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QII: Zaero Review, Part 2.
< < < Back to Part 1: mission, maps, architecture, exploration...
New weapons and items:
A brief run down of each item: some of these were very good, some of these were useless, as with all mission packs. Generally I found these items more interesting
that in most mission packs. The item models were good on the ground, but some looked crude in the hand (I use centre hand anyway) - the visual and sound effects were all good.
Snipers Rifle:
The worst add-on in the pack. It's powerful but slow effects are great, but the unalterable zoom was unusuable - it zooms automatically, without changing mouse
sensitivity, which makes it very annoying to use. I have a 4 line zoom alias that kicks the shit out of this weapon. As soon as I got the railgun, I dropped this weapon as it was just so
awkward to use.
Sonic Cannon:
A potentially very powerful energy weapon that takes ages to warm up, then delivers a hugely destructive instant hit explosion. Good for those "I really want to take the
bitch down with one shot" situations, and great in DM as well I imagine. Sadly I didn't use it much as I was saving cells for the power shield.
IREDs:
A laser triggered trip mine just like Half-Life. Quite effective, especially against slow moving enemy, but as my mate SCRAD said, why would you want to
retreat laying mines when you could retreat firing weapons??
Flare gun:
Fires a flare that blinds monsters, and indeed you if you get to close. Quite a nice idea but I didn't use it much.
EMP Nuke:
Simply excellent, one of the best add-on items I've used. Sends out an electromagnetic pulse that disables all enemy weapons for a while. Extremely useful as it renders
them helpless and makes even the hardest combats amenable - one situation I remember fondly is being trapped by 3 Tank Commanders with no cover - the solution was to run around
frantically searching through the inventory, then launch the EMP and completely neutralise the bastards. Very effective, very good.
Recon Visor:
Another quality item. This interesting gadget lets you tap into security cameras in many maps, a la Duke Nukem. A very nice idea that adds to the ambience, and
useful for scoping out potential ambushes.
Plasma Shield:
Another interesting idea, which sets up a small, temporary but invulnerable shield. You get quite a few, but I found them slow to use - if you could whip them out very quickly
in combat they would be great.
A2K:
The novelty "total death" item, completely useless in single player.
 
New monsters:
These are often the test of mission pack quality - too many that look out of place in the game, and the feel of the pack will be spoilt. Thankfully Zaero has a limited selection of new
monsters that work well in Quake II.
Hell Hound:
Essentially an aggressive dog, these little bastards are surprisingly effective and nasty. Like a Mutant, if they jump at you the do a lot of damage, and their fast
and erratic behaviour makes an equally fast retreat the sensible option. The model is good and appropriately, and they definitely add interest to the game in the abscence of
Mutants.
Sentien:
A large purely robotic creation that is similar to a more dangerous Tank - it's slow and noisy, but has very powerful weapons - if you stay within it's line of sight for a second
or two, you will be very dead. This turns it into a "duck and shoot" monster - that's how you deal with it, and it's a good addition to the game for those who find Tanks just too easy. The
model is fine, it doesn't look very mean, but it's well made.
Auto cannons:
Aahh, when I first saw these, I despaired - after all, it was the gross overuse of Turrets that made Ground Zero so frustrating. However, the turrets are *much*
better in this pack: there are far fewer so they never become overwhelming, and they take much less damage to destroy (1 Railgun shot, 2 Super Shotgun blasts). Thus they are not at all
annoying despite their sometimes tricky positions, and are just another minor feature.
Boss monster:
Ho hum, a boss monster. Well, this one is quite cool, and the boss fight is more interesting than most, but it is still rather tedious. It's a humanoid in a meaty mechanical
suit, with very big weapon arms - the model is quite impressive, though the legs are a bit weak. It has a variety of unusual attacks, including some of the items you pick up in the game -
you get to find out how truly annoying the EMP Nuke must be for the poor monsters =).
Gameplay combat:
Well there's lots of it, that's for sure. Gameplay is solid in this pack, there are lots of monsters and always something to shoot....apart from when it's leading up to an
ambush, that is =).
