Ragemap - Dunkelschwamm
Do you like to rage? The Ragemap is a community driven effort where many authors contribute parts of a map. The result is a crazy patchwork of different ideas with something new to see around every corner.
Author: A1win, Archanor, cold_blood3d, Crapaccino, cyberdaemon, Dred_furst, Dynamite, El Gringo, Fourth Letter, Frostbite, BlueFeena, g1l, Hezus, JPolito, Killer12137, Mr. Mazur, Nih, Police L.T., cSMG, Puchi, Qwerty, SharkMan, Silencer, Slay, The_6th_Monkey, WAR_Nuker
(Due to the number of authors and the page tag limit of 20, not all authors are tagged)
Date of release:2007
Maps in package:1
Map review of Ragemap
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
Ragemap is an action walkthrough map for Sven Co-op comprised of multiple one-hour map segments stitched together by various authors. Does it work?
The bread and butter of this map is standard Sven Co-op action walkthrough affair- crowbar, wrench, medkit, 9mm handgun, MP5, shotgun for most of the map. Here and there you get other weapons, like a .357, grenades, tripmines, uzis, a crossbow, or an egon gun. Players fight standard xenians of the most part, though on occasion there are grunts, or race X, or buffed up glowing enemies with a bunch of health. The combat is decent throughout most of it, though toward the end there's some fights which I think maybe relied a bit too much on throwing lots of enemies at the player.
The checkpoints for the map frequently update, and at one point they break so players respawn in a room with respawning alien grunts sometimes for the rest of the map (uhmmhmhmmm, awkward!!!). Due to the cycling authors and rushed participation of each of them, you'd expect an unbalanced pace, but Jpolito's stitching of the map's elements keeps the experience mostly consistent and sane. This is helped at one particular moment, as well, with a weapon stripping right after being given an egon gun.
What makes Ragemap stand out is the funky surrealist bits. There's a black maze which leads players via a red path on the ceiling to a funny face which players must crouch and jump off of a booster into, which was a bit annoying at first but swiftly overcome. There was a bit with really interesting looking spinning chunks of debris which player has to brave a room with respawning alien grunts to get a longjump (this is annoying at first, but becomes a huge problem when the checkpoint respawns here never go away!). There's an indoor bunker assault, some impressively scaled areas with battles against enemies like robot grunts, and a funny bit where you have to turn on a giant blender to juice a bunch of alien controllers. Overall, I think there's a great balance of funny bits, challenging bits, interesting bits, and annoying bits to keep things fresh and interesting.
There is also a giant penis made out of brushwork.
Overall, I think this map succeeds at more than it fails at, even if it starts tumbles and falling apart in the last third before the finish line, like the massive ramshackle vehicle it is. It's truly shocking it made it so far with so much style and pizzaz, and I don't hesitate to recommend it for a fun time with a friend or server.
Pros:
- Varied smorgasbord of mapper talent and style
- Stitches together with shocking consistency in pacing
- The combat is pretty reliably action-packed and fun
- Lots of checkpoint updates
- Some fun mix-ups to the arsenal when it's needed
- None of the map is outright ugly, and some of it looks quite neat
Cons:
- One of the checkpoint updates is broken, making the last third of the map a slog when respawning
- Combat starts feeling more rushed and sloppy toward the end
- A maze early on was a bit bold, and progression isn't always clear
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