The phenomenal success of Counter-Strike is no doubt responsible for the near vertical growth rate of code-dabblers trying their hand at mod making. What was once an unknown art to the general gaming public is now one of the more common hobbies by even the novice of digital literates. One mod alone launched this fascination, and to date still holds to it's original phenomenal success. Counter-Strike had already reached an insane amount of critical mass before eventually being brought in-house by Valve, the creators of Half-Life, to be further refined and released as a retail product. At that point, there was anywhere from 10-20 times the amount of gamers playing CS than any other online FPS, and it still has an extremely strong hold - regardless of the AAA titles released since.

Of course, well-enough is never enough, and Valve decided to deliver the CS experience to Xbox owners and furthermore, to the segment of the PC market that was either too intimidated by online play or those without Internet access. Born of this idea, both for the Xbox and PC, was the desire to recreate the Counter-Strike experience offline . Current Counter-Strikers were already aware of a few bot offerings released online such as POD-Bot and CS-Bot, but none were truly up to the task of creating the ultimate illusion of playing against actual living, breathing gamers. Additionally missing from the CS experience was a single-player component in the form of a story-mode, although it may not have been warranted to begin with. This is the premise of Condition Zero.

It's been a Long, Long… Long Wait

The release of Condition Zero began to feel a lot like the wait for Duke Nukem Forever as delay after delay occurred, and changing of development hands became something of a joke. It most certainly had to have been a sinking feeling to Valve as the Half-Life technology resting at the core of the project became less and less relevant as month after month went by. But on they pressed. The game that, again, phenomenally gained so much interest finally reached completion around November of 2003, though final ship date was still a mystery. Here we are, four months later, and at last, we can check Condition Zero off our anticipation list.

There are actually two distinct components to Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, each a full game of sorts in and of itself. One game focuses on replicating the CS experience already enjoyed by hundreds of thousands, though minus the 13-year old screaming "You suX0rs!" in favor of well coded AI – complete with all the familiar maps. The second "game", titled 'Deleted Scenes' focuses solely on providing aforementioned single-player story-mode using familiar aspects from the original experience combined with all new locations and a few new weapons. However, this "2-games for the price of 1" approach does not a value make.

They Should have Emptied the Recycle Bin

If I were to say, "Let's focus on the bad part first", one could conjecture that there must be a saving grace, or good part to later discuss. Thankfully, there is. But let's get the courtesy flush out of the way.

What 'Deleted Scenes' attempts to accomplish is to give Counter-Strike a campaign mode that, in the end… and middle… and beginning, utterly fails miserably. It looks, feels, and plays nothing like Counter-Strike and winds up being nothing more than a cheap add-on of a lesser caliber than even the disgraceful Half-Life: Blue Shift. The only shared features that 'Deleted Scenes' holds with its namesake are most of the weapon models. That and… and… nope, that's it. 'Deleted Scenes' tries to distinguish itself by adding new weapons and gizmos, ergo the ridiculous fiber-optic spy camera and welding torch. The levels are painful to look at, as Ritual (developer of Deleted Scenes) apparently tried to push the HL engine to places it has absolutely no business being. Jungle scenes, or attempts at dense foliage did nothing more than to magnify the wrinkles of the aging engine. As such, performance on even the meatiest of systems will flinch during intense moments of combat, but without graphical splendor to back it up. I would write more regarding Deleted Scenes, but it would be far quicker to fire it up and become annoyed enough to turn it right back off.

We've received varying explanations as to the reason Valve let Ritual go mid 2003, handing development over to Turtle Rock Studios, but one thing is clear: Deleted Scenes was 'deleted' for a reason – unfortunately it didn't stay that way. I do suppose that it was better to release it, as countless CS fans would have cried foul having eagerly followed the development only to be left with empty curiosity.

Nothing Bot the Truth

Ironically, the best part of Condition Zero took the least amount of time to develop. Arguably, it was the easiest part, as not much needed to be done to the existing CS code. Reface the standard maps: Check. Up the player models: Check. Implement a tutorial/challenge mode: Check. Create bots that are nearly indistinguishable from, and occasionally as stupid as real players: Double check!

Development was handed over to Turtle Rock Studios around August of 2003. By November, three months later, Turtle Rock completed what was started nearly two years before. While what they worked on was probably not the feature that current CS'ers were looking for, it turned out to be far better than the single-player campaign hoped for – this coming from a previously semi-seasoned Counter-Strike player.

Offering 4 levels of difficulty provides the game with enough challenge for both the first time Counter-Strike player to the seasoned veteran. The game is played much in the same fashion as CS in that weapon purchasing and monetary rewards are in effect. The twist is that each new map poses a set of challenges, such as 'kill 2 terrorists with a pistol" or "take out three enemies in under 45 seconds". Round after round will be played until either you complete the challenges or the opposition gains a two point lead over your team. Another twist is that your teammates are actually hand-chosen. At the beginning of each new map, the player is offered the chance to 'upgrade' their team with more skilled or better suited mates - skill points allowing. The more skilled they are, the more expensive. Skill points are handed out in a uniform fashion between maps, so it appears that exceptional skill on your part will not aid in buying a better team.

The key factor in making an all AI CS experience possible lies in making the offline play feel as close to online play as possible. Turtle Rock did an exceptional job at instilling human characteristics into the bots, making them rely solely on visual and audio cues just as real human players do, instead of engine level all-knowing awareness. Teammates will generally follow any orders your character calls, though just as in real CS, there is always the rogue player that gets himself killed early in the round, lessening your teams chances at success. Bots will defuse bombs intelligently, waiting for cover from other teammates at times, and have no trouble navigating the maps.

The bots can also learn how to navigate custom maps, locate the hiding spots, and learn what crates can gain them access to other areas. This factor alone will greatly extend the replayability of CZ as the sheer amount of downloadable maps available is mind-boggling. Additionally, human players can team with or against other humans, combined with bots, to help round out a map to an optimal amount of players online. CZ is compatible with the current version of Counter-Strike, so once a total newbie feels up to speed on the whole CS scene, they can take it online and hopefully find that the bots were a valuable training tool.

If it Looks Like it, and Sounds Like it, then it Must be…

Make no mistake. This is Counter-Strike through and through. It does sport a slight graphical upgrade worthy of note (though not up to par with recent offerings), and controls/plays/feels exactly like its brother. It comes close to breathing new life into the game in the form of the challenge mode and brilliant AI. I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of the game, and felt compelled to continue on, challenge after challenge, until finally I reached the last. Never did I feel like the bots were cheating, which is a vast departure from the feeling I get whenever I feel so obliged to play online. In fact, I rarely play CS anymore due to this sense of rampant cheating, and found much more enjoyment playing against the AI than online. [Not to mention bots don't call you 'l4m3r' or accuse you of cheating when you handily wipe out their squad – ED]

Sadly, Deleted Scenes drags the whole experience down a notch since it was the major component that veterans had been waiting for. It is also partly responsible for the extreme delay of CZ as a whole. We're not sure if Valve titled it as such because they actually considered 'deleting' it, or to take on more of the 'bonus content' meaning. After having played through it, 'deleting' it would have been my choice.

While the CS portion of the game holds its own well enough, current pricing of the game will be very difficult to justify. Currently it is retailing for around $38 which is far too much to pay for the only thing worth playing in Condition Zero. The original Counter-Strike can be bought new for less than 1/3^rd that, or downloaded free to owners of Half-Life. Counter-Strike: Condition Zero can also be purchased and downloaded through Valve's STEAM service At a cost of only $29.99 to previous Counter-Strike owners.