Unreal Gold (PC, 2000)
Graphics-8.5 Sound-8.5 Control-8 Challenge-8 Story-6.5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5 Fun-7.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7.5
+
Good environmental storytelling and ambient sfx design overall (kinda similar to SS2 during the intro gameplay and some other points, some scripted events like the assault on another prisoner or ship crew in the other room+the tunnel lights getting shut down before an encounter in the mines, beginning of level 6/dark arena where you hear an enemy falling down into the water like you just did afer you turn the corner+the silence before reaching the outdoors, onboard the ISV-Kran ship some of the enemies intentionally escape after being spotted to lure you into a trap - similar to Dead Space, foreshadowing of the mountain base during the haven level)
Some Action Adventure elements (find lore and occasional gameplay hints via text logs/digital diaries by exploring; some months before HL1 but a couple of years after Strife and Exhumed, item inventory (flares and flashlight+searchlight for dark areas (flares also blow up), alien language translator (only used to read text logs and tablets though rather than understanding the Nali you meet - no interactive dialogue with these guys), invisibility, temporary high jump boots and scuba gear (there is a rechargeable version in the Na Pali expansion), nali fruit seeds - healing, ), first gun can be upgraded twice - find the power ups in the levels, amplifier - controllable damage boost, some breakable walls requiring explosive weapons)
Detailed graphics and audio options, Almost full control config (can't map the side hop to a button), Game speed toggle
Some nice effects (lighting, reflective surfaces, force fields, raising the water level at the incan pool, seed planting animation, battle arena explosion before the finale), Music transitions during fights (fades out after the fight, not seamless; sometimes the upbeat tracks keep going while no fighting is happening though)
Alternate firing modes for the guns (Marathon (1994)+Outlaws and Blood (1997), SS1 had multiple ammo types; ASMD/weapon 4 is kinda weak but it does cause pushback and hits immediately and you can combine fire 2 with fire 1 for a stronger hit, homing rocket launcher+grenade launcher combo which can be charged to fire more than one projectile at once and has two different firing modes for the primary fire (rockets) as well by holding alt while charging, flak cannon=shotgun w/ ricocheting shots+grenade launcher, can headshot w/ the razorjack for 3.5x dmg+guide the shots manually w/ the alternate firing mode)
Side dodge hop (can only be performed by double tapping however which you'll sometimes do by accident)
Various hidden items and some fairly long optional detours (in the harobed village level you can skip the actual village though you'll miss out on the flak cannon)
Difficulty increases if you kill any Nali (friendly NPC alien race; no punishment for killing non-hostile animals however)
MP co-op and vs modes (first game with deathmatch bots?)
Friendly Nali NPCs (can open doors to goodies for you if kept alive but can't otherwise be interacted with)
Difficulty options (easy-very hard)
Some good enemy AI (side dodging and cover using Skaarj, strafing mercenaries, some enemies feigning death, luring enemy at one point in ISV-Kran; they don't throw grenades from around corners/behind large cover and groups don't try to surround you though (HL1), )
Fast movement (Doom)
Minor puzzles (switches and boxes, raising the wooden platform to the water surface in level 5, some breakable walls using barrels or the blob gun/biorifle, etc; decent riddle-style puzzles at the vandora temple fountain and bluff level's crypt)
Can throw away guns except for your first gun - pointless though?
Some teleporter shortcuts for longer levels like level 5/water god temple
Some pretty good bosses (colosseum stone titan in terms of the impactfulness of it, the winged demons, decent final boss)
New enemies sometimes appear when backtracking through a level
Explosive and toxic barrels (the latter drop some scattered blobs when destroyed, can push some over a ledge and onto enemies in noork's elbow)
A few sequence breaking opportunities (can skip some of terraniux and temple of vandora with the jump boots)
Memorable ISV-Kran and final (arena room and dark version) levels
Includes the Return to Na pali expansion (only tried it briefly; added intro and some new weapons)
+/-
Save anywhere (9 slots - shows the level name and date+time of the save)
Linear overarching structure (can't backtrack to previous levels (can't go back to level 1/falls & prison ship nor level 2/mines, etc)). Partially open-ended bluff eversmoking level.
