Camp - Dunkelschwamm

  

    This map is less of a fun vacation in the wilderness and more of a flat plane where players fight a bunch of enemies. It's short and straightforward with some interior areas later.

SCMapDB page

Author: Jose Fung

Date of release: 2007

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Camp

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | June 19, 2023 | 3986 characters

    Camp is a walkthrough action map which pits players against HECU while fighting their way from the surface into a science lab to sabotage a big red laser machine. Along the way, things get fucky and players must shoot aliens as well.

    Two things struck me almost immediately about this map. First: it's pretty ugly. The outdoor area is big and flat and features a draw distance that many important details (including an enemy apache) hide behind. Indoor areas are better, but only by virtue of cubes of equal quality to that outdoor area more effectively convey indoor areas. Later, some of the lab stuff is very fun looking, but I wouldn't say that it ever looks very good. There's always a sense that there's classic Doom 2 amounts of thought being put into the architecture and environments beyond basic evocation.

    Second: the players have a great loadout. I'd say this detail, though the second thing that struck me, is significantly more important. Players start the map with all of the boilerplate tech: HEV at full, both vanilla handguns, all vanilla assault weapons, crossbows, grenades and satchels. Very early in the first battle players also get their hands on an RPG. Halfway through the map there's a super convenient health and HEV recharge station.

    It's at this point you might realize what this map lacks in form it more than makes up for in function. Every room and corridor acts as a miniature arena with plenty of room for two players, and a loadout and simplicity that players can have fun with. This is bogged down significantly early on by the poor cover and draw distance in the outdoor area, but once the players go indoors I'd argue the overall quality of combat goes up. I don't want to give the impression that I'm calling the design genius, but there is a genuine quality that I think emerges from a lot of very simple decisions coalescing. It equals some simple fun combat.

    One decision that could have been killer was the decision to give a lot of enemies, let's just say, a shit ton of health. I done seen a headcrab shrug off an explosive crossbow bolt, and that ain't right. Also the initial Apache has 6000 health. Again, I think the beginning area suffers the most from this, but the later areas I think actually worked out pretty well with the increased health, especially due to the explosive loadouts wielded by the players. I found myself rocking some really hardcore situations with my full HEV and parade of weapons to choose from, so I can't call the overtly healthy enemies too big of an issue.

    There is definitely a busted checkpoint. Halfway through the map, players take a teleporter into the deeper labs. After I first died in the opening surface part, I spawned after this area and killed a significant amount of this segment before dying while my teammate whittled down the apache's 6000 health all on his own. Overall this was to my benefit, but I can't help but think it's an issue overall. I will say, though there's QUITE a trek back to the action when you respawn on the surface, I am glad we get a chance to reclaim the RPG instead of having it locked off by a backtrackless checkpoint.

    Overall, I think camp is a short and sweet action map that works great despite its unfortunately homely appearance. Once you get past the slow beginning, there's some great corridors full of dumb action combat that, at least, made ME smile.

Pros:

• Really versatile loadout for players to play with
• Enough resistance against the players to make some of that loadout feel justified
• Map doesn't overstay its welcome
• Just a lot of really simple, fun action to the end

Cons:

• No care given to the map's vanity. It's pretty ugly
• Busted checkpoint. Lots of backtracking
• Bad apache
• Bad opening area in general

Score: 7.1 / 10