CS-Nation

Covering the future of Counter-Strike
condition zero: first impressions
article: condition zero: first impressions
This is it folks, Condition Zero is finally finished. Unless some unexpected act of God comes along and Valve sends off CS:CZ to yet another development studio, what we have here is the final face of the game; let's see what all the fuss is about.

As you all know, Condition Zero was announced way back in 2001 as a single-player Counter-Strike game. I'd love to bore you all with the game's long and staggering development cycle, but if you need a refresh just check out our About CZ page for all the juicy little details. Needless to say, after the game was announced, it took 5 developer changes to finally settle on a combined effort of Turtle Rock Studios, Ritual Entertainment, and VALVe Software. The finished product is a neat little package that is essentially composed of three separate games.

Game 1: Campaign

Razor is going down!
This is meat of the game. Turtle Rock's single-player campaign has you facing off against computer opponents (bots) in your favorite Counter-Strike maps, all touched up and retextured. There are also a few new maps that play a bit awkwardly for multiplayer levels, but should nevertheless breathe a bit of life into the aging pile of maps we have all played a million times.

When you start a campaign you first pick a difficulty setting (easy, normal, hard, expert), and are then presented with a roster of computer-controlled teammates that you can select from to fill your squad. You start out with eight "points" to spend on your team. Considering that the really good bots are four points and up, your initial team will be composed of low-point bots that suck. This probably isn't a problem if you play on an easy difficulty setting, but if you choose expert you will be doing most of the work yourself until you can upgrade your teammates, which thankfully shouldn't take you too long.


Piece of cake!
After you have your squad selected, you can pick a map you wish to play. By "pick" I mean you must start on de_dust, and then unlock the maps in order by completing all of the listed objectives. Many of the objectives are fairly straightforward: kill 10 terrorists, rescue the hostages, or rush to complete a round in a mere 45 seconds. There are quite a few objectives that deviate from this approach however. For example in one round I had to achieve two kills using only the MP5. I managed to pull it off, but just barely. The further you get in the game, the more interesting the objectives seem to become, but I won't spoil it for you.

The computer opponents in the game are the most advanced bots I have ever seen. Their movements are very lifelike, and most impressively, they don't see or hear you unless they actually see or hear you. You can sneak up on these guys just as you could a normal player—just don't forget your walk key.


Bots and shields don't go together.
Your teammates are, of course, just as smart as the enemy; the only problem is their aim and reaction time is less than stellar. The good news is they listen well and communicate valuable information over in-game voice comm. If your comrades notice the terrorists are headed to B through the double doors, they'll let you and each other know. This communication seems effective—overall they work as a team to complete the main map objectives, and will follow your orders directed over radio commands.

The bots also have a variety of tricks up their sleeves to further increase their tactical ability. They will pick different routes frequently, camp, shoot through boxes, guard the bomb/hostages, etc. Their actions don't simply follow a single rule, which leads to less predictable behavior and a much more rewarding game.

Overall the campaign is a nice little mode to freshen up your skills by offering lots of cool little challenges and objectives you might typically opt to avoid in multiplayer. After you've beaten a level you can always go back and play it again as many times as you want, on whatever difficulty setting you prefer.

Game 2: Deleted Scenes

Quit your dancing girly man!
Ritual's original vision of a single-player Counter-Strike game didn't quite do it for VALVe, but it would seem their efforts were not totally in vain. A generous helping of the Ritual game has found its way into Condition Zero under the alias of Deleted Scenes.

Ritual's Deleted Scenes is a linear single-player campaign that has you fighting terrorism throughout the world. You'll have access to a broad range of new tools, ranging from a fiber-optic camera to remotely-detonated bombs. There are also health packs and health mounts. If you've ever played any of the Half-Life expansions, or even Half-Life itself, you'll definitely notice the resemblance in play style.

The opening sequence has you and your squad mates aboard a helicopter over a hostile urban environment. For you Opposing Force fans, the next few minutes are all but identical. The helicopter gets shot down by an RPG, and you're left stranded in a middle-eastern town pitted against dozens of terrorist around every corner. Sound a bit bland? Well that's how it plays.


This scientist will surely help train the CTs of the future!
Speaking of opponents, the Ritual people could learn a thing or two from Turtle-Rock about AI. The enemies you face in the Deleted Scenes don't seem too far off from your standard Half-Life character monsters, and they just kind of stand around the map serving a single purpose, which is to attack you on sight.

The "teammates" you get aren't much more advanced than the Barney security officers in Half-Life. They follow you around and help out with support fire, but usually die pretty quickly.

There are some cool moments however. A lot of time went into the level-design, and there are dozens of cool scripted events that really spice things up. What it comes down to, though, is mostly a puzzle-solving level-crawler, and I'm sure we have all been there and done that.