Review: The Court of Izn-Nali

The Court of Izn-Nali is a very old map, having been made my Claycle back in '98. The readme tells us that it was submitted for a mapping contest, and that it was supposed to be the first part of a series. While it may have been impressive back in Unreal's heyday, it falls short by modern standards.

Architecture is quite a bit below Unreal-quality, but Claycle definitely tries. The outer ruins are decent; they're not great, but the author makes a point of having the player think about how he or she is going to get somewhere. The inside of the court is overscaled, though, and there are a lot of square places in the map. Textures are, more often than not, stretched. Lighting is usually sourced, but there are a few noticeable areas where there's no source at all. In terms of technical execution, there weren't any major problems that I came across, but there were a ton of visual BSP holes that were awfully distracting.

Gameplay is fairly easy, but the tight corridors at the start of the map make it a bit more challenging. There are only three types of enemies, too: Krall, Skaarj Warriors, and Skaarj Troopers. The lack of enemy variety is disappointing, and there are some switches that very few will find unless they open up the editor and look. I stumbled upon one such switch by chance after running around and hugging walls.

The sound was passable; Claycle makes use of ambient and dynamic ambient sounds, but they usually end up being too quiet. The music was fitting, but there isn't much else to say about it. The translator messages were well-written, but there's not a hint as to what the player's motivations are. Is he/she part of a rescue team? Did they get to the temple by chance? A backstory would have been nice.