It's more of a cash cow attempt than a true expansion.
Graphics: 8 (still keeping up with the Joneses);
Sounds: 9 (same Quake 2 and still after a year of release sounds top notch);
Value: 5 (cheap and nasty all rolled into one);
Tilt: 6 (more of the same however I'm biased as I adore Quake 2 and wanting more).
The reality is that Quake 2 is a run-away accomplishment. The smooth engine, intense game play and the mega multiplayer spells expansion packs to its arsenal. So the following year Quake 2 spawned two being Ground Zero and The Reckoning. It was a matter of time where every man and his dog wants a bit of the Quake's pie thus spawned Zaero. Yet this time Zaero is not an official expansion pack and did I mentioned it was published by Ubisoft?
Considering Zaero is an unofficial expansion pack for Quake 2, it stilled maintained the storyline that followed approximately 20 years after the events of Quake 2. Instead of wiping out the entire planet, we humans decided to mine the rich resources only to realise that the Stroggs (yet again) gathered their forces and decided to counter-attack. During the evacuation stage, a defense shield was activated thus our ships cannot leave the planet filled with the planet's resources. You (the hero) got blasted down during an aerial dogfight and now needed to disable the planetary shields on foot.
The game play is essentially the same as the previous three Quake 2 games being shoot everything that moves whilst collecting keys/push buttons to move to the next section. Like all good expansion packs there are some new weaponry and foes to deal with. In the weaponry department arrives the flare gun (temporary blinds enemies), sonic cannon and the very clumsy sniper rifle (at least it can shot enemies behind bullet proof glass). Out of the new weaponry, I rarely used the sniper rifle unless forcibly so (for e.g. shooting an enemy behind bullet proof glass) and once accidentally used the flare gun because the hotkey was the same as my default pistol. I used the sonic cannon purely for experimental purposes however quickly reverted back to my trusty super shotgun.
New miscellaneous items comes in the form of IRED (explosive device attach to a solid surface with a laser beam trip wire), EMP nuke, plasma shield and the recon visor. I thought the plasma shields were a little too awkward to use as there's no lean option to shoot at your enemies and the recon visor is used for decoration only. Yet the EMP nuke is definitely my favourite as it temporary disables enemies firing at you; very nice against the big fellas.
New enemies are the hellhound (pretty deadly as it zigzags towards you at high speed and normally hunts in packs), the handler (just another name for the enforcer but this time he has a hellhound with him) and my favourite the Sentien. This dude is like a very heavy trooper armed with a laser beam in one hand and a rotary cannon in another. Very tough and very painful to deal with however that's the way I like it! Of course your old friends are also there like the gunner, the gladiator, the iron maiden and so forth.
Nothing has changed much graphically and sound wise. The game uses the same soundtrack as in Quake 2 (or whatever CD you have in your CD player) and considering it boasts about newer textures, these 'new' textures are a brush up to the original game save the lighting effects (they do look impressive) and their 'skull-in-a-triangle' logo plaster in every crate/walls. It also stated that there's two new multiplayer maps however I couldn't locate either of them nor have any intension as my guesswork is that there will be no-one to play with. And did I mention that there are fourteen levels to finish this game? That's pretty cool considering I knocked it off just over 10hrs (and the final boss took me around 20mins to defeat…a real pain in the rear side to say the least).
As an unofficial expansion pack, Zaero still kept the flavour of Quake 2 however once I have completed it, it felt that this is more of a cash cow attempt than a true expansion. Granted there are newer weaponry and critters however the developers Evolve could of added better path finding for the enemies or really enhance the newer textures (like the expansion The Reckoning did with cliff faces and icy catacombs). As a huge Quake 2 fan I enjoyed for what it's worth however somewhat disappointed as it felt more of the same. If you want to experience more of that Quakin' goodness then I suggest trying out (in pecking order) The Reckoning, Ground Zero over Zaero (unless something else arrives in the meantime).