of only one room with a hall leading to the apartments.
- Left side of alley now has an alternate entrance into apartments. The other building also has a new garage exit with the back halls removed.
- Ladder in the Loading dock was moved closer to Counter-Terrorist spawn.
- Vents in the hostage rooms have been removed.
Official Description[]
Counter-Terrorists: Infiltrate Terrorist stronghold and escort the hostages to the rescue zone. Take out the Terrorists without jeopardizing the hostages.
Terrorists: Eliminate the Counter-Terrorist force before they rescue any hostages.
Background: There are 4 hostages in the mission.Development[]
Counter-Strike[]
The map was designed by Jamie Mactaggart of Barking Dog Studios during the development of beta 5.0. It was updated once, for beta 6.5.
Operation Vanguard[]
The map was remade for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive by H.Grunt and was featured as a part of Operation Vanguard.
The Terrorist faction is the Professionals and the Counter-Terrorist faction is the FBI.
On the October 13, 2016 Update, the map was removed from the game files, making Backalley inaccessible via console.
Tactics[]
- Due to its relatively small size, using shotguns and the Desert Eagle work very well, especially in the tunnels and the alley where there are little to no spaces available to escape.
- When playing as a CT operative, beware of the doors in the alley as it is easy to ambush a team from both doors by using the hostages as human shields.
- Be warry of fall damage, especially on the balconies where you might fall off the ladders. A fall from most of the balconies will do around 30 to 40 damage.
- Be alert of the end of the alley and the balcony. These areas are the most favorable for snipers, skilled AK-47 users, and M249 users providing suppressive fire.
- Throwing a smoke grenade in the alley can easily force enemies to back away from the smoke and will most likely fall back rather than charging towards the enemy team. Note some aggressive enemies with powerful automatic weapons, like the M249, may spray bullets into the smoke. Enemy shotgun wielders may also decide to go into the smoke and surprise their opponents.
- Flashbangs can come in handy to clear out enemies in cramped rooms.
- Although risky, HE grenades can flush campers out but this tactic should not be implemented when there are hostages nearby.
- HE grenades are also useful for Terrorists as they can deal heavy damage to multiple Counter-Terrorists in the chokepoints.
- If you play with bots, at the point where some of the hostages are located, they can clearly see enemies behind doors. This gives bots an advantage to fight against human players so always crouch when you want to pass through doors (before entering) without being seen. However, during pistol rounds, bots will shoot at players but the bullets won't go through the door thus human players can wait until bots need to reload. This is the best time to rush and eliminate bots.
- Climb the ladder near the “Pop Dog” billboard (Loading dock in Global Offensive) and destroy the air vent barrier to get into it. Then, you can obtain a height advantage over camping Terrorists in the alley. In the original version of the map, you can also jump from the balcony to the second floor to surprise enemies.
Trivia[]
- Bots often have navigation problems in this map, most notably CT bots. At the ladder of the second rescue zone, bots often attempt to climb the ladder at the opposite side, thus getting themselves to be stuck. Another point they have trouble is at the window near the ladder, close to the location of the hostages. Bots will often try to traverse through the wall between two of the windows.
- Terrorist bots might struggle to get out of their spawn area and may become stuck at the ladder leading to the CT spawn zone. On the other hand, CT bots may have navigation problem in the buildings.
- One of the billboards has the Barking Dog logo, which is a reference to the now defunct Barking Dog Studios. Approaching it from the alley near the CT spawn triggers the sound of dogs barking at a car alarm, while approaching it from the tunnel closer to the T spawn triggers the sound of a dog barking at a cat. [1]
- Note that this sound will give away the player’s position to enemies.
Update History
- November 11, 2014
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- Six community maps added to the Operation Vanguard map group, available for free to ALL CS:GO players.
- November 12, 2014
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- Minor bug fixes
References
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