Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes is a game developed by Ritual Entertainment, which acts as an expansion pack to Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. It makes up a series of eighteen unconnected single-player missions, with blazing fast action and intense firefights. It includes new weapons and re-skinned and re-animated versions of Counter-Strike weapons.
It's all fun and games until enemies pull out rocket launchers.
This game is one more proof that Half-Life 1 engine is awesome!
I can't believe how I long went without playing this stellar game 🤯 this is easily one of the most high-quality GoldSrc experiences you can have! Beautiful animation work, improved NPC AI, and a shocking amount of gametime on top of that! This is absolutely worth playing through if you haven't tried it already, grab it on Steam and give it a shot! 😁👍
For what it was - a series of single-player Condition Zero missions - this was very good. At the same time, it didn't offer any more than that, but this is expected of an expansion.
Nice idea to putting CSCZ into adventure mission game. Counter-Strike fans may like this.
Hit-scan enemies, bad a.i.
It's all fun and games until enemies pull out rocket launchers.
the gameplay, the maps, the models and everything seems to me well done and fun!
Gameplay: 8 - Very Good
It's as fun and enjoyable as Counter-Strike normally is, with a lot of cinematic flair. It gets a bit tiresome in places, since all you're doing for most of the missions is shooting bad people, but I feel like it's a must play for anyone who enjoys classic Goldsrc games.
AI: 7 - It works
The way enemies sprint around corners blindly looks a little weird and they tend to be brain dead aggressive at times, but I think they do a serviceable job, they respond promptly to spotting the player, they run away when hurt, they don't do a whole lot of flanking or anything, which is unfortunate, but it is what it is. Your AI allies are useless, they will usually run into enemy fire and die as soon as the mission starts, kind of detracts from the idea that these are commandos, if they are just running into gunfire and dying like Stormtroopers, but whatever.
Balance: 5 - Flawed
Another reviewer, who goes by Blue199 put it best: "It's all fun and games until enemies pull out rocket launchers." The game is really inconsistent, sometimes it wants to be generous, for example: enemy snipers get your attention with a gigantic red laser sight when they aim at you, and it seems that they can't damage you at all if you have your back to them, this is generous, they didn't want snipers to be frustrating... but then you have the rocket launcher terrorists, who can kill you instantly in one shot (snipers can't...) give you no clue that they are about to fire at you and don't give a rat's *** whether you're looking at them or not, to make matters worse, sometimes the level designers ambush you with them, you never know when there's going to be a cheap death around the corner.
Art Style: 8 - Very Good
As dated as Goldsrc was when this game was released, the game looks beautiful, environments are detailed and feel lived in, I'm fond of the african setting in particular.
Performance: 5 - Flawed
Did I mention that Goldsrc was dated when this came out? Yeah... it seems that the engine can't quite handle some of the ambitions of the developers, the occasional crashes will happen
Interface: 6 - Unpolished
When I first played this, I didn't quite know what the little gadget icons meant, I guess they weren't clear enough, during the mission Lost Cause, I used my little camera to recon the room, and then I was supposed to report my findings, I knew I had to be in a designated radio transmission area, so I went all the way back to the beginning to try to use my radio, but I couldn't, I went to the shack with the sleeping dude, nothing there, it took me a bit to realize that I was supposed to report immediately on the spot, because I didn't realize the icon had changed from the camera icon to the radio. It also felt unclear to me at times which doors I could open and which ones I couldn't, what consoles did a thing, which ones didn't.
Sound & Ambience: 8 - Very Good
The ambience does a sufficient job selling the idea that you are in these places all over the world, the sound effects for gunshots are nothing mind blowing but they are satisfying enough.
Acting: 6 - Unpolished
I like how characters speak their native language sometimes, with subtitles, but then in that same conversation they may switch to some heavily stereotypical engrish accent, very inconsistent. The acting for english speakers is serviceable.
Music: 7 - It Works
While it's nothing mind blowing either, the soundtracks composed for this game enhance certain moments, making them exciting and tense.
Presentation & Story: 7 - It Works
I felt like I often had to go read the mission description from the World Map to understand what was even going on, the game tends to pick things up in medias res, so it can be a bit disorienting, but in the end, it's a very simple plot: these people are going to do bad things, shoot them now and people will be safe.
Recap:
A fun romp through what feels like Valve's take on the Call of Duty formula, it lacks the bombastic moments of Modern Warfare and the memorable characters, but it's serviceable enough, as long as you're not getting shot by people with high powered weapons hiding in the tightest corners you can imagine.
I always hope Counter Strike has its own singleplayer campaign, until turns out its actually exist.