Review: The Vale: Evelyn

Before I say anything else, know this, my fellow Unrealites: The Vale: Evelyn is one of the great ones. To have the privilege of playing such a single level giant twenty plus years after the mother game’s launch is not only a testament of Unreal’s lasting impression on our dwindling community members, but also proof of Paul Frechette’s (Fashahhh to us UnrealSP natives) sheer commitment to get his masterpiece out into the world.

Our small part of the world, anyway. I want to speak about history, first, if you will indulge. For Fashahhh’s magnum opus comes at a grave cost. The death of a greater ambition, which was to be our community’s Battle for Na Pali.

Originally titled The Errand, this was to be the Nyleve Falls of Battle for Na Pali. No small feat, to be certain, and certainly a task of great importance at the time Team UnrealSP was developing our campaign. We had no drought of big names present at the time who might have contended for the honor. All shirked from this duty. All of us except for Fashahhh. Sure, the old narrative seems simple on a forum thread or one of those casual discord conversations about what makes Unreal; An introductory level to show a new Na Pali that would have been, back then, an end cap to the Unreal story we all expected never to receive from Epic (Time has proven our worries prophetic). But we do not speak of a mere sophomore thing like a second level in a campaign. We all know that the first Na Pali walk is the one that sets the player’s expectations for the whole dang journey. Battle for Na Pali would simply not have worked unless this map did. Yet the project died anyway, for reasons too complicated to add into this review. But The Errand remains, reformed into what I would argue to be one of the greatest single community levels for the game.

Our protagonist does not have a name, but his wife does. Evelyn has been taken prisoner by the Skaarj outposted in The Vale. Our guy means to get her back, and when the map opens we appear to already be doing this very thing. Evelyn’s personal tracker has led our protagonist by boat to a lonely pier, armed with a Dispersion Pistol, an Automag, and a general idea of where to find his lady. Our guy is literate, we know, because he keeps his own journal with him for the ride to shore. Beyond this there is only the objective.

The story is not so simple as all that, even if our player motivations are singular. Sprouts of a Nali settlement encroach along the rises above the shore and throughout, though The Vale is hard living for the Nali, as we see at the time this single level takes place. It cannot be too far removed from the events of Unreal and Return to Na Pali, as a log posted on a shipping container, later in the level, informs us that a new UMS cruiser is in orbit, deploying care packages for any survivors of the Prometheus and Bodega Bay, two vessels scuttled during the events of Unreal’s only official Mission Pack.

All of this other plot is happening high above and does not matter to our protagonist in the slightest. A lesser story might have added a rescue operation upon the more pressing rescue operation. Nevertheless, this helps explain the many UMS cargos that will serve as equipment drops to aid the protagonist on his quest, as well as compel the standing army of Skaarj to salvage this human contraband for their own stores.

I say an army of Skaarj with a bit of humor, for the Skaarj presence here appears to be a floundering one (though no less dangerous). This marks the first mention of the BFNP faction, known as the White Tusk, in a released community map, though here they are not quite the new overlords of Na Pali they were fated to be. They rely on a compliment of Krall bone breakers, and a brute squad, to police the area, which we get the impression is more than sufficient to handle the locals. But from logs, be they Krall anecdote, or intercepted orders from officer radio modules, we get a much different picture. These forces are very concerned by this apprehension of a human female and anticipate reprisal—we can guess they may have expected worse if she were outright killed. This Terran threat, we gather, must be too new a wound for the Skaarj, given the events of Unreal and RTNP, and as the player will fight through roadblock after roadblock to find Evelyn you will find the opposition growing tenser and more desperate, though not entirely surprised. This is intriguing, for it paints our simple mission as almost mythic. It’s a nice touch to smartly hype the player up.

That is not to say The Vale will be a cake walk. Fashahhh intends the level to be played at Hard difficulty, which I have obliged for my recent playthrough of version 1.2. on 469 patched UT using good ole Oldskool—a choice I’m happy to have made, given Oldskool’s default settings to keep carcasses, gibs, and decals present at the scenes of past violences as an earned landmark. I would advise using similar mutators for 227 players, if able, for a map of this scale benefits from a visual combat record. You will be exploring, after all.

The map begins fairly enough. The beginning involves attacks by occasional wildlife, before you eventually come across your first Krall in the form of bored outpost sentries. Fashahhh does this thing with messages that give his Krall a style of speech that reminds one of slang tongued peasant militia. I will say that the map is fantastically paced. Adversaries continue to escalate in frequency and combat awareness as our hero equips along the way. Direct loot and explorative rewards share the same space in The Vale, as acquiring some of your early weapons will require a keen eye and an attention to clues.

As Fashahhh notates in his readme, Hard and Unreal difficulty saddles players with unique challenges. Brutes fire more potent munitions and can be quite dangerous if not prioritized. New subclasses, such as the Stalker, make more appearances. Players looking for a relaxed romp will find the lesser difficulties suitable, with enemies behaving more vanilla like. Regardless, The Vale is outfitted comfortably between battles. Materials provided before and after combat sections keep your confidence in the face of mishaps, though in all my runs I never felt over prepared. You can end the campaign by arming the full loadout with some modifications, such as a Minigun that has a separate ammo supply from the Automag.

