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CZ Preview: What to expect

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 70 / 92
Date: July 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

BASICS:
This is a PREview, not a REview: Condition Zero was just announced to be released this fall. (I am 80% certain they'll finish it by then, too). CZ is an sequel to the hit internet game, Counter-Strike, which has been the #1 team-based shooter on the web for over 3 years. 70,000 fans cannot be wrong - Counter-Strike is the funnest, most addictive game you can play right now. Trust us. Check out reviews for Counter-strike if you don't believe me.

NEW MAPS, WEAPONS, & CHARACTERS:
New maps are themed from 6 new "Hot-spots", namely: North & South America, the Middle-East, northern Russia, Asia, and "urban" Europe. Each hot-spot has several maps to play on, and each map has 12 objectives to complete in order to unlock new weapons and characters. As the developers actually travels to these various locations for research, the maps look very realistic and authentic. Each map has 12 objectives to complete in the single player game, thus unlocking new weapons, maps and characters. You will outfit your team pre-mission, a la Rainbow Six, and as you unlock new soldiers you'll find each has unique skills, specialties, and personalities (ie, AI routines). I've heard there are over 160 characters in the game so far, so lots to unlock and play with.

New teams include the Russian Spetznatz for the Counter-terrorists, and extremist militia group for the terrorists. New weapons in CZ include: Machete, Galil, Famas, M60, Law Rocket, Molotov Cocktail, Machete, Riot Shield, tear-gas grenade and coresponding gas mask. The Riot Shield will add some very interesting strategy to old favorites like Dust and Militia; the Molotov cocktail also introduces fire to Counter-Strike, and sounds like the perfect terrorist weapon.

AI BOTS!
The greatest addition CZ brings are new AI bots. Finally, people without high-speed internet connections can enjoy the game. Basically, the developers, Gearbox, are working on a complex team-driven AI that mimics real players: your AI teammates will choose appropriate weapons, work in teams, cover choke points, and even do crazy stuff like jump irrationally in corners or do other weird things that people sometimes do. The bots actually learn your tactics and adjust accordingly. Some beta-testers for Gearbox have already reported that they have a hard time telling the computer-controlled characters apart from real players. The best part is that all the AI is script-able, meaning you can go in and adjust the AI to behave exactly how you want it to. I can't wait.

THE HUGE COMMUNITY ISN'T GOING AWAY:
One thing about CZ which might sound like a rip-off but is actually great - the multiplayer updates will be available for free online, including the new maps and weapons. That means that the 70,000+ current players can play with the new CZ players right when the game comes out. There won't be a division between "haves" and "have-nots". Of course, those people who download the free updates will miss out on much of CZ's coolest features, like the single player bots and new graphics.

NEW GRAPHICS:
The game still uses the ancient Quake 2 engine (5 years old!) but Gearbox has somehow managed to make CZ look good. The game supports high-res textures, 32-bit color, and trilinear filtering. There are also new, high-geometry character models and weapons. This doesn't make CZ look as good as Doom 3, but it still stands up pretty well for today's standards. And this graphical update is only available to people who buy CZ, not those who just download the free updates.

Teams

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 39 / 46
Date: January 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

By - Tom Ham
Posted By - Dark Spectre

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero will have five teams per side, and each team will have four different heads. So for all your math wiz's out there, that's over 160 combinations of units. What's cool here is that Gearbox has added a bunch of new uniforms that reflect the environments in which they're fighting in. "So when your mission is in a cold setting, your units will all wear artic gear. We also have desert and jungle camouflage as well," says Pitchford. "Every character type gets a different outfit dependant on where the mission is taking place."

One thing we here at GameSpy want to make clear. Almost every aspect of the single-player experience -- the new weapons, models, and maps -- will be available in multiplayer games. Don't think all this cool stuff is just for the single-player experience. Pitchford states, "The complete version of Condition Zero is a full retail product. A free patch will be released, however, that will make online Counter-Strike fully compatible with Condition Zero's online components."

