15/08/2011 - "Inside UMS Prometheus" by Matthias Worch

[Darkon]

I liked the Prometheus maps better than ISVKran. But that's just my taste.
It could've been better tho, I have to admit. But it's a nice challenge... not just a simple "ah, a boss fight..." - boom - ".. and where is the exit?"...

[UB_]

Space Marines were supposed to chat messages between them and their AI worked more like a human squad.
Instead, they're like aimbots who are even stronger than the most powerful alien races.

[redeye]

Don't like it first or last play, it's ugly that blue don't mix, more like a warehouse or sports facility color.

One map, all I want is to hurry to the exit. marines or no marines. 2 out of 5

[Legendslayer222]

The Prometheus levels are very impressive. You find this huge wrecked ship that can be explored everywhere, and even the terrain/mine areas around the level are connected with boarded-up doorways and such.
The Bloblets make an appearance here, but they can be skipped if you keep to the wall, they should have put the next door across the water. Also, the hsss noises the doors make every time they open and close gets frustrating after a while when checking through the crew's rooms.
The build up to the marine battle is amazing: you find your objective, learn you have been betrayed, head to the top of the ship (which makes a dramatic and interesting arena) and activate the console. Then a bunch or Marines are beamed onto the ship with some cool fight music.
I actually don't mind the battle with the bots here. It's a nice change of pace and it's just for this one fight. There is health and armour around, at least on the lower difficulties, and interior corridors to retreat to.

Score:
7/10

[redeye]

Agrees with your last sentence,(points) are all very true, even though I didn't like it, I think mainly because of the textures, or lighting, but it is a one time fight and different.

[Mister_Prophet]

Liked the first half more but overall I was very fond of the Prometheus. Very fond indeed. Can't say the gameplay scales well with the sense of location in this map, sadly. The marines are poor substitutes for Mercenaries. I will say this, when I first played through Return to Na Pali way back when this map and its infamous crescendo were very anti-climactic for me. Up until then, you never saw another living human in Unreal. There was a lot building up to the inevitable confrontation RTNP's introduction teased, and being the diehard fan that I was...it would be an understatement to say that I was quite stoked. The moments leading up the Space Marine battle was, perhaps, RTNP's strongest moment for me, easily on par with the plummet into The Source or standing in front of the Nali Castle for the first time. And of course, the Marines appeared and what came next was Unreal's lowest moment as I saw it.

The rest of the pack offered interesting maps but sadly never recovered.

I learned a lot of lessons playing Return to Na Pali as a mapper, and thinking back to this map and reflecting on that marine fight I'm almost surprised that years later I would release a campaign that featured humans in much the same way. Still waiting for the day that a community pack comes along and perfects the human antagonist. Firestorm, I can say this I think, comes a long way from RTNP. But in general, with Unreal SP, human baddies are a hard sell.

[editor Dave]

What I liked the most was the fact that the ship actually felt like a starship, unlike the others in Unreal. Actually, I also liked fighting the humans because it was a new experience in Unreal and on "Medium" the marines were not too hard.

[Anreel]

What I liked the most was the fact that the ship actually felt like a starship, unlike the others in Unreal.

Wow, it's true, Vortex Rikers feels anything but a starship hehe, I never realized that. Kran isn't much better either.

[makemeunreal]

Kran isnt better than UMS Prometheus...the kran hasnt that feeling,what the UMSP have..the great spaceship...

[UB_]

As if the UMS Prometheus looks like a starship from the inside. I only see a meaningless placement of boxes and panels inside.

[Twisted]

Ah, those pesky Marines.

I liked the presence of human enemies for once, but this battle was hard, especially on Unreal. Sometimes, I just wished I had the Sniper Rifle at this point(since I play without cheats).

Too bad this was their only appearance, wish they appeared at the end after you defeated the Warlord. Would have made a great battle.

Also, the hsss noises the doors make every time they open and close gets frustrating after a while when checking through the crew's rooms.

I agree, I once hurt my ears from that while having earphones on.

[makemeunreal]

Hops...thats bad...Battle with the Space MArines was a good "great "bosfight" sequence...when you play in Unreal Difficulty

[Semfry]

I just realised this map was up before and the thread is still there, so I'll post a tweaked/expanded version of what I put there.

The Prometheus is pretty much the only Human setting in the original Unreal games I like much (Vortex Rikers aside); it makes really interesting use of the fact the ship has both an interior and exterior, and creates contrasts between the confined exterior and the massive crater and exterior, giving a far greater feeling of the overall structure. Stuff like the forcefields also help the foreshadowing too. Even the use of Mercs feels right (which happens rarer than it should). This is definitely the weaker Promethus map though; the contrasts between the exterior and interior aren't as present as in the first map, and the design of the interiors is simpler as well.

The Marines never bothered me much despite normally hating bots; they have a certain order in their movements (as opposed to how epileptic bots look and sparodic they are to fight compared to other foes in SP) that makes them feel more SP like and less irritating compared to standard bots to me. Being thrown in as one boss fight makes them feel sort of underbaked though, but that applies to a lot of RTNP's content.

[Turboman]

When i first played the UMS Prometheus i really liked the map for being quite a convincable ship layout, instead of another random set of rooms and corridors like most unreal spaceships it took its exterior and spacing in regard.
However now i look back at that map, i appreciate it alot less, as it certainly doesn't stand out gameplay wise and the interior feels very cramped consisting of too many bland corridors.

The marine intro probably started off as the coolest moment in unreal... and then degraded into the worst combat experience ever.
I found the bots to be VERY irritating, especially on unreal difficulty they royally piss you off with their instant hitscan weapons.

Years ago i took the Prometheus as a main inspiration to design my UMS ship interiors in FS... however even that i began to dislike after all these years

[makemeunreal]

Hehe (: Bloblets 4ever.
Guys,what Spaceship is the Best?
-UMS Prometheus
-Vortex Rikers
-ISV Kran
-Terraniux
-Mothership