Prerelease:Counter-Strike: Condition Zero/Rogue Entertainment version

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

Rogue Entertainment would be the ones to kick off Counter-Strike: Condition Zero's development. Some of Rogue's ideas persisted throughout development, such as: the Spetsnaz faction, camouflaged character models, and M60, while others were scrapped after development was handed over to Gearbox Software, such as the universal tool.

After the cancellation of the PS2 port of American McGee's Alice in January 2001, Rogue Entertainment were left with no projects to work on. In order to secure work lest they close their company, Rogue Entertainment contacted many game companies. One of which was Valve Software.Gabe Newell of Valve Software, who had always wanted to see single-player missions in Counter-Strike, asked Rogue Entertainment if they'd like to do that. They agreed to do so and Valve started paying for the new project. As E3 2001 was fast-approaching, Rogue Entertainment went into crunch mode in the hopes of producing a playable demonstration.

However a month after, Jim Molinets, the game's producer, decided to leave the company to take up a Senior Producer role at Sony HQ in San Diego. Rogue Entertainment assured the panicked Valve that Jim's unexpected decision to leave the company wouldn't affect Condition Zero's development, as most of duties as a game producer were already done prior to his leaving. Despite this, Valve felt betrayed, alleging that Rogue Entertainment knew that Jim Molinets was going to leave and purposely didn't tell them until the contract was secured. Valve responded by removing the project from Rogue's hands, deciding on developing Condition Zero themselves by a team consisting of Erik Johnson as lead with Minh Le, Counter-Strike's original creator involved.

Game Modes

Single-player

A mission based campaign influenced by traditional Counter-Strike scenarios. Each mission would've been played either as Counter-Terrorist or Terrorist, with objectives for each side related to the missions' premise. The campaign would consist of 16 different missions presented as international incidents taking place in real world locations. In order to simulate the feeling of a multiplayer experience, the missions would be undertaken with teammates utilizing AI based on the Half-Life grunts. Their actions would be largely scripted and there would be little possibilities for the player to influence their actions.

Cooperative play

Cooperative play was at the top of Valve Software's wish list, but a decision as to whether it would actually be included had not been made.

Multiplayer

Rogue Entertainment's design of Condition Zero also included a multiplayer component, though no information about how or if it differed from the traditional Counter-Strike multiplayer was ever revealed. All the new multiplayer maps were to be released free of charge for owners of the original Counter-Strike.

Maps and missions

The game was supposed to feature 16 different single-player missions which were based on actual locations. Some of the missions, at least the Center for Disease Control (CDC) mission, consisted of multiple maps, a joint effort by Cameron Lamprecht and Bobby Pavlock.

Each single-player mission would also be available as a multiplayer map. It is not known if each map that the single-player missions were constituted of would be released as multiplayer maps or if plans were to create a separate multiplayer map based on each single-player mission.

Due to the short development time, only the CDC mission was nearing completion and most other missions were still on the drawing board.

Weapons and Equipment

The Computer Gaming World preview mentions 11 new weapons and pieces of equipment were to be added in Condition Zero. All available to both sides unless stated otherwise:

