The Arctic Biolab (cs_arcticbiolab_cz) was a cut hostage rescue map that was supposed to be released with Counter-Strike (Xbox) and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
Overview[]
The map took place in a former Soviet biological weapons research laboratory, located in the arctic.[1][2] The laboratory housed areas which appeared to be medical observation and storage rooms. The hostages could have been scientists or workers that were imprisoned by the Terrorists.
Official Description[]
Counter-Terrorists: Enter the lab building and rescue the hostages. Take out the Terrorists without jeopardizing the hostages.
Terrorists: Prevent [the] Counter-Terrorist force from rescuing the hostages.
Other Notes: There are 4 hostages in this mission.
Development[]
Arctic Biolab was originally designed by Erik Doescher when Gearbox Software was in charge of development on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.[3] Inspiration for the map was taken from John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing.[4] The map made a few media appearances, which included a short video clip by the German PC Games magazine.[5]
When Ritual Entertainment took over development of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, work on the map was resumed. Compared to the original version by Doescher, Ritual's edits included removing the snowcats that were present in the map. In addition, all the hostages were moved to the lower hostage area and this area was surrounded by a fence. There were plans to release the map for both Counter-Strike (Xbox) and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero,[6] but for unknown reasons the map was never released.
Despite never being officially released, a version of the map which has been modified on by Ritual Entertainment[7] has been leaked and is available online. The original source of this leak is not known.
Trivia[]
- In the leaked version of the map, bots will have trouble rescuing hostages since the hostage rescue zone is relatively small. In addition, hostages may have trouble escaping on their own, as they will often walk towards the building next to the rescue zone.
- The leaked version of the map curiously has 10 Counter-Terrorist spawn points and 12 Terrorist spawn points.
- The fence next to the hostage room is opaque for bots, therefore they will ignore any enemies. This gives human players an advantage to shoot them easily via wallbanging.
References[]
- ↑ Action Vault - Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Intelligence Report. Archived from the original on 2002-08-02.
- ↑ PC Games 04/02 (2002) Computec Media GmbH.
- ↑ GameSpy.com - Preview: Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (PC). Archived from the original on 2001-12-13.
- ↑ Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Information Vault - Josh Jeffcoat Interview.
- ↑ PC Games 05/02 - Vorschau: Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. (2002). [video]. Computec Media GmbH.
- ↑ Half.Life.Including.Condition.Zero.READ.NFO-ANON - Presence of czcs_arcticbiolab.wad and xcs_arcticbiolab.wad
- ↑ Included cs_arcticbiolab.txt accrediting the map to Ritual and modify dates giving a date of 2003-07-23.
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