There are also some new pickups placed sporadically that give one a “found asset” vibe. Here I mean sneaking special restorative berries from an unfinished Krall banquet, or locating alternate healing items like vials that improve your maximum hit points, and even an extended collection of armor types.

Patience with one’s surroundings may spare the player from walking into some obvious missteps. But even then, you will find that springing traps may not always reveal the opposition in the way you expected. Fashahhh is clever not to repeat his tricks, and I’m having difficulty trying to recall any instances of having had the same fight twice.

Troopers will surprise you. Several officers will sport ASMDs, so be careful on harder difficulties. Much as many community packs do, The Vale “fixes” Sniper troopers by properly equipping them with Rifles. Gratefully, Fashahhh does well enough to allow the player access to the corpses of these enemies, as rifle ammunition is among the scarcest, though there are a couple of sniper-posts you will likely not be able to reach. By the time you start running into Troopers on the regular, you should be wanting to seek out any cranny for scratch. One time wildlife encounters will come and go, including one off critter types and even a short-lived but commendably planned Slith ambush. You will not encounter any Titans.

To simply put it that everything works is a disservice to the combat. Yes, it’s never too hard and never too easy, but the subtlety of the fighting demands praise. Every individual opponent is placed with care. There are more challenging one map releases in the many years the game has been going, but not so many of those feel as correct (or as competent) as The Vale: Evelyn.

This may sound like an awful lot for a single level release, but it never feels such. Like The Last Fortress before it, the player will often feel as if they have just enough to handle the next fight. The thing I want to propose here is that a good single level will make you take on a role effortlessly, and this is what The Vale does in spades. I did not row ashore as a grizzled soldier or a cynical lifer, but a devoted husband with a frantic urgency pushing me along. Can we appreciate this a moment? Actually stop reading and sit there and appreciate this with me. When was the last video game you played where things were just as simple?

The Vale is beautiful. Once upon a time this was to be repurposed as a map for my project Residual Decay, and Fashahhh has kept this re-theming for this release. Snow only caps the uppermost peaks instead of the icy tundra the whole place originally was. Rivers flow where once were frozen lanes logged with derelict carriages, now instead hiding pillage among drowned haunts. I mention this climate change because the map itself makes you believe the fortresses and local houses are used to these passing times. Nali domiciles feature well for the season; a community of fishers live under the shadow of the old fort, all homes decked with personalization. Riverland bridges are encroached upon by wild growth and Fashahhh’s texture selection befits lush terrain that comes off so seamlessly that you might actually stop to inspect the flowers. The higher our guy climbs the encampments and upland roadways to seek out the Skaarj installations jailing his beloved, the colder the air gets. Here in lies the coolest aspect of The Vale—there is always more map to see.

Let us speak briefly of sound, for The Vale does not disappoint. Two tracks from Frieza survive from the original BFNP score, one of which is modified by Fashahhh himself. These songs change with the journey and return to themselves as the ongoing venture permits. The soundscapes of the world itself compliment, feeling like both a casual Unreal mood as well as something new. Hard to explain, but the closest example I can make is to think of the first time you played a new RTNP level and heard one of those new tracks. This is that Battle for Na Pali magic I was hinting at, where the world of The Vale comes off as a continuing Na Pali story and not merely another retread of one. It is also for me a bit bittersweet, and perhaps for you as well, for what might have been. Frieza’s songs for BFNP, if you should happen upon a download of the fuller set, carries with their tunes a sense of healing—prolonged and breathing themes of reclamation, perhaps, for a realm that might be won back.

The visit does not last forever. We do enjoy a complement of interesting side characters, that do not dominate the story any more than the regular elements. A neighborly betrayal risked upon fear of death (and then regret) paired with bolder Nali defiance (Evelyn is housed by a local before being found out by the local militia) keeps with Unreal themes of native life, as well as suggesting that the Nali too are quite aware of the changing power dynamics growing on the planet. I saw a funny if a bit ghastly play on a fisherman’s complaint about unrealistic expectations to feed the new occupiers of his former hold. General foot soldier banter (there exists a healthy Trooper presence in The Vale, suggesting fewer leader roles in the area) hints at the surmounting losses taken as the player continues to press the region. The primary antagonist is a named Skaarj Master that, we guess, is merely the person in charge at the time and not a concocter of any grander schemes. He is nonetheless a formidable opponent when the battle actually does arrive, sporting unique projectiles that will require a nimble approach.

This is the part of my review where I might reserve criticisms. Things that do not work as well, or look as good, or do not match the rest of the whole. I have blessed little to say here. Individuals may have varying experiences with performance depending on your renderer or capabilities. Once, and only once, on my last play through, a quick look over a long distance made the world stutter on my lowly dell laptop. We are talking about a whole second. Some might see some textures blinking from some perspectives; as renderers go there are a lot of surfaces to calculate. Nitpickers might ply their Negative Nancyisms upon scrutiny of some terrain walls, but I will not. All I will say is that the ending may come off as a bit abrupt. If you are playing on UT and you do not have all your vanilla campaign maps in the right folder the intended extro might not load properly and you may find yourself standing in a room forever.