• .357 Magnum revolver: This revolver would be a cheaper alternative to the Desert Eagle.
• Auto-crossbow: A Terrorist-exclusive weapon that would fire poison-tipped bolts. Poisoned players would have their health slowly drained as well as jerk around randomly.
• Binoculars: A piece of equipment for spotting enemies further away. Using the Binoculars makes you vulnerable since it's considered a weapon and takes the place of one.
• Concussion Grenade: The only new grenade type. Instead of blinding, concussion grenades cause a loud noise that deafens the player (by causing severe tinnitus). When placed close enough, it could cause the affected player to drop their weapons.
• Flares: Flares could be used to lighten up dark areas. They would be especially useful for spotting campers hiding in darkened areas. This piece of equipment has HUD icons and a kill icon leftover in Counter-Strike 1.6.
• Land Mine: Terrorist-exclusive piece of equipment nicknamed the "Bouncing Betty" based off the real life German S-mine. It would emit a sound on stepped on, exploding if the player tries to move away. The Counter-Terrorist-exclusive Universal Tool could defuse these mines.
• M60 machine gun: The M60 machine gun would've been the second heavy machine gun to be added. Its damage and ammo capacity were very similar to the M249 but it differed in having a faster rate of fire and being Counter-Terrorist-exclusive. The M60 survived into Gearbox Software's iteration of Condition Zero and appears as a playable weapon in Deleted Scenes, Ritual Entertainment's version of Condition Zero
• M79 grenade launcher: This Counter-Terrorist-exclusive grenade launcher would be especially useful for lobbing grenades into hard-to-reach areas popular among snipers or campers.
• Pancor Jackhammer: An Automatic shotgun that could shoot at an impressive fire rate of 12 rounds per second, making it more powerful than the XM1014.
• Suicide Belt: When activated, this belt would start a countdown after which it would explode killing the player wearing it and causing severe damage to everyone close to it. If the player wearing the belt was killed after it had been activated, a Counter-Terrorist could try defusing it if time permitted. Terrorist-exclusive. The Suicide Belt was cut from Gearbox Software's iteration of Condition Zero but does appear as an NPC-only weapon in Ritual Entertainment's iteration.
• Universal Tool: The only known use for this tool was the defusal of land mines. It is possible that is was an upgraded version of the defusal kit and it may also have been needed for the defusal of an armed suicide belt.

Miscellaneous

Factions and player models

A new Counter-Terrorist faction, the Spetsnaz was to be added to the game. However, only concept art exists of it and highly probable no models of it were ever made. The addition of the Spetsnaz would've unbalanced the number of factions since no Terrorist faction counter part was ever announced.

Another new feature was alternate, setting-appropriate camouflage skins/uniforms. Meaning that playing a desert mission would see operatives wearing desert camouflage. In addition to the default SEAL Team 6, three new uniforms were made by Rich Fleider. These were arctic, woodland and desert. It's unknown how many alternate were uniforms planned, or if such feature was available to other factions.

Interface

Buy lists were to be introduced to the buy menu. Allowing players to purchase combination of weapons and equipment with a single button-click without the need of scripting. Some default buy lists would be included, but they could also be customized. Customizable buy lists appear in the final version of Condition Zero

The scoreboard was also supposed to receive some changes. One of these changes was the addition of medals. These would be awarded each round to the player that received the largest amount of kills and most headshots. In addition, an icon displaying the most used weapon for each player would also be added. All this information was to be visible next to the player name on the scoreboard.

Technology

Condition Zero, as with the original Counter-Strike, uses the same engine as Half-Life. Rogue Entertainment was going to introduce voice over communications for the game.

Fate

All the work Rogue Entertainment made for their version of Condition Zero was scrapped after Valve handed development to Gearbox Software. However, some of the ideas and planned features found their way into future iterations of the game:

• The Spetsnaz faction would make its way to all future iterations of the game.
• The Flare, M60 and the Suicide Belt as well as the setting appropriate camouflage were utilized in future iterations by Gearbox Software and Ritual Entertainment.
• Textures seen in the Church level were used by Ritual Entertainment in the Building Recon mission.
• The introduction of buy menu sets was eventually implemented into the final version of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
• The concept of a deafening grenade was eventually made part of the Flashbang starting from Counter-Strike: Source
• Some of the weapons proposed were reintroduced in Counter-Strike Online such as the Python and Anaconda (.357 Magnum), Auto-Crossbow, M60, M79 and Pancor Jackhammer.

Concept Art

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  CDC Cleanroom concept art. By Ben Hall

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  Spetsnaz concept art. By Joel Thomas

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  Suicide Belt concept art. By Joel Thomas

Renders

Various renders made during this time of development exist online.

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  Render of the SEAL Team 6 model in desert camo.

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  Render of the SEAL Team 6 model in woodland camo.

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  Render of the SEAL Team 6 model in arctic camo.

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  Untextured render of the M60. By Steve Maines

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  Untextured render of a M79 grenade launcher. By Jose Hernandez

Screenshots

Screenshots for a cut mission. Note that the textures in the church level would be reused by Ritual Entertainment for the final map of "Building Recon", where you have to disarm a nuke.

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  SEAL Team 6 desert-camo operative on Dust 2.

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  Screenshot of the planned CDC mission, rooftop map.

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  Ditto.

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  Screenshot of an unknown church map.

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  Ditto, different angle.