Terror on Sigma 51-A: Special Edition
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Description
The Empire is performing sinister experiments on the desolate planet of Sigma 51-A. You have been hired by the Alliance to infiltrate the installation and find out exactly what the Imperials are up to. It all goes badly wrong, however, when the terrifying lab specimens escape. You find yourself fighting side by side with the hapless base personnel in a desperate bid to survive! The level features a powerful new gun, cutscenes, new enemies and much, much more...
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3D Preview developed by Stephan Reiter
I give this level a 9.5
BTW, when should we expect the sequel?
THIS is the kind of quality level that deserves a rating of 10. Not the usual crap levels you guys give 10's to...
This is easily one of the best levels ever made for JK/MotS. If you don't check it out, you're missing out!
Especially you MP only people. There are some SP levels worth playing.
Only two things:
I was strafing a bit in the level .goo and looked at the 3DOs and KEYs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the Queen's legs and tail a little too short? I saw some pictures of queen models which had very long legs. May I hope that this queen is only a preview version?
And give me a hint! I looked at the xeno...KEYs but found no 3DO they really fit to - exept partially the queen. There was no extra Xenomorph.3DO or something like that. What are these KEYs for?
Except for these things it's brilliant work with a really frightening atmosphere!
Thanks everyone. I'm working on a seperate project now, but I'll come back to finish this sooner or later.
All the extra Keys someone mentioned were for a really cool Alien model I lost when my H.D crashed :(
BTW: The queen will be re-done for the next level.
amazing. Very scary too. The only problem was that it IS impossible to get the mouse droid out of the room - the slope of the wall is too steep. All in all, a very good level. I cant wait for the sequel.
[edit] I guess that'll learn me to read the description next time, even when all I need to see is the title.
Now, this level brings the atmospheric magic to the Jedi Knight engine, with all the aspects of the movies that we love; Xenomorphs dropping from the ceilings of dark, shiny corridors, the enjoyable Pulse Rifle, and a little bit of the JK feel mixed in, like the blasters and stormies. My favorite part is when you run into the green commando and field trooper who follow you around and help you shoot the aliens; it kinda gives you the feeling that you and the imps are in this hell together. I love this level and I can't wait for the sequel. But one thing: the facehuggers need work.
Okay, so maybe a few more: Uhhm, let's see..VERY CREEPY!!!
This level was cool; I only played some of it though (suspense was too much!). However, the cutscene and "feel" were pretty darn nifty. All the reviews and comments I've read suggest the AI is very advanced......and perhaps I'll just take your word for it! Anyway, good level!
Oh, and who exactly are you meant to be; I've seen the skin a couple of times, but I am wondering if you are some important character or just some anonymous nobody armed with a couple dozen weapons madly shooting at hundreds of deadly, drooling aliens in hopes of surviving just long enough to go home, and still make it in time for a good cup of afternoon tea...
"Feel the full power of the daft side"
-Daft Lord of the Sith
[and perhaps the owner of a small tea company on the strange world of 'Erb, a planet notorious for its obssesion with...well, with tea of course you idiot!]
Anyways, I just have to say that ordinarily I don't comment on levels that I download, but this is one HELL of a level. Good job.
Kammerice
if you mean the room with the dark door u cant open that has a smoking sign, just drop over the edge of the walkway (the right side I think) and there's a vent panel. blast it open, and proceed through the airvent, blast another airvent opening and you enter the base's power generator room. blow the generators...and be ready for some serious heart-pounding action!
Good Job
~~~Colonel Jack O'Neill
This was a really good level. The atmosphere was definitely there, and those aliens... *shiver*. Very good, 10/10!
dARTHYUN AKA
ALien_hunter
Architechture: Very nice... what more is there to say?
Gameplay: Ok I've played the original but when I played this one... it too scared the crap out of me. Aliens would fall from ceilings, run through air ducts, and they could kill you in 2 swipes. Not only that but they are FAST!!! Backpedaling, side stepping are definetly needed to outsmart those aliens. But even then it sometimes fails. The Pulse Rifle was a big plus!!!! This baby could rip aliens apart in seconds, that means the Xenomorphs and the Facehuggers. That alien queen does look a bit strange but I can't wait to see it in the sequel. I liked when the imps sided with you when you blew up their generators. I mean you did blow up their generators but I guess its because they want to get the heck out of there too.
Final Comments: Definetly a keeper... everyone should get this level!
Scores:
Architechture: 10/10
Gameplay: Pulse Rifle 10/10
Xenomorph 9/10
Facehuggers 9/10 (Didn't have
movement)
Final 10/10
Star_Ghost
Then again, I'm dumb enough to screw up a misson where all you do is shoot...
This is such a great level! Those aliens were really creepy, especially the face-huggers. I can't wait for Part 2.
I give it a ten (million)!
You should also download this author's other levels from TACC
A fine addition to the plethora of JK/MOTS levels!
Not least because one of the big fantasy killers for me as I grow away from GL's dream with age has always been that his monsters and aliens are basically improbable at best and anatomically 'suited human or puppet on strings' ludicrous most of the rest of the time.
