Sven Co-op Map Reviews

       Welcome to the surreal pool. This map has some trippy dimensions and overall weird construction, giving the map a surreal and liminal feel to it.  SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2001 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Poolarea (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 30, 2022 | 3725 characters      Poolarea is a very interesting map by notorious mapper robootto. The map features a large pool area liberally seasoned with aliens, grunts, assassins, and a gargantua. The fun doesn't stop there, as secrets unveil more battles in side areas and more weapons to take the map with.      I guess Poolarea is meant as a hangout map where the secrets and objectives of taking out the enemies are tertiary to the main RP-style hangout spot Gldsrc tourism aspect. I get that. As a matter of fact, I'd say it's one of robootto's more successful accomplishments in that realm. The diving boards are all there, all reachable, and I think it's a nice

      Welcome to the surreal pool. This map has some trippy dimensions and overall weird construction, giving the map a surreal and liminal feel to it.  SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2001 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Poolarea (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 30, 2022 | 5513 characters      At this point in my map reviewing career I've played a lot of maps. I'm still not even 15% of the way done yet. But I have played a LOT of maps by this mapper, Robootto. I've come to expect a certain caliber of map from him. Maybe its the fact that I've just played two maps in a row that weren't actively malicious to the player, but this map is different than what he usually creates.      The map starts off in a strange room with a weird line in the wall, some weird tile blocks on either side of a steep staircase, and a bunch of ammo for weapons we don't have. There is a door here that is breakable and part of the wall with the we

       Pink is a brightly colored and garish map with a short platforming section and then a boss fight around a big cup of water. It's very short and has no ending, there is an inaccessible hallway in the last room that does nothing. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Pink (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 30, 2022 | 3159 characters      Pink is a map by robootto which uses xeno.wad to make an experience comparable to being gummed by a toothless giant with halitosis.      The players begin in a platforming segment over nonlethal pizzalava. The pizzalava is not lethal, thankfully, but it is shameful to fall in. Almost the entire platforming segment can be bypassed by just falling into the pizzalava and walking to the penultimate platform, jumping onto that, and then jumping onto the platform which leads to the exit.      What follows is the hallway of breakable transparent brushes and headcrabs. From there

      Pink is a brightly colored and garish map with a short platforming section and then a boss fight around a big cup of water. It's very short and has no ending, there is an inaccessible hallway in the last room that does nothing. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Pink (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 30, 2022 | 2257 characters      Pink is a gross looking map that uses a lot of the uncommonly used alien textures. The map looks pretty gross. It starts off with a pretty bad platforming section, there are grenades here you definitely want and some shotgun shells on other platforms, the water here doesn't hurt at all so swimming is harmless. Thankfully the whole section is skippable, I swam to the end of the sequence, climbed onto the last platform and jumped to the end.      After the platforming players go through a hallway, over a shotgun, past three zombies, down a short slip-n-slide, down a long d

       The map with the unpronounceable name is about a rocket ship. It kind of goes up but not all the way and it is very slow. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Tuukkekovajatka (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 30, 2022 | 1389 characters      Tuukkekovajatka is a robootto map and boy howdy is it a robootto map.      Alright, here's the gist of it: you start on a raft(?) floating in nonlethal lava(?) which you swim in to a ladder(?) which you climb up into a room(?) which houses a rocket(?) which you can fly up to another blue room(?) or if you prefer jump off early to get to the pink platform. As the map description says, the rocket unfortunately does not fly high enough to get into the flower room.      This entire map is very blocky, the lava room where the player starts makes no sense, the rocket is pretty ugly looking but hats off to robootto for making an evocative enough concave elevator rocket bru

      The map with the unpronounceable name is about a rocket ship. It kind of goes up but not all the way and it is very slow. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Tuukkekovajatka (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 30, 2022 | 1980 characters      I didn't know what to expect from the map with the unpronounceable name. What I got was a weird spawn point in some water that looks like hot lava but is totally safe and harmless. There is a glass partition in the middle of the room and a platform on the other side, swimming under the water can take you to the platform but you can not jump on top of it, the whole area is useless. Instead climb up the ladder.      Up the ladder is a flat white room with a very basic looking rocket. There is a room in the bottom of the rocket but there are no controls. Up a misaligned and non transparent ladder players can access a room in the top of the rocket, the button to go up is

