13/01/2014 - "New Alcatraz" by Drevlin

[Semfry]

Map Title: New Alcatraz
Author: Tomas 'Drevlin' Lidström
From: New Alcatraz
Filename: NewAlc1.unr
Music Files: Fifth.umx, Isotoxin.umx




Video Playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7oOhmruv-I

Synopsis: You are a Skaarj who has been captured by a rival faction and thrown in a prison. Time to make your escape!

Discuss!

[Sat42]

A great map, no doubt. Visuals are great although I have seen greater (such as in the second level of this pack, where the design leaves a more lasting impression IMO), the action is really cool, it can be creepy at times and the story is solidly built. I didn't feel like I was much of a skaarj, though. It's fortunate there is that nice little intro to make things clear at the beginning, and the story construction does go some way to make you play along with the concept, but let's face it, only modding could seriously bring this concept to life. One mistake in attaining suspension of disbelief was to have mirrors in the starting room. "Hello! I'm actually human!"
This said, personally I think that New Alcatraz as a whole constitutes a short mappack that feels big as it "sticks" long after playing it.

[Semfry]

One mistake in attaining suspension of disbelief was to have mirrors in the starting room. "Hello! I'm actually human!"

I'm pretty sure this is an issue with the pre-Oldskool mod this uses to support Single Player; it does a few things to tailor the gameplay, including forcing the right player model, but it's unfortunately not supported on UT with Oldskool installed so you can't get the fully intended experience of the pack (I wonder how hard it would be to make a proper Oldskool version...).

A decent first map, there's a nice mix of tasks and enemies (although I'm not sure if Mercenaries everywhere is explained), I don't find the setting especially inspiring (the later maps do better in that regard), but there's a nice mix of themes despite that. Beyond that it's pretty solid but perhaps lacks any true stand-out moments.

[Delacroix]

Runs well on 227 with the botpack installed. I specifically selected the Skaarj Trooper player class for it and it seems to work. Didn't try if I get stuck anywhere tho.

[Sat42]

I'm pretty sure this is an issue with the pre-Oldskool mod this uses to support Single Player; it does a few things to tailor the gameplay, including forcing the right player model, but it's unfortunately not supported on UT with Oldskool installed so you can't get the fully intended experience of the pack (I wonder how hard it would be to make a proper Oldskool version...).

Ooops, my bad! Thanks for the explanation!
Well then I take back what I said about suspension of disbelief. At least, clearly you're meant to see yourself as a skaarj in the mirrors (and given how rare that is, it makes sense that they would "advertise" this with mirrors at the player start) I just didn't play it the way it was meant to be played...

Still, in the interest of immersion, it's a shame we don't get a usable Skaarj claw weapon such as the one in Legacy!!

[TheIronKnuckle]

I remember playing as a skaar hybrid when I did this. Was great