Review: The Mines: Escape

Ladies and gentlemen, once more the time has come to venture deep into a Skaarj mining operation and ruin the days of our unfriendly galactic neighborhood oppressors! This time, our level of interest is the first of two SP outings released on June 1, 1999 by a certain Spanish mapper Pablo Fernandez. This and its sister project Groups Vitae are the only levels for Unreal single player, and short at that - but are they worth a play? This article will attempt to answer that question, focusing on the first of the two, which is the mine level.

Being a beginner, Pablo hasn't made any effort in the storyline department at all. The player's identity and purpose are unclear, perhaps aside from the fact that during the search for four switches required to progress, for the purpose of preserving one's own hide, the player is strongly recommended to eliminate anything that moves, be it Skaarj, Krall, Brute or an occasional pest like a tentacle or a dragonfly. This needs to be done with care, though, as there's just enough ammo for the automag and minigun to eliminate most opponents. It is therefore strongly recommended to leave the Krall-infested starting area quickly while grabbing one of the weapons, secure the immediate surroundings and after finding the automag, focus on using that one instead of the ammo-puking minigun. An occasional box of shotgun shells is lying around, proving that the author really didn't understand what it is for, as there is no quad-barrelled shotgun anywhere on the level - and even in 1999, there were options such as the Unreal 4Ever mod for instance that included one. Had these been replaced with more bullets for the pistol and the minigun, the situation would've been much more favorable… alas.

The level's visual presentation is surprisingly spot-on: by looking at the various tunnels, caverns, walkways and hardware lying around it is indeed believable that the area is a mining operation - one gone horribly wrong, seeing as the miners have gotten through to rivers of molten lava. The music track, Fifth, doesn't fit the level all that much - Shared Dig would've been a much better choice here. The visuals aren't on a super-high level and the areas feel a bit cramped but the sense of place is there. There's also just one BSP hole that I managed to find - and it isn't a major one. As for the aural layer - aside from the unfitting music there's barely anything to speak of. There's lava bubbling in terms of ambience. So… not much.