Introduction
Alien forces have taken over “We Stor Your Crap” and someone needs to take them down to secure future enterprises! Duke is perfect for the job and accepts it without any complaints, any excuse to kick around some alien scum.
Review
Warehouse settings aren’t usually the most exciting places to focus a level around on their own unless there’s something else that stands out, otherwise it comes down to moment to moment gameplay making up for any shortcomings of that theme choice. I don’t believe this one succeeded at providing good execution despite some interesting decisions to change up the formula. O2Z leans towards being a linear mission with practically no side distractions. An information monitor is made available upon starting that provides details on your goal with a security monitor beside that previewing what’s up ahead. Enemies liked to be sneaky little buggers here, positioning themselves in whatever niche they can fit in hoping to catch Duke from his flanks. Without taking care to check around corners will prove problematic if caught off guard due to a lack of armour to pick up, but shouldn’t be much concern considering just how common this trick is played out. On top of that O2Z has many tight spaces that doesn’t allow combat to really breathe and certain halls can be too cramped, yet Aashage also likes to spawn foes right on top of you from time to time.
Doubling the scale might have helped for skirmishes and also feel like a more convincing warehouse. What we do have is simple and functional, conveyor belts exist to transport goods between zones and there were indeed a tons of crates in various types and colours. It wasn’t much but beyond the blue lock, I adored how computers here looked with panels alternating between sloped and flat adding a touch of personality for this room. Elsewhere however there was a sudden design shift beyond the red lock that threw me off because it doesn’t appear like anything else established so far even if it has appealing ceiling curvature. Small not regarding compatibility, while inside “Stocks” I came across some bugged walls that had me worried I didn’t load up an included art file properly due to HOMs, but turns out these were actual mirror setups that weren’t rendering properly via Rednukem. They function properly running through DOS DUKE3D though, something to keep in mind should you give this a spin.
O2Z involves some odd progression at times perhaps in an effort to avoid being rote in how you achieve goals, except some cases didn’t sit well for me in their execution. I didn’t mind the slower pacing too much and quite enjoyed needing a keen eye, which extends to hunting down goodies scattered around the warehouses and even discovering a secret bathroom that helped for resorting health, especially after eating a dozen lightning bolts to get here! What I don’t enjoy much is when vital components are hidden too well without even as much of a hint or contextualisation where you could be looking for them. Unlocking a room only to find pipebombs and no other way forward was a clear enough indication something needed blown apart, but up until this point I hadn’t seen anything and had to stumble back and forth looking for an elusive cracked wall. Found one tucked up high in the least suspecting spot and wasn’t satisfied with this discovery, especially upon blowing a hole to see it doesn’t offer a whole new path. Instead there happens to contain a jetpack for whatever reason that Duke conveniently needs back in the very room those pipebombs were found. Seemed too much of a roundabout form to progress without some sense behind it. Breaking open some crates labelled to contain jetpacks might have been more suitable concerning the warehouse theme and could have been discovered as an early point of interest to keep in mind.
This leads into another sore spot for me, using said jetpack to access a ventilation maze above just to seek out another key and head back the way you came. While this segment doesn’t overstay its welcome, there wasn’t much to it besides serving this one purpose. I’ll always prefer situations like this to lead into whole new sections to conquer, with potential to link back onto the main path later. Yet those pipebombs could have been replaced with a yellow card to achieve a similar end result, both being just as uninteresting just without annoyances that came with acquiring it. Add to this some backtracking between areas the became a nuisance with each time I was forced to use a slow moving lift to get around. There was a convenient alternate path not much quicker but does avoid using this lift, which eventually got blocked off once the crane stopped grabbing barrels – another potential issue with using Rednukem perhaps. Every step forward would be another step backwards right up until the ending, picking up a red key needed way back at the starting point. Time to turn around and retrace those steps once again. One last straw for me was realising the switches here unlock a barrier blocking a path I had just moments ago travelled away from, within spitting distance where I’d found the red key card. At this point I’d been convinced these were all choices made for padding out the level’s length without good reason. The arena skirmish at least has a nice concept attached where you’re able to solve the combination at any point, except ambushing enemies might make that a little trickier to perform.
Conclusion
Forcing some keen observation is a nice twist to achieve goals but O2Z doesn’t stick the landing. I enjoyed the slower pace but couldn’t get along with how progression feels like it wastes your time with too much backtracking and sections that exist without purpose. Combat doesn’t add much else for being is too compact due to the small scale and enemies like to repeat similar tricks over and over. I wanted to like this one for what it tried to achieve but falls short in too many aspects that made playing it uninteresting.