05/01/2009 - "Temple of Gazra" by Eater

[Jethro]

Map Title: Temple of Gazra (revisited)
Author: Sergey 'Eater' Levin
From: Nali Chronicles
Filename: nclevel020.unr
Video Playthrough: http://www.dailymotion.com/MMAN2/video/13380703




Synopsis: After dangerous sea voayage player finally reaches previously-visited Temple of Gazra, now turned into Nali Rebels outpost. Head stright for the briefing!

Discuss!

[Mister_Prophet]

Oh man. This map had some horrible combat unfriendly flow problems.

EDIT: This is the one where all the Skaarj attack, right?

[Jethro]

Yep, exactly this one.

The one featuring the biggest Skaarj slaughterfest ever. Just throw in tons of rockets supported by Divine Bolts, remember to cast chainmail and holy armour first and... they won't even scratch you.

Too easy IMO, like the whole ending part of the game.
Also, I didn't liked the storyline here... It felt rushed and for me it was really disappointing that such a great mod ends in such trivial way.

And well, if one mage was capable of dealing with all those Skaarj I really don't understand why they blew up the whole outpost in the ending sequence (or how the Skaarj managed to enslave the Nali race in the first place)

[TheIronKnuckle]

oh no, i should probably avoid MOTW for this week to avoid spoilers

[Darkon]

...if one mage was capable of dealing with all those Skaarj I really don't understand why they blew up the whole outpost in the ending sequence..

Yep,... when I saw "revisited", I thought you meant the final level.. because if you ghost there, you'll see the stuff from the ending sequence (or was that when i ghosted in the ending sequence? hm....)

[Jethro]

:lol: Yep,... when I saw "revisited", I thought you meant the final level.. because if you ghost there, you'll see the stuff from the ending sequence (or was that when i ghosted in the ending sequence? hm....)

Hmmm?
No, it's not the final map, nor it contains the outro.
It's the map just before the final battle.
Revisited means it's your second visit here (I'm being obvious, am I not?), the first one was at the very beginning of your quest (map 2).

[UB_]

The music is probably the strongest point of this map.

And the water texture at the beginning is seriously the worst one. But that was a general thing for NC. It's just disgusting to look at.
Not many changes when you re-visit this place, in terms of build. Inside these low-poly and extremely cramped corridors there are now some new interesting rooms, such as the armoury - tons of arrows. Yes, you really need them now that you're completely invincible and have some cheap spells. The MC would be overkill in a JRPG game.

Anyway, the combat is stupid. Turn on some shields, shoot white holy balls and arrows. And you manage to win against tons of Skaarj Assassins/Lords that come out of nowhere. Clichè.

When I want to play this map I just want to pass it to do the battle at Nyleve. That's actually really fun!

Also, I didn't liked the storyline here... It felt rushed and for me it was really disappointing that such a great mod ends in such trivial way.

I feel the same for any other games where your main character does some amazing stuff and at the end he dies to save everyone. Not very satisfied, I do all the way just to die.

[Jethro]

I feel the same for any other games where your main character does some amazing stuff and at the end he dies to save everyone. Not very satisfied, I do all the way just to die.

That's not exactly what I was refering to. The outro, despite the fact you die, was pretty cool linking the storyline of NC and original Unreal (blasphemy some say).
I was refering to the fact that all dialogues here feel rushed, the whole place looks pretty pointless (hey, rebels main base being overrun by bunch of Skaarj?). When I thought we're finally getting somewhere and that the rebels will eventually make something spectacular they let the Skaarj destroy they only (sic!) outpost with all the leaders gathered in one place (sic!) and loose...
Wasted storyline potential

Oh, and the Skaarj are attacking through previously sealed corridors, so they don't get here out of nowhere.

[UB_]

Too many Skaarj from a few corridors. I thought they were able to teleport into places in NC, anyway

[Jethro]

Too many Skaarj from a few corridors. I thought they were able to teleport into places in NC, anyway

Actually I just realized some of them DO teleport here, since there's a huge party entering the same door you did.

And yes, they're able to teleport in certain places, namely the Prophet's palace (because they can't enter the same way you did).

@MMAN: Nice playthrought overally, but well... using god mode when everyone (including you ) claims "NC is too easy" was interesting... idea.

[Semfry]

@MMAN: Nice playthrought overally, but well... using god mode when everyone (including you ) claims "NC is too easy" was interesting... idea.

If I was leveled normally I could have finished the level in a single divine bolt (+shadow armour).

I had a couple of guidance problems in this level; at the room where the attack starts it's possible to go back the way you came rather than taking the trapdoor, which slightly messes up the scripting (although I think it's possible to finish the level despite that). Apparently the Skaarj are supposed to stop that but they seemingly massively underestimated how godlike you are at this point.

The last elevator is also kind of obscurely hidden, as its position doesn't really make much sense and its trigger is in a specific place (as the video shows).

There's not much to say beyond that as this is more of a story level than a gameplay one.

As for the ending, note that your "corpse" is missing just before the Vortex Rikers crashes down .