This map is insanely detailed. It's also very interconnected and replayable. Truly Sock has gone bananas with all these releases this year, he definitely saved the best til last though.

The start area has weird disappearing brushes in DirectQ, but I can confirm that the rest of the map works fine afterwards.

dude are you kidding me?? this is awesome! absolutely beautiful. those of us who love this game are so lucky such talented individuals are still creating content for it. thank you.

Outstanding. I love the detail and beatiful architecture in this map. Awesome work! Keep it up! :)

what a fabulous city scape. i enjoyed every minute of it. yes, we are 'lucky to have such talented individuals... creating content!'

The greatest Quake map ever made.

The greatest Quake map ever made.

Wow, what a treat. Amazing and complex!

This is fantastic. The fact that you did this in 10 weeks is amazing. You've got some serious talent, keep it up man.

utterly brilliant - great work!

Video with commentary

Masterpiece!

Definitely the best Quake map I have played in years! I have played the map several times by now and have explored some of the different routes, and each time it feels like a new map. The layout and gameplay are absolutely outstanding.

Incredible release! This is the level of experience that you buy quake to play. I could write pages about all the ways this map just gets it right. The best thing about it is the sense of place. The church is my favorite, with its vaulted ceilings and flying buttresses. New level designers will study this to get better.

Huge battles in a huge medieval town, which is my least preferred theme in quake yet I still loved playing and exploring it

Mustplay? Mark if so!

Wow. This how you breath new life into classic. This is oldschool redefined. This is epic.

Of the greats: Contract Revoked, Beyond Belief, Chapters, Red 777, Red Slammer, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties..., The Marcher Fortress, In The Shadows, Breakfast at Twilight, and now this sits with these in my Top 10 Singleplayer Quake Maps of All Time. (well, at least the most memorable sorry to others)

Congratulations on creating yet another map for me to emulate.

WOW!!

Most likely the best standalone map release Quake has seen in 2013 - if not ever actually, as far as I am concerned. It's just THAT good! Sock's creative output in that year was amazing, with Midnight Stalker, Backsteingotik, The Ivory Tower and finally this, the icing on the cake. What to say? It's a flawless castle, as credible as it can possibly get. Architecture is superb, lighting is just perfect, gameplay is smooth and rewarding. I think it's the first time I have ever seen a secret area as huge as one of those you find here - a complete courtyard with a well, trees and everything. Insane! Even after the final battle, you don't have to leave yet - and you shouldn't, since the castle opens up then and allows you to explore everything (more) peacefully. And there is a lot of exploration to do, with no less than ten secrets which can take you quite some time to figure out (I only found five during my first playthrough which took me 30 minutes). More of this, please!

..looks promising

Outstanding work as usual from Sock.

The king of nonlinear maps! The overall layout is very well-thought-out but the secrets and areas that aren't necessary to "beat" the map really make it stand apart.

Playing this in Quakespasm was really laggy in places. In particular anything exploding onscreen caused massive lag. Anyone else have this issue?

Such outstanding architecture. I'm short for words. This masterpiece is propably one of the greatest Quakemaps ever!

Ran smooth as butter on DirectQ.

Sock is a master of Quake! Unbelievable map!

I'll add my voice to the chorus -- yes, this is truly magnificent, and certainly drop itself directly into the all-time top five Quake maps for me. (The others would include The Marcher Fortress, Day of the Lords, Push Underground, and I am leaving a slot free for the inevitable on that I've forgotten.)

What makes The Horde of Zendar stand out from the crowd -- even among those other classics -- is that it's the first good Quake map I've ever played that's felt more like exploring than following a path. It's not just "nonlinear" in the usual sense that you have the choice of which order to take the two areas that give you the two keys, but in a much deeper sense of inviting almost any path through the various areas.

In some ways I found that disconcerting -- not that there's anything wrong with it, of course, just that it's not what I'm used to in Quake. I worried that I was missing parts of the map. It needed a real mental shift for me to just give in and enjoy it, to explore it for what it is. And it's magnificent. Beautifully conceived, beautifully executed.

