Quote: "Starwraith is a very good game, but it's hardly on par with Counter Strike Source. Please keep that in mind when discussing any further because that is what the question was all about!"
actually, if you reread the top, he only asks about graphics being on par with CS, not gameplay. this would rely on the modelers abilities.
Quote: "but such a game will never reach the quality of a commercial game on which dozens of people worked on for years.
"
actually, with the way today's game creation tools are heading, it is becoming easier for indie programmers/game makers to make games that are closer in quality than ever before.
just look at Runescape: sure, the graphics aren't that great (but they are being updated), but it was made by a few college students. and now it has hundreds of thousands of pay-to-play members!