Background: Orange Smoothie Productions (OSP) was a production team founded in 1998 at the University of Kansas. While the team started out developing modifications for Quake II (e.g. King of the Hill and the original OSP mod) they are probably best known for developing OSP for Quake III (Q3). Designed with competitive game play in mind, OSP offers a range of client and server-side settings to enhance the online gaming experience without altering core game play. (The mod is available for download here at ..::LvL if you would like to check it out).

Introduction: ospmaps0 is the official map pack for the Quake III version of OSP. Designed and curated by Christian "SHoD" Farcy, ospmaps0 features a total of 15 custom levels including an exclusive Clan Arena level and 2 Capture the Flags (CTF) along with levels designed for traditional Deathmatch game types. The official map pack was released in late April 2002 and features contributions by many well-known authors in the Quake III community (Bal, nunuk, polo, Geit, to name but a few).

As an official map pack, one can expect all the levels to be of a high standard and all files packed correctly with the requisite location entities for team games. All levels will also appear and load correctly from the arena menu but, due to differences in naming conventions, tweaking of the arena scripts will be required for the clan arenas to show in the menu for Challenge Pro Mode (CPM).

Many of the levels in this map pack have been submitted as stand-alone releases so, for those who are only interested in some of the maps, you have the option of downloading them individually. Most can be found here at ..::LvL with a simple search. Given that most of these levels are already available – and that most players would already have played on some version of them – the question is whether this map pack is still worth the download. (If you do not wish to read the breakdown, feel free to skip straight to the conclusion).

The Breakdown: Of all 15 levels, only 3 are exclusive to OSP and all 3 have focus on team game play. They are: DruZli's "Suicide" (ospdm6), Random's "Deschutes" (ospdm12), and the clan arena, "American CAN-Co" by SgtGhost (ospca1). Both ospdm6 and ospdm12 are playable as Free for Alls (FFA) but ospca1 does not come loaded with any items. This is a shame, because the layout of ospca1 is ideal for FFA too. However, items have been included on the Quake Live version of this map if you would like to give it that a try. I don't really recommend tourney for ospdm6 as it is just way too big. While Suicide is textured in a stone/gothic theme, Deschutes is outfitted in a Quake II style and features both lifts and doors. And while the sound of doors constantly opening and closing is bound to get on some people's nerves, if you understand the physics of grenades and doors in Q3, once you have some grenades you can utilize the doors to get around much more quickly.

Only 4 levels are identical to their respective stand-alone releases: "Deep Inside" by Teddy (ospdm5), "Apologie" by polo (ospdm10), and the CTF maps "White Noise" by Publius (ospctf1) and "Crossed Paths (Orange Remix)" by Drunken Boxer (ospctf2). The version of Crossed Paths found in this pack identical to the updated link found at the bottom of the review to the earlier version. It is worth noting that this version includes tweaks to the layout for more competitive play (reducing the number of Lightning Guns (LG) and Rail Guns (RG) from 2 to 1). The Invisibility has also been removed from an alternating Regeneration/Invisibility spawn. The other CTF, "White Noise" was also included as an official map for the Alliance CTF mod. I will simply refer the reader to the existing reviews on ..::LvL for these releases.

The 8 remaining levels fit into 1 of 3 broad categories: complete remakes, versions with significant changes to items and level structure, and versions where only minor adjustments have been made to the item balance.

In the latter category we have "Bitter Embrace Tourney Edition" by Mr.CleaN (ospdm4), "Anticipating Oblivion Tourney Edition" by Charon (ospdm9) and Geit's "The Olden Domain" (ospdm11). The only change that has been made to Bitter Embrace is the replacement of Regeneration with Quad for FFA/Team Death Match (TDM). Given that Bitter Embrace is optimised for duel, the inclusion of Quad is a small but welcome change for FFA and TDM games. Ospdm9 makes some minor changes to correct for the placement of 2 Yellow Armours (YA) in the Rail Gun atrium, making for a more balanced tourney. Ospdm11 is a TDM outfitted in Egyptian textures by Sock but one might notice the absence of the RG, especially when playing it in Tourney mode. If you are looking for a version that includes this weapon, then get the stand-alone level geit3dm7 recently uploaded to ..::LvL. My preference is for the OSP release as I think the placement of weapons suits the layout better for TDM. In my opinion, the level is a little bit too large for tourneys anyway. Of greater concern to me is the fact that the Quad and Red Armour (RA) spawn in adjacent areas, although differences in spawn times do go some way in mitigating this problem. But don't let these criticisms turn you off. This is still, a very fun map with high replay value!

Moving on: there exists a remake of clem's "The Dancehall" (ospdm7) by FeniX (Dance Hall 2). It is not as good as the original which is a much cleaner production with cleaner teleports and none of the bounce pads added to the remake, making for a much tighter and strategic duel. Some people might prefer Fenix's version for FFA as it extends the space of the original to accommodate larger player loads.

The Chastity Belt Duel is a level, originally made for Quake II, by JaLisk0. The author has built on the original design, making it more suitable for Q3, by changing the layout and item placement; JaLisk0 pushes out, into new areas, some of the powerful pick-ups (like the RG and Mega Health) that were concentrated in the main atrium of the original. The result is "The Chastity Belt Duel (Orange Remix)" (ospdm8) for OSP. I highly recommend checking out JaLisk0's earlier release of this level if you would like to try a Q3 version of the Quake II original (just load Jalt1 from the console). This release is also available here at ..::LvL.

"New Edge" by SHoD (ospdm1) is another remake of a popular Quake II level (officially, q2dm1). There have been many remakes of The Edge over the years (way too many to list here) but along with the swelt's CPM remix (which I have previously reviewed for this site), ospdm1 counts as one of the better remakes. My only complaint with this version is that SHoD uses bounce pads instead of lifts, although I appreciate the attraction to the newer Q3 features. Still a very solid level!

Finally, we have "Scrap Metal ][ Tourney Edition" (ospdm3) by Bal and nunuk's "Batcula Tourney Edition" (ospdm2), both of which received considerable input from SHoD to the level design and item placement. Ospdm3 receives a complete overhaul to the item placement of the original in addition to key structural changes that vastly improve player movement throughout the map.

Conclusion: So, is ospmaps0 worth the download? The short of it is yes! You get 15 high quality levels all in the one pack. You will get 3 unique levels that may be new to some fans and are well worth the look. But if you are not a fan of team games then you might not want to keep these ones around. And while the majority of the levels in this pack come as stand-alone releases, in some form or another, the versions in this pack all add value to their stand-alone counterparts in my opinion. I imagine that most people would have already downloaded and played these maps by now, but if you haven't already, give it a go! Easily 4 out of 5 from me.

Reviewed by HelterSkeleton