Tortured Planet v11.8.1

Easily my favorite map pack in the game. I've always thought this map pack was really in line with vanilla SRB2's design philosophy (and I love vanilla SRB2), which is funny considering it handily predates 2.2. Maybe it's more accurate to say 2.2 is in line with Tortured planet's design philosophy, but I'm not an SRB2 historian. Started with 2.2 and that's generally besides the point anyway.

I don't really have any strong opinions about the aesthetics. It's not an ugly pack by any means but it's nothing to write home about. There are a few objects made with sectors and FOFs that really shouldn't be, but I think they're funny. I don't really care too much either way, because the level design is what I love about this pack.

I really like vanilla (2.2) srb2, and I don't tend to play with addons because they just speak a different language. I have lots of thoughts about addon character design lol (not that they're bad I just don't like playing with most of them). But Tortured Planet just vibes in a way other map packs don't. It feels more like an extension as opposed to a different beast entirely like something like the 06 pack for example (again not that 06 is bad I actually like it but vanilla is still my GOAT)

I don't find it's level design any more confusing than vanilla, though maybe that says more about vanilla SRB2 than anything. I do very much find it harder than vanilla, though I don't think that in and of itself is a valid criticism. It is hard yes, but I don't think it's unfair really and I never ended up getting too pissed with the pack. There's not enemy spam or anything it's just sincerely difficult platforming challenges (though there are some deathplanes that should really just be damaging floors *cough* fume shaft and alien armageddon *cough*) And I understand that for some, maybe most, the level of difficulty this pack provides is just not fun, but for me, I really enjoyed it, and I don't think you can judge it just for being something you're not predisposed to enjoying.

As a note, my first playthrough was with Fang (because he's my favorite character in the game, including addon characters don't @ me lol), who is one of the easier characters, and my second was with Amy, one of the harder characters. My perceived difficulty of and experience with the pack might be skewed by a first playthrough with Fang (and also by being an epic gamer B)), but it's not a secret that Sonic's the hardest character in the game, so it's kinda on you if he was your choice. That being said, it is a bit of a secret how hard this pack is, so I can't blame you too much. Funny enough, this pack predates both Fang and Amy. The level design gels just fine with them (I mean Amy really isn't enough of a character for there to be anything to conflict with), but there is a softlock in drowned downtown for nospin characters, and probably in other places too.

Aaaaaall that said, it's not free from criticism. The bosses are massively nothing. I don't expect much from bosses in map packs really (I mean I play Fang so I don't think much about bosses at all), but it is true that the bosses in this pack kinda suck. Doesn't even use all of the vanilla ones and ends up reusing some IIRC. That might be a produce of its age but I'm not sure. Using old brak is definitely a product of it's age and also makes me very sad because I do not like old brak (especially as a nospin character).

The last acts are also exceptionally long. I occasionally see SRB2 speedrunners do alien armageddon 2 in particular because of how massively long it is, which is kinda cool from that perspective, but from the perspective of an actual game you play kinda sucks. Liftoff gantry zone specifically felt like a real slog to me.

Also also spacewalk zone. It's my least favorite zone. It's just weird. The pack as a whole can feel jank at times but spacewalk especially. It's sense of scale also gets out of whack sometimes, which is something the rest of the pack is rather good with. IDK I never had a lot of love for ERZ and its assorted gravity gimmicks so maybe it's just a bad match.

Anyway it's a good pack. Maybe it only deserves 4 stars because it's not completely perfect but if my favorite addon doesn't deserve 5 stars then what does?

EDIT: Brak is dead! Rejoice! I went back to check that this pack actually used old brak because I thought I might've been confusing it with something else. I wasn't, but they got rid of old brak anyway! Also the drowned downtown softlock I mentioned is fixed according to patch notes, though I didn't check in game.

The desert level ruined it, and I have a lot of negative comments on this pack, but I'd rather keep it to myself.

