After a year's hiatus, I found myself getting back into the Half-Life scene.  The most famous of all game mods, Counter-Strike, was still loaded with thousands of servers, packed with players all around the world.  With 6 years of practice, users have developed their own unique strategy which serves them best and are still getting darn good in the process.  I first heard about Condition Zero from Valve 3 years ago, ready to develop the next generation of Counter-Strike.  Condition Zero quickly became the game industry's hot potato and Gearbox, Ritual Entertainment, and Turtle Rock Studios all took a stab at finishing what Valve had tried to start at the peak of Counter-Strike's success.  Months turned to years and the spotlight dimmed on what could have been a great sequel.  Now, Turtle Rock Studios has successfully completed it, ready for all Half-Life fans to purchase and enjoy.  Unfortunately, with the arrival of new titles that offer advanced first-person action and the continued success of its predecessor, Condition Zero doesn't raise the bar in what we expect out of video games.

I doubt this will be too much of a generalization if I say that almost every gamer in the world has played or seen Counter-Strike.  You take on the role of 1 of 4 characters from either the counterterrorist or terrorist team.  In each round, you and your team members must seek and take out your enemies with the use of gun power and tactical maneuvering.  The first team that is totally wiped out loses, and the round starts over.  Your performance in the prior round, such as number of kills, will determine how much cash you have to spend on new guns and equipment.  Besides eliminating the other team, terrorists can plant bombs in key locations for detonation and counter terrorists can defuse the bombs or rescue hostages.  Maybe its just me, but the creativity team that designed Condition Zero could have developed some better secondary goals other than bombs and hostages.

This leads me to my general feel of the game.  It really does seem like Turtle Rock just took CS, slapped on some extra effects, improvements on old maps, and packaged it.  The only noticeable change is the bot system that is included for the single player campaigns.  I must give the developers a round of applause for taking what many programmers have failed at with CS, well balanced AI.  Of course, you could argue that paying $39.99 for a good bot doesn't make sense but the specifics on how well the bots perform, rivals any moderate player and topples any CS noobie.  They behave just the same as any typical player in multiplayer.  Some listen to you, others don't.  Some keep on the move, others camp (deja-vu for any player who has been at the receiving end at an enemies sniper rifle barrel).  There is a higher level of communication between your teammates that you hardly experience playing with real people.  Your comrades will notify you of their location and any enemy activity they see.  They maneuver in ways that will keep you guessing and seem to know just as much about the maps as you do.  Bots aren't perfect and can do a few moronic things like responding slowly to enemy fire and not protecting hostages or bomb sites to ensure their team is victorious.  But overall, you are sure to have a good time working with very realistic bots against terrorists that wont give up without a fight.

Their difficulty levels range so that every CS player can find a game that is right for their particular skill level.  Single player itself isn't too shabby, but it certainly isn't worthy of the label that it "introduces a new brand of single-player gaming", plastered on the CD case and box.  You chose your teammates through a menu with all of them listed along with their skill, their gun of choice, and bravery.  You are only allowed to play as commander of the counterterrorist squad, so the variety of combat techniques is cut in half from typical multiplayer.  There are 6 missions, each consisting of 3 familiar maps from multiplayer as well as a handful of new ones.  There are certain things you must do in order to complete a map and move on.  Winning three rounds and completing certain challenges like getting a certain number of kills within a specified time or rescuing hostages will cause you to advance and gain more ability to choose teammates.

Everything else is pretty much identical to what you will find in CS multiplayer server.  Some maps have been given a much needed facelift and their are touchups to add a new coat of realism, but with the arrival of newer first-person shooters, it isn't as graphically strong as it once was.  There are no new character models and all the guns and equipment are very similar to CS 1.6.  The audio is improved in communication between your allies, but the sound effects haven't really changed.

Along with the final version of Condition Zero, Valve has included a "deleted scenes" portion that Ritual Entertainment had started during their development of the game.  There isn't a whole lot special about these missions, but they are fun to play and equally impressive with what could have been a graphically -improved version of Counter-Strike.  Also included is a CD which features clips of Half-Life 2 (a game soon to be released in July, make that August, actually....lets say September of 2005...but that may be cutting it a bit short, especially when factoring in another possible code leakage that could delay it indefinitely).  The clips are the same as the video released a while ago from E3.

All together, though CS is considered to be the best first-person shooter ever released for internet play, Condition Zero doesn't come close to overshadowing the past success of its predecessor.  It offers a good bot system which may be worth your $39.99 and the bonus features, extra CD stuff, and single player campaigns are fun, but it isn't quite enough to bring CS veterans to their knees.

Gameplay: 7.1
Still very solid, but there is nothing new to add to your gameplay.  The bots are simply players that don't really exist, but boy are they skilled!

Graphics: 6.7
Add some extra vines, some canopies, a touch of boxes, and a handful of new maps.  Character models are very much the same from CS.  The deleted scenes portion helps Condition Zero in some respects, but the market is so cluttered up with games offering far more superior graphics, what's the point?

Sound: 8
Same sound effects, but a new communication system that makes your boys in blue sound real as ever.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium/Hard
Nicely done, the game is based so that whether you are a newcomer or a veteran, you'll find some use out of it.

Concept: 6.8
A good idea 3 years ago, an ok title today.

Overall: 6.9
With the purchase of Half-Life, you can download Counter-Strike for free.  With a deal that good, its tough bringing yourself to dishing out the cash for a game with nothing more than a pretty good AI system.  But the bot technology is good enough that you may do just that.