Zombietown - Dunkelschwamm

  

    Zombietown is a zombie survival map with a LOT of scripting done. Players can go to a shop and buy weapons, play one of three fun and unique minigames, or fight zombies in the town.

SCMapDB page

Author: Sence

Date of final release: 2016

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Zombietown

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | February 27, 2022 | 5181 characters

    Zombietown is an utterly charming zombie horde survival map which pits the players against nights full of zombies and days full of shopping and minigames. The crux of the map is in the points system: the Sven Co-op points, applied as Sven Co-op points normally are, are used in shopping for guns. If you die during normal zombie waves, you can also gamble points in a spooky booth, but if there's multiple people who died in the zombie wave you have to take turns using the spooky gambling booth. You use the points to shop for guns to kill the zombies to make more points to gamble the points to make more points to spend the points on more ammo to kill the zombies to make more points. Got it? It's a cleverly constructed, never-ending viscous cycle, like a clicker or and MMORPG. I think it works great as a self-perpetuating machine in that sense. But, as we all know, a perpetuating machine needs to be interesting.

    The meat and potatoes of this experience is the zombie waves. Zombie waves appear in different difficulties, and we managed to trigger a special wave full of giant spiders with difficult to decipher hitboxes by not going to the shop several times in a row. The difficulty of a zombie wave seems to mostly affect how many zombies spawn in. An easy zombie wave is incredibly manageable, whereas a hard wave necessitates that you constantly move. Zombies are naked, horrible running things. Your standard starting weapon for defense is the wrench, so get those alt fire wind-ups ready. Just about any firearm makes these zombies a joke, though, which is what makes shopping so valuable.

    The spice that shakes things up is the minigames. Minigames seem to happen every other round that you vote not to go to the shop at he beginning of the round. The first minigame is a really cool brawl on a platform with a big turret which destroys the earth. The second is a very fun randomized maze that feels like a bit of a waste of time because there's no way to earn points in it. The third is a really run brawl in a small chamber set to fun music and visuals, however it gets so crazy in the end that it's certain that players will die here. This is a bit of an issue if you end up in this minigame and have spent big bucks on some weaponry in the shop.

    This is an issue if you want to go to the shop as well, unfortunately. Every time we vote to go to the shop at the beginning of the round the map gibs us. Whenever you die you lose the weapons you bought in the shop. To get something as simple as a shotgun can take a couple rounds, a few if you want any good amount of ammo for it. We were never able to afford the higher end items, such as the minigun or rocket launcher, even after saving for several rounds. When I ran out of ammo for my shotgun I voted to go back to the shop and got gibbed for it, losing my shotgun and no longer having the funds to buy it back when all I went to the shop for was to buy ammo for that very gun. I didn't sign up to be Gift of the Magi'd by this zombie map. The shop itself, however, is really cool and it's incredible that it functions as well as it does.

    The way to play the map, given the issue with shops gibbing the player, is to play several rounds without the shop, then go to the shop, buy a bunch of guns, and then come back and spend all of their ammo and gain more points before ever going back to the store. If you play the map this way, you'll have a great time.

    The map also looked pretty decent. As day-night cycles often do in Goldsrc, the daytime bits of this map in the zombie survival part looked nearly fullbright in how flat their lighting was. But everything is nice and detailed and natural, and the minigames look top-notch. Even the maze minigame, which is intentionally simplistic, has a charm to it. It also really just needs to be stated that the scripting that went into this is just top notch.

    I really liked this map once I figured out how to play it. I think if you go into it with the right idea in mind you'll have a good time too. I think this would work even better with more people, but only around the 4-8 range before I think it would be too much. I think you could run a whole server just playing this map and people would eat it up.

Pros:

• Whole contained arcade system with points economy and shop and minigames
• Fighting the monsters in this was generally fun
• The minigames were all fantastic
• You could put this on a server and set it off and it would work forever.
• Shooting the zombies once you get the shotgun is the most cathartic thing
• Incredible scripting throughout

Cons:

• Dying taking your weapon would be fine if dying didn't happen often and without warning or reason
• Fighting the zombies does get kind of boring after a bit
• The second minigame gives no precious succulent points
• The third minigame kinda forces the players into a certain death situation, which is bad for reasons stated above
• Sometimes enemy hitboxes don't work great

Score: 8.7 / 10