What did Zeta Aquilae do well?

[LightWolf]

I've noticed several people say that ZA was one of their favorite (if not their favorite) sets of levels for Counterstrike. What did you personally like about it?

What did you like about its levels that no other CS level did?

[Alter-Fox]

Everybody always looks back on the opening of their favourite game with the most nostalgia.
I have no idea why. It's usually the boring part.

[LightWolf]

Zeta Aquilae? Boring??
Have you even played Descent 2???

Granted it set the stage for D2's bad balance, but that doesn't make it boring of all things.

[Alter-Fox]

It's not boring, but the rest of the game is more interesting. Especially when you get the phoenix cannon for the first time in your life and then inevitably kill yourself by mistake. Very interesting.
Personally I like Limefrost Spiral and Baloris Prime when the tunnels start to get tighter but don't quite reach the insane levels of splash damage on Puuma Sphere... or its levels of level-smallness.

[Xfing]

Well, it's easier on the eyes than the rest of the game for one thing. Every level is textured differently, and there are combinations of textures used that don't appear ever again in another system. This system's texture theme also feels like the logical continuation to First Strike (since the levels most likely harken back to the days of "CD-Enhanced Descent", all the while being much more advanced and ingenious geometrically. I'm stuck at level 3 Insane thus far, so I can't give my full impression yet, much less a gameplay comparison to later levels.

[Alter-Fox]

Naaah. Level 1 and 2 are textured very similarly, and the whole of level 4 uses mostly the same scheme as a single area near the end of level 3.

[vision]

The thing I like about Zeta Aquilae is that the levels are a good size and have a decent variety of spaces, but I would rate it 4th on my list of D2 systems.

[Sirius]

They were more thematically varied than later levels, mostly because they didn't have a clear theme to stick to. (For that reason, it's either the easiest or the hardest system to mimic the style of, depending how meticulous you want to be.) Some interesting ideas, but they didn't have a monopoly on those.

Their popularity might just come down to being the most memorable, which is a combination of the fact that they're the first levels you'll play, that they're relatively small and therefore easier to picture in your mind as opposed to turning into "amorphous mass of 'level'", and that levels 2 and 4 are "concept" levels and thus more memorable than average by default.

[Xfing]

I could play an entire game textured like Zeta Aquilae and I'd be happy.

BTW I wonder what the game would look like if the texturing philosophy was similar to D1's, but making use of new textures from D2.

Oh wait, that's The Apocalyptic Factor

[Behemoth]

I think ZA did well for me because it felt natural and I enjoyed the way it made me feel immersed into the mine, seeing flowing water and moss on the walls of the mines made me feel like I was actually in an abandoned mine surrounded by robot baddies. Not to say the others weren't great, I also liked quartzon, brimspark and so forth.

[Xfing]

I think ZA did well for me because it felt natural and I enjoyed the way it made me feel immersed into the mine, seeing flowing water and moss on the walls of the mines made me feel like I was actually in an abandoned mine surrounded by robot baddies. Not to say the others weren't great, I also liked quartzon, brimspark and so forth.

Quartzon is the water system though, ZA didn't have any flowing water or moss.

[Behemoth]

I must've been wrong. I was thinking of level 5 but that must be the second system if i'm not mistaken?

[Darth Wang]

The Descent 2 demo was the first Descent I played, and I played those first 3 levels hundreds of times. So they are stuck in my mind pretty strongly.

[Sirius]

Yeah, level 5 is Quartzon. Zeta Aquilae is 1-4.