       Arctic Escape is Arctic in that the hallway players are in is snow themed, and the escape bit comes from the end level trigger being in a helicopter. There is little opposition on the way to the end. SCMapDB page Author: Rodhy Date of final release: 2021 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Arctic Escape (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 30, 2022 | 3172 characters      Arctic Escape is a map by Rodhy (and he won't let you forget it) which has a very old-school vibe to it. It's a linear action map, where the player moves setpiece to setpiece along a road. That may sound a bit dull, but when you combine it with heavy equipment and ammo it can be pretty fun. Unfortunately, the enemies barely escalate to a degree that they match the players' readiness, making the map a flash of action which burns out very quickly.      As mentioned, the players are given tons of weapons and ammo right away with very generous respawn rates on the items given. I love this,

      Arctic Escape is Arctic in that the hallway players are in is snow themed, and the escape bit comes from the end level trigger being in a helicopter. There is little opposition on the way to the end. SCMapDB page Author: Rodhy Date of final release: 2021 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Arctic Escape (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 30, 2022 | 3260 characters      Arctic Escape is a short and easy map where players take a leisurely stroll down an arctic hallway to a helicopter. It's a pretty rough and blocky looking map. Chain link fences and ladder textures don't have transparency applied so both objects have unnatural black spots where one would usually be able to see right through.      When we started the map we immediately picked up some weapons and ammo off the ground. To our complete surprise the stuff popped back into existence instantly. There was a great deal of loot at the start, HEV batteries, 9mm, magnum ammo, inside three crates was a cro

       This map's claim to fame is the large crushing machine the map is named after. The crusher works really really well and that is all that matters in a map about crushing. SCMapDB page Author: Unkown Date of final release: 2000 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Crusher (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 30, 2022 | 3391 characters      Crusher is a map by author unknown. It's exactly what's printed on the tin: there's a great big ol' crusher, and you smoosh scientists in it. It's great. You mash a button and two big jagged jaws of rusty metal moosh their meaty bods together, gets stuck and jitters a bit as they make crushing meat sounds, then clamp as they join. They retract and a pile of gibs remain- until the next batch of scientists appear.      If that was the entire map, that would be the entire map. But no, Crusher has some baffling side areas featuring friendly NPCs. One is an area accessible only by climbing down a ladder, wherein B

      This map's claim to fame is the large crushing machine the map is named after. The crusher works really really well and that is all that matters in a map about crushing. SCMapDB page Author: Unkown Date of final release: 2000 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Crusher (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 30, 2022 | 2252 characters      Crusher is an old school map from the early days of Sven Co-op. The main attraction is a large crushing machine with five scientists that spawn endlessly right in the machine's jaws. The button to activate the crusher is a massive cube, it was not apparent that it was a button at first, but I think the giant button was fitting. If you stand on the button and press it you can jump into the machine just in time!      There is a hallway that goes around behind the machine with another button for the crusher and two spawners that makes about fives scientists and five Barneys each. We led all the Barneys into the machine and mulche

       I'm always happy to see a map take place other than Black Mesa, arctic areas and the middle east seem like popular thematic alternative. This arctic map is a simple and quick walkthrough map series in three parts. SCMapDB page Author: Hunter Alpha Date of final release: 2003 Maps in package: 3 Map review of Arctic Base (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 29, 2022 | 3856 characters      Arctic Base is an interesting 3-map set which explores an arctic base, an arctic cave, and the first map again but with a couple enemies and an ending. You spend this map using shotgun shells to put down zombies and gonomes, in what is briefly touted as a mystery in the MOTD. I think that's a bit of a misnomer- there's not much mystery, as much as an open-style map where players can gain some atmosphere by looking at silly arctic base stuff before getting into the linear zombie shooting. There's no shame in that, but don't be fooled into thinking this'll b

      I'm always happy to see a map take place other than Black Mesa, arctic areas and the middle east seem like popular thematic alternative. This arctic map is a simple and quick walkthrough map series in three parts. SCMapDB page Author: Hunter Alpha Date of final release: 2003 Maps in package: 3 Map review of Arctic Base (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 28, 2022 | 4835 characters      There are a few 'arctic' themed maps on the database, and this one is one of the earliest. It definitely feels like an early Sven Co-op map, a lot of simple and blocky level design. There are three maps in this series but they fly by real fast, there really isn't all that much going on here.      The first map starts off with us in a big room and a patch of slippery ice. At first I was wary of the ice because I thought this map was going to lean heavily on slippery floor gimmicks. I was wrong, that is the only slippery patch of ice in these maps (we do come back her

