Zombie Nights - GrandmasterJ

 

    Zombie Nights is a very ambitious project. It's a large open area with some buildings scattered around, a janky day and night system, supply drops supplied via parachute, an inventory system, and a never ending zombie swarm. The objective is to last three consecutive days.

SCMapDB page

Author: The-Middleman

Date of final release: 2014

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Zombie Nights

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | January 29, 2022 | 6639 characters

    This map looked really interesting to me. It's an open world full of zombie that players have to survive in and it has pvp. This is a pretty unique thing to attempt in Sven Co-op. I kind of don't know how to start this review, there are so many things to talk about.

    Right off the bat the map description page has a bunch of stuff about the map being abandoned, unfinished, and generally not in a state where it is actually playable. I would agree with that assessment. In fact, I think the three day limit might be a replacement for an unfinished quest in the basement below the factory, which I will get to later.

    When I first landed in the map I thought the map was fullbright. The description says there is a day night cycle but it is implemented in a weird jarring fashion. Day looks weird, its not quite fullbright but it gets close. The lighting changes abruptly and immediately as time goes on. I think its a nice feature, but it is not smooth. Plus, the sky turns black and the skybox won't show up a lot of the times. Its really bad.

    The brushwork and architecture reminds me of the good old days of Sven. The brushwork is simple and blocky, yet manages to express itself clearly to the player. The landscape is pretty well done. There is a mountain in the middle of the map with a pass in the middle.

    The map description also says weapons and supplies will randomly drop in, this happens quite literally with a crate attached to a parachute slowly descending into the level. This is both really cool and my main problem with the map. Since supplies are randomly dropped, they become very scarce. When my teammate and I were attempting this map seriously we always had a problem of just never having guns. As time goes on and more zombies appear it becomes harder to get guns. The early game had us exploring the map, the mid game had us building up an arsenal very slowly only to die from a random sickness event, which I will get to later, and lose it all. We cheated to the end game. While we noclipped around exploring the huge underground section of the map, the weapons and supplies built up on the surface. If you are playing this map seriously I recommend you spend some time idling so that you too can have a build up of weapons and supplies.

    There are some things things that require mechanical tools and some that require electrical tools. These tools are given in the random drops and if you die the tools go away forever. I found that medical supplies were usually scarce, whenever I was sick or injured I would never see any medicine. I did manage to pick some up when I had 90 health once. The game has an inventory, hunger and thirst, and sickness system in place. The inventory is a good way to get yourself killed and it barely works. Sickness is bullshit and can be given to the player at completely random times (this accounts for two of my deaths) and will be given to players you swim in the water, instantly. This instant sickness from water will happen a lot. Players take damage from not drinking enough and the best way to get water is to swim. So you replenish your water and then also get sick.

    The enemies are mostly zombies, but at certain times other ones would show up. An alien grunt appeared and killed my teammate with bees. He claims to have seen a vortigaunt but he killed it before I could take a look. The zombies are mostly slow with some that can run as fast as the player being peppered in as well. The zombies can be avoided for the most part but once you get a sizable horde following you something will need to be done. There is a ladder inside the factory that will get you safely away from them. I find the best way down is tto jump off the roof and try to land on a zombie. You will take fall damage but you can also goomba stomp a zombie to death, and that is wild fun.

    Speaking of the factory and enemies, there is a huge underground complex. So far the map seems experimental but exploring the tunnels made the map feel blatantly unfinished. There are pit drones, zombies, gonomes, bullsquids, and shock troopers down here. Supplies only rain from the sky so do not expect any help down here. Both mechanical and electrical tools are required so if you die you have to get the tools back in addition to building up your arsenal. The area is a huge dark maze, I still don't quite know what the layout is. Even noclipping through was a pain because everything was so dark it blended into the void. Players eventually get to a door that requires a code punched into a numberpad that requires electrical tools after turning the generator on once you fix it with mechanical tools. I never found the generator room naturally, my teammate found it and I wandered lost in the dark tunnels before noclipping over to it.

    Once players get to the end of this dark mazey nightmare they are treated to a human grunt spouting some STALKER lines next to a sign that says "missing feature". This whole sequence feels like the true goal of the map. Stick some lights in there, some health and maybe HEV, ammo, and this could be a decent standalone Sven map.

    One last thing to note is that when the map description says 'survive for three nights' it actually means stay alive for three consecutive nights. I assumed it would have forced survival mode or something but instead the map simply won't end until at least one player lives through three consecutive nights. At the end of every night a message will pop up stating each player's nights survived. Once a player survives three nights the map just ends.

    This map tried to do something very ambitious. It's been abandoned so we'll never get to see what it would have ended up as, but the result we got has merit in its own right. I'm never playing this map again, but I bet a lot of people would enjoy it.

Pros:

• The overworld was well designed and looked good
• The map idea is very ambitious and meets its goals for the most part.

Cons:

• The day night cycle made the lighting weird and the sky was broken.
• the weapon and supply system left two players underquipped, it would be worse with more players
• the unfinished underground area was nightmarishly dark and mazy
• The unfinished underground area was a nightmare to pacify with our woeful arsenals
• the inventory system gets players killed and is not very useful
• water makes the player sick instantly. random sicknesses. lack of medicine.

Score: 4 / 10