Since they completely hacked Predator vs. Aliens, this was a surprising 'new deathmatch' pairing which brought a deep sense of 'THAT is a kill worthy of a Jedi's Skill...' (Why The Force was an evolutionary necessity etc. etc.) justification without going just all out into human vs. human (non armored) saber blood and gore.
So much is this a 'good thing' in fact that I gave it a 9 out of 10.
Yet Sigma 51 doesn't get the Bo Derek award because there /are/ problems needing fixing prior to a declaration of perfection:
1. Just Animals vs. Intelligent Fear. Also known as LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.
To me, it was a bad (overdone) move to make the level be based on another 'remote test range' isolated environment scenario. This is just too typical of the Alien Universe we know and (#4) have come to hate in terms of telling us that bad things happen when Scientists play God by making a Satanic monster because they are too stupid to apply the most basic of safety protocols (i.e. too dumb to be making a weapon better than a stick and stone to begin with).
ESPECIALLY in light of the Kyle Katarn baseline period of ebbing Imperial Power, post Endor, it would make more sense that this would be, instead of an accident, something that was done _deliberately_ as a function of cheap terrorist WMD. Like the Nazis detonating an A-Bomb over Allied armor collumns on the outskirts of Berlin in 1945.
If you come into a scene of 'empty devastation' _after_ an entire (developed) PLANET goes offline. Along with several rescue teams. It is -much- more interesting because you are investigating something which is clearly horrific yet remains unexplained (Imperials blew up hypercomms with orbital fire).
Where are the bodies in this empty city of _20 million people_? etc. etc.
It would also make a heckuva lot more sense in terms of the numbers of XMs you encounter and the fact that they show up so soon after game-start as being not only full-grown. But also fully infiltrated.
Admittedly, my idea is somewhat like the opening of Dark Forces originally was but the difference is that Dark Troopers need a dedicated factory and specific alloys etc. to be viable manufactured force.
Aliens bring their own and the notion of their taking over an entire world _as a deliberate weapon effect_ has never been explored like it should have been (from the original 'Alien' shooting script, XMs originally only had a life cycle of 24hr hours or so).
2. THIS IS NOT A ROCK CONCERT!
So /some action/ should be possible to turn off that damn klaxon. I mean, I'm cutting power lines and blowing 'fuze panels' left, right and center. Half the time without the foggiest clue as to whether my doing so is a good thing or a bad one, in the moment.
Real Emergency Responders use auditory alerts for one of two reasons:
A- To get innocents out of the way so as to speed the arrival onscene by remote aid. i.e. An Ambulance or Cop Car or Fire Engine.
B- To provide immediate alert to on-site workers outside the immediate danger area or to surrounding population groups of the nature and immediacy of a danger. i.e. an Air Raid Alert. After that initial 'get the heck of the way or wake up!' FUNCTION has been served, continuing to blare out the obvious is just a teeth grinding distraction which the commander on the ground will quickly shut off.
FAR more impressive (on the gloom and doom scale) would be a system or cutscene which showed doors slamming down, force fields going up, ventillation shafts blocking off, bridges dropping away, sentry guns going to full-auto 'keep them all in' containment mode, ships blowing up on the ramp or in the hangar and indeed, possibly a fail-safe countdown to planetary immolation beginning to clock off.
All as indicators of the fact that whether the _silence_ was full of deadly mandible clicks and hidden chitters.
Or just paranoid echoing-empty.
YOU WERE ALONE WITH THE NIGHTMARE.
And only had a short time to kill it before the system killed you both.
Such is the real nature of 'monstrosity' in that it is too stupid to realize it is killing itself as well as you.
Ultimate Fear then being, not that you were going to die with lobotomized or acting as a host for these parasitic creatures but rather that these ravening beasts would cause a FAR MORE LETHAL enemy to pull a 'Resident Evil' endgame on your behind.
3. M41-A Pulse Rifle.
I don't know whether it's just my game or there is something really wacked with the mod code but the Pulse Gun, while hands down the best upgrade weapon I have /ever/ played, doesn't want to reselect when I have to use a grenade or rocket to clear a room. Sometimes when I pick up more 'pulse slugs' it comes back. But I could easily play the game entirely with this weapon and yet there are times when it doesn't want to let me.
A more subtle problem is explaining how the weapon got there. This is where, maybe, it makes some sense to have a 'research facility' option in that you can say that, due to some kind of time:space fluxuation in the hyperdrive of their ship, somehow an alien vessel crashed here 'long before' it's atomic structures say it should have been made (i.e. explaining Lucas' mythic past-not-future date period as a function of relativistic physics). The notion of a Sulacco or Nostromo type crash site is also a (more) interesting one, to me, although the potential for a Space Jockey type vessel would also help give a timeline reference.
Anything to make the acquisition of the CMPR more believable 'from among a clutter of artifacts' for it's inclusion in the game.
The external model of the gun itself is not bad but I would also prefer a more accurate 'green over black' finish to the kind of flash heavy white-over-silver attempt at a natural metal alternative.
