On June 30, 2012, the latest version in Counter-Strike: Source (v5_3) of this map has been released, concluding all the progress and updates which have been made in the past.
On August 1, 2013, the map was officially ported to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as v5_4.
It is based on the very first scene of the popular Final Fantasy VII. After the party arrives by train, the mission is to get down into the Reactor's core, set up the bomb (done by the guide, Cloud), and leave the Reactor, finally take the another side of the bridge for safety.
It has 4 levels of difficulty (Normal, Hard, Extreme and Extreme II), which all follow the exact same path with minor differences, and one Zombie Mod (ZM) level instead of an escape one after the four. The map is highly popular amongst the community because of many different reasons; like Bahamut, (probably the first "boss" ever seen on a ZE map), the Materia (powerful and varied power-ups for the humans), a huge and fitting music repertory liked by the majority, and for being the first ZE map with "Stages" or "Difficulties".
The goal, like on the very beginning of Final Fantasy VII, is ultimatly to destroy the Mako Reactor of Midgar's Sector 1 and escape to safety before the explosion occurs. From Hard to Extreme II, players also have to face Bahamut and Sephiroth (main antagonist from FF VII), in different ways that increase in difficulty after each winning round.
The map is very difficult (especially on the Extreme difficulties), and requires proper teamwork and good use of the materia in order to win.
Story
Story of ze FFVII Mako Reactor, and more-0
The related story in Final Fantasy VII, up to 16:30. Supportive materials follow.
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Development
Other versions not described, including: b1, b2, v1_1, v1_2, v1_3, v1_4_1 and v1_4_2.[2]
The map has since it's release received a lot of updates and is still not completely intact, but it is perfectly playable since v2_2 and arguably no bugs are left to exploit.
Counter-Strike: Source
ze_FFVII_mako_reactor_v1
The very first version. It had an unplayable and highly laggy start due to the trains where the player start being in motion instead of static.
ze_FFVII_mako_reactor_v2_2
The first perfectly playable version.
ze_FFVII_mako_reactor_v3_1
One of the most difficult, if not most difficult version. It is almost perfectly stable as only very few bugs are left.
ze_FFVII_mako_reactor_v4
A test version to v5.
ze_FFVII_mako_reactor_v5
The forelast version. Because the new classname system caused the map to crash, a new version (v5_1) was developed the day after to quickly get rid of this error.
ze_FFVII_Mako_Reactor_v5_1
There was an exploitable bug at the pipes which has been fixed in v5_3.
ze_FFVII_Mako_Reactor_v5_3
The latest version for CS: S. It fixed the pipes part as well as the exploitable bug which allowed players to hide before going up into the elevator room on Extreme II. It is perfectly stable.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
On July 13, 2013, it was announced that the map will be available on CS: GO. Hannibal refused to do it at first as the version after the platform transfer is buggy, but later it was confirmed after Kaemon passing to him a petition.
The guide Cloud in early levels may disappear due to errors on the model.
The official CS: GO version of this map is not released yet, but there are Korean gameplay videos available. One confirmed that the map is decompiled.
ze_FFVII_Mako_Reactor_v5_4
Released on August 1, 2013. The models Cloud and Combine Dropship were removed due to crashing, and also the red color correction because it is "annoying"[3].
Final Fantasy VII Opening Bombing Mission - Orchestra Live
The World Festival Symphony Orchestra plays Opening - Bombing Mission, 2005. Start viewing at 0:25 or 1:10 if you want to skip. Required to view on YouTube.
This map features in a huge amount of soundtrack used, covering all phases of all stages with no overlapping and replaying (usually music will replay from the beginning if it is fully played till the end; this does not count stage restarts due to terrorist wins). As an ideal 5-0 CT to T in this map (without eliminating zombies) still requires around half an hour to complete, one can predict how rich the soundtrack is. Nonetheless, there may be alternative set of soundtrack for the same phase of the game play. In this case the map will randomly pick one set to play.
As previously stated, its good soundtrack setting is one of the reasons why it is popular. Music can enhance emotions and recall memories. Those who have played Final Fantasy VII may immediately recognize the opening sequences by listening a set of its Normal Mode soundtrack: Opening and Mako Reactor, which is exactly the same as they are played in the video game.
List of Soundtrack
The following listing the album name, track name and level(s) it appears of each piece of soundtrack played. It is referred to the official list in the map, with corrections and modifications.