Amazing to think that Sock's very first map was only published in December 2012. It's took him a year and nine days to go from zero to the absolute top rank among Quake mappers.

I'm going to play this again on easy, just so I have more freedom to enjoy the flow and architecture. This map is a real treat.

Might I add; The greatest Quake map ever made!

Why is this tagged "oldschool"?

It's not just the visual grandeur that makes this map impressive but the outstanding gameplay design as well. "Side quests" through the use of multiple silver keys, multiple paths to get to your destination and multiple ones to reach secrets! Brutal combat on Skill 2 but never feels unfair. This really is a must play when it comes to custom Quake.

I followed the installation instructions but couldn't get this to work. I get the following message in the in-game console "Couldn't spawn server maps/zendar.bsp". Anyone have any ideas?

I replayed this, and it's every bit as good as I remember from three years ago. This time, I'm ready to exit with 216 of 224 kills. nine of ten secrets and one spare silver key which I've not found a place to use. I guess I will go once more over all the map, and see whether I can find a previously overlooked silver-key door -- which hopefully will conceal the last secret and the final eight monsters. I would just love to 100% this one.

Brilliant and Inspired, the kind of map you want to replay just for fun. I think it deserves all the AWESOME and MUSTPLAY tags on the description as well as a 5/5 on any score on any criteria, and sure it is one of the best standalone ever made.

However, I cannot agree to label this map as "classic" or "oldschool", just because it does not use the newest light effects, reuses some textures or it is based on the original monster set. The "oldschool" and the "classics" rarely went so far in level design. It certainly looks older than it really is, but after the first elevator you don't give a damn about it.

So congratulations, another craftmanhsip masterpiece for rejoicing with the SSG.

First custom map I've completed since the IKSPQ series many years ago.

Normally I don't like 'one-off' maps since I prefer them to be part of a series, but this one is different. It's vast and wide-ranging and doesn't get boring. Even on normal mode it's very challenging. Beautiful medieval/tudor feel all the way through, it's a great map. I'll be checking out more of sock's efforts.

Still an amazing map. Just played it for the first time. 6 years after it's release.

Nice map. First run, 215 kills and 7 secrets.

Some of my thoughts throughout the play:

"Ow, look, I've found a rune! How ni.. Ah, ok..."

(Running around in circles bc of the Vores) "Hm, I've probably spent all thunderbolt and nailgun ammo a little bit too early, hope this enemy wave stops really so.. Ah, ok..."

"Should've rocket-jumped from this balcony BEFORE getting the rune and opening the exit portal. Oh, look, a thunderbo.. Ah, ok..."

The file in the zip otpzendarhard.dem will not load, i put it into maps,then then do command but will not load,all other maps load except this one

I have only played the version that comes with Arcane Dimensions 1.7. So AccomplishedFiendLicker's comments makes me wonder if there's still a rune to find in the version I know (I'm done with the rest, killed everyone, found all marked secrets)?

I was longing to replay this map and all other AD maps upon the release of 1.8, but I probably won't be able to wait that long, so I just had another go at it. Even more brilliant than I remembered, with extremely rewarding secrets, and not insanely hard to find at that. This really is a must (re)play.

Gioyo3aa, I strongly recommend playing the id1 version over the AD version.

I just gave it a try, it's hard to pick a favourite but I guess I'd lean towards the AD version for monster diversity and being a more polished version of the former. They're sufficiently different to be interesting in their own right however. In particular, I'm still hunting for 3 secrets in the id1 version whereas I found them all in the AD version --- and although there is some overlap, they're not exact duplicates.

I can imagine how spectacular this would be in AD. ID1 already impressed me.

This map is pretty awesome. I really like the atmosphere and the overall look of the map. Ingenious of you to keep enemies which were medieval oriented like Knights and Death Knights.

Keep up the good work!

Today i tried this map and i love it! The floor, the walls, items... everything fits so well as a medieval themed map. The level design is excellent by the way (cool battles, ambushes, mosnters are placed very good there). My little criticism is that i just felt a bit confused when i had to come back to certain parts of the map and looked carefully to seek for buttons that open doors. Afterall, it is a must-play map!

Excellent map. Great atmosphere, design, and balance.