Resident Evil: The Aftermath - Dunkelschwamm
There are a lot of Resident Evil maps for Sven Co-op and they mostly follow the same formula of exploring a mansion. The 'Aftermath' part of the title implies this map is a sequel but it is unclear what the previous map could be.
Author: James Smith
Date of final release: 2005
Maps in package: 1
Map review of Resident Evil: The Aftermath
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
by dunkelschwamm | September 1, 2022 | 3777 characters
Resident Evil: The Aftermath is an attempt at a Resident Evil map that barely replicates the broad strokes of what one might think Resident Evil is from vague memories of having played up to the the first zombie in the first Resident Evil, not figuring out what to do, turning the game off, and then later seeing art of Nemesis and looked up some Resident Evil art and thought it was cool. I know that's oddly specific, but it just really gives me that impression.
The spawn area requires players choose a class. The classes are knife, gun, and medkit. After playing the map the proper way for a while, we started choosing classes and killing ourselves to drop and stack class equipment.
So, the map starts in the mansion hub. Here's the first sign that this is gonna be quite the experience: The Resident Evil Mansion hub has three doors: one to the dining room, one to the balcony above the dining room (which is a dead-end for the entirety of the map btw), and a locked door that opens when you come all the way around. Instead of utilizing the handy and convenient hub system for a map that comes complimentary with a Resident Evil map, the entirety of this map's exploration is performed by scouring wonkily proportioned mansion hallways for progression items which I am not convinced are all present on the map. If they are, I lost patience long before I found them and began noclipping through doors.
This maze of corridors is mapped with the architectural consistency of an Alice in Wonderland mansion- doors are sometimes paper thin, railing on the same balcony ranges from thick to thin, hallways ramp, become thin, open up into new rooms which act as wider corridors, move up and down with stairs, feature doors which are blocked for the entirety of the map… this map is just a wonk fest all around. Most of it is pretty ugly, and not in a way that I think endears itself as a horror map. Some of it is pretty poorly lit- thankfully my teammate found a light switch. Ceilings are a wood texture that make the building look incomplete. Many hallways are lit with phantom lighting.
To cap the disappointment off, there's a battle with Nemesis where we were given a shotgun with so much ammo I found him to be a pushover (he was just a particularly strong gonome). We proceed forward and "To Be Continued". The disappointments don't end.
To say something positive: the map does two things very well. The first is that all of the enemy models and weapon models are very interesting to look at. The second is that when scouring these hallways they start having a nightmarish dreamscape quality the way the halls stretch and defy logic.
Anyway, this map is a seemingly broken ugly unfun mazey map that squanders the gifts its source material gives it to tell a bland baby's-first-points-and-click-adventure style story with zombies in a boring maze before capping off with a cliffhanger. The followup, I presume, is Resident Evil: Director's Cut. I haven't played that yet. I hope it's better.
I do not recommend Resident Evil: The Aftermath.
Pros:
- The enemy and weapon models are good and fun
- The map has a dreamlike quality to it that I think is interesting. Idk if it 's good, but it's interesting to me very specifically
Cons:
- Bad and poorly implemented class system
- Bad and confusing scavenger hunt that I think may have broke when we played
- Ugly and boring maze is most of the map
- Utterly squandered source material
- I lost patience with this map to the degree that I felt no shame in noclipping at a certain point
Score: 3 / 10
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