Space Viking 1 - Dunkelschwamm

  

    The Space Viking is a space ship sailing through the stars and piloted by Mr. Friendly. Players must protect the ship from invaders and eventually track down the culprits to extract what was stolen.

SCMapDB page

Author: Salamander

Date of final release: 2001

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Space Viking 1

(originally posted on SCMapDB) 

by dunkelschwamm | December 12, 2021 | 4824 characters

    Space Viking is a classic Sven Co-op walkthrough map full of action, fun sci-fi environments, some very memorable set pieces, creative appropriation of base Half-Life resources, and an original story. Take on the role of guarding the Space Viking spaceship as it is attacked by alien pirates seeking the precious cargo.

    One thing that stands out about Space Viking to me is its resemblance to a series like Marathon or Halo, with the player beginning in a spaceship and then forcing back an alien invading force throughout the ship, culminating in chasing their attacking force back to their planet, all while aided by a holographic projection of the ship's navigator. This feeling of similarity to Marathon or Halo would ultimately follow Space Viking into its sequel Space Viking 2, but that's a story for another day. In the meantime, take this comparison as a positive rather than a negative- after all, I think out of all of the shooters of the 90's that got relentlessly ripped off, I feel like Marathon is a franchise that had a lot more fertile ground untapped by pop shooters of the time before Call of Duty greatly shifted trends away from the space marine opera altogether.

    The adventure takes players through the various sectors of the ship, which is not a massive space station- each sector of the ship feels compact enough to be believable as smaller freight ships, but also contains a lot of personality and a believable lived-in quality. As sectors of the ship open up it's easy to signpost each location and feel the progression. Much like in a Resident Evil map, much of the map is signposted by different areas of the ship becoming accessible from a two-floor central hub. As a result, every time you spawn, despite no new checkpoints necessarily opening up, you're always close enough to the action that you don't have to spent forever catching up to your party if you die.

    One of the biggest issues I have with the map has to do more with signposting some areas for progression- there's some spots where, say, a door which looks like a secured blastdoor -among many identical secured blastdoors- is actually destructible without any tell to let the player know. Thankfully the first time this kind of issue pops up there's not many alternative options available yet so players are likely to begin banging walls and doors with crowbars. A similar issue arises later in what is probably one of my favorite set pieces, where a cargo bay full of respawning aliens can only be defeated by opening the bay doors with a switch at the far end of the bay, which sucks all of the aliens (and players lol) into hyperspace. However, enemies spawn in at various points in the map but it's never clear if they will do so forever (usually they do not). Unfortunately, in the resulting chaos of the respawning enemies, and the uncertainty of their infinite respawning, it usually takes the battle getting a little stale before players realize they should probably probe into the room full of respawning danger and start pressing buttons- and, once they do so, if they're already discombobulated by the battle they were running through, will likely be more confused and not tell what transpired once the bay doors open and suck the player out. That said, though, it's quite a spectacle to other players.

    This map was made before Kingpins were implemented into Sven Co-op, so the primary antagonist of the map is a Kingpin modeled cinematic actor and later boss. Honestly, I found chasing the Kingpin and his cadre of alien guards around the Space Viking ship, and eventually back to his homeworld for a very creative battle, to be an excellently executed aspect of the map. Similarly, I have a lot of respect for the final boss, after the Kingpin, as it utilizes an enemy from Half-Life that I rarely see used with any kind of efficacy in Sven.

    In all, I highly recommend Space Viking. It's fast, looks great, plays great, and my only gripes are very minor. I played this twice in the past couple days and would play it again any time in the future. If you're looking for a good walkthrough map with clearly marked progression with a friend, I couldn't recommend Space Viking enough. Same goes for any rotation you are setting up for an action or sci-fi server.

Pros:

• Extremely creative environment and story
• Top notch environmental art
• Fun, frantic battles from area to the next
• Ever evolving scenery and challenges
• Some very impressive set pieces
• Doesn't overstay its welcome

Cons:

• Some points of progression aren't clearly conveyed and leave players scratching their heads

Score: 9.5 / 10