Richard Boderman - GrandmasterJ
Here is a map that is famous in the Sven Co-op community. Players must fight hordes of enemies in a huge arena with lots of vertical elements. Fun custom models representing members of the community (a recent addition, apparently), a kick-ass helicopter, plus music and voiceover really brings this whole map together in an amazing way.
Author: Aurora, JPolito, Puchi, Hydeph
Date of release: 2008
Maps in package:1
Map review of Richard Boderman
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
by GrandmasterJ | March 25, 2023 | 4509 characters
Richard Boderman is a pretty famous map and I have just reached the 300th map reviewed milestone so I rustled up a third person and tackled the famous boss battle the map is named after.
The map is a huge circular arena. There are cliffside ramps up the face of the sides and in the central mountain as well as ladders allowing lots of verticality in the map. Various trench systems and bunkers hide supplies and provide cover from the barrage of constantly respawning enemies. We have teammates as well, and both allies and enemies are various members of the Sven Co-op community. They all have custom models and a wide variety of weapons and health. A lot of the robot enemies in particular gave us trouble, my regular teammate kept cursing the name of Turrican and Aurora. I kept getting stymied by ProgramZeta.
The goal of the map is to kill 270 enemies and then fight the boss, Richard Boderman himself. It sounds tedious but there is a central mountain like feature to the map with multiple levels complete with bridges spanning across to the outside and tunnels leading up. My teammates kept running up as high as they could, they eventually reached the summit but I was too preoccupied lobbing underbarrel grenades into a doorway that kept spawning tons of enemies and by they time I tried to join them the big man showed up. He's a Kliener stretched out over a gonome and sped up, he also does tons of damage, even his thrown goo attack will instantly kill us. Thankfully the map is full of allies and the enemies all disappear so Boderman is free to run around and not take the time to eat us.
Players start off with 150 armor, which is a huge help in surviving the intense crossfire, but I didn't see any armor in the map so that's all we get. There is plenty of health and some ammo around but there isn't a whole lot of ammo. We spawn with a lot of guns, most notably sniper rifles, M16s with four underbarrel grenades, shotguns, and grenades. We had others but those really covered the bases for what we needed. Most of the ammo in the level is concentrated in a handful of alcoves that players spawn in and there isn't a whole lot of ammo outside of those, underbarrel grenades run out the fastest. There are some other weapons, like satchel charges and a rocket launcher higher up on the cliffs along with ammo, but it's still just a trickle.
A real star of this map is the helicopter at the bottom of the arena. It's got a minigun nearby and a button that initializes a launch sequence. As all moving brushes do in goldsrc players can get stuck and may die (nobody died in this playthrough) in the helicopter, I had the minigun a lot and I would make the mistake of crouching for better aim and get stuck immediately. It is incredibly fun though and there is a separate Wagner button to play Ride of the Valkyries as we soar around the level raining hell on our enemies. The helicopter makes a loop and comes back, so players can use it again.
I should also mention that there is an introduction monologue by the man himself that is pretty fun. The boss battle itself has real nice music. It's touches like these that really bring a map to life.
It's a simple map done very well. I had a lot of fun blasting through a wide variety of enemies alongside an equally diverse and wacky cast. The level was set up well, there was plenty of cover and opportunity to gib a bunch of guys at once. There was some friendly fire I feel bad about because the battlefield can easily become crowded with friend and foe closely entangled. I do wish there was more ammo, I use up the underbarrel grenades so fast and there are so many opportunities to use it, 556 is also sorely needed. It's crazy action and I love it.
Pros:
- straightfoward map with tons of crazy action
- players spawn with tons of armor and a good arsenal
- tons of custom models that make for a fun mix of ally and enemy, the community aspect is cool too.
- level layout adds a lot of verticality and opportunities for exploration and some mountain climbing
- the helicopter is amazing
- the wagner music is a nice touch, there is good boss music and a fun intro monologue as well
Cons:
- the map could have used a bit more ammo
- there exists a slight possibility that players can get stuck in the helicopter
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