Operation Na Pali is a Game Mod for Unreal Tournament developed by Team Vortex and released in 2002.
The mod is set sometime after the events of Unreal and its mission pack Return to Na Pali. You play as a commander in the prison ship Vortex Rikers II, given the codename 046, who receives a message from three survivors of the old ship. However, after being teleported to the surface of Na Pali, a Skaarj Sniper shoots him down and he ends up jailed. Now it's up to him to escape and find them.
The mod can be downloaded from here
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The mod shows examples of:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: At the end of the original Vortex Rikers level, you find the Instagib Rifle in a cabinet. Cue the horde of Skaarj forces trying to put you down with numbers.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: The game's exclusive character skins become available for the player once they reach the end of the game.
- Artificial Stupidity: AI allies have a very bad habit of jumping into death pits and lava rivers. So you not only have to clear the path for them in maps with these hazards but also guide them carefully. Especially when it comes to getting into safety with Khryss.
- Bag of Spilling: You lose all your weaponry upon being imprisoned the second time.
- Broken Bridge: There's one section halfway through the campaign with an elevator being stopped by a bunch of cargo crates. Once 046 gets his hand on the Translocator, he just teleports to the elevator, and then to the destination area.
- Brutal Bonus Level: Completing the game in Godlike difficulty gives the player a reward in the form of an input-reading AI for the Pong Mini-Game.
- Cargo Concealment Caper: At one point, Agent 046 must infiltrate in a heavily guarded facility on complete lockdown. He does so by hiding in a crate near a delivery ship's crane, which sends him at the other side of the wall.
- Chewing the Scenery: 046's way of saying things, especially evident when an elevator is about to collapse.046: Oh my God, I'd better GET THE HELL OUT OF HEREEEE!!!
- Escort Mission: After finding Khryss, 046 spends the last couple of levels trying to ensure she's safe while Skaarj hordes try to put both of them down. If she dies, it's game over. Oh, and the last level is a floater with big hordes of Skaarj attacking you at every point. Good thing she knows how to defend herself.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Instead of attacking you like they did back in Unreal, the Mercenaries side with 046 in their levels.
- An imprisoned Skaarj during 046's second capture helps 046 escape the imprisonment ship near the climax.
- Hold the Line:
- The Mercenary Base levels start with 046 allying with the Mercenaries inside of the ship in order to fend off the invading Skaarj forces.
- After 046 finds the Instagib Rifle inside of the Vortex Rikers' remains, hordes of Skaarj Lords appear to gang up on him.
- Large Ham: 046 and his one liners.
- Level in Reverse: You get to revisit remixed versions of the Unreal levels "Rrajigar Mine", "NyLeve's Falls" and "Vortex Rikers". In all of these levels, you start from what would be their ending points and have to traverse all the way back to what would be the beginning. As they're set after the events of the original game, they suffered a lot of architecture changes, such as "NyLeve's Falls" having a lava lake instead of a water lake, and it covering the whole lower area.
- Mini-Game Credits: The credits contain a series of playable scenes and minigames such as a small Super Mario Bros. level and a Pong game played against an AI.
- No Antagonist: Unlike many other major mods, such as Xidia Gold, Operation Na Pali has no main antagonist.
- No-Gear Level: Later in the mod, 046 is captured by the Skaarj once more and imprisoned on a Skaarj ship, losing all of the previously-obtained weapons.
- Nostalgia Level: There are trimmed-down versions of the Rrajigar Mine, Nyleve's Falls, and Vortex Rikers from Unreal.
- One-Man Army: In addition to Tournament's regular arsenal, 046 gets the Translocator and, later in the game, the One-Hit Kill Instagib Rifle. Even after being stripped of his gear twice, he still remains a force to be reckoned with.
- Prison Level:
- The very beginning has 046 landing on Harobed Village and being sniped by a Skaarj. After a long monologue, he finally breaks free from it thanks to a prisoner breaking down the prison's energy lines.
- When 046 is inspecting the remains of the Vortex Rikers he gets trapped near the entrance. By this point, he became a One-Man Army, however, when he tries to get out of the ship, he's ambushed, imprisoned and stripped of all his arsenal, which included the Instagib rifle. On the next level, a rogue Skaarj destroys the ship's energy sources and 046 is freed again.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Three powerful Skaarj Warriors make up the final enemies 046 and Khryss face.
- Redshirt Army: The AI allies are there mostly to help you and die.
- Step One: Escape: The campaign begins with 046 being caught after landing on Na Pali. The first level is about getting out of the prison base.
- Talking Is a Free Action: During certain set-pieces such as the imprisonment near the beginning, 046 engages in a long monologue that stops the player from moving. They can only take a look at the surroundings during the whole sequence.
- Too Awesome to Use:
- The Translocator. You find it halfway through the game and it's essential both in order to progress as well as for secret hunting. Then 3/4 through the game you're imprisoned again and lose it alongside the rest of your weaponry.
- The Instagib Rifle. You only find halfway through one level, the remains of the Vortex Rikers, and works exactly like it did in the base game, being a One-Hit Kill Shock Rifle. You're even given a chance to experience that power when a horde of Skaarj Lords appear in the ship. Then you're imprisoned and stripped off your weaponry at the end of the level, and never get to use that weapon again.
- Took a Level in Badass: The Nali were easily scared Non Action Guys in Unreal, here they can carry weapons and help the player. And some are even found as enemies.
- You Are Number 6: The protagonist is known only as "Crew Member number 046".