The Artwork

"We've increased the amount of polys per model," explains Matthew VanDolen (a.k.a. Doo Doo Brown, artist and modeler at Gearbox), "Before the models were 750 polygons each. The ones in Condition Zero are 1,250 polygons. It's a 75% increase in the amount of polys per character." So how did it look? Check out our exclusive screenshots of the models. In game they look incredible. Remember how much better Quake III Arena looked when compared to Quake II? It's that drastic of a change. You can see little nuances in the faces, not available in CS before. "We're also going to have full lip-synching," continues VanDolen, "You can see here the CT's mouth is moving. So when they say, "Fire in the hole!" you'll be able to see it. Just another thing to make CS more realistic." The textures on the uniforms are also first rate. We could see every wrinkle, crease and fold -- it left us speechless.

In addition to new models, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero will also incorporate new weapons. "As far as weapons go, we pretty much started over with the following assumptions," explains Pitchford. First, balance. The balance of CS is very important. We didn't want to introduce anything that disrupts the solidity of the game design as it stands. Second, realism in context. We wanted to introduce weapons to be plausible in the context for which they were intended. Third, fantasy. A lot of the CS weapons allow us to safely simulate the kinds of things we see in movies or hear about from war stories. We've added some guns that we've always wanted to see in action and have had a lot of fun using in the safe, simulated environment of CS. And lastly, strategy. Without radically altering existing CS paradigms, we wanted to add weapons that allowed for new tactics and new solutions to old tactical situations in the game. Using these basic objectives, we came up with a huge list of potentials. The list was tweaked, some tests were done, and some debates occurred and eventually we concluded with a very nice and solid collection of new weapons. Most of them are pretty exciting and all of them "fit."

Weapons and Toys

So what are the new weapons? "We've added some new weapons for both the CTs and Ts," explains Stephan Palmer, game/level designer at Gearbox, "The CTs have a new rifle called the FAMAS. The FAMAS is more so to counteract the Terrorist AK. Incidentally, the FAMAS is used by the French GIGN." "On a side note," says Brian Martel, "the FAMAS was also the gun that was in Metal Gear Solid." A new weapon for the Terrorists is the Galeil. "It's the Israelis official rifle," explains Palmer, "It's similar to the AK-47 but it's a little heavier, so the recoil is not as bad so you're more accurate with it."

Counter-Strike:Condition Zero

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 69 / 101
Date: January 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

By - Tom Ham
Posted By - Dark Spectre

It goes without saying that Counter-Strike is the most popular online multiplayer game right now. Simply blowing the doors off Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, Tribes II and even the recently released Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer test, the number of folks playing Counter-Strike is truly astounding. According to GameSpy statistics, on the average, there are at least 30 to 40,000 people playing Half-Life at any given time. Going one step further shows that about 90 percent of those are playing Counter-Strike.

But all this gaming nirvana has one important caveat -- players need a high-speed connection. Unless you have broadband access via cable or DSL, you're pretty much outta luck. Sure you can play with an archaic ... err standard 56K connection, but come on people, we all know it's just not the same.

Enter Gearbox Software (the brilliant minds responsible for Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift). Having already proven themselves to be a top-notch developer of Half-Lifeexpansion games, Valve Software was more than willing to hand over the reins to them to create Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. "Condition Zero is a game that we want to play," explains Doug Lombardi, director of marketing and third party relations at Valve Software. "Obviously, Counter-Strike is one of our favorite multiplayer games, and we've always wanted to take on the challenge of recreating, even expanding upon, the thrill of a great multiplayer game in single-player. Add the challenge of co-op play against very worthy opponents while also providing new maps and toys for the existing multiplayer community, and this became a very compelling project for everyone involved."

