i think at this point i firmly prefer standalone maps over episodes. episodes are so rarely consistent in quality and i like the faster progression of starting a level with the shotgun and having the rocket launcher by the end.
stalled out from The Spiritworld during the second Newhouse map, and their1 maps aren't bad but they're a pretty different style than zigi's, and also i find myself not enjoying the episode-paced zigi maps as much as their standalone map Verdant Dawn or their insanely good contribution to Alkaline.
i also mostly loved Dwell but it definitely has a few bits that are just kinda walls i primarily stuck through to see the rest. Darkstar Triumvirate is visually and conceptually cool as hell but is a confusing pain to navigate, and I ended up not finishing episode 2 because the string of precision platforming puzzles at the end of Abyss of the Troglodytes took the wind wholly out of my sails.
in general i think after arcane dimensions and alkaline and all the excellent map jams, there's just a whole lot of precedent and material to have single-map pacing down to a science. like maybe it's not just my preference for the pacing, maybe the community is just also very very good at it at this point?
in conclusion, go play Only You Can Prevent Containment Breaches.
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I don't know zigi or newhouse's pronouns and i'm defaulting to they. if anyone knows, please comment, i'll edit.