4. No Single Swing Kills!!
I can take fast moving XMs. I can understand XMs needing several hits to go down. I can even accept multiple respawns everytime I cross a gridpoint in a room. But I won't just stand still for the notion that I have NO technologic superiorities.
In particular a 'thicker carapace'. Which would make armored storm troopers more or less impervious to direct aggression while leaving unarmored Jedi and Rebels/Republic Troops (and Civillians) unable to stop what is effectively an animal attack.
Unfortunately, Mr. McHale goes beyond reason in this and while not as bad as in Sigma 2, the Aliens are far too tough for their ability to get close to you before you can shoot them down.
If you watch Aliens and particualrly the acid-in-elevator scene; Colonial Marine personal body armor (hereafter PBA) is clearly little more than midieval knight plate mail made from some kind of press formed aluminum. OTOH, Storm Trooper suits are more like a hard, THICK, plastic or resin cast piece. Which should be treated as being more resilient to impact force than our 'primitive' technology could match. After all, there has to be SOME reason they wear it.
One potential 'goal' of the level then being to go from a cloth uniform to fool the local sentries to a scout trooper uniform to provide some basic protection 50-100 shields, lose 10 per hit). To a full up storm trooper uniform for true protection (200 shields and 5 per hit). Before finding something like Power Armor to tackle the Queen.
i.e. It doesn't have to ALWAYS be about the weapons. But you cannot have both cheap guns and lousy protection. Not with these critters.
5. Better Vision.
As stated in my other review of S2, it's NOT FAIR to make the bad guys be so lethal ONLY because you cannot see them coming. I have never in fact understood the desire to dim a level down to the point where you don't see any of the work the author put into his creation but specifically make field lights and NVG nearly worthless for durational effect (our batteries are good for 45 minutes at a time) AND to turn off Force Sight with 'Ysalmiri Zones' is beyond dumb.
6. Better Sound Effects/Music.
Switching between Alienesque and Star Wars doesn't do much for me because I am clearly NOT (total conversion) playing in the Alien Universe and so the 'eery music' crap just doesn't interest me. At the same time, somethings could be done to increase the sense of fear without overloading the level with unbelievably fast-matured XMs. Namely things like the 'echo sounding' motion detector sound which click-pinged with every player-step and /whined/ when you passed by a known spawn point.
A Pulse Rifle that had the correct HOLLOW sound of double ba-dah BAH DAH! reverb would also be nice.
So would a better sounding XM movment pattern that corresponded with the noise of a 400lb creature making footfalls on hard metal floor plates.
7. More Alien Types.
All-Warriors are boring. Add Runners or Predaliens or Praetorians (mini queens like the one shown in the first film). This would allow you to switch off some attributes between hyper-fast/leaping threats which take only a single hit to vaporize with nearly any weapon. And ones which are like crawling tanks. Slower to come at you but /oh so hard/ to kill.
8. Personal Plea: M56 SMART GUNS!
The notion of a flexible or curved muzzle attachment on a gun is actually not new, having been around since at least WWII as a function of the German Krumlauf Device for shooting around corners. Nor is the notion of having the actual round ignition be linked to a 'permission' system off of the gun mount itself (A retina focal squint laser modulator in the Alien universe). Since lifting a gun to high center is hard to do while maintaining a good walking posture, target search volume over the barrel or lowered dazzle position away from the muzzle blast it makes little sense to add the problem of a conventional trigger and pistol grip under the receiver group. Because in addition to more weight and an awkward handposition for a low carry, the recoil of the operating cycle is itself going to twist the hand position and effect aimpoint recapture.
Now throw in the assumption that you are firing a weapon only 2mm less in caliber than a Ma Deuce heavy machine gun and the notion of a REQUIRED 'walking fire' assault position becomes believable.
If you can assist the targeting
The idea then being that you 'clamp' as much as pull the trigger on a gun which you swivel with the back hand and elevate with the front using hydraulic dampened servo assist strapped to your waist in stabilizing the motion to your own midtorso.
So that, _as the muzzle point smoothly crosses the approximate location of the target_ 'estimated by eye'; the barrel itself articulates across 10-20` of arc to line up where the 'eye patch' laser dot reflecting off the back of your eye says you want the bullet to go. Within a few milliradians of perfect accuracy.
I'm not saying that the code for ANY of this is or need to be in a MOTS mod level. But it would be _very nice_ if you could design a longbarrel heavy weapon on a stabilized armature (graphic candy) which, when trigger pulled, fired a 'spread' of rounds not unlike that of the existing Repeater secondary fire mode. Or that of the Bowcaster. On full auto (and hopefully with considerably more lethality per-hit). Especially when combined with auto-aim in the Setup, Gameplay menu, the result would be /incredible/.
And indeed, such a weapon is an absolute must if you are going to persist with dropping multiple XMs into a room and then having them leap about like hyper caffeinated monkeys (clearly using the Stone Tiger fighting model from the Sith Temple, a creature which was itself too-strong a monster for MOTS allowable level of player agility and Force Sensed protection/warning.).
Kurt Plummer
i had to use diediedie
(invulnerability takes away from the fun factor)
the aliens are just too strong but its still
a 10\10
10