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21/01/2008 - "Nali Castle"

Each week a single map is discussed here in detail.

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XYZ8000
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Post Posted: 22 Jan 2008, 18:31

Just more places to explore and more Kralls :)
Pretty nice conversion though.

Back on topic, this map is nice and although it doesn't have a stellar gameplay I like it. Lots of things taking place in this map, I like the WarLord fight too (although a bit more room for moving around wouldn't have hurt). Sometimes you can get lost, and falling in the water is a pain (takes hours to reach the small duct to exit.
Nice map overall, very moody.

UB_
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Post Posted: 22 Jan 2008, 20:43

Ok, we have another one of the maps coming from Unreal.

I so much loved the environment of the FlyBy, I wanted to explore it. Being the newbie which didn't know that ghosting could make you fly around the FlyBy map, I didn't have the entire place struck in my head. Then it gone this way: "Okay, I'll probably pass this castle during the game. It will be truly awesome after playing JJ1 and JJ2. Epic likes castles!"

Finish the atmospheric boat ride level. Myself in a cave now, with two Insta-Dodge Bags near the ceiling. Kill them with eye closed, get the ASMD in the small island surrounded by an empty pool. Next, I head for the cave and I "OOOHHOH" is the castle from the Main menu! Go there, my Unreal crashes every time I pass the corridor. Didn't know how to fix it, but I bought a better rig.

It worked finally, I can finally play this damn level. Nice outside environment, the castle really impresses you with its architecture and lighting usage. You soak up the atmosphere after, otherwise the first Krall runs into the main corridor and closes the main gate.
Kill him and you get your cheap Shield Belt and a free & forever entrance to the place; don't kill him and the main gate closes, he lives and you have to drop into the sucky lake in the bottom, with some seaweeds and ANNOYING Biterfishes. Where I have to go?
After losing 32 or so of Health, I finally found the castle's secret entrance.

I didn't like this route, so I decided to take out the bastard Krall and smelling the atmosphere and seeing the entire thing in front of you.
This part is awesome. And unfortunately, it ends here. Because, from this point, you have to enter the castle. And its interior is NOT good. I feel that Nali Castle is overrated.

Let's see. The castle is composed by some rooms. One is a library, one is a church, one is wine storage... then the rest. Ok, nicely made, but it felt extremely empty.
Remember the spiral staircase room? It leads to a chamber with a Krall Elite. Entire chamber is empty. Go further, and you are over the towers. Not much here. And this continues pretty much everywhere, to the end.

The map is simply unfinished from my point of view. I expected a SunSpire-like place, instead we got a bunch of some weird (but well-made, texturing, lighting, sounds... the music!) rooms attached together. I was disappointed, from a castle-themed environment I expected much more. Where are the other 10 secrets rooms? :P
Only a bunch of places were worth exploring. It's saved by the music, otherwise the atmosphere level is close to zero.

And now, the gameplay. Another Krall slaughtfest: as usual they try to eat your DP shots. The majority of Skaarj were asleep, prepared to die with some charged grenades exploding on their bodies. The Behemoth, accompanied by his Brutes were easily killable by standing in the Nali Quarters' corridor. GasBags were other losers, not to mention the boss, the most awesome thing which ever came for Unreal. Funny seeing the mother losing times with his angry sons while you stand still by shooting Flak Shells! o
Giant GasBags have been always hilarious anyway. Magic stuff returns back with the death of the boss unlocking some doors. So, I decide this: in Unreal there's the magic, it's official! :lol:

Skaarj Berserkers' sudden appearances and the Skaarj Officers in the spiral staircase are very fun to fight though. Play with your blades and you're set.

The level has lot of stuff though. The piece of land behind the castle. Nali takes you here, Nali gets blown up by a random Skaarj bomber (but you can actually deny this happening, in a way), you go to a barn with some stuff and cows. Go up here and you see the REAL EE of the map. Nothing interesting though.

The library secret was easy to find, compared to the beta version where you have to step on a floorboard. Finally some liberties to ring a church bell too!
Also, it's quite impossible stopping the last Skaarj Berserker to decapitate the already dead Nali. I wonder about the other ones in the prisons: some of them are scared of you and they escape in the staircase where a mysterious Skaarj Berserker appears. Boh... a bomber, Skaarj appearing from nowhere, a cage suspended near the ceiling of a room... this map has weirdness sticked everywhere.