On a recent visit to Dallas, GameSpy got to sit down and meet with Gearbox Software and discuss their upcoming plans for Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Not only did we get insight into the game's development, we managed to get some serious hands-on playtime with the game as well! Even though the single-player game was still in the works (don't worry we'll report on this when we go back to Dallas), we were able to spend several hours checking out some of the multiplayer aspects of Condition Zero including new maps, units, and weapons. Needless to say, what we saw was brilliant. Gearbox Software is definitely on the right track.

"It's a challenge for us," explains Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, "the biggest hurdle was to design a single-player game that captured the excitement and rapid-pace gameplay that the online version offers. We had to design a single-player game that feels in every way like Counter-Strike as far as tactics and action goes, but give solo players an experience that is actually better than the online game in terms of structure and presentation." Granted this is no small feat. But how do you top an already seemingly perfect game such as Counter-Strike?

Counter Strike: CZ

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 47 / 75
Date: April 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I love the game of Counter Strike, even though I use a 56k modem, but if you can find a good server, which is easy, because you are able to filter out servers over a certain ping, then you can use any connection.
Counter Strike: Condition Zero will be a very awesome game, and mind me, I have done my research. The player models have 66% more polygons, better graphics, and no frame rate is sacrificed due to this. CS and CS: CZ will use the same multiplayer system because a patch will be released for the regular Counter Strike
to make Condition Zero compatible with Counter Strike.
I have read a few interviews with Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software, and watched a few demo movies about CS: CZ. The more I find out about this game, the better, and the more excited I get.
This, unlike the first Counter Strike, has a single player that is said to be longer than Blue Shift and Opposing Force combined.
Everyone should look into this game!

A Sense of Purpose

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 33
Date: January 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

By - Tom Ham
Posted By - Dark Spectre

"In Condition Zero players have a much greater sense of purpose," continues Pitchford, "This never really comes across well in the online game. In Condition Zero, failure has greater consequences and success offers greater rewards. As a Counter Terrorist, for example, you're going in there, getting shot at and putting your life on the line in order to save the lives of innocent civilians. Or, play the game from the other side and see how it feels to not be able to protect your squad mates with simple armor vests because failures in previous missions have left you short of funding. These things types of things are new to Condition Zero and really amplify the excitement of the game as well as keep us coming back for more."

Taking the project over from Rouge Entertainment, the Gearbox team basically had to start from scratch. "I actually have been speaking with Valve about Counter-Strike and things that could be done with it for quite a while," continues Pitchford, "We all knew CS was going to be special." Amen to that.

When you sit down with Randy Pitchford and his partner, Brian Martel, art czar at Gearbox, you can't help but feel their passion and enthusiasm for the game. This editor thought that we here at GameSpy were hardcore players, bah! These guys were nuts. "We know there are a lot of CS fans out there," says Martel. "We have the team and the tools to take CS to the next level." And this level of excitement doesn't stop at the top; it permeates through everyone else on the team. From the artists to the level designers, everyone involved is determined to make Condition Zero something truly special.

The Single-Player Game

"The single-player game will have approximately 30-40 missions and over 16 new maps," says Pitchford. What's cool is that all of these maps can be both played in multiplayer as well as the single-player game. We're introducing a new Russian CT called the Russian Spetznaz and a new Terrorist faction as well." An interesting gameplay addition to the single-player game is the inclusion of training. "Each side will have training," continues Pitchford, "When you're squad earns money, they can fund various skills. These skills include weapons training, bomb defusal, sniper skills, and even camping skills." Now does this mean we'll watch our units go into training? "No, not at all," says Pitchford, "It's basically an upgrade you purchase in the game, just like you would purchase a weapon or item." What's cool about these skills is that there will be one for every weapon class and one each tactic (bomb defusal, sniping, etc.) How many skills does this add up to? You do the math; it's quite a bit.

