Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

Teams & Conditions

Condition Zero's roots in the multiplayer community mean that some of you will need a quick refresher. Here goes. Counter-Strike, which we've been playing on and off for about four years, is a simple team-based FPS in which opposing teams of Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists have to try and wipe each other out whilst managing map-specific objectives, like rescuing or protecting hostages and planting or defusing bombs. Each round is slightly more strategic than something like Capture The Flag though, because whenever you die you actually remain dead - until one team is wiped out completely, or until one team completes its objective.

Throw in instant headshot kills, a carefully balanced arsenal and weapon limits, monetary rewards and punishments for kills, hostage rescues, hostage kills, etc, and consistently ingenious map design, and its not too hard to understand Counter-Strike's popularity. It demands proper teamwork and less gung ho Schwarzenegger antics than its rivals, and although not quite perfect it is extremely well balanced and finely tuned, and arguably represents the pinnacle of team-based multiplayer even now. Regularly threatened by an insurgent flavour of the month FPS, it still remains the most popular game in its genre, and is fervently supported all over the Internet.

What Condition Zero does is augment the existing multiplayer game - which is available for free online and included here too - with a series of 18 missions on existing maps (unlocked in groups of three), in which the player has to juggle traditional Counter-Strike with the need to achieve certain sub-objectives and win by two clear rounds. Depending on the difficulty level you opt for, these objectives can range from simply having to kill a handful of enemies, to having to kill a handful of enemies using a pistol and riot shield, having to single-handedly rescue four hostages, or having to win a round in less than 75 seconds.

Play Counter-Strike while standing on one leg

It sounds like a daft idea. Counter-Strike is a game about teamwork, so why encourage the player to perform all these Rambo-esque feats of individual bravery? We agree with that to a certain extent, but what it does do is encourage you to think outside the bounds of what you're comfortable with, and forces you to get to grips with weapons and tactics you're not used to. If you generally provide support and wave a big assault rifle around, having to use a riot shield and pistol to kill several enemies is quite engaging; having to kill two enemies with a shotgun without dying in the same round and avoid slipping more than a round off the pace is a gripping experience; and trying to coax your team into a round-winning display whilst wielding a Magnum sniper rifle is quite an undertaking, and gives you a real lift when you manage it.

Condition Zero also allows you to play plain-old multiplayer Counter-Strike with bots and no objective-based restrictions, and whatever you think of the structure of the main campaign, a pair of tutorials that press on lesser known subtleties - like the way crouching affects accuracy - provide a decent enough grounding for newcomers. What's more, Condition Zero's bots arguably offer something that's long been missing from the freebie version; a decent advanced training ground. Even ardent followers of the game will have trouble keeping up with the tougher bots, who not only know the layouts and work as a team, but understand things like the way Magnum rounds can go through walls, where the best hiding spots are located and how to move slightly faster by running with a knife or grenade equipped.

The human Condition

The bots are by no means perfect, but they make surprisingly human mistakes, and surprisingly fleetingly; firing wildly in a panic and missing enemies; running to the wrong bomb site when they hear it's been planted; or bouncing a flashbang grenade into their team-mates by accident. All in all you don't generally get angry with them for being bots, and they provide far more challenge than any freely available alternative. They even use radio commands accurately, work together to clear areas, take shortcuts when time is a factor (even if they incur a bit of falling damage in the process), guard the bomb when the Terrorists fail to transport it the whole way to the bombsite, and let you take point if you're racing around like you have a purpose. In short, they act like real people and have more than enough field knowledge to put you through your paces.

As a result, Condition Zero is a bit of a surprise mix. The single-player game is eminently enjoyable, the bot AI is commendably human, and the careful refinement of the Counter-Strike experience over the past half-decade means that everything else about the game is about as good as it's going to get. Weapon models, map designs (including some previously only found in the Xbox version), control interfaces - all far better than anything in Half-Life, upon which CS was originally based. The only obvious issues are that you have to play the single-player game from the Counter-Terrorist perspective, and that Turtle Rock didn't use this opportunity to put together a basic scripting tool to speed up the buying process during the critical first few seconds of each round. As it is, you'll still have to develop a knack for hammering the right number keys in the right order if you want to make it to each map's choke points before your opposition.