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22/06/2015 - "Map 31: Vortex Rikers" by Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich

Each week a single map is discussed here in detail.

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UB_
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Subject: 22/06/2015 - "Map 31: Vortex Rikers" by Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich

Post Posted: 22 Jun 2015, 15:06

Map Title: Map 31: Vortex Rikers
Author: Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich
From: Operation Na Pali
Filename: NP31DavidM.unr
Music Files: NPInside.umx




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

Synopsis: You finally enter the Vortex Rikers. After so many years it still doesn't look like a friendly place.

Discuss!

User avatar salsaSkaarj
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Subject: Re: 22/06/2015 - "Map 31: Vortex Rikers" by Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich

Post Posted: 23 Jun 2015, 12:18

First of all, those who haven't played ONP yet - please don't watch the video - it's really worth experiencing this map without any foreknowledge (so don't read the spoiler either).

An excellent return to the Rikers with a really nice build up of the tension (damn, I remember shaking so much that I had difficulty keeping my mouse pointer stable) and many (really good) surprises. I'ld say resistance in this map is overwhelming but
► Show Spoiler
Mind you, on Hard and on Unreal you'ld better use it efficiently :)
And the ending brings another surprise (totally unexpected to me, and I almost died laughing when it happend).

Definitely one of my favourite ONP maps.

User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: 22/06/2015 - "Map 31: Vortex Rikers" by Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich

Post Posted: 23 Jun 2015, 13:49

salsaSkaarj wrote:First of all, those who haven't played ONP yet - please don't watch the video - it's really worth experiencing this map without any foreknowledge (so don't read the spoiler either).


I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. And yes, the first time round it's really scary! An excellent redux of the original Vortex Rikers, and naturally one of the highlights of Operation: Na Pali.

► Show Spoiler
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.

User avatar Semfry
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Subject: Re: 22/06/2015 - "Map 31: Vortex Rikers" by Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich

Post Posted: 23 Jun 2015, 16:52

A pretty small level but it does it's job as a climax to the main goal of ONP. It updates the old environment well, and I like when it starts to explore new territory you never saw in the original (I'd have liked to have seen a bit more of that actually). The ending escape part also does a good job contrasting with the slow-paced creepy atmosphere (despite ONPguy's best attempts to undermine it) before it.
Formerly Mman

User avatar Sat42
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Subject: Re: 22/06/2015 - "Map 31: Vortex Rikers" by Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich

Post Posted: 24 Jun 2015, 00:48

I just had another go at this level (for which I have kept a save at the starting point since my first run), that's my fourth playthrough of the map: well, last time was over half a year ago so I didn't remember everything off by heart, and so it was nice to see the level provide a couple of frights again! Not as intense as the first time, obviously, but still scary :) I think there's one additional thing which really deserves to be specifically stated: the soundscape is really good here.

EDIT: and now I watched the playthrough uploaded in the OP - I think I saw a flash of something I had never seen until now, but that I heard about when reading old threads about ONP: in the MedLab, there was a subliminal something, right? is that the subliminal Pamela Anderson? :P (it's fortunate it's so hard to catch - what an immersion breaker it would have been for people!)
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.

User avatar Xanious
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Subject: Re: 22/06/2015 - "Map 31: Vortex Rikers" by Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich

Post Posted: 24 Jun 2015, 01:20

Yeah actually. The camera actually switches for a split second to the NSFW picture. You can actually ghost right next to the spawn and find it.

Anyways, I'd have to say this is probably one of my favorite levels of ONP. I have a softspot for mappacks that revisit old locations and do it well :)

User avatar Semfry
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Subject: Re: 22/06/2015 - "Map 31: Vortex Rikers" by Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich

Post Posted: 26 Jun 2015, 15:00

Semfry wrote:The ending escape part also does a good job contrasting with the slow-paced creepy atmosphere (despite ONPguy's best attempts to undermine it) before it.


Having thought about this level more I'm rethinking this; I think this level perfectly encapsulates ONP's general design of being unintentional camp (in the sense of having far greater production values and style than the story really deserves). You have a well-realised and creepy redesign of Vortex Rikers contrasted with ONP guy's absurd voice acting (that marks both the start, turning point and end of the map) and pseudo-porn easter eggs. Even the insta-gib moment works as the level goes from atmospheric, immersive exploration to a very "gamey" moment of conveniently finding the weapon you need to shoot your way out (which never gets referenced again), along with the capture itself being somewhat nonsensical in itself. Yet it all somehow works in a way that you can buy into.

Small maps are interesting because I've recently realised it actually takes me longer to get an appreciation of them than bigger maps; in large maps you have more time to think over things and what the designer was going for, while small maps are out of the way quickly. At least in projects with teams small and focused enough to have a designer's vision show through (which ONP is) small maps also have a more deliberate design and pacing that in many cases can get at the heart of what the strengths (and sometimes weaknesses) of a project are. I think this map is an example of that as it perfectly captures the weird (mostly) unintentional camp ONP is full of, which is probably why it's one of the most memorable levels in ONP for many people.
Formerly Mman

UB_
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Subject: Re: 22/06/2015 - "Map 31: Vortex Rikers" by Cliff Bleszinski & David Münnich

Post Posted: 28 Jun 2015, 15:32

ONP's best map. Sounds are amazing.
Also the only part in the mappack where ONP becomes extremely serious instead of being another streampile of jokes. You had to follow with something cool after filling Nyleve with lava.
And also because Vortex Rikers is a place that should be portrayed negatively as it was a inhumane prison ship.


I have some weird relation with the Vortex Rikers. Surely not the best Unreal map but it has something that makes it the most unforgettable one and, how to say, one of the weirdest.
It's a strange location. Guess it's due to its "incomplete" nature, I mean you see all those locked doors and inaccessible rooms that you don't know where they lead and what they are. Also the fact of how the ship was reported to have more rooms and multiple exits to Nyleve at one point in development which makes the whole thing even more of a mystery.
One mindblowing thing (already told this on IRC a month ago) is how one night I had a strange dream about the prison section of the Vortex being redone (or looking different) with the vent shaft having an alternate pathway leading to an extended version of the torture room. And the torture room itself was all bright but everything behind the glass barrier was just pitch black dead. Plus, there was a hole on the ceiling right above the electric chair, which was connected to the vent shaft. I had no idea this goddamn hole was in the actual map, I just never noticed beforehand.
Kinda scary it was always about the Vortex.

Then in Unreal you get out of the Vortex. You never look back to it, you never hear of it again. I felt that when I went further in the game, stuff was going on in the Vortex or there was something that didn't seem right or I missed (wasn't the ship supposed to blow up?). It seemingly warranted an alternate ending to the game where your Skaarj escapepod crashes in Nyleve (which isn't much of a difference from the regular ending anyway and personally I pretend RTNP never happened because it was never supposed to be a thing) and you return in Vortex because you're ultimately a forever-stuck prisoner, and you explore what was left of Vortex, now fully armed and fully aware of Na Pali's happenings.

So ok that was my whole offtopic since this MOTW is about Vortex. Though I might give the original map a real facelift and put it in G59 or somewhere else.
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