With all this talk about fellow squad mates and units, you gotta wonder, who is controlling these guys in the single-player game? Have you ever heard of Pod Bot? "We have the best guy in the biz doing the AI for Condition Zero," says Pitchford. "We've got Markus Klinge on board, the guy who created Pod Bot. He's doing all the AI for the units in the game." So just how good is the AI? As a joke, the Gearbox guys put yours truly in a multiplayer game where the player's names were folks on the CZ team. After a few frustrating rounds, we later found out that the other players were indeed bots programmed by Klinge. How good were they? So convincingly real it was almost eerie. They not only camped, but were also adept with the AWP and their ability to cover for one another was remarkable. Remember how smart the Marines were in Half-Life? Imagine bots ten times as intelligent.

Take this, terrorists!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: November 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

From the makers of the ever popular HALF LIFE, here is a nice commando shoot-em-up role-playing game. People who have played HALF LIFE will find the gameplay similar insofar as weapons control / toggling & movement. This is a good thing as I always found HL to be one of the most straightforward games in that regard.

Instead of Marine Recon & aliens, in this game you are matched up against an array of terrorists. You are also not alone this time around; each scenario gives you the chance to be on an anti-terrorism bomb squad or hostage rescue team.

You get a set amount of $$ for each encounter, depending on how well you do. This money serves as the funding for your unit, and with it you can acquire team members, weapons and equipment. The better you perform, the better personnel & toys you're able to buy.

A nice feature of the game is that you're also able to custom make your own game. Want to have a virtual army of commandos go up against an army of terrorists? No problem! Want to be a terrorist instead of one of the good guys? No problem! Just be careful: if you get "caught" by yourself in one of these scenarios you will be taken out like a torch in a tropical storm.

While the game is fun, it does get a bit redundant after awhile. There are two basic missions: find and defuse a bomb (or kill the terrorists before they can plant it) or rescue hostages (or kill all the terrorists). While the maps change, your primary missions do not. People expecting an endless montage of missions similar to HALF LIFE might be disappointed.

Also, I do have a few minor critiques of the game. For one, your team dresses differently. Some dress like Navy SEALS while others are European anti-terrorism personnel. Not only is this unrealistic, but it's also distracting. Sometimes you can't tell your own men from the terrorists.

Secondly, the voices are the same whether you play a terrorist or a commando on the custom game. Somehow I can't imagine a terrorist saying "Yes Sir" or "Lead the way, sir" through a radio. Perhaps I'm being overly-picky here.

The single best feature of the game is what is known as DELETED SCENES. I didn't know what it was at first and almost didn't download it. I'm glad I did! It is a separate set of 10 or so missions. These are much closer to the HALF LIFE feel as you have a LOT of hit-points and you also work alone (for the most part) in the majority of the scenarios. These missions are very cool, not redundant & they're worth the price of this game all by themselves!

All in all this is worth picking up if you like role-playing shoot-em-ups. While it can't really compare to HL (except for DELETED SCENES) it's still worth picking up. For beginners I would recommend starting out with sniper rifles as you can pick off terrorists from afar without getting shot-up yourself. The range of the remainder of the weapons leave you very exposed to incoming bullets.

Advice From A Professional Gamer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 50
Date: July 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing this game for 32 months and there is no game that has ever tested your skills this way, and there is no game this fun. I have never gotten bored of playing this game, infact I play this game 24/7 and I never get tired while engaged in this thrilling and realistic game. This game will have new Weapons, Maps, Terrorist/Counter-Terrorist Models, and an optional 1 Player Mode. Anyone who is new to this game and is concerned about hackers ruining the fun in the game, there is a protection against hacking called HLguard (Half-Life) or CSguard (Counter-Strike) servers with this installed and if that's not enough, you can just play the new 1 Player Mode with skillfull AI Bots and a non-hack enviroment.

