Breakout Extended - Dunkelschwamm

     The extended version of Breakout, which can be found on the same page as this map on the database, feels more like a revised and finished version. It's a lot of standard looking Black Mesa architecture with tons of buttons to open doors and spawn monsters.

 SCMapDB page

Author: Chris Silcock

Date of release: 2004

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Breakout Extended

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | May 13, 2023 | 3211 characters

    Breakout Extended is a linear walkthrough map for Sven Co-op. Blast your way through default-flavored corridors and enemies. Spend most of the map with boilerplate weapons, and occasionally keep them between checkpoints! Fight all sorts of infantry-style enemies across the Earth military, Xenians, and Race X.

    The combat is mostly corridor shooting which can easily feel bland. What keeps things interesting most of the time is small details in the visuals and cycling through different enemy types to lump into the corridors. Some setpiece puzzles crop up which mostly involve finding the right terminal brush which is actually a button or a discovering a distant brush is breakable despite not looking at all like it might be. There are some bits involving a bit more verticality, such as an arena with snipers on all sides, which felt more dynamic and fun. There are some bits with higher-HP enemies, like baby gargs or a gargantua battle, which grind things to a halt while players dump ammo into these mostly stationary and unresponsive monsters. Overall, though, I'd say the combat stays mostly engaging through the high action.

    The weapons are an interesting situation. Most of the map keeps you with boilerplate weapons: shotgun, handgun, maybe an MP5 if you're lucky. Along the way you might pick up grenades, uzis, underbarrel grenades, and a revolver as well. You can fight better stuff like a tau gun, a crossbow, or an RPG. These more varied weapons combinations really make the gameplay feel better… when they last. Ammo isn't always plentiful for the more colorful weapons, and you can find yourself locked off from them on the other side of one-way exits- sometimes checkpoints even come after weapons show up. Thankfully some of the more mid-tier weapons like the revolver start showing up more often for players to stock up on even if they can't grab a previous spawn spot. Even better, there's HEV-a-plenty in this map, though never so much that you feel like you have an overwhelming amount of armor. I think these are each huge boons to the gameplay.

    Overall, I think that Breakout Extended is a pretty fun take on a lot of boilerplate environments. The combat is feels like bland meat with way too many seasoning salts just kinda lumped on top of it to make it more interesting, but the actual progression of the map is fun enough to watch and behold that I recommend sticking through it. Play with a friend, put it on a server rotation.

Pros:

• Decent HEV and ammo distribution through most of the map
• Varied setpieces
• Lots of balls-to-the-wall action
• Some nice arenas with good battles
• I thought the ending bit was really cute

Cons:

• Checkpoints lock players out of some of the better weapons once they're passed up due to limited backtracking
• Some encounters, like the gargantua, are boring
• Some areas, like the rail over the slime or the rail puzzle in the end, had really unclear progression
• Most encounters are just enemies dropped into hallways

Score:

7.1 / 10