Base Attack - GrandmasterJ

 

    Converted from a standalone mod of the same name, this map series takes players to an underground base that looks suspiciously like Black Mesa to liquidate some obsolete personnel. There is only one map here and it has its ups and downs.

SCMapDB page

Original map author: DAVLevels

Conversion author: Outerbeast

Date of original mod release: 1999

Date of final Sven Map release: 2019

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Base Attack

(originally posted on SCMapDB) 

by GrandmasterJ | October 1, 2022 | 5749 characters

    The story behind this map is invading a top secret research facility in the very classy Area 69 and killing everybody inside due to some vague clandestine reasons. Since it was originally a singleplayer mod ported over to Sven Co-op it has survival mode on by default, like all mod ports seem to have.

    The map starts off and its looking a little blocky. This is to be expected, the original mod was released in 1999, there is a lot of effort put into level details but the bland samey textures make some areas look outright ugly. The first enemy we see is a hostile scientist, as we gunned the scientist down I remember thinking how the map was off to a very good start. Then we spent a while trying to figure out how to get to the next room, my teammate attacked what looked like a conduit coming out of the wall and that made the whole room explode for some reason. There aren't many obscure 'puzzles' like that in the map but that was a nice foil to the good first impression I was getting.

    In this room there are some buttons that open doors we need to progress, going through the next hallway plays intruder alert sounds, I don't know if this is intentional, but the sound plays over itself again and again and it is very annoying. It's not ear bleedingly bad but it's bad enough I remember thinking "this map has bad sound design". The rest of the map did not change my conclusion.

    The combat is decent for the most part. Players spawn with the uzi, pistol, medkit, and wrench. The map is mostly long hallways with grunts behind sandbag walls. Now I know the uzi wasn't in the original Half-Life so that means the main weapon for the original Base Attack mod was something else, probably the standard Half-Life machine gun. In this conversion I had to fight enemies at long range with the uzi, no way was I going to try to pistol snipe three guys who are actively shooting me. So I would rush them. The weapons given to the player incentivize rushing the enemy and I would always take a lot of damage doing so. It usually worked out, with two players we could heal each other up no problem, but that also meant if one of us died the other was usually not far behind. Later on we get a sniper rifle and that helps a lot but then we hit checkpoints and we lost the sniper rifle.

    The gameplay is a lot of hallway shooting, finding a locked door and collecting a keycard for it somewhere, and at certain points we have to destroy something, all very standard fare. I found the keycards would actually revert back to where it spawned if I took too long to unlock the corresponding door, this was very annoying but my teammate explained it prevents griefing this way so I guess I get it. The keycards will display a message saying which door it opens and the doors are sometimes labelled to make things as clear as possible.

    There are updating checkpoints in this map, the first checkpoint is great, we go up an elevator and there it is with weapons a lots of ammo. The second checkpoint puts us past where we pick up the shotgun and sniper rifle, effectively cutting off two weapons from us that we relied on, now we're back to rushing enemy positions with the uzi. We progress in the map but get cut off from our weapons, it doesn't feel good.

    The map design leaves a lot to be desired. It has a heavy emphasis on hallways, there is one long hallway with a bunch of twists and turns with weirdly proportioned nonsense themed rooms in it. I noclipped around and looked at that hallway from the outside, I just don't understand the design choices behind it, it is unnecessarily long, twisty, most of the rooms don't matter, and it all looks so bad (general architecture of the building looks bad, there is some nice detail work here, especially the refrigerators. There are two friendly NPCs in these rooms, my teammate speculated that maybe we needed them to open the elevator to the next area, maybe that's true but all I remember is getting trapped by them every two seconds in the narrow hallway and the narrow side rooms. I did try to kill them, a lot, and it didn't work because they are invincible.

    I think the map is pretty good, it has some engaging and challenging combat and the weapons were usually adequate for the job. There are checkpoints but they don't keep up with the weapons given to the players, so at a certain point we lose the shotgun and sniper rifle, preventing combat from really improving in the late game. From the get go I thought the map looked pretty bad but I do have to admit there are very nice details here and there. The refrigerators in the long and stretched out room I am guessing is supposed to be a break room is a good example of the level's fine detail work. I found the keycard hunting annoying because the keycards kept leaving my inventory to reset to their original position, there is a good reason for the map to do that but it happened to me about three times and my patience wore thin. Overall the map is worth playing and doesn't run too long.

Pros:

• updating checkpoints
• good detail work
• challenging and engaging combat
• keycards displayed messages on what doors they unlock and sometimes the doors were labelled
• Having the first NPC we meet be a hostile scientist is a really good opening

Cons:

• real bad map design, too much of an emphasis on long twisty hallways, badly proportioned rooms
• checkpoints do not keep players supplied with the map's weapons
• allies can trap players in rooms
• the very first thing we need to destroy is not communicated well

Score: 6.5 / 10