Juren - GrandmasterJ

 

    This map is based off the very popular anime Attack on Titan. The Chinese name for the anime is Jinji de Juren, which is where the name of the map comes from.

SCMapDB page

Author: Dr.Abc

Date of final release: 2014

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Juren

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | July 10, 2022 | 3203 characters

    This map is a great attempt at making Attack on Titan into a Sven Co-op experience, but unfortunately I just don't think this is the engine for killing titans like they do in the anime, chiefly rappelling around like spiderman with big swords slicing them up. Players are given the barnacles to do this but the hitbox just never seems to land for me. I think I have gotten a headshot or two with the barnacle and that will insta-gib the titans but really the whole mechanic is finicky at best, it never looks like the barnacle tongue hits them and it often goes right through a massive head and drags me through the titan to the wall behind it. I do have to give the map props for the custom models that absolutely pull off the Attack on Titan vibe.

    The level itself looks decent enough. The city is mapped fairly well, I like the architecture and I like flying from rooftop to rooftop. The textures get a little bland and all the buildings are textured the exact same. Plus I noticed a section of town that was the same color as the massive grey walls surrounding the whole town, it looked very flat. The bland texturing also makes it hard to navigate the town.

    When the map first started, right off the bat I noticed all the titans in town, lined up and all facing the same direction. They all have default monster names, that of zombies and the zombie variants. At first I played the map like a stealth game, avoiding their eye line and trying to find my teammate. He found out early on that the key is getting on the rooftops. The main goal is to kill all the titans and to protect a big brick gate from being destroyed. There isn't any indication that the big red block needs protection and we lost the map at first because of it. When the block is destroyed it reveals that there is no entrance behind it, the wall is one flat expanse, but we lose anyway with a message and a map change about a minute later. On another playthrough we won when all the titans were dead.

    I don't like this map. I think killing oversized zombies with a weapon as janky as the barnacle is stupid. The map seems unfinished and definitely unpolished, the lazy lined up enemy placement where they all face the same direction, the flat texturing with the glaring texture misplacement, the breakable gate we're supposed to protect not actually having anything behind it, they all come together to drag down what should have been a good experience. To top it all off the goal of the map, or at least the lose condition, is not apparent at first causing frustration when the map seemingly ends in a loss for no reason.

Pros:

• Fun custom models
• The map layout was fun to navigate with the barnacles

Cons:

• Fighting titans with barnacles is janky and frustrating
• the texturing is pretty flat and outright misplaced in some areas
• enemy placement is obviously thoughtless
• lose condition is not apparent
• I mean come on, there is no actual entrance to anything behind the big gate we're protecting?

Score: 4 / 10