Gundam City - Dunkelschwamm

 

    Fight a tiny city, then fight robots in the tiny city. The map is small, practically a box, and sized to make players feel huge.

SCMapDB page

Author: Lymphoid

Date of release: 2003

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Gundam City

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | March 18, 2023 | 2394 characters

    Gundam is a map for Sven Co-op which takes place in a destructible "city" made of gridded boxes in a big rockwall-surrounded area. A UFO drops infinite baby headcrabs, and after some time a squad of robogrunts attack and need some killing. Destroying one of the buildings yields a shotgun and MP5, which are crucial for surviving the robogrunts. Another building reveals some snarks, which are also extremely useful in dealing with the issue. As the robogrunts spawn in, players can find themselves spawnkilled to oblivion by a half-dozen robogrunts just sauntering around an outdoor area where the players spawn, but with some grit you can run to the weapons and whittle the enemies down. Is that what I would call fun gameplay? Absolutely not. But there is a sense of progress when the robogrunts stop appearing, I guess. In the end you're left with ruins and baby headcrabs.

    Early in the players have a friendly bullsquid, but the robogrunts make quick work of that.

    The gameplay loop is frustrating and has no real end, just an exhaustion point.

    The map itself isn't much to look at, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it on that basis. If you squint the structures approximate buildings. They aren't meant to convey anything, however, other than the vague shape of a city to be destroyed. If you like destructible brushes, this map has them.

    Having just recently watched Mobile Suit Gundam, I'm not sure what the connection is other than that we are large, and the city is small. Maybe the robogrunts were supposed to be Zakus. I'm not sure what that makes the bullsquid. Guntank? Not sure.

    Overall, this seems like a pretty half-baked map. If you're interested in checking out a nothing map full of destructibles and some respawning enemies and weapons you have to run through said respawning enemies to grab, this map may be fun for you.

Pros:

  • Destroying buildings with weapons

Cons:

  • Map is ugly looking for the most part and lacks details for conveying the setting
  • The robogrunts are a pain to fight and spawn into player spawn before the players can grab a weapon
  • The baby headcrabs are annoying as hell and never stop
  • Map is pointless?????
Score: 4 / 10

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