           Piha is a façade of what appears to be an apartment building, the map description claims this to be the author, Robootto's, house. There isn't much interactivity or stuff to do in this map. SCMapDP page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Piha (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 28, 2022 | 2627 characters      Piha is a map by Robootto, crafter of extreme woes and enigmas, but contains neither woe nor enigmas— a fact which left me uneasy through my experience. Instead, Piha is a fairly passable façade of a home, facing some bushes, and with a brutalist blocky backend with ladders to climb all over it. There's not a lot of interactivity to comment on, so instead I'll judge it by its presentation.      Piha reminds me in some ways of the castle in Mario 64, by displaying a magnificent façade in front which develops atmosphere, but leaving everything around it simple or plain. I think of this kind of de

           Piha is a façade of what appears to be an apartment building, the map description claims this to be the author, Robootto's, house. There isn't much interactivity or stuff to do in this map. SCMapDP page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Piha (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 26, 2022 | 1554 characters      This map is mostly a façade of an apartment building. It's got a nice open lot, presumably for parking, in front of about 8 units, four on the first floor and four on the second floor. Ther eis only one part you can really enter, the cluster of units on the left has a staircase up to the two units upstairs, only the one on the right exists and is a simple affair consisting of a room with an American flag and a balcony.      There are some ladders providing access to the roof from the back of the apartment building, but I can see no way to get over there without cheating. I noclipped through the whol

       This is something like a recreation of the first level of Duke Nukem 3d. Most of the map does its own thing but for the most part it kind of feels like Duke Nukem. SCMapDB page Author: DukeN Date of final release: 2014 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Dukemap (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 28, 2022 | 4713 characters      "I'm waiting for the reviews to improve my maps" -DukeN in the Additional Info section of dukemap2. 8 years late, but this one's for you, DukeN.      Dukemap2 (listed on scmapdb as Dukemap) is the sequel to an as-of-yet unreleased (possibly cancelled) prequel map. I suppose that will explain the strange circumstances surrounding the spawn area of this map.      The map begins with players in a UFO where they charge their HEV (if you're gonna let em do it at spawn in a cramped spawn area, why not just start them with full HEV?) and a teleporter which drops them out of the UFO and onto a conspicuous reservoir atop a tow

      This is something like a recreation of the first level of Duke Nukem 3d. Most of the map does its own thing but for the most part it kind of feels like Duke Nukem. SCMapDB page Author: DukeN Date of final release: 2014 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Dukemap (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 27, 2022 | 5930 characters      I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Dukemap, made by DukeN, is inspired by Duke Nukem 3D. Duke jumps down from a ship in the first level of Duke 3D and players jump down from a flying saucer in this map. The gameplay diverges pretty differently here, it's not a remake but just feels inspired by Duke Nukem.      Players spawn in a space ship with these green bars rising out of the floor, these are HEV chargers. I didn't realize this until my teammate started sucking up that sweet armor. There is a door at the bottom of the ship that opens when two players press two buttons simultaneously. Once its open players fall t

       According to the map description, KTIVT stands for Krasnoyarsk Technical-College Of Information And Computer-Engineering which this map is recreating. The map description also says you are supposed to save scientists but good luck with that. SCMapDB page Author: RastaManGames Date of final release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of KTIVT (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 27, 2022 | 3980 characters      KTIVT is a charming little recreation of a real life location in Siberia, a college university I understand. Over here in the United States, such a thing would be pretty taboo, especially with recent events, but it doesn't take a deep dive into this map to know that there is no malice in its intent. I don't know RastaManGames, but I get the impression that he is pure of heart.      The map itself, as a replica, can't really be judged by myself as I have never been to the real location. However, comparing it to universities I have visited in the