I'm gonna be honest... i don't consider this to be one of the best map packs of Srb2. like... on paper it has so many cool concepts and ideas, but unfortunately the map pack has some bad qualities that holds it from being truly amazing (atleast for me)

1: The later levels get dragged for so long they become tedious after a while, like no joke. the last few levels can take from 6 - 8 minutes straight! and like... that's too long for the usual length the base levels tend to have. i get they were trying to be ambitious with this but i don't know, i didn't really work out that well on me.
2: Speaking of the last 3 zones, Liftoff Gantry/Spacewalk/Alien Armageddon have a sudden dificulty spike. i get they're the last zones but they're just so hard to beat the first time, and it's worse when you consider that these levels are VERY long. i'm glad you can skip Spacewalk Zone, because that's the worst zone of the game in my opinion. all the precise jumping and instakill floors and many dead pits are the worst combination in a level like this.
3: I wish there were custom bosses for this map pack, i mean... if they made some custom badniks here and there then what was stopping them from making unique bosses for this map pack? it ends up becoming repetitive and boring fighting the same bosses over and over again, and most of them repeat alot. it feels lazy to me.
4: The soundtrack has never been my cup of tea when playing this game, like... most of the songs sound pretty lowkey and not as catchy as the base game's ost. heck, they even paled in comparation to the 2.0/2.1 old ost! Alien Armageddon has the worst songs in the map pack in my opinion, since it's a bad remix of a song from the Sonic 2 game from game gear and master system, and it just sounds lame for a final zone as hard as this one. I really wish this soundtrack was better honestly, because this is just so forgettable and meh to me.
5: Some of the hazards can be unfair to deal with like... why are acid pits instakill instead of just hurting you normally? why those instakill floors from Spacewalk can kill you even as Super Sonic? shouldn't you be invencible at those?
6: The ending is so abrupt and doesn't even explain you what happened after the final boss. like... what happens next? i know eggman was defeated but what did the heroes did next? were they thanked by that alien civilization they've saved? the end feels rushed...

If only they made a full remake of this map pack with new level design, an all remixed soundtrack, new and original bosses, a more balanced dificulty spike and a more explained story this map pack could've been one of the best ever made for Sonic Robo Blast 2. i can understand why it turned out like this i mean, it was made during the 2.0 era. clearly it was pretty limited, but still... wouldn't it be cool if this map pack returned not as a remaster, but as a full reimagination/remake?
think about all the stuff that could be added!

Whatever. it's an ok map pack. but could've been waaay better than what it was.

The levels in this addon was ok at best from decent to dull & frustrating especially Space walk the level of both acts is not good the music of act 1 doesn't sound that good & the final boss was straight up garbage i lowkey this level addon a 3 out of 10

Incredibly impressive level pack! Sports a decent enemy variety with some custom enemies thrown in as well, pretty damn good level design for what used to be a 2.0 level pack, and amazing music that still holds up today.

If we're being real, the only thing I can complain about is level length. Can't rate too much lower for that, for a lot of people the long levels could actually be a plus! Personally, though, I think there's a massive underlying issue of not picking out what setpieces should or shouldn't be in the level, it feels like every idea for a cool setpiece ends up thrown into a level at some point, which has resulted in these overly long levels with a good amount of memorable moments in each that you can't really pinpoint what the big setpiece of any stage is supposed to be. Any level pack that has a stage in the main campaign where an entire 12 minutes is your goal to earn a time emblem probably needs to be looked at to see where it can cut down, considering the endurance test of levels eventually becomes extremely overwhelming.

Other than the length of levels? The design is very good, the theming is phenomenal in most stages as well, and there's clearly a great amount of love and care put into these levels. It's just that someone spoiled them a little too much and put way too much into a good amount of them. Absolutely worth the playthrough if you're curious, but I can't say I blame you if you get overwhelmed.

The first 2 levels showed potential, but then I was hit with a tidal wave of untelegraphed progression methods and (since I was playing this with a friend in online multiplayer) softlocks. However, the music was good and the story was solid. 2 stars.

This pack is incredible, I think. The theming of each stage is on point, the soundtrack is good (I personally liked Drowned Downtown), and the entire mod generally gives off a "Master Quest" sort of vibe to me, as it seems to be intended for those who have practically mastered the base game. My only complaint is the final boss, as I couldn't even figure out how to hit it for a while, and when I did figure that out, things somehow didn't get easier for me.

That said, the finale is the only blemish I can see. Rework the fight a tiny bit and you've got a masterpiece of modding right here, I highly recommend it.

