Boss Test (Team) - Dunkelschwamm

 

    The stated goal of this map is to test the team strength of the players. This is done by putting a monster with a lot of health in a big box and then having players shoot them repeatedly.

SCMapDB page

Author: TheAmateur

Date of release: 2010

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Boss Test (Team)

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | April 17, 2023 | 3958 characters

    Boss Test Team is, as its description suggests, is a boss map intended to test team strength. If that is its objective, I can tell you right now this map fails at its objective. However, it is a fun little boss map. Let's dissect a bit.

    There are four bosses: a garg, an apache, a voltigore, and a Tor (with a second Tor, I think, that gibbed almost immediately at a headshot from a mounted turret I was using). These bosses operate by being normal versions of themselves, placed in arenas that do little to emphasize the strengths or dynamics of the battle, injected with thousands of hit points. The Garg was kneecapped by tiny obstacles which allowed a teammate and I to take potshots. The apache was an aggravating exercise of launching rocket-after-rocket until it eventually fell. The voltigore was a decently fun map, since it's a monster which actually chases and attacks in some interesting ways, but it was easy enough to dodge that it became another bullet-and-time sink. The Tors were utterly ineffective against us, especially thanks to a mounted turret which I used to constantly unload into the Tors' heads. They gibbed in short notice, and the map immediately ended. Maybe our team has great strength? I don't feel like that was properly assessed.

    There is a class system which makes players choose between Uzis, a minigun, a SAW, and an M16 with some grenades. Using the weapon-drop key we gamed the system and never operated with it in good faith. I think, given the ridiculous amount of enemy health, this was the correct move. The class system only really existed to temporarily slow us down while we dropped weapons to game the system. The map would definitely be better without it, as if it worked properly we'd just need to die more often to regain weapons with any use beyond the RPG (which every class has access to, as well as a Desert Eagle soon after). Enemies simply have too much health, and the class system is pathetically easy to bypass. I'd say the turret in the final room makes this all better, but all it does is utterly trivialize the threat.

    I wish I could say the map looks great, but it really doesn't. The rooms are really ramshackled together, and strung together with nonsense in-between areas. There's an elevator that slowly moves along an electrified line across a void to the apache that we mostly ran across despite its damage due to the slow elevator. Doors are misproportioned and move at strange speeds, lighting is flat, the cave feels more like a collection of intersecting wedges than a cave, and it all looks pretty bad. There were some prefabbed brush props laying on the ground all over the place, including a shelf with cardboard boxes which remained hovering, affixed to the shelves they sat sideways upon.

    That said, I would still recommend Boss Test Team generally. As far as Sven Maps go, it's a very honest Sven experience. Yes, you do have enemies with too much health, but as long as you know how to break the system you have a variety of weapons to unload on them. It feels like it rewards the player for not playing by the rules, and I find that fun for the 10-ish minutes it lasts. Throw it on a server list that needs some padding, it'll be just fine.

Pros:

• The terrible class system can be bypassed
• The turret in the Tor fight is great
• The voltigore was kinda fun to fight
• Good HEV recharge area

Cons:

• Terrible electrified cable tightrope slow elevator
• Ugly, ugly map
• Bad class system that was an inconvenience more than anything else
• Snowplowing hitpoints onto enemies do not make them interesting boss battles, nor does it make them tests of teamwork
• Every boss battle takes place in a thoughtlessly constructed "room" arena with no flow or dynamics

Score:

5.2 / 10