Arctic Base - GrandmasterJ

 

    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 here though). My teammate and I spent some time wandering the base, very few of the doors are locked and there are no enemies in this first map so it was just exploration. There wasn't much to interact with either and most of the map lacked any great detail. There were some nice features though, there is a fighter jet in a hangar and some blocky but charming icicles. There is also a big room with machinery that looks like a generator room, the textures are all really flat so it doesn't come across as looking much like anything. There is one part where I think there was snow but the texture was flat white so it was hard to tell. Blocky architecture is fine but bad texturing is not.

    The second map starts off in the middle of zombies. I died before I could click out of the MotD, any map where I am getting hit, much less killed, before I can close the MotD will instantly piss me off. This whole map really sucks, after the spawn area filled with zombies there is a dark hallway with a fork that leads to a section where the floor breaks away and players fall into a spike pit. Respawning puts players in mid-air and forces them to take 11 points of fall damage every single time. The dark hallway lasts a bit too long and later there will be gonomes in here so don't relax when traveling through here after a respawn. At one point players jump down into a room with a body and a single uzi that takes forever to respawn. There are ladders to the entrance and exit of this room but the ladders are made out of lumpy, flat textured, rocky hand holds. Another dark hallway trip later and we fight a Big Momma with over 2000 health, I don't remember exactly how much health but the fight lasted long enough for there to be an absurd amount of baby headcrabs. The map ends right after this fight.

    The third and final map spawns players right in the midst of three gonomes on the first map's icy floor. Once again, I am dead before I can close the MotD. This map is the first map but filled with enemies and instead of players spawning next to the slippery floor they spawn on it now, so I guess there are technically two icy patches, whatever. Luckily the gonomes can't step over the lip to the ice patch so if you can jump out you will be fine. The level end is in the jet fighter hangar, the hangar door opened up and now there are friendly soldiers and scientists plus an Apache, walking to the helicopter ends the map. We didn't explore the whole map before we ended the game, there were definitely a lot of zombies scattered throughout but I don't know what else changed between the first map and the last map. The map description says you have to kill all the zombies before ending the level, after testing I can say that no, you do not.

    I am so thankful that map series was short because getting spawn killed two maps in a row really pissed me off. The level design was bland and pretty ugly with few really impressive features, the jet was the coolest thing in the map and even it had one texture for most of it and it came off looking flat. The combat was fine for the most part, its hard to go wrong with zombies. There were a lot of gonomes as well but players start with a shotgun with plenty of ammo in the second and third maps so they are manageable. This map is ok I guess but literally the best thing I can say about it is that it is short.

Pros:

• The map is exactly as long as it needs to be
• that jet was pretty cool even if the texture was terrible
• I'm thankful there were no slippery floor bits, its weird that the lack of a feature is a pro, but there it is

Cons:

• The map is blocky and the texturing is very flat and not in a charming retro Sven way
• the second and third map starts off with players taking enough damage to die within seconds
• the second map spawn area is high in the air so every time a player respawns they take damage
• the level design was uninspired, the second map was mostly dark hallways
• the third level is supposed to end after you kill all the enemies but you can end the map at any time

Score: 3.5 / 10