Blitzwar - Dunkelschwamm
Blitzwar is a map originally made for Counter-Strike and reworked to include round based combat. It's fairly small and there are only five rounds that only last for 90 seconds each, but the enemies are deadly and it can be challenging.
Original map author: Elber
Conversion author:Enuze
Date of original map release: 2010
Date of final Sven Map release: 2011
Maps in package: 1
Map review of Blitzwar
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
CS-Blitzwar is a round-for-round action map wherein players must exterminate an opposing team of soldiers within 90 second rounds. The map has two start points, and it is randomized each play which will host the players and which will host the enemies.
The enemies are mostly Barnabuses, Soldiers, Blackops, and Otises. However, there are also Agent Smiths who seem to dart around a bit more erratically, and special "Cheater" minibosses who appear. The minibosses that I can recall include the Armor Hacker (robogrunt), the Cloaked Knifer Cheater (invisible melee enemy, possibly the deadliest), the Health Hacker (just a melee guy with a bunch of health), Speed Hacker (super fast guy). It's up to the player to deal with all of these enemies, who spawn in roughly 8 at a time (with a maximum of one cheater among them). There's no enemies here who are basic jobbers, because any stray bullet can seriously put you under, and there's quite a lengthy respawn timer. The stakes are quite high, so you must be cautious; but not so cautious as to not succeed within the time limit. It's really a great balancing act.
Thankfully for the players, their weapons are also quite devastating. Even the Health Hacker enemy goes down in second under sustained fire. When the players first start, they get a standard glock, crowbar, and medkit. Believe it or not, the glock will be enough to get through the first map if you're crafty enough and use the silly exploits of the map to your advantage. However, things really kick off after the first round ends and you start getting your next batch of weapons. If you're unlucky, you might just get a desert eagle on your second round. If you're very lucky, you might get a sniper rifle. There's also a shotgun, Mac-10 (Uzi), AK-47 (MP5), the Famas (M16), grenades, and SAW. It's a great lineup of weapons, though the seemingly random circumstances of each one's appearance in the loadout means success highly hinges on external variables.
The map layout is great for this kind of thing. I think players get two different kinds of unfair advantages, one for each spawn point: one spawn point gives players some really fucky bullet-proof chainlink fences that players can shoot under and above to easily kill enemies with technique shots; the other spawn point gives the players fairly easy access to a premium sniper point over most of the map. I like this balance of advantages, and each help immensely in keeping the player's success feasible within the 90 second rounds.
There are 5 rounds per match. Players only lose if they fail to kill all of the enemies before the 90 seconds runs out. Outside of time wasted, dying is unimportant. When the fifth round is over, the results will be read, often with a charming word of judgement from the map author. Overall, I think how quickly a round ending places players immediately back in the action does away with much of the sting of loss. I think the overall format is great, and more maps should endeavor to play like this one. It's a very simple execution of an arena/horde style map that works far, far better with cooperative play. It reminds me of the Terrorist Hunt gamemode in Rainbow Six Vegas 2.
Great map port great execution of gameplay idea, goes above and beyond in silly ways. It delivers an almost boiled-down Counter-Strike experience while making the wise choice of not engaging with a jarring and confusing buy menu plugin or something. I highly recommend.
Pros:
- Really fun, tense action with harmful bullets and a tense time limit
- Great feeling weapons
- Interesting miniboss ideas
- Great randomized gameplay for lots of replayability
- This round-for-round gameplay makes losable Sven far more palatable and feel less time-wastey
- Remains consistently balanced
Cons:
- Randomized weapons sometimes give poopy loadouts, sabotaging the players for a round
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