The Ghost of Alin’Gar
Release Date: 6 October, 1998
Author(s): Tim "Kew" Jervis
Number of maps: 1
Platform: Unreal
Website: N/A
The Ghost of Alin’Gar,
The Ghost of Alin’Gar is Tim “Kew” Jervis’ second release for Unreal. This is the first map where Kew’s extraordinary talent for creating atmospheric medieval scenes really starts to shine. We could say that the map’s architectural quality and its ability to make its dark medieval scenes believable is almost on par with the author’s main masterpiece, Illhaven. Compared to the author’s first Unreal map, L’Abbe de Mort, there has been some improvement in terms of story construction too. The few translator messages, however vague, do give some hint on what’s going on. For some reason however these translator messages are completely missing from version 3, so you need to play the older version 2 to fully enjoy the map. Perhaps the main shortcoming is the non-intuitive nature of accomplishing its goal. This might have lead many of its players to think that the level is lacing an adequate ending and eventually come to the realisation that, unfortunately, there is no real goal here and the map is no more than an atmospheric dungeon romp. Which is by the way consistent with what the readme file says. However, rest assured that there is both a goal and an ending, it is just not as easy to find as in your usual map, due to the non-linearity of the level and some unlucky translator message placements.
Confidering the above, it seems like i The Ghost of Alin’Gar was another learning experiment with the Unreal Engine and UnrealEd, during which Jervis tried, apparently not without success, to develop the skills necessary for building a more epic project of such a scope as Illhaven.
An interesting piece of information is that in Illhaven Anthology 2012, Alingar is a Nali Priest and friend of Kew’s. Given the close resemblance with the name Alin’Gar, we can assume that Jervis was making a nod to his earlier work.
Also worth noting that the map seems to be affected by the 225+ torchflame size bug. A newer version to address this issue was never released.
Based on the archive names, we have a version 2 and a version 3 available. We are not sure if a version 1 was ever released, so the exact release date is uncertain. For the time being, we use the last modification date of the version 2 .unr file which, in the absence of a text file (only version 3 has one), is the only hint we can use.
alingar3.zip
Version: 3
alingar2.zip
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I would like to point out that The Ghost of Alin’Gar does, in fact, have a story, but you have to play v2 in order to enjoy it. For some reason, alingar3.unr comes without the translator events. Please correct the description accordingly.
The Ghost of Alin’Gar is a good level when you play the most complete version.
P.S.: in Illhaven Anthology 2012, Alingar is a Nali Priest and friend of Kew’s. Given the close ressemblance with the name Alin’Gar, we can assume that the author, Tim “Kew” Jervis, was making a nod to his earlier work.
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This is very interesting. Thanks for your correction. I have just tried version 2 and found the translator messages. Your comments are very useful and I will update the description accordingly.
Just a note that I did consider the level a good one despite playing only version 3. Kew’s genius came through even without translator messages. However it still bothers me that there seems to be no end goal, not that I could find at least. Nothing that would give me the sense that I have completed the map. I may be just overlooking something though and since I haven’t checked the map in the editor (it doesn’t work on my current operating system) I cannot be sure.
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You’re very welcome.
As for the end goal, you have two objectives: cleanse the dungeon of all enemies, and destroy the big statue found in a circular room with a domed ceiling (referred to as The Statue of the Black Monk). Killing all the enemies is straightforward, however there’s a subtlety regarding the way to destroy the statue: a player tends to automatically assume that weapons will do the job, but in fact you are required to jump on the plinth to touch the statue and thereby destroy it. This puzzle-like feature is not intuitive and the map is average in terms of difficulty because of that (I was stuck for a while because of that – whereas the fighting itself is easy). Once you’ve accomplished those two objectives, you have to return to the tower where the ghost of Alin’Gar’s son is, and you will see that he is now free; a doorway opens up and a last message thanks you for your help, before inviting you to take a portal that will take you on to new adventures… and thus you reach the map’s exit 🙂
Hope this helps!
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I found out how to destroy the statue by chance, although I probably missed the translator message about the Black Monk as I had no idea I was supposed to do that. I agree about the non-intuitive nature of the map. Reminds me of Illhaven WoT where the door leading to your exit can only be opened by an invisible trigger in a far away house, without any indication whatsoever that you activated it (by running on it by pure chance). Worse yet, the door is only open for a limited time. Strange solution to say the least. But even stranger is the fact that something still makes me like that map and I am sorry it was never continued. 🙂