Monsters are used in good proportions: lots of weak troops, less medium troops, and even less command troops. The new monsters are used regularly, but not in overwhelming numbers,
so they fit into the gameplay more naturally. Most monsters are well used, for example, Guards used in numbers, Bitches in tricky sniping spots, Beserkers to ambush you (Medics and
Mutants are curiously absent). The gameplay is fairly standard gameplay, mostly straightforward and fun, with plenty of space to fight in. There are some aspects that stand out more
though: the shoot and duck style gameplay that is encouraged by a lot of
buttresses and pillars, the amount of reinforcements that make backtracking satisfying, ambushes and suprises that occasionally occur in "security" type areas, and some
arena style combats that are common in later maps and often involve tough enemy. All of this is good fun combat, but there are flaws: some sections can be hard to survive first go - there
is invariabley a reasonable way to survive, but some of the monster traps can be off-putting. The boss combat isn't much fun - a fairly tough boss, with strange weapons that seem
to kill you instantly, and his use of the EMP can really make the combat tiresome, though the situation you fight him in is interesting.
 
Gameplay balance:
Generally the gameplay balance is very good in this pack, though with one noticable exception. The combat progresses very steadily through the levels, in terms of the
monsters you
face and the overall combat intensity. It's noticable that when you start off, Gunners are rare and Tanks are the boss monsters, while by the end, Gunners are the common troops and
Tanks are prolific too. This means that although you get increasingly good weapons, the increasingly tougher troops keeps the combat satisfying, so it's a well balanced pack - the boss
combat even has a sting that makes hording power-ups futile. Weapons are supplied steadily throughout the level, it does take a while to get the heavier weapons which is good, while
health and armour are in appropriate supply. Also, though you get the Power Shield fairly early on, this does not make the gameplay too easy
(like it did a bit in The Reckoning), because you get very few cells intially, making it less protective. The only balance problem is the ammo in the waste unit - up to and after this
point, there was plenty of ammo, but in the waste unit there seemed to be very little and I was forced to use the Blaster a few times, which sucks. Maybe you were supposed to save lots
of ammo from the previous units, but there was no indication of that, and it was a large blip in the otherwise excellent balance.
Deathmatch, speedrunning and other malarkey:
I didn't test deathmatch, though there have been servers running it at some point. Very strangely, there are no proper DM maps in the pack, which disappointed me as I do
like to check them out. Neither is there the traditional modification of Q2DM1 =). However, recently a DM map pack (6 meg) has been released at the
Zaero website - unfortunately I won't be able to check these out, but I'm sure they will be
worth a try. From what I can guess, DM would be pretty good, though the ingame maps would only be suitable for large FFAs or teamplay. The items would have some effect on DM, but I
think it would be mostly good: the Sonic Cannon could be very useful, as could the IRED mines, though the EMP and A2K could be really annoying for other players. So it would probably
be fun, though I'm unlikely to play it.
Speedrunning?? Well, just go check out my demos on the QII Speedruns page - believe me you *will* want to watch these as the
running and
the tricks 0wn =). There is the potential for more levels to run with shortcuts (check back for more soon, hopefully), and a run through the entire pack would be quite feasible, on Easy skill
at least. There is also some cool trick potential for those whole like buggering around with wacky jumps. The IRED mines can be used for cunning jumps, you could build a stack of
Plasma Shields and jump up them, while the Sonic Cannon is a fantastic rocket jumping weapon - you can charge it up to give you a Quad rocket size boost and beyond =). All a lot of fun
once you finish the pack.
Conclusion:
I really enjoyed this pack - I played it solidly for a few days, and the only parts I didn't enjoy were running out of ammo in the waste unit, and the final boss combat. Other
than that, the good to great maps, the fun gameplay and exploration, and the overall interest easily overcome the flaws such as some of the textures, some of the items and the 2D feel.
It's not as good as The Reckoning, because it lacks the visual polish and the interesting progression ideas (chasing a stolen air-strike marker, hiding on a freight shuttle), but it's
a lot better than Ground Zero, mostly because the gameplay is a lot more fun, and the new additions are more worthwhile. I certainly recommend buying and playing it, I found
it very worthwhile.
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