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01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

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Subject: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 17:28

Map Title: NyLeve's Falls
Author: Juan Pancho Eekels
From: Unreal
Filename: Nyleve.unr
Music Files: Dusk.umx




Video Playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PA3L43hPVo

Synopsis: You leave the Vortex Rikers and find yourself on an alien world. What wonders and dangers await?

Discuss!
Formerly Mman

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 18:16

NYLEVE'S BOTTOM
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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 19:53

First time I'm commenting on a level from the mother game in Map Of The Week! :)

Ah, NyLeve's Falls, the first level to really bring the world of FPS to the outdoors... (unless you count some space sims, but it's not exactly the same feeling!)
Actually, my statement is really only heartfelt if you don't take into account a unique FPS that doesn't even belong to the PC world: GoldenEye 007. In this player's opinion, the latter was the first FPS to bring some expansive outdoor environments into the mix. Of course, I could have missed something. In any case, with Unreal this was really pushed to a whole new level: graphically, it washed away everything we'd seen before. I think enough people have already conveyed the feeling of awe and wonder they experienced when stepping out of the Vortex Rikers the first time round... checking out the animated skybox, and moving up to that point of view and admiring those falls with the sweet ondulating effect on the surface of the lake and everything. Epic really knew what they were doing, putting a claustrophobic and terrifying level in first place, only to be followed by this one. The music is perfectly suited, in fact I remember Alex 'Siren' Brandon saying that he sincerely thought this track (Dusk) coupled with NyLeve's Falls is the best musical fit to a game level ever! What a fantastic start to an epic adventure! Vortex Rikers was scary but so was this one: remember that first scripted encounter with the Brutes? Holy shit! And the tentacles, too... and the manta! Right, and everyone gibbed themselves at least once, if only just to see what happens when you jump off the cliff! Having various peaceful creatures around you (such as Nali bunnies! and birds) also helped to flesh out the outdoors as a believable ecosystem. Realising that the whole portion down by the river is optional also gave me a new vibe, as apart from secret areas, extra gaming space was seldom done in FPS games of that era.
Today it is still a great level. But its historical significance makes it rather more than that.
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 20:15

Love it. Got about 10 edits simply for testing mods and just moving terrain randomly and making new paths etc. I once made a lava variant and added a load of obstacles and it looked like vortex riders crashed into a volcano :p

Also trying to nail that cliff fall and not die is always fun

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 22:12

I've talked about this one before. I remember the first time I encountered the brutes and immediately thought of the Mancubus from Doom 2. Suffice it to say, I ran away shooting. Funnily enough I think I completely missed the whole bottom area on my first playthrough since my first encounter with a Nali ended in spooked violence in the mines.

Interesting note. When I got the strat guide to this game out of fanboyism the first year it was out, I noticed a lot of things in print that were not in the main game. Things like the Rifle's previous alternate fire and the original way you were supposed to play The Source Antechamber. But one thing that got me was a mention of the Warlord being in the level in a sequence where he sees the player, shoots a rocket, and flies away. Sure enough when I loaded the level in Ued I saw that the alarm points and event was still in place and out of curiosity I placed a warlord in the level and bound it to the appropriate tags. If you ever were curious about the unused mutilate animation the warlord has, I suggest you try it. :o

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 22:35

Mister_Prophet wrote:But one thing that got me was a mention of the Warlord being in the level in a sequence where he sees the player, shoots a rocket, and flies away. Sure enough when I loaded the level in Ued I saw that the alarm points and event was still in place and out of curiosity I placed a warlord in the level and bound it to the appropriate tags. If you ever were curious about the unused mutilate animation the warlord has, I suggest you try it. :o

I remember seeing that in a video somewhere. I think it was posted on Unrealsp (probably in a topic about the alpha or beta).

Sat42 wrote:...
Today it is still a great level. But its historical significance makes it rather more than that.


I like the way you describe your first impressions.
Fact is: the first level already set high standards in terms of creating expectations, and this second level built on that, even surpassing it (as you mentioned: the visuals, the exploration, the enemies, being able to use a weapon, being able to swim, walk, jump, dodge, hide and get plastered :) ).
After this level (and the next - with the first closehand confrontation with a Skaarj) I was hooked (and still am).

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 22:52

I doubt if this map is really many people's favourite, but I wonder if, without it, would any of us still be here talking about Unreal today?
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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 23:01

For better or worse "backwards Evelyn" is one of the most remembered levels of Unreal, along with the Vortex Rikers and the first level of the mines.