About the cage thing... I love to blast the entire Krall group, which is playing dice, with a single charge of six Eightball grenades. Fun! :o
And jumping from a tower, through a window, is cool too if you have God Mode On! (you can also discovery that a part around the tower isn't present, unlike the FlyBy version)
Nice introductions to the Warlord boss. Other messages are nice as well. The secondary route sucks though, use the main one and kill the first Krall quickly! :)

I was seriously disappointed by this level, I don't really like it. It feels incompleted, even compared to beta maps of the caliber of Soledad and Morose (pretty much the completed ones anyway).
Outstanding visuals for the outside part, but once you enter the so-called castle, it starts to be meh... kinda empty, some boring battles, weird stuff happening, crappy boss, etc... The music pwns though, awesome heart beats! :D
Knowning the other maps, I thought Unreal would be even in a top place in castle environment... it looks like not in my opinion :/
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User avatar GTD-Carthage
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Post Posted: 22 Jan 2008, 21:54

This map is kind of hate it or love it. While the flyby version slapped its grandness on the player's face, the actual map is somewhat a little hard to play. Falling into the water means swimming through a Devilfish-infested moat until you find a tiny hidden exit somewhere. The fact that the player is given lots of time to explore is a good thing on the other hand.

UB_
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Post Posted: 22 Jan 2008, 21:55

GTD-Carthage wrote:Falling into the water means swimming through a Biterfish-infested moat until you find a tiny hidden exit somewhere.


Fixed.

Devilfish > Biterfish.
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User avatar Semfry
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Post Posted: 25 Jan 2008, 21:08

I just reformatted so I don't have commentary programs installed yet.

Hellscrag wrote:Iconic.


That pretty much says it all.

This level seemed to get a bunch of hate elsewhere, but I consider it to be up with the best levels in the game, and the kind of map that sets Unreal apart from the majority of other FPS games even today. The moat is definitely pretty annoying though, especially compared to the far more easily left one in Bluff Eversmoking, plus I didn't know how to open the gate for ages so I got stuck there (so I generally just tried to avoid the moat, as I thought it was bugged or something). The Giant Gasbag is also a pretty lame boss, namely because its AI is broken and gets in fights with its spawn 90% of the time.

Beyond that though, it manages to pull off a well-realised location, and, while it doesn't match Bluff in that regard it still does it well.

User avatar jackrabbit
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Post Posted: 25 Jan 2008, 22:19

I would have to vote Bluff over NaliC. IMO, Bluff would work well as a flyby map, but not as good as the NaliC flyby. So its a tiebreaker!

User avatar Mister_Prophet
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Post Posted: 26 Jan 2008, 00:39

I could easily praise the map for a lot of things, but all those things have been said.

But I will say this. The Giant GasBag fight was horrendously planned out.

User avatar Jethro
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Post Posted: 26 Jan 2008, 10:51

As Prophet said, most of the things I have to say were already said here. I fell in love with the whole Unreal game once I saw flyby, I was really looking forward to seeing this map, but let's face it, this map might look good but playability is rather...... low.
But man, that's still Unreal!
UBerserker wrote:Story: totally guessed that Skeletor was the thief.

User avatar Darkon
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Post Posted: 28 Jan 2008, 15:08

Mister_Prophet wrote:But I will say this. The Giant GasBag fight was horrendously planned out.


Well, the beta had a Titan there... but .. well.. HOW on Na Pali do you get a giant Titan in a tower like that? :P I guess a Giant GasBag would be an easy replacement (altho it doesn't make sense either..)

User avatar Rarsonic
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Post Posted: 28 Jan 2008, 15:34

Darkon wrote:Well, the beta had a Titan there... but .. well.. HOW on Na Pali do you get a giant Titan in a tower like that? :P


You catch a baby titan (those are supposed to be rather small), then try to raise it on that small room (some are killed, though), the titan goes insane being enclosed all its life, grows big, and there you go!
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User avatar GTD-Carthage
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Post Posted: 28 Jan 2008, 22:01

Slightly OT but UT2004's ONS-Dria suggests that the Nali and the Titans do have a link and that the Nali were "defeated" by the Skaarj eventually. If their race was completely extinguished, I don't know. (but the description did say "last crumbling ruins" that probably went like Nali Castle)

User avatar Darkon
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Post Posted: 28 Jan 2008, 22:57

Rarsonic wrote:
Darkon wrote:Well, the beta had a Titan there... but .. well.. HOW on Na Pali do you get a giant Titan in a tower like that? :P


You catch a baby titan (those are supposed to be rather small), then try to raise it on that small room (some are killed, though), the titan goes insane being enclosed all its life, grows big, and there you go!


I doubt it. I didn't see a book laying around in that room called "Taming Titans for Dummies"..

UB_
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Post Posted: 28 Jan 2008, 23:02

Nah, it's just Shane's obsession with boss creatures.
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