It Has Leaks - Dunkelschwamm

  


    Released officially in the Sven Co-op 4 release, this map claims to have leaks. The name is a non-sequitur, as the main point of the map is to retrieve the scroll of wisdom.

SCMapDB page

Author: Skacky

Date of final release: 2011

Maps in package: 1

Map review of It Has Leaks

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | January 15, 2022 | 3300 characters

    It Has Leaks was an old favorite of mine back in the Sven Co-op 4.0 days. Of course, those days are long ago, and we've come a long way. Does It Has Leaks hold up?

    The first thing you'll notice about IHL is its striking style. It has a decidedly Quake/Hexen 2 feel to it, and takes place entirely in dingy Eldritch libraries. Everything from the red skybox to the lighting is fantastic throughout the map, and the visuals hold up even after all these years.

    The enemies you'll be fighting throughout are alien controllers, pit drones, voltigores, and a baby gargantua. Along the way there's also some piranhas as well. All of the combat is done with MP5 and Shotgun, and then eventually the Uzis. Combat is a bit tedious at times, in part due to how Sven 5.0 ruined the alien controllers by giving them that horrible seeker attack, and in part due to the high amounts of health put on each enemy, necessitating dumping tons of ammo into them over and over again. By the end I winced at the sight of a new alien controller and groaned at the sight of a pit drone.

    The level geometry is pretty to look at, but not always totally functional. There were also a few times where I'd get turned around because the Quake-style textures tend to make everything look a bit samey at times. Some jumps throughout the map require play boosting to a degree that made us question if we were playing the map the intentional way. Hallways are often narrow in a way that forces players to get cornered by pit drones. Buttons don't signpost at all what door they open, making part of the map scouring the rest for to find out which door opened. There's maybe a bit too much time spent in this map doing nothing but scratching our heads. Progress and pacing, as a result of both this and the fatty enemies, made the pacing something of a grind throughout.

    The map does help the players significantly by giving them a shortcut early on which pretty reliably puts them near the center of action for the rest of the map.

    Overall, I think this map is dripping with style. It's a functional level and it's a bit fun figuring parts of it out with a friend, but it's overall kind of a chewy level with gristly bits that get stuck in your teeth. I think it'd work better with a lot more people to help break up the fat.

    That said, given how this map was a Sven 4.0 staple, I'm sure many of you already know whether or not you enjoy it. If you're looking for a map to play with a handful of friends, give this a try. If you're looking for a map to throw into your rotation for a server list with some classics and some fun action maps, throw this in there too.

Pros:

  • Looks great from beginning to end
  • Some very fun lighting
  • Opening shortcuts
  • Good length for a map
  • Unique collectables make fulfilling objectives fun

Cons:

  • Somewhat tedious combat, especially with fewer players and especially with newer Sven enemy behaviors
  • Some unclear platforming puzzles whose solutions felt like we were gaming the system
  • Got lost a couple times looking for where to proceed
  • Kinda lame weapon loadout

Score: 6.5 / 10

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deluge - Dunkelschwamm

Image
       Deluge is a very atmospheric map made by one of the community's most acclaimed mappers, RNG. This map is very indicative of his style, well detailed moody and oppressive environment, strange monsters, and high levels of interactivity including lots of secrets. SCMapDB page Author: RNG Date of final release: 2014 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Deluge (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 9, 2022 | 4625 characters      Deluge is a map by RNG, which you can assume means it is a quality map. RNG brings style, high-production, and a confusing sense of eldritch nonsense that glues the experience together in a way that makes it feel like something that was summoned from another plane of existence rather than mapped out.      The map is a classic arcade-style keyhunt level. After choosing a difficulty (I suggest going as hard as possible, as with two players it felt easy) you hop into a gritty world that feels like brutalist, industrial architecture made its way
Read more

Zombie Squad - Dunkelschwamm

Image
       Suit up squad, it's time to go fight human grunts that this map calls zombies. This map is a horde map taking place in a burned out urban block, supposedly there are points to capture but I didn't see any. SCMapDB page Author: cyberdaemon Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Zombie Squad (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 17, 2023 | 2601 characters      Zombie Squad is a well detailed horde map wherein grunts and hwgrunts (and, like, an assassin) swarm the players from every angle. Thankfully, within the details of the ruins are plenty of weapons, and a reasonable smattering of HEV and health pickups.      The description makes it sound like maybe my experience with the map is broken. There were, like, 3 soldiers which looked like zombies in the map. I think far more were meant to be zombies? Also, the MOTD makes it sound like there's some funny control point business, like there's an objective to the map. Far as I can tell a
Read more

What is this place and why should I care?

Image
Welcome friends, to Sven Co-op map reviews.     My name is GrandmasterJ and my colleague and other reviewer who is not writing this post is Dunkelschwamm.  This blog exists purely because we have zero faith that Wikidot will exist much longer and want a place to host our reviews. All maps are hosted over at the Sven Co-op Map Database, which you should already know about. It is pretty much the only place dedicated solely to hosting the maps for this wonderful mod. All our reviews are written there first and copied over to here for preservation.     If you don't know what Sven Co-op is and/or haven't been to the database take a moment to familiarize yourself. You can download Sven Co-op via Steam right here by clicking this text . You can visit the map database by clicking on this text . But if you are already familiar with those two things and are looking to avoid garbage maps in favor of the best then you have come to the right place.      Dunkel and I have a combined 400 year
Read more