I remember being quite surprised all those years ago at how much of the map was off the shortest path. It made exploring a thing that could be done instead of just following a corridor to the end, or worse, playing follow the leader through a corridor between cutscenes. At the time of course the possibility for exploration was pretty standard for FPS games, but I was pretty young then too.

Although this was one of the most memorable levels, I don't remember it impressing me as much at the time as some other levels. From having played a lot of Unreal Tournament and Dark Forces 2 I'd seen outdoor environments done before, the former of the two even frequently using the same textures as NyLeve, while the latter's outdoor environments often nailed Hellscrag's "Conceptual Grandness" better than many of the maps in Unreal. Chirza stood out to me a lot at the time, as nothing I'd seen in Unreal Tournament, Dark Forces 2, Thief, Goldeneye, or several other 3d non-fps games I'd played at the time, was quite like it, though I understand many of you do not hold fond memories of Chirza.

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 23:03

Here's the thread about the Warlord sequence
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=51
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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 23:26

@ Mister_Prophet: interesting bit of trivia! I'll try it :)
and lol at spooked violence with your first Nali encounter! For me it was obviously in NyLeve and while I was surprised, I stopped short of actually shooting the poor fellow (I just instinctly jumped back at first) :o

@ Gizzy: that you have many variants of this level doesn't surprise me, it seems to be a very popular choice for a redux, heck I have already played no less than three different reduxes of Nyleve's Falls: ONP's version, Aftermath Part 1: Battle at NyLeve's Falls and Infernal Falls from EXU2: Batshit Insane!

@ salsaSkaarj: I do my best! :D
and yeah, I was totally hooked after this, too! :)

@ Hellscrag: maybe not necessarily a favourite, but to tell you the truth I'd have trouble saying which are my "favourite" maps from the mother game. I can say which are my favourite maps from ONP, but when it comes to Unreal, all I can reasonably say is which maps were the most memorable. NyLeve's Falls is among them, as are Vortex Rikers and Rrajigar Mine.

@ ebd: Chizra, young padawan, Chizra :) that's another one that I find to be among the most memorable levels from Unreal.
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 01 Sep 2014, 23:42

UBerserker wrote:Here's the thread about the Warlord sequence
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=51


Now that was a very thorough OP, UBerserker! Thanks for bringing up the link, I just finished reading through the thread :)
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 02 Sep 2014, 00:47

Sat42 wrote:@ ebd: Chizra, young padawan, Chizra :) that's another one that I find to be among the most memorable levels from Unreal.


I completed my first playthrough of that map convinced that the god was called "Chizara", which I thought was a very mystical-sounding name at the time. "Chizra" never sounded quite so good somehow.
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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 02 Sep 2014, 01:20

Hellscrag wrote:I completed my first playthrough of that map convinced that the god was called "Chizara", which I thought was a very mystical-sounding name at the time. "Chizra" never sounded quite so good somehow.


That's funny, it's different from what I hear most people experience when it comes to mispelling/misreading names in Unreal: most just mistaken "Na Pali Haven" for "Na Pali Heaven" (not helped by ONP in this case!). I checked just in case and "Chizara" is actually a Nigerian male name. I thought I'd check how unique to the Unreal universe the name "Chizra" is, and came across this funny situation: type "Chizra" in The Free Dictionary, and it will show the definition of the word "unreal" :P
Nali: Magic or Telekinesis
Waffnuffly wrote:It's tarydium-doped smoothies. Drunk by the player, I mean. The player is tripping balls. The whole game actually takes place in a large city and the player thinks he's on an alien world.

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 02 Sep 2014, 04:19

I still can't spell Rajaghar Mine correctly without looking it up.

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Subject: Re: 01/09/2014 - "NyLeve's Falls" by Juan Pancho Eekels

Post Posted: 02 Sep 2014, 08:28

Sat42 wrote:That's funny, it's different from what I hear most people experience when it comes to mispelling/misreading names in Unreal: most just mistaken "Na Pali Haven" for "Na Pali Heaven" (not helped by ONP in this case!).


That may explain why so many misread Na Pali to be the name of the planet. I remain convinced that Na Pali was only ever meant to be the name of the sky island, but the alternative interpretation caught on so widely that it became retconned by the mission pack.

Why do I remain so convinced about this fifteen years later? Because early information named the planet Gryphon and, more importantly, the sky caves map is called "Gateway to Na Pali". It seemed and still seems obvious to me. Someone once made a counter-argument about the caves being so called as they were a gateway back to the planet if you were going the other way, but that seemed incredibly forced to me, especially with the sky town being called Na Pali Haven.

But this is an historical argument (and nothing to do with NyLeve's Falls). I accept that the Nali planet is now known as Na Pali. :P
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