Geothermal - GrandmasterJ

 


    Geothermal is a short mod converted to run in Sven Co-op. The goal is to remove a power core from a geothermal plant, I don't know what kind of geothermal power generator requires a core but here we are.

SCMapDB page

Original mod authors: ChickenFist

Conversion authors: Outerbeast

Date of original mod release: 2016

Date of final Sven Map release: 2021

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Geothermal

(originally posted on SCMapDB) 

by GrandmasterJ | January 8, 2022 | 3832 characters

    This is a fun little map where your objective is to remove a power core from a geothermal power plant. I don't understand what possible core a geothermal power plant can have, are we stealing the soul of a volcano here?

    The basic gameplay of this map is exploring a mostly empty underground laboratory setting looking for the next objective. It's a scavenger hunt for buttons to open doors or turn off obstacles. Players start with only a medkit and eventually find a crowbar, pistol, magnum, and shotgun. Ammo is fairly scarce and scattered through the map, but it is mostly pistol ammo, I don't think I saw anything for the magnum or shotgun. This gives off nostalgic feelings of maps I used to play over a decade ago, it would have probably been better if it was filled with players exploring every nook and cranny, but with just two people it felt a little empty and took a little longer to complete than it should have.

    Enemies will start spawning in after certain objectives are completed. Zombies and vortigaunts are common and then human grunts show up after the power core itself is taken. There are areas where bullsquids show up and a large room where alien controllers will appear.

    While the gameplay is mostly exploration and button pushing, there is one hallway with some platforming, it's a sewer with crates floating in the water, the water is poisonous so players have to jump from crate to crate. I am not very good at first person platforming so it took me many attempts to pass through.

    One problem I had with the map is that it seemed like it would be a map laden with shortcuts, there are a lot of locked doors but only a handful of them unlocked later, and I only remember two of them being a shortcut to spawn. Since the map is pretty large and requires lots of exploration, dying sets the player back a great distance away from where they want to be. In the case of the poisonous water platforming I had to walk back to that area multiple times, gathering ammunition on the way. It took a lot of time to get back to where I wanted to be.

    The last section is accessible via an elevator. Players must jump from a vent onto an elevator and press a button on top to get it to work. There is a ladder directly under the vent that will catch players before they make their jump, and when players try to jump the ladder shoots them off into the side of the elevator and to their doom. This happened to both myself and my teammate the first contact with it. After getting on top of the elevator and turning it back on a pair of elevator doors near spawn unlocks. There is quite the gap between the elevator and the wall so stepping from the door into the elevator requires a jump across the gap. I had to jump off the top of the elevator and hope I made it into the door. The elevator is not made well.

    The level design ranged from ok to not ok. There were a lot of cables that used transparency that didn't look quite right, there were a lot of long boring hallways, and the rock texture was used copiously making some rooms noisy and details hard to distinguish.

    Overall, I had fun with the map. It was fun to explore although I feel like with more people it would have been better. No parts felt unfair or too hard, the most difficulty with the map was platforming and finding our way back to where we were.

Pros:

  • Good exploration map, lots to see
  • classic map feel

Cons:

  • Lack of shortcuts and sprawling design means lots of travel time after a death
  • lack of ammunition for revolver and shotgun make those weapons almost useless
  • I did not enjoy the elevator design

Score: 7 / 10

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