Counter-Strike players will find the offline component somewhat novel but not indispensable,its just a bit average.
User Rating: 9 | Counter-Strike: Condition Zero PC
has finally arrived on store shelves (and Steam servers, by the way). And after all the delays, the final product has offered us a few new surprises -- some delightful, some dreadful. For them that don't know (and shame on you, by the way), Counter-Strike is a wildly popular online shooter built on the original Half-Life technology. Though it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, twitchy action gamers around the world loved the title. Part of the success of the game was that it was built on one of the best shooters around; part of it was that it was free to download and play. Now Valve has now released an updated version of the game that includes some new offline modes, plenty of competent bots and pretty much nothing else. And that's the real issue -- if you can see past the "nothing else" to appreciate the new things that the game offers. Each mission requires you to defuse a bomb, rescue hostages, you know, the usual Counter-Strike stuff. You're usually up against half-a-dozen or so of terrorists but you can take along some back up. There are a number of bots here that you "buy" to take with on a mission. Those that cost one point are pretty terrible; those that cost four points are pretty damn good. Each comes rated in a number of areas: skill, bravery and teamwork, and has a preferred weapon. I'd really like to have seen an extra option that allows you to buy specific equipment for your team but there's a nice range of weapons at all point levels so you can create the team that suits you.
