Galleon - GrandmasterJ

 

    Galleon is a converted Counter-Strike map with enemies and some weapons scattered around. There are quite a few Counter-Strike map conversions but it is so nice to see one that's not meant for PVP.

SCMapDB page

Original mod authors: PhantomLord

Conversion authors: kmkz

Date of original mod release: 2001

Date of final Sven Map release: 2017

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Galleon

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | February 13, 2022 | 2947 characters

    This map is a conversion of a Counter-Strike map. Unlike other conversions of CS maps this one actually has enemies and is modified for cooperative play. There are around 100 enemies in the map and players must hunt them all down.

    The map is expansive with plenty to see. Some of the architecture looks bad, like the staircases. Some of the hallways are really narrow with lots of twists and turns. In a competitive map these features would add to the challenge but in Sven the map gets more annoying the more times players die and have to travel through it to get back to the action. Weapons are scattered about so players must also take certain paths just to arm up. The awp is on top of a lighthouse with a lot of stairs, spawning and getting one before heading back to the action takes forever. Despite my complaints I did enjoy the map aesthetic and the Galleon itself was very fun to explore and clear.

    The weapons are all Counter-Strike weapons, with script changes and all. Enjoy double zoom on an awp, burst fire on the famas, and no zoom on the mp5. Your character even yells 'fire in the hole' when tossing a grenade.

    Combat is tough, players get very little armor and there are tons of enemies. Snipers make the outdoor areas dangerous early on while robo grunts make the depths of the ship hazardous. Human grunts, assassins, and some barnies fill the spaces in between. There are messages in Spanish telling players when there are 90, 50, 20 and 10 enemies left, when there are 6 enemies left it will count each time an enemy dies. My teammate and I got to two enemies left when we got a message in Spanish and the map ended. Google translate tells me the message says 'the remaining enemies have surrendered', which is the best move those guys could have made.

    The map concept is simple, get a CS map and fill it with enemies. I think the execution is the best it could have been, search and destroy gameplay with a counter. The author even had the game end at two enemies remaining so we wouldn't have to search the whole map to hunt them down (it occurs to me now they may have been knocked off the galleon and into the water). It was a bit frustrating at one point since I kept dying to robogrunts and had to keep navigating annoying hallways to get back to the hold of the ship, but overall I had a blast just killing enemies.

Pros:

• Simple execution, search and destroy gameplay, lots of action
• fun Counter-Strike weapons
• really helpful progress notifications
• I'm really tickled that the game ends with the remaining enemies surrendering, you don't see that often

Cons:

• The armor is capped at 25 making deaths very common
• the scattered nature of weapon placement makes respawning a chore

Score: 8 / 10