[ZDoom] ZPack

ZPack - Random Maps for ZDoom - Various
ZDoom Compatible - Solo Play - 36997772 bytes
Reviewed by: Remiel
WPack is a large product originating from ZDoom.org's Projects subforum, consisting of 3 episodes of 10 maps built through the efforts of an assortment of people. Present are the noteworthy Bjorn "Vader" Ostmann, Xaser, kind of sort of Tormentor667... and that's about it, really! As is the case with community projects, most of the mappers for BPack are somehow completely incompetent around the act of mapping for a game that's more than a decade old, utterly ruining the whole thing. I've never seen a project ride so heavily on the efforts of one person (Vader) to be good. More at 9:00.

I will not mince words. Quite a few of the levels in QPack suck, and if you put them on their own, even moreso in the face of pieces like Thunderpeak Powerplant, and Vader's other four levels. Rocket traps in small rooms, obnoxious conveyor belts, you-will-cry-blood-obnoxious boss fights, boring bare square room->door->square room layouts, repetitive textures, secrets stuffed five seconds into pools of acid, use of incredibly annoying custom enemies like the rocket zombies who are quite capable of killing you for looking at them funny, and so on and so on and so forth.

However, the management herein at least tried to paint over these things through use of a mean trick. It didn't work, but they tried. By putting sweet sugary treats by Vader and friends around the corner at intervals, people are compelled to wade through digital human waste, having convinced themselves that it's entirely worth it to be able to get at the good maps. You, generally speaking as in "the cruel bastard doing this horrible shit in the first place", gets bonus points if the player is obsessive-compulsive and wants to get the "full experience," like, say, me.

However, while it nearly works for a while, it doesn't last long. For one, as previously stated, there is still the major problem of an entire project needing to ride so heavily on the efforts of one person, even if for a single episode, which is a severe, severe, MASSIVELY SEVERE design flaw that should get one a slap in the face by proxy. Four of Vader's five contributions are in E1, and as such neatly counteract those such as... Phobus, well enough for me to not care enough about the lesser maps. As a result, I was actually left thinking good of the project by the end of the episode. Though, as a result of Vader's concentration therein, E2 and E3 are thrown to the dogs.

I persevered as much as I could through E2 however, playing straight through two levels by InsanityBringer and the demon-runed torture complex from the ninth circle of Hell that is E2M0, but ultimately, at E2M5, for all my effort and sweat across more than 20 tries, I couldn't actually use the large fan there to propel myself high enough to get to any of the higher floors, undoubtedly becoming stuck from ever progressing in the episode. As I hadn't quite gotten over E2M0, which came not but two levels before that, I promptly deleted MPack, restored it from the recycle bin then sent it back 5 times, then repeatedly hit myself for ever bothering.

I wanted to try Episode 3, which supposedly has a cool bonus level by Xaser, and the last of Vader's five levels which is by far the best in the pack... but I couldn't. GPack had effectively broken me. If I tried to say "I was at least a little bit impressed!" with this project, I would be unable to keep a straight face after "I". 2Pack had Vader in surplus, and Xaser, but... it's not worth trying to play through the levels to get to them; it's just not worth it. And, if you skip to all of the good ones and play them, you'll either play approximately 6 out of 30 maps, or edit the pk3 so that the remaining 24 maps are Thunderpeak Powerplant, and feel dirty for it. Save yourself the pain and skip this without so much as a glance over the shoulder.