Can switch to third person mode
First weapon (dispersion pistol) automatically recharges its ammo/energy
Text only logs means you can't listen to them while you keep playing
Gore (toggle-able)
Cant' pick up and place/throw boxes
No default melee attack
Can't directly interact with the Nali NPCs - they act helpfully on their own if you remove threats and let them do their thing
Temporary health bar upgrades (like Doom - adds 100 which can't be replenished when lost, can't go over 200 however which is a shame)
Dampener item for silent attacks only works in MP
NPC voices and ambient sfx don't sound different while underwater
Weird how the stinger minigun shoots just one shot with a short delay before the rest of the shots when holding down the button to start firing a volley
A bit odd to go from an incan-style temple to a medieval europe-style village and church level in connection to each other
Some enemy types look like the predator from the movie of the same name
Some fall damage but have to fall quite far to die
Can feign death but it's useless in SP
The single use force field (kinda small and box-like in shape) isn't that useful and you can only carry one at a time - if it protected you completely for about a 90 degree angle, you could stand and shoot from within it or if it locked away an enemy it would be better
There are upgraded jump boots but they appear too late (right before the final boss)
Only three unique boss fights
Can't control the mech or the smaller ship you encounter
-
No map feature - overly maze-like spaceship terraniux level and various later levels
Some control/interface issues (charged shots automatically trigger after a few seconds, overly zoomed out HUD at modern res, some cooldown between sidehops, somewhat slow swimming, no message log)
Overly small text and HUD at higher res (can double it in size but not enlarge it further which is needed if you want the game at a modern res - can increase the translator text/graphic to 4x which is good but not the rest of the HUD and text) and there's a lot of text logs
Some trial & error (can't kill the small fish in level 1/falls, flares only last for about 10 secs and then explode, floor traps, fan trap, some one-way paths, some hidden paths without clues (end of level 3/depths for example), some ambushes, sometimes kind hard to tell what pressing a button does - cellars level for example, getting to the ASMD in the cellars, arena explosion before the finale)
Some tedious parts (some dead space (gets bad in most outdoors areas), waiting for moving platforms/elevators (velora's pass bridge raising+lift at bluff level+serpent canyon boat especially), items are sometimes placed so that they waste more time than they need to (usually optional stuff like ammo though), somewhat spongy enemies (can get annyoing in tight spaces) - gets worse after reaching the spaceship in level 8/harobed village, too many locked doors in the latter half of the ISV-Kran batch of levels and several late-game levels, kinda drawn out spire+bluff eversmoking+cellars+final levels, going out of your way for the switch in the underwater segment that lets you progess in the cellars)
Can't pick up healing items for later use despite the item inventory (besides the seeds)
Some plot oddities (how did someone escape the prison ship without breaking the emergency glass?, doesn't make sense that there are tablets describing one of the Nali's oppressors as being used as a punishment for the player (thunder pool room impure heart thing), why didn't the PC just stay with the Nali until they figured out a safe way to escape?)
Sometimes bad enemy and NPC AI (Nali can be slow to react or move in place (sometimes they'll move in-between you and enemies during a battle as well), the rocket enemies sometimes just run towards you and they run out of rockets fairly quickly, in level 3/depths there's a good setup for a puzzle (trick the enemy to fall into lava) but the enemy won't follow you to the bridge, the flying gasbag levels can be safely attacked with the second gun in the trench level (and any other large open areas) since their shots blow up before reaching you)
Voice box (creates a distraction w/ footstep sounds and other sfx) doesn't work in SP despite being placed in some levels
Some difficulty spikes (colosseum boss kills in one hit if you're unarmored and at 100 HP, not enough health in the last few levels, final level when it goes dark and enemies become super spongy) and dips (easy new mage enemies near the finale, nali castle boss, kind of easy final boss)
Repeats certain enemies too much and the stone titan is repeated 7 (!) times (at the trench and the level before it you almost fight two back to back and the former fight is like a lesser version of the first colosseum fight with some wasted potential in the set piece with the higher path along the outer wall, can pretty easily skip the last two however)
Game doesn't show stats on how many Nali you saved or how many secrets you found
Kinda bland intro (some small boxes (not used for puzzles) can be broken for items while others can't - hard to tell which at first, a camera flies across a castle scene and no story occurs - feels more like a tech demo)
Jump boots don't last long enough and you have no jump height control hile using them+their power keeps draining even if they're unequipped+they're underused
Kinda weak minigun
Bugs:
-Odd puzzle design near the beginning of level 2/mine where if you move the explosive barrel away from the breakable wall (such as towards the forcefield or its control panel) then it still somehow beaks the wall far outside of the explosion's hit box (wouldv'e been better to make the barrel respawn after 5-10 secs or something)
-Bug where if you hold more than one key for a period of time you get an error sound like you were spamming shift or the computer froze
-Bug in the cellars where a door set to open once you've cleared the room of spawning enemies didn't (had to use ghost mode)
Notes:
-Used 227i Patch fan patch - "Adds support for modern Windows, extra renders, multiple bug fixes, and many other additions."