An INSANELY solid level pack, obviously made by a talented person or group. The levels are incredibly vivid and quite lengthy, generally involving a number of impressive gimmicks. Unfortunately it suffers a bit from insisting on its own difficulty. It doesn't do a very good job of telling you where to go, but once you figure things out it feels pretty nice. It's genuinely inventive but you can tell they pride themselves on making it difficult and it honestly brings down the experience a lot. You'll die a lot. A LOT. It's like they thought they were making Dark Souls or something. And the last boss just isn't fun, at all. I don't If I didn't spend so much time wandering in circles I'd give it a higher grade. I'd honestly love to see more, but I wish whoever made this would devote more time to making things fun than making things difficult

I didn't really play the original version when it first came out but after coming across this level pack in a random SRB2 multiplayer sever, I really like it!. The level design, story and music are really good and seeing it being officially ported to 2.2 is great!

I never really managed to beat this map pack as a kid, so I was really excited to play this again now that I know how to actually play SRB2!!

Overall, I really like the level design, the difficulty and level length ramp up rather quickly I think, but I do not really mind it. Feels great to do this without game overs after struggling with this pack years ago. As for spacewalk zone, it is pretty long and has seemingly random gravity switches but overall really enjoyable and calm and stuff. It also has the absolute WORST boss in the map pack :(

(i also cannot figure out how to unlock record attack help)

Ah yes, Tortured Planet, I loved this map pack back then. Usually I turned down all the volume in the game and played an audio book. (Wings of Fire was a good fit in this.) I had so much memories playing this, it's great to see it up again.

love it! its cool!

While some of the levels definitely show their age (no slopes or other effects ect...). The pack overall has a good quality to it, making it completely understandable why it was such a big deal when it released for those playing SRB2 2.0.

The only issue I have had is that in my opinion, having to redo Space Walk Zone Act 2 if you do not complete Act 3 and its fight with floaty physics is a bit much, so you might want to add a save point there and for other boss levels if they are not present already.

Now it is also my view that it would be nice to see some of these ports get remastered with slopes and everything else that has since been added to the game, but I am aware that is up to the authors.

Glad to see this classic get made accessible again. Tortured Planet is a seminal level pack, and a piece of SRB2 history that any newcomer owes themself to play. It may not be up to our standards of raw polish, but it approaches an understanding of what a truly great SRB2 level is. 5 stars for the porting job- my rating for TP itself would probably be closer to a 3.

Eight zones each with its own distinct theme, each act makes use of different gimmicks ensuring the gameplay never gets stale, large, detailed, atmospheric and visually appealing with intuitive layouts and multiple branching pathways that reward exploration, top it off with a new, original soundtrack to really set the mood for each zone and you've got one of the best level packs to grace SRB2. Now ported to 2.2, giving those who haven't had the chance to check it out yet another chance to do so and returning players an excuse to revisit this gem. Definitely play this.

I don't really care for ports, but I decided to check this one out for curiosity sake. I've been looking for new map packs to play, and I gotta say, not really a fan of this one.

I was really liking the first few zones. The first zone especially had some nice calming music and aesthetic. Nothing was too difficult or anything till I got around to the ice level (I don't remember all their names cause the levels aren't really that memorable). Such a spike in difficulty, bottomless pit everywhere, cramped and bad level design, confusing level design that makes you loop around to the beginning at times, and more issues popped up while playing. It really soured the whole mod for me and I just ended up rage quitting. Couldn't even complete the mod cause of the bullshit the level design gets after the ice level.

As this is a port, not much care was here to update levels or sprites to fit 2.2 standards. This really becomes an issue with the unskippable cutscenes. They look so ugly and has jpeg quality. Yes, you can fast forward the cutscenes, but a skip button would be better.

Overall, can't really recommend this one to other people, or maybe I'll just tell them to play the mod up until they get to the ice level, or something.

Despite the difficulty of the mod, I still managed to have a lot of fun, did not lose FPS on my computer when playing the multiplayer, it is a really well crafted port and faithful to the original product, I would like to see more ports like this.

thats a classic one, gonna play the hell of it again

What it says on the box, a port of an old SRB2 Map Pack. I'll judge the levels later down the line but there's a SigSev block on Liftoff Gantry. (It might be because I'm a Mac player). It would be nice if that can be fixed.

Perfect MapPack.
Perfect Port.
I love it.