!FOR THE PARENTS! --------> Please notice that this game is rated "M" for Mature and includes gore and Adult Language when chatting and tehre are logos that players can spray everywhere in a server with pornography, and there is no control over this unless the ADMIN of the server feels that it is in-appropriate (which usually they don't) the ADMIN will kick/boot that person. If you launch Counter-Strike and go to configuration you can turn off the language you feel is in-appropriate for your child.

Recommended For Enjoyable And Non-Hassle GamePlay.
-256K Modem (DSL) Connection or higher (Cable, T1 etc.)
-nvidia Gforce2 Video Card (or any nvidia and no VooDoo)
-A Very Functional Mouse (Microsoft) (Cheap Mouse)
-GameSpy 3D -- Don't pay for Gamespy, use the one without all capabilities. You will still be able to do everything you need to play Counter-Strike -----...-----
For People Who Have Never Played Counter-Strike, low ping is good go into servers with ping around 115 or lower.

I hope this review has helped you in any way possible. I suggest kids over 12 or 13 of age should be able to play this game.
Thank you -- Clayton Davis

Will it really be released on December 30, 2003?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: December 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

On 12/30/03, I think Amazon.com will update their expected release date. The new expected release date will be 3/17/04. They just left it 12/30/03 so everybody will pre-order. This game has already been made. The delay is a marketing strategy the producers are using to make this game the most anticipated game in history so they can increase sales and profit. Condition Zero is already complete, and they can't tweak the multi-player engine anymore than they already have. If you notice, the strategy guide was made months ago and already released by Prima. They wouldn't release a strategy guide for an incoplete game. I've been waiting on this game since 1/01/02. I've been waiting that long to blast newbies with new weapons. And you think you're pissed. I don't care if this game sucks I just want to see it released.

A Sweet follow up to the original Counter Strike

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: June 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Counter Strike CZ, is the sequel to one of the best games of all time: Half Life: Counter Strike. For those of you who play cs, the game has not changed much from cs 1.6. There are no new weapons, only new weapon skins and new player skins. The graphics are much better than original cs, and the traditional cs maps[ dust, aztec, inferno, militia, etc] have been slightly tweaked. This usually means another box or crate added here or there, or a slightly longer hallway in places, not enough to change the layout of the level, but enough to confuse you for that precious moment while that terrorist hits you with his ak47.

Players of the original Counter Strike will have no problem picking up Condition Zero, and after a few weeks of play will never want to go back to the old counter strike. The question remains: Should you buy Condition Zero? The answer is simple if you don't have the original: HELL YES. And even if you have the original Amazon is selling cz for only $20 bucks, you can't lose much on that. In addition to the kick ass multiplayer you also get a brand new single player campaign, as well as the ability to play against bots in the multiplayer levels[ id save this for when your really bored]. I the missions to be fairly easy even on the hardest setting, but some of the missions are fun, and new players many like to play this after they get owned from playing online for the first time.

Note that when you buy cz the cd key you receive also allows you to play the original counter strike against your cheap friends who haven't bought the new version yet. It seems that the counter strike community is slowly making the change to condition zero. As of today [6-5-04] there are about 4x as many playing the original counter strike as there are playing Condition zero- 45,000 playing cs to 10,000 playing cz. (No I did not pull that number out of my ass, you can see for your self on steams website, http://www.steampowered.com/status/game_stats.html ) If I remember correctly that number used to be more like 10 people playing cs to 1 person playing cz a few months ago. By the time you read this Condition Zero may have overtaken the original counter strike in terms of player usage.

I give this game five stars because it is wicked fun to play, and it never seems to get boring. Counter Strike: Condition Zero does require skill and some patience at times. The game is round based- meaning after you die you must wait for everyone on your team to finish off the other team. If your looking for instant respawns and mass killing, you should play halo, or unreal tournament.

Ripped Off

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: April 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Don't bother buying this game if you have the original CS. It's the same thing with slightly better graphics. With all the hype and delays it should have been better. For Shame Sierra... For Shame.

Wait for the price to drop to $10... Then consider it.

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