Afrika Korps - GrandmasterJ

 

    Journey to Northern Africa during World War II and challenge the German occupiers under Rommel. It's somewhat hard to tell this is a WWII themed map, probably due to the lack of swastikas everywhere.

SCMapDB page

Author: MysticMDT

Date of final release: 2003

Maps in package: 3

Map review of Afrika Korps

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | February 20, 2022 | 5293 characters

    Afrikakorps is a map I don't have fond memories of. Maybe it was my computer, but I remember the map being glitchy and lagging a ton. I was wrong, it was an overall nice experience.

    The map starts off going room to room clearing Nazis. There are weapon replacements and even a little scripting to turn the mp5 into a tommy gun. The Nazi enemy models and the guns really helped bring the map together, although I do think the generic HECU grunt chatter that the Nazis used was a little jarring. Really nicely detailed tanks dot the map and look very impressive.

    The map is very combat heavy and the objectives are picking up intel and destroying Nazi weaponry. Reading the MotD is really helpful, my teammate and I got confused at certain parts on how to progress and he read on the MotD that we are supposed to destroy MG42s. It can be hard to tell you are damaging them, we had to lay a lot of grenades around certain MG42s in order to make them blow up. If that wasn't outlined in the MotD (and also in the map description on this site) we would not have known to do that. When objectives are accomplished they are announced to everybody and at one point we were reminded to destroy a radar dish.

    There are three maps in this set. The first one started off strong and was pretty good throughout. The second one started real tough, enemy opposition was fierce and they eventually invaded our spawn. There were also snipers on a balcony directly over spawn, so we got shot in the back coming out. This area had something wonky going on where we couldn't snipe certain enemies. In spawn looking out there was a stream of guys coming around a corner, both my teammate and I were sniping and it was impossible to hit any of them. Later on in the map there is another section where I swear enemies just will not get shot. We've both landed many shots and no blood comes out and they act like nothing has happened. Maneuvering closer always helps, but I can't stand games where bullets disappear mid flight.

    The second map does eventually mellow out and I was having fun by the end. The third map is completely different from the first two, gameplay wise. While the first two are walkthrough maps the third is an assault map, there is a large cannon and players must destroy it. It is flanked by two bunkers filled to the brim with snipers. Enemies spawn in infinitely and aggressively, sometimes hopping over barbed wire to rush players. The best strategy to beating this scenario is to have one player provide covering fire with a sniper rifle to keep the snipers to a minimum. The other player runs up, grabs the rocket launcher near the enemy bunkers, and uses that plus some nearby satchel charges to whittle it down. It took a very long time but eventually it blew up and we won.

    These maps are fairly hard. When I think of a Sven map set this is more in line with what I expect, a hard as nails combat heavy experience with a unique look. Despite dying a ton there were updating spawn points complete with weapon and ammo supplies. There was no HEV but there were NPC medics sprinkled around that did prove somewhat helpful. These medics would constantly stop in doorways and block player movement, it was very annoying. The combat was difficult and I died a lot, but it rarely wore on my nerves. It didn't take long to come back to the front lines and picking up gobs of weapons and ammo was effortless. The only time it felt annoying was on the second map when I was getting spawn killed.

    One strange thing I noted in the map series is that the rocket launcher frequently did not respawn after being picked up. I picked it up every time I saw it, but then died before I could use it, and it never came back. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth that a moment of mishandling my own life locked both of us out of the rocket launcher. I don't understand why that was a necessary detail.

    All in all, I had fun with this map set. The World War 2 setting could have been sold better with some custom voice lines, or maybe even no voices at all, but everything else came together really well to sell the setting. The combat was entertaining, the objectives were clear (when we read the MotD), and I had a lot of fun. It's also worth noting that if you have the Bonus Mission then the map set will transition to it. I haven't played it yet, since it is a separate map entry I will review it separately.

Pros:

• Fun custom models
• great looking tanks
• fun straightforward combat, hard like Sven should be
• mostly clear objectives, objectives announced as they are completed, at least one objective reminder
• updating spawn points
• plenty of ammo at each spawn point alongside a good variety of guns

Cons:

• The second map has some spawn point invading by hostile NPCs
• The NPC medics, while nice to have, got in the way a lot
• The Nazis had American voice chatter, this is real nitpicky but it would have been nice if they didn't
• the one use rocket launcher didn't feel good
• Sometimes enemies in certain areas won't take damage. I don't know what is going on there

Score: 8 / 10