-Original is from 1998
-Weapon info: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873237746
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5 Fun-7.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7.5
+
Good environmental storytelling and ambient sfx design overall (kinda similar to SS2 during the intro gameplay and some other points, some scripted events like the assault on another prisoner or ship crew in the other room+the tunnel lights getting shut down before an encounter in the mines, beginning of level 6/dark arena where you hear an enemy falling down into the water like you just did afer you turn the corner+the silence before reaching the outdoors, onboard the ISV-Kran ship some of the enemies intentionally escape after being spotted to lure you into a trap - similar to Dead Space, foreshadowing of the mountain base during the haven level)
Some Action Adventure elements (find lore and occasional gameplay hints via text logs/digital diaries by exploring; some months before HL1 but a couple of years after Strife and Exhumed, item inventory (flares and flashlight+searchlight for dark areas (flares also blow up), alien language translator (only used to read text logs and tablets though rather than understanding the Nali you meet - no interactive dialogue with these guys), invisibility, temporary high jump boots and scuba gear (there is a rechargeable version in the Na Pali expansion), nali fruit seeds - healing, ), first gun can be upgraded twice - find the power ups in the levels, amplifier - controllable damage boost, some breakable walls requiring explosive weapons)
Detailed graphics and audio options, Almost full control config (can't map the side hop to a button), Game speed toggle
Some nice effects (lighting, reflective surfaces, force fields, raising the water level at the incan pool, seed planting animation, battle arena explosion before the finale), Music transitions during fights (fades out after the fight, not seamless; sometimes the upbeat tracks keep going while no fighting is happening though)
Alternate firing modes for the guns (Marathon (1994)+Outlaws and Blood (1997), SS1 had multiple ammo types; ASMD/weapon 4 is kinda weak but it does cause pushback and hits immediately and you can combine fire 2 with fire 1 for a stronger hit, homing rocket launcher+grenade launcher combo which can be charged to fire more than one projectile at once and has two different firing modes for the primary fire (rockets) as well by holding alt while charging, flak cannon=shotgun w/ ricocheting shots+grenade launcher, can headshot w/ the razorjack for 3.5x dmg+guide the shots manually w/ the alternate firing mode)
Side dodge hop (can only be performed by double tapping however which you'll sometimes do by accident)
Various hidden items and some fairly long optional detours (in the harobed village level you can skip the actual village though you'll miss out on the flak cannon)
Difficulty increases if you kill any Nali (friendly NPC alien race; no punishment for killing non-hostile animals however)
MP co-op and vs modes (first game with deathmatch bots?)
Friendly Nali NPCs (can open doors to goodies for you if kept alive but can't otherwise be interacted with)
Difficulty options (easy-very hard)
Some good enemy AI (side dodging and cover using Skaarj, strafing mercenaries, some enemies feigning death, luring enemy at one point in ISV-Kran; they don't throw grenades from around corners/behind large cover and groups don't try to surround you though (HL1), )
Fast movement (Doom)
Minor puzzles (switches and boxes, raising the wooden platform to the water surface in level 5, some breakable walls using barrels or the blob gun/biorifle, etc; decent riddle-style puzzles at the vandora temple fountain and bluff level's crypt)
Can throw away guns except for your first gun - pointless though?
Some teleporter shortcuts for longer levels like level 5/water god temple
Some pretty good bosses (colosseum stone titan in terms of the impactfulness of it, the winged demons, decent final boss)
New enemies sometimes appear when backtracking through a level
Explosive and toxic barrels (the latter drop some scattered blobs when destroyed, can push some over a ledge and onto enemies in noork's elbow)
A few sequence breaking opportunities (can skip some of terraniux and temple of vandora with the jump boots)
Memorable ISV-Kran and final (arena room and dark version) levels
Includes the Return to Na pali expansion (only tried it briefly; added intro and some new weapons)
+/-
Save anywhere (9 slots - shows the level name and date+time of the save)
Linear overarching structure (can't backtrack to previous levels (can't go back to level 1/falls & prison ship nor level 2/mines, etc)). Partially open-ended bluff eversmoking level.
