Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
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| Counter-Strike: Condition Zero {{#if:{{{image|}}}|<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">{{{image|}}} | |
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| Developer(s) | Valve Software, Gearbox Software, Ritual Entertainment, Turtle Rock Studios {{#if:{{{publisher|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)<td>{{{publisher|}}} |
| Release date(s) | March 21, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer {{#if:{{{ratings|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)<td>{{{ratings|}}} |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows {{#if:{{{media|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media<td>{{{media|}}} |
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (abbreviated CS:CZ or just CZ) is the Single player version of the Multiplayer game, Counter-Strike. The game was released in 2004 using the aging GoldSrc Half-Life engine. CS:CZ also features a multiplayer mode, which mostly features updated character models, textures, maps and other graphical tweaks.
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Development
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero has gone through many incarnations in its development. In April 2001, the game was announced as being developed by Rogue Entertainment. However, that did not last too long and Valve Software took over the development. However, Valve did not have enough time on their hands and handed development off to long time friends Gearbox Software, who knew the Half-Life engine very well. Gearbox started off fresh without using content from the Rogue/Valve version. However, Gearbox did not keep up with development deadlines and the game's release date was pushed back a couple of times before Gearbox dropped the project.
In December 2002, Shacknews announced that Ritual Entertainment had picked up development of the game, however community feedback of the game was very negative which made Valve pull the plug on the project for Ritual. Valve took on development of the game and paired up with Turtle Rock Studios to create the official Counter-Strike bot, first beta-tested on 1.6, then added and refined to CZ, then later added to Counter-Strike: Source.
Gameplay
The game is very similar to Counter-Strike 1.6, featuring nearly identical gameplay, weapons, equipment, and maps popular in the multiplayer version. The textures are all different, as are the guns and maps. Nightvision makes a whirring, whining noise and in some servers casts an eerie glow around the player when in use. Also, players drop their grenades when they die, allowing other players to take them. CZ offers a new bot system in which the player can "create" computer players of varying skill levels and control the weapons they use to practice. In the single-player campaign, the player leads a hand-picked squad of counter-terrorists through missions around the world thwarting terrorists. The single-player mode is often frustrating due to the poor quality of the game's AI. On the later levels, progress is more often on account of luck than on skill.
Some items introduced in Counter-Strike 1.6 were to be originally introduced to Condition Zero, such as the FAMAS, IMI Galil and the Tactical Shield. New player models were introduced, one for each side. Spetsnaz, the Russian security force for Counter-Terrorists, and Midwest Militia, a supposedly U.S. based group of dissidents for the terrorists.
List of Official Counter-Strike: Condition Zero maps
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List of Official Counter-Strike maps for Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
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Player Models
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Counter-Terrorist (CT): All take names from real groups
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Terrorist (T): All (understandably) fictional
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Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes
Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes were what was left over from Ritual Entertainment's dropped share of development. A series of unconnected single-player missions, Deleted Scenes were originally the focus on the game with standard multiplayer thrown in too. However, after declaring the game gold and handing out review copies of Ritual's work, Valve saw an average review score of around just 60%. The companies retracted the gold status and work on CZ was essentially begun again. The final game contained Ritual's portion, called Deleted Scenes, alongside Turtle Rock Studios's version of the game.
Deleted Scenes missions are single-player and the mission locations are worldwide from the cold Russian missile silo to the warm busy Japanese streets. In Deleted Scenes, players are prohibited from buying weapons like normal Counter-Strike gameplay; instead players collect weapons, ammo and armor along the way. Players always play as the Counter-Terrorist, while the enemies are AI bots.
Many new weapons are included in Deleted Scenes, including the M72 Light Anti-Armor Weapon, the Blowtorch, the Radio, the Optical fiber Camera, remote control bombs and the M60 machine gun. Players can also carry up to three grenades instead of the usual one. Moreover, the power of players' Kevlar Armor is boosted, better protecting players from many projectiles and bullets.
Weapon textures are also slightly modified. The weapons are colored a bit differently from their Counter-Strike counterparts, such as the Arctic Warfare Magnum is now brown instead of green and the Steyr AUG and the Colt M4 Carbine are two-tone police black instead of the usual colors. However, some people who have skill in modifying files can actually replace the 1.6 style weapon models with the deleted scenes models. Combining the wrong files may corrupt game data so it is advised that you shouldn't attempt to convert unknown files. These models and weapon sounds were later converted to the Turtle Rock version of CZ. (Earlier releases used the 1.6 models.)
Some missions require players to use stealth and their wits to get around certain areas.
Deleted Scenes initially came with twelve missions, but later Steam updates added six additional missions that were cut from the initial release. There is a small community for custom Deleted Scenes maps. In fact, three levels in particular were made by a former mapper at Ritual, for the level quality is up to par with the levels in the actual game.
External links
- MapCentral Network — A long-running community for Counter-Strike, Half-Life, and many other popular games.
- MapCentral Network Forums — Forums for the MapCentral Network
- Official CS:CZ site
- Counter-Strike: Condition Zero at MobyGames