A decent buy and now with the the extra levels, the improved models and textures its worth the cash.

User Rating: 8.2 | Counter-Strike: Condition Zero PC
By Big-Dog | Review Date:
This review is based on Counter Strike:Condition Zero 1.2 Conclusion for the lazy: For £15 I consider CS:CZ a decent buy and now with the promise of CS: Source Beta, the extra levels, the improved models and textures its worth the cash. But essentially you're paying for CS 1.7 and a so-so single-player experience. Strongest points are the bots and new visuals and maps. Gameplay: The 2 main things you get with CS:CZ are the "Deleted Scenes" (The Single-Player - Half Life-esque gameplay) and the standard CS gameplay. I'll do each bit seperately: Standard CS:CZ: With this there is a "Tour of Duty" mode that basically takes you through every CZ level (Remakes of the originals) playing as the CT's. This isn't as dull as it sounds as it actually pretty good fun if you set it on a higher difficulty (I opted for Hard) Its not just win a round and its over, ever map has different objectives such as "Get 5 kills without dying with the Bullpup", "Kill a flash-blinded enemy and survive the round", "Rescue all the hostages" etc. this keeps it quite fresh because you often find yourself using some of the less popular weapons or being taken down an alternate route of winning that you wouldn't normally. The AI is excellent and really mimics online CS play as good as I could hope. Its down to the player to complete objectives whilst they're alive, but if you die the bots will happily escourt the hostages (More on them in a minute) or disarm the bomb. They respond to commands and give feedback on how they're doing and what they see and hear. The hostages are also a lot better and will try and escape if left unatended, run from grenades, take cover, cough in smoke, use ladders. Deleted Scenes: This is the actual Single Player game. Basically, it plays out pretty much like any standard shooter, if you've played Half Life or in fact an FPS nothing here is particularly new. Some levels are a lot stronger than others. I've only played through 4 but 2 of them seemed to attempt to add a "stealth" element which really didn't work, the Russian level was excellent though and had a great atmosphere and some decent shootouts. But unfortunately this part of CS:CZ is slightly disapointing but it can keep you occupied if you want a quick and straightforward FPS to tide you over until Doom 3 and HL2. Graphics: Thanks to the update CS:CZ no longer looks like standard CS1.6 - there's a whole set of new player and weapon models that really make CS look a lot better. The Spetnatz and SAS models in particular are my favourites and all the weapon models are great improvements. The maps themselves have also recieved an overhall with lots more features that don't really effect gameplay but help add to the ambience, some also have been slightly changed such as Militia has the ladders in different places. Having said that, its still the HL engine and with Far Cry and UT2004 to contend with it isn't the most appealing game to look at. Sound: The sound is consistantly good, with new weapon sounds in some places and particularly the bots use of the voice com is effective and entertainging. Not much more to say in this department Conclusion: For £15 I consider CS:CZ a decent buy and now with the promise of CS: Source Beta, the extra levels, the improved models and textures its worth the cash. But essentially you're paying for CS 1.7 and a so-so single-player experience. Strongest points are the bots and new visuals and maps.

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