Can switch to third person mode
First weapon (dispersion pistol) automatically recharges its ammo/energy
Text only logs means you can't listen to them while you keep playing
Gore (toggle-able)
Cant' pick up and place/throw boxes
No default melee attack
Can't directly interact with the Nali NPCs - they act helpfully on their own if you remove threats and let them do their thing
Temporary health bar upgrades (like Doom - adds 100 which can't be replenished when lost, can't go over 200 however which is a shame)
Dampener item for silent attacks only works in MP
NPC voices and ambient sfx don't sound different while underwater
Weird how the stinger minigun shoots just one shot with a short delay before the rest of the shots when holding down the button to start firing a volley
A bit odd to go from an incan-style temple to a medieval europe-style village and church level in connection to each other
Some enemy types look like the predator from the movie of the same name
Some fall damage but have to fall quite far to die
Can feign death but it's useless in SP
The single use force field (kinda small and box-like in shape) isn't that useful and you can only carry one at a time - if it protected you completely for about a 90 degree angle, you could stand and shoot from within it or if it locked away an enemy it would be better
There are upgraded jump boots but they appear too late (right before the final boss)
Only three unique boss fights
Can't control the mech or the smaller ship you encounter
-
No map feature - overly maze-like spaceship terraniux level and various later levels
Some control/interface issues (charged shots automatically trigger after a few seconds, overly zoomed out HUD at modern res, some cooldown between sidehops, somewhat slow swimming, no message log)
Overly small text and HUD at higher res (can double it in size but not enlarge it further which is needed if you want the game at a modern res - can increase the translator text/graphic to 4x which is good but not the rest of the HUD and text) and there's a lot of text logs
Some trial & error (can't kill the small fish in level 1/falls, flares only last for about 10 secs and then explode, floor traps, fan trap, some one-way paths, some hidden paths without clues (end of level 3/depths for example), some ambushes, sometimes kind hard to tell what pressing a button does - cellars level for example, getting to the ASMD in the cellars, arena explosion before the finale)
Some tedious parts (some dead space (gets bad in most outdoors areas), waiting for moving platforms/elevators (velora's pass bridge raising+lift at bluff level+serpent canyon boat especially), items are sometimes placed so that they waste more time than they need to (usually optional stuff like ammo though), somewhat spongy enemies (can get annyoing in tight spaces) - gets worse after reaching the spaceship in level 8/harobed village, too many locked doors in the latter half of the ISV-Kran batch of levels and several late-game levels, kinda drawn out spire+bluff eversmoking+cellars+final levels, going out of your way for the switch in the underwater segment that lets you progess in the cellars)
Can't pick up healing items for later use despite the item inventory (besides the seeds)
Some plot oddities (how did someone escape the prison ship without breaking the emergency glass?, doesn't make sense that there are tablets describing one of the Nali's oppressors as being used as a punishment for the player (thunder pool room impure heart thing), why didn't the PC just stay with the Nali until they figured out a safe way to escape?)
Sometimes bad enemy and NPC AI (Nali can be slow to react or move in place (sometimes they'll move in-between you and enemies during a battle as well), the rocket enemies sometimes just run towards you and they run out of rockets fairly quickly, in level 3/depths there's a good setup for a puzzle (trick the enemy to fall into lava) but the enemy won't follow you to the bridge, the flying gasbag levels can be safely attacked with the second gun in the trench level (and any other large open areas) since their shots blow up before reaching you)
Voice box (creates a distraction w/ footstep sounds and other sfx) doesn't work in SP despite being placed in some levels
Some difficulty spikes (colosseum boss kills in one hit if you're unarmored and at 100 HP, not enough health in the last few levels, final level when it goes dark and enemies become super spongy) and dips (easy new mage enemies near the finale, nali castle boss, kind of easy final boss)
Repeats certain enemies too much and the stone titan is repeated 7 (!) times (at the trench and the level before it you almost fight two back to back and the former fight is like a lesser version of the first colosseum fight with some wasted potential in the set piece with the higher path along the outer wall, can pretty easily skip the last two however)
Game doesn't show stats on how many Nali you saved or how many secrets you found
Kinda bland intro (some small boxes (not used for puzzles) can be broken for items while others can't - hard to tell which at first, a camera flies across a castle scene and no story occurs - feels more like a tech demo)
Jump boots don't last long enough and you have no jump height control hile using them+their power keeps draining even if they're unequipped+they're underused
Kinda weak minigun
Bugs:
-Odd puzzle design near the beginning of level 2/mine where if you move the explosive barrel away from the breakable wall (such as towards the forcefield or its control panel) then it still somehow beaks the wall far outside of the explosion's hit box (wouldv'e been better to make the barrel respawn after 5-10 secs or something)
-Bug where if you hold more than one key for a period of time you get an error sound like you were spamming shift or the computer froze
-Bug in the cellars where a door set to open once you've cleared the room of spawning enemies didn't (had to use ghost mode)
Notes:
-Used 227i Patch fan patch - "Adds support for modern Windows, extra renders, multiple bug fixes, and many other additions."
-Original is from 1998
-Weapon info: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873237746