Kingdom Hearts OST Complete - Disc 9 - Fate of the Unknown (ZM)
Final Fantasy VII Original Sound Track.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Original Soundtrack.
Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack.
Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack.
Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix.
Music For the Jilted Generation by The Prodigy.
The single track Stompbox by The Qemists.
In Silico by Pendulum.
Hold Your Color by Pendulum.
Immersion by Pendulum.
Table of Soundtrack Appearances
The soundtrack appearances are summarized in the following table. Marking the tracks with the numbers assigned in the previous section. Special markings:
A new line means the OR operator, for example Track 1 or 2 will be played on Section 1 of Normal.
An arrow towards the right ("→") means to play the two tracks in series, from the left to the right one.
This map covers too many tactics that makes it inefficient to explain here.
Trivia
Hannibal has never played Final Fantasy VII himself. It was Maese Danielot, a friend of Hannibal and a big fan of the Final Fantasy series who "forced" him into making the map. It took Danielot a very long time to convince Hannibal. When he finally convinced Hannibal, Danielot would eventually go to Hannibal's house for some hours on the weekends to keep him company and make suggestions while they worked on the map.
In early versions, due to Bahamut's health-point based "engine", he was easier to kill when lesser people arrived to face him. Likewise, when a large number of players reached the Mako Reactor, it made him exponentially harder to the point he became undefeatable, thus unbalancing the gameplay.
During one version, before completely fixing Bahamut, he had a 50% chance of retreating at the very last possible second if he was still alive by that moment.
The materia that hurt or affect Bahamut affect him from any place of the map; you don't need to be close to him, aim at him, nor being in the same room!
Knockback damage still gets registered when shooting a zombie who is frozen by the Ice materia. Basically, this means that he will recieve all the knockback damage until the ice duration expires, usually followed by flying massively backwards. Because of this reason, it is a very good idea to shoot all the frozen zombies caught in the materia to produce massive knockback on the entire horde instead of targeting only one zombie.
Earth and Ultima are the only materia with fixed spawn points (2 for each); and along with Gravity the only 3 materia that won't level up the players nor themselves.
You can turn OFF the color corrections by typing "mat_colorcorrection 0" in the console. (Color correction is for example the red environment effect in the Extreme levels.)
In Normal Mode, the "boss" at the Reactor's core is called Guard Scorpion[4]. It appears at the same point in Final Fantasy VII.
Its model is only a Dropship model from the Half-Life 2 series with a red color skin.[5]
Bahamut is usually a summon appears in the Final Fantasy series. In Final Fantasy VII, there are "Bahamut", "Neo Bahamut" and "Bahamut ZERO" summon materia. However, they are not the best adapting sources because they are summoned for aiding the allies. It is better to refer "Bahamut SIN" in Advent Children, summoned by the main antagonist of the movie, Kadaj.
The model of Bahamut in this map is, however, based on his appearance in Final Fantasy X.
One of the locations with this incorrect kanji in the map.
The kanji "壱" labeled on the Reactor's surface and core means "[number] one", as the area is called No.1 Reactor of Midgar City. In the map, however, the bottom part of the kanji is wrongly printed. It should be like this instead.
↑Advent Children does not include the track Bombing Mission but Opening only. Meanwhile its quality and orchestration show that it is the original Final Fantasy VII version.
↑Opening and Bombing Mission are often referred as one track because they are played as connected, like a medley. However only Bombing Mission will be repeated over time. Opening is played only once. In the ZE map parts from the both tracks are included.
↑Japanese: 迫りくる者たち, also known as Those Who Come Closer. Composed by Junya Nakano. See Track 8 of Disc 3.
↑ 4.04.14.24.34.4Listing the album names. Music For the Jilted Generation is released by The Prodigy, Join the Q is by The Qemists, and In Silico, Hold Your Colour and Immersion are by Pendulum.
↑Originally a single piece, i.e. piece released not as a part of an album.
↑Hannibal & Kaemon Blog. Mako Reactor for CS:GO (version 5.4). "PD: I removed the annoying red color correction : )"
↑ 4.04.1Hannibal & Kaemon Blog. ZE FFVII Mako Reactor comming to CS:GO. Comments. (July 16, 2013) Hannibal[SPA]: The port is almost finished, but the red crab is giving problems. / (July 16, 2013) Kaemon: What Hannibal means by “red crab” is “Guard Scorpion” (the boss you fight instead of Bahamuth on Normal and the old Easy difficulties).
