I finally finished Unreal -- kind of long and meh, if you ask me -- and was wondering if I should even bother with the Return to Na Pali mission pack.

Also, I have been playing Rune lately and am totally digging it :) 

RTNP is not going to change your mind. 

If I remember right, the expansion was a bit poo?

There are some very high quality custom map packs/episodes out there that are probably better! 

but it is basically more of the same. 

do you have UT or Unreal only? If UT, I can suggest a couple of mapppacks. 

No UT :(

So, what mappacks/episodes are good for Unreal? 

but Tower of Shrakitha comes to mind as does Tim Jervis' Illhaven 

Here are my recommendations:

Attacked
The Elder
Hexephet
Illhaven Saga
The Landing
Liberation of Na Pali
One Day
Shamu Quest
Shinigami Level Pack 1
Spantobi: Unexpected Threat
Tarmation: The Tiradium Sublimation
Tarmation 2: A Rude Awakening
The Tower of Shrakith'a
Valley of Alshar

You can find all of the above (with reviews) at unrealsp.org. I'm not sure if you would like them or not as you've stated that you didn't enjoy the original much, but still... 

Is it possible to play these maps with Unreal Tournament ? Or do I need something "different" like Quake vs Quake 2 (note I am not really an Unreal expert :P) ? 

Should gave real post #3731 and "3732 before posting... though... :( 

I will still have a look, even if the original didn't thrill me. 

that one is awesome. 

Hexephet and One Day are both great packs too.

JPL, you can play most of these in UT with the Oldskool mod but some of them are Unreal only due to some coding issues (I think Liberation of Na Pali is one of those).

But if you have UT and want to try some good mappacks :

Operation Na Pali
7 Bullets
Xidia Gold
Ortican
Project Zephon
Project Xenome 

Thanks a lot for the information: I'll try this as soon as possible :D 

http://www.unrealsp.org

if you want reviews and download links. 

It's interesting to see the progression in these games:

Robot Wants Kitty is practically a proof of concept with its bare-bones artwork and a relatively small game world, but establishes the basic "metroidvania" game progression.
http://jayisgames.com/games/robot-wants-kitty/

Robot Wants Puppy makes the art a little better, adds bosses, more interesting enemies, and a really cool kitten-based combat system. The only weak part is the over-reliance on keys, i think -- the whole point of this genre is using abilities rather than locked doors to gate the player.
http://jayisgames.com/games/robot-wants-puppy/

Robot Wants Fishy really brings the polish; the world design is more interesting, the art is better, tbe bosses are better. Introduce health points (in this case a shield good for one hit) and upgradeable items.
http://jayisgames.com/games/robot-wants-puppy/

The last in the series, Robot Wants Ice Cream is on the verge of getting away from the roots a bit, but is still solid if you like the previous games. There's a crazy amount of pickups in this game since everything gets upgraded multiple times, and they probably should have been color coded, but it's still good. Now you have three hit points and can aquire energy tanks to power your special abilities. Progression requires more thought and exploration than before, but not in a bad way.
http://jayisgames.com/games/robot-wants-ice-cream/ 

is an awesome phrase 

Mixed feelings. By itself, it's not a bad game. Polished, bug-free, (mostly) nice graphics and some cool-looking areas. However, as a sequel to the Gothic series I'm afraid it is.

It was a obviously developed as a console game, and should work very well there (minus the reduced graphic detail maybe). As a PC game, it falls short on many levels - it ultimately ends up being a linear action game with watered-down RPG elements. Everything that was great or unique about its predecessors is neglected or left out, for example skill upgrades, alchemy and forging don't require trainers and workshops, friendly NPCs can't be attacked and the AI doesn't infight, you can steal everything and nobody cares, no sleeping, heavily simplified magic system etc. Exploration is hardly possible in the more or less confined 'levels' (seamless transition between the areas but blocked until the corresponding point in the main quest line). Needless to say, it's impossible to climb or jump up larger rocks and other structures. There are some semi-hidden chests here and there, and a few optional console-style "Find 30 hiddem items" quests, but that's it. At least it's possible to turn off the radar and quest markers.
Relatively low number of side quests, though this makes sense given the small scale of the areas.
Combat isn't very sophisticated and it's easy, even on hard difficulty (which I played on). Ok, to be fair, I used the Inferno spell a lot, especially in the samey dungeons later on.

The story is kind of silly. Felt somewhat random, not as epic as in the other games. They could have filled the holes a little better. One does meet all the main characters and all the monsters from the Gothic universe, but in the end, I think this game would have been better off as a standalone RPG. That way, the bar wouldn't have been so high and people probably less critical.

Bottom line, a good game (mainly for non-PC platforms), but a bad sequel. I did enjoy the ~22 hours (except for the two hours I wasted running around confused and clueless in the city before and during that asshole quest where one has to find stuff to destroy the magic barrier :P), but still I have to lower my inital SFP rating to ~2-2.5 / 5 

I agree with most of that negke.
Suprisingly the first area (around the tavern) felt the most interesting to explore, then as you go things seem to be more and more linear, and I had very little interest in exploring.
Also, what the hell is up with the teleporter stones that only work in pairs? That was stupid.

It almost feels like you could take the island, open it up completely, and make a new game out of it, that would be more faithful to the Gothic series.

Risen was more of a Gothic4 in my opinion really. 

http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/necronomicon_cards 

Not on the PC, but I play MW2, L4D 1/2, Bioshock 2, Nazi Zombies, Borderlands, &c on Xbox live when I have time. Gamertag is BetterThanUNIX.

Sorry for going off topic. 

http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=51058&start=151