Overview

The map takes place in a warehouse containing nuclear materials or a nuclear power plant. In Global Offensive, the original version of the map takes place a German nuclear power plant, while the revamped version takes place in an American one.

Unlike most Counter-Strike bomb defusal maps, the map revolves around a central structure rather than multiple lanes, with the two bombsites being overlapped on top of each other.

Official description

Counter-Strike

Counter-Terrorists: Prevent Terrorists from bombing the nuclear reactor. The reactor can be targeted from above and below. Team members must defuse any bombs that threaten targeted areas.

Terrorists: The Terrorist carrying the C4 must destroy the nuclear missile.

Other Notes: There are 2 bomb targets in the mission.

Counter-Strike: Source

Counter-Terrorists: A silent alarm has been tripped by the guard shack at the MAC Nuclear Power Plant. We will enter from the back side of the plant and secure the area.

Terrorists: Our target is a recently decommissioned nuclear power plant that still contains spent fuel rods. Security is at an all time low since the plant’s closure and the fuel rods are scheduled for removal next week. Plant the C4 in the fuel rod room, or the room directly above it to destroy the cooling pools and melt down the reactor.

Other Notes: There are 2 bomb targets in the mission.

Journal Description

Cedar Creek Nuclear Powerplant: new toxic room, same problem of terrorists wanting to blow it up.

Development History

Counter-Strike 1.6

Nuke consisted of an abandoned facility responsible for guarding a nuclear missile and had its security breached by the Terrorists who had intentions in destroying the area. Meanwhile, the Counter-Terrorists were ordered to protect the building at all costs by either eliminating the enemy or defuse the bomb.

Generally, the map reused the sky and the desert textures from the Half-Life level “Surface Tension”. Elsewhere, the integrity of the facility contained textures from multiple maps originating from Half-Life.

Counter-Strike: Source

The desert textures were replaced with concrete and the sky no longer contained the canyons that it once had. Furthermore, the side yard/outside has been enlarged into a more wide-open spaced setting and the Black Mesa storage containers were replaced by the “Starline” logo. The environment of de_nuke was changed to more of an industrial area and is located within civilization. The building itself has been changed to nuclear power plant rather than a nuclear missile storage. Lighting has also increased as well.

The vent is now also larger, compared to the original version. As such, players no longer need to crouch within the vent.

Instead of having a basement, it is now called the “backway”. This area is much smaller and lacks automated doors. The pathway also is much shorter when compared to Counter-Strike 1.6, thus allowing the CTs to rush to Bombsite B in many different ways.

When the bomb went off, an alarm would sound.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Original

The original Global Offensive version is largely a copy of the Source version, with some changes in the looks of the map and gameplay. In the Beta version, all the hallways in the basement has been removed, leaving only Ramp and Vents the entrances to the bombsite.

During the Beta, professional player and mapper Salvatore “Volcano” Garozzo created his own version of the Global Offensive Nuke, named de_nuke_ve, which made many changes to the map and was accepted by tournaments as “a competitive revision” of the map. On the December 12, 2012 Update, Valve incorporated changes from Volcano’s version of Nuke into the Global Offensive Nuke.

In the final version, the crates at Bombsite A and the nuclear missile in Bombsite B have been replaced with nuclear containment barrels. A somewhat significant change in the structure of the map is that the entrance to the lower area of the facility from the outside has been moved slightly away from the CT Spawn Zone and the basement has been removed. Instead of having two pathways, one of the lesser used pathways near bombsite B has been converted into a storage room.

Revised

Following the revamp of Train, Nuke was removed from the Active Duty map group and replaced by Train after the March 31, 2015 update. Nuke was later revamped and released alongside Operation Wildfire, incorporating a lot of the feedback to balance out the new version. Shortly after, Nuke was re-introduced to the active map pool, replacing Inferno.

Some of the revamped Nuke’s major changes include removing one of the vents between bomb sites, re-opening the access from tunnels to Lower B, blocking access to part of Upper A and easier access to Silo.

The ventilation covers connecting Site A and B can now be interacted with to close and open them, shutting off sight lines. They can still be destroyed normally.

As of now, the official factions are the FBI for the Counter-Terrorist side and the Phoenix Connexion as the Terrorists.