      According to the map description, KTIVT stands for  Krasnoyarsk Technical-College Of Information And Computer-Engineering which this map is recreating. The map description also says you are supposed to save scientists but good luck with that. SCMapDB page Author: RastaManGames Date of final release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of KTIVT (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 27, 2022 | 3890 characters      This is a recreation of a college in Russia, presumably the mapper's alma mater. I have just got to say, the map description is a joy to read. Everything about this map is endearing from the map page, the author's comments, and the very simple and inelegant map design.      The map does look blocky and rough. Door textures are sometimes backwards and none of the doors are actually doors, they are all breakables. Everything has really thick edges and makes all the details, especially the chairs, look like they are made out of thick plastic, like all t

      Listed alphabetically, the list of maps tend to form clumps. Garg is first in line in the clump of Gargantua themed maps and is pretty indicative of what these maps tend to play like. SCMapDB page Author: ShotGunKiller Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Garg (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 15, 2022 | 2300 characters      Garg is a map which I think really embodies a lot of the attitude of Goldsrc and Source mappers: it's a simple idea executed in a strange and interesting way with a bunch of side-content for those who are looking for a little more.      The conceit is simple: In a small patch of land surrounded by sheer cliff faces, a small outpost is harassed by a Gargantua! With some minor exploration, the players can easily become equipped to kill it. After the garg dies, it respawns to be killed again using the cleverly acquired arsenal all around the map. After killing the garg 3 times we presumed the gargs to be respawning

      Listed alphabetically, the list of maps tend to form clumps. Garg is first in line in the clump of Gargantua themed maps and is pretty indicative of what these maps tend to play like. SCMapDB page Author: ShotGunKiller Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Garg (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 15, 2022 | 2364 characters      The map description is very apt for this map, it is an arena with infinitely respawning gargantuas and an arena with some exploration bits. Players start on a cliff overlooking the garg and the arena, I immediately saw a rocket launcher on top of a building, when I ran across the bridge to get it the bridge broke and I fell in with the garg. You have to jump up the crates in front of the building to access the rocket launcher, there is a vent around the side of the building that allows access to the inside and some goodies. There are some other sections with enemies, like the long hallway on the other side of the rea

       This map's long winded and confusing name is brought to you by Counter-Strike: Nexon, a spin-off of Counter-Strike that focuses on players vs. zombies. Weapons, enemies, and level design are all taken from Nexon and combines into something not quite PVP. SCMapDB page Author: Nexon Date of final release: 2017 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Metal Gate Deathmatch DM Map-2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 14, 2022 | 2428 characters      Metal Gate Deathmatch is a couple deathmatch maps from the Nexon series. They come here with some scripted weapons, nifty new zombie enemies called "minions", a mysterious crystal by the name of "Get Score!!!", and an aesthetic that combines the sci-fi brutalist whimsy of Halo and the techno spacepunk of Unreal Tournament '99. Like most Nexon maps, they look great and come with some spectacular new toys, yet play mostly like watching paint dry unless you have a chaotic blend of players creating the e

      This map's long winded and confusing name is brought to you by Counter-Strike: Nexon, a spin-off of Counter-Strike that focuses on players vs. zombies. Weapons, enemies, and level design are all taken from Nexon and combines into something not quite PVP. SCMapDB page Author: Nexon Date of final release: 2017 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Metal Gate Deathmatch DM Map-2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 14, 2022 | 1977 characters      This is a map ported over from Counter-Strike: Nexon, a zombie/pvp game with a wide variety of weapons and player models. This particular map is set up like a MOBA, players spawn in two separate spawn zones (but the map is set to deathmatch so players in the same spawn can kill you) and run down corridors to get to a central arena. In this map there is a large green crystal monster with one million health named Get Score! We spent forever killing it and nothing happened. In the corridors there are some infinitely respawning z

       Zombie Pit is one of those maps where the name really says it all. Maybe the name left out the lava and the fact that there is a teleporter out of the pit but that's about all that the name leaves out. SCMapDB page Author: Keen Date of final release: 2000 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Zombie Pit (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 14, 2022 | 1001 characters      Zombie Pit is an early map out of Keen, and it shows. As is the soft, early prodding of what a playable map can look like. Some beveled brushes loosely imitating naturalistic rock formations suspend freshly spawned players over a fractured earthen arena half-sunk in deadly, glowing, one-hit-kill pasta (or lava, idk). In the lower area the player will find headcrabs, zombies, and a teleporter back up. After moments of play, the zombies and headcrabs fall into the pasta/lava and the action grinds to a halt.      This is a clear example of an early jab at mapping. There's no real good reason to