Alien Defense - GrandmasterJ

 


    Alien Defense is a simple arena with infinitely spawning aliens. Players start out in a fort with some friendly soldiers and the aliens continuously run in.

SCMapDB page

Author: Wildcat

Date of final release: 2003

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Alien Defense

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | March 6, 2022 | 2485 characters

    Alien defense is really just an arena with infinitely respawning alien enemies. There are friendly human grunts here to help out, although they died a lot and did little more than be effective distractions.

    The map layout is simple, players spawn next to some shelves that hold some weapons and ammo. Around a corner is a small courtyard in which aliens are coming through. There is a wall here with an arch where the aliens are coming through. Up a ladder onto the wall allows access to a room with plenty of HEV and explosives. From here the map is on easy mode, stay on the wall and rain down explosive death on these poor aliens. I gibbed my NPC teammates a lot when they got in the way, I don't even feel bad about it.

    The enemy composition was alien controllers and shock troopers with pit drones. The alien controllers were not on friendly terms with the shock troopers and pit drones, making the map a three way fight. This was all right with me, I love chaotic action like this and the shock troopers kept walking all over the grunts. The alien controllers were barely bothering them.

    The arena design itself was ok I guess. I don't really like how the area with the good stuff is accessed via a ladder to the front wall. Why not leave that stuff in spawn? Why force players to walk through danger to get fully armed? The arena itself was a box with some rocks scattered around. The map was small so it didn't have much in it and what it did have was very simple.

    It's an ok arena. I think the friendlies balance out the strength of the shock troops. I don't think the aliens were supposed to fight like that but I prefer to think of it as a feature and not a bug. The plentiful explosive ammo and HEV chargers kept me well entertained with blowing the aliens to pieces. At the end of the day as long as these arena maps have good weapon selection you can find fun in it.

Pros:

  • Friendly human grunts helped balance the aggressive and strong enemies
  • plenty of guns and ammo
  • plenty of HEV

Cons:

  • the good stuff was kept away from spawn, why not just give it to players?
  • the aliens weren't on the same side, I rather like the chaos, but its definitely not intentional

Score: 5 / 10

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