Unreal Tournament Game Operation Na Pali - A UT Classic review

[page=Introduction]
You enjoyed original Unreal and always wanted some more? Well, here’s a great occassion for you – the modification called Operation Na Pali brings you back into the green fields, Nali villages and Skaarj bases. Believe me, this creation isn’t worse than the original Unreal – in some aspects it’s even better!

Even the game start and the intro is very impressive; you are a member of Vortex Rikers 2 ship which recieves a signal from Na Pali planet; it came from the survivors of Vortex Rikers 1 crash. The commander of the ship gives you a dangerous mission – to find the survivors and get them back home. Unfortunately, after being dropped on Na Pali planet surface, you are shot down by a Skaarj sniper, and transported to the prison. It’s up to you how you are going to escape the imprisonment and get your own ass saved! From now, you are lost in an unknown world, inhabited by hostile creatures, and the only thing you should care about is yourself... if you want to get out this mess alive.

Operation Na Pali is a modification of Unreal Tournament. However, instead of fighting bots on arenas, you go off on a great, single-player adventure. The game itself is complicated and very interesting – I was quite addicted after I played it for the first time. The map design is really incredible - looks like the creators of them have great skills.Tthe open surfaces are looking beautiful, and the cut scenes set you in the right mood. You’ll find fields with flowers, underground sewers, computerized factories, as good as wicked Skaarj facilities. On some maps you won’t be attacked by many guards, so you can admit the great landscapes, but the other ones will be a true battlefield! Many of the Operation Na Pali levels are really impressive, and they have a lot of details that make them really beautiful. One thing is sure – you’ll get excited many times, but you’ll have time to get your emotions down too. There’s a great variety of the maps and environments - that's why Operation Na Pali gets 10 at 10 points possible for the most important aspect of mod creating!

[page=Differences from UT]
There aren’t many graphics or Sound FX changes – and this modification is not about those types of changes too. The creators focused on maps, but there is some new music too – and it’s fitting to the maps very well. They are similar to Unreal and some Unreal Tournament ambient beats, but they have their own style, which is really very good. There is a plenty of music styles - starting from quiet and soft songs, finishing on ass-kicking hard beats for battles. I’m not going to rate graphics or sounds here, because it’s the same as original Unreal – but the music is done very well, and it gets 8 at 10 points possible. Talking about graphics, the original Unreal textures are really wisely used, and I've seen some of UT textures around there too; all of it mixes pretty well with music and the atmosphere created by levels.

Team Vortex (the creators of Operation Na Pali) decided to leave Unreal Tournament weapons inside the universe of first Unreal. Surprisingly,, the game package contains another, independent modification (OldSkool) which inserts Unreal weapons into UT, so you can play with them too. I played with the UT weapons and I must say that there wasn’t anything bad about it – it was fun to kill old monsters with new or enhanced weaponry. Anyways, it’s up to you what weapon pack are you going to use – for me it was true fun with both of them.

[page=Wrapping Up]
One of the features that wasn’t available in Unreal was cooperation with Na Pali inhabitants – you can recruit some warrior Nalis into your team, and reveal the gruesome secrets of the planet with them. They can be very helpful in fire-fights, but sometimes they lose the waypoint paths, and you have to get back for them. It is pretty annoying, but it doesn’t happen oftenly, plus you don’t have to keep those Nalis alive in order to finish the game. Anyways, it’s a very nice feature which makes the gameplay faster and more interesting. Now you can have some true "4 Skaarj warriors versus you & three Nalis" type battles. It's really exciting!

Overall, Operation Na Pali is one of the greatest modifications for Unreal / Unreal Tournament I’ve ever seen – it’s a very interesting and dynamic add-on. Of course, there are some minor bugs – wall problems or bad waypoints, but they don’t make the game worse. You just don't take care of them or forget about them in the pursuit of action. Believe me, you can’t judge this game only by looking at the screenshots (I know, they are beatiful, but it's all about gameplay!) – you just have to play it! It’s a classic, a must-see for every Unreal fan on the earth! So go, finish Operation Na Pali on your own.. and when you'll do so, then play with your friends in great cooperative mode!