Zombie Squad - Dunkelschwamm

  


    Suit up squad, it's time to go fight human grunts that this map calls zombies. This map is a horde map taking place in a burned out urban block, supposedly there are points to capture but I didn't see any.

SCMapDB page

Author: cyberdaemon

Date of release: 2005

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Zombie Squad

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | July 17, 2023 | 2601 characters

    Zombie Squad is a well detailed horde map wherein grunts and hwgrunts (and, like, an assassin) swarm the players from every angle. Thankfully, within the details of the ruins are plenty of weapons, and a reasonable smattering of HEV and health pickups.

    The description makes it sound like maybe my experience with the map is broken. There were, like, 3 soldiers which looked like zombies in the map. I think far more were meant to be zombies? Also, the MOTD makes it sound like there's some funny control point business, like there's an objective to the map. Far as I can tell all this map is about is endlessly slaying zombies from nicely rendered busted-up houses.

    I've already made it clear what I think of the map. The outdoor is very nice looking, and the indoor stark. It's hard to get lost, and though everything is decayed urban ruins none of it really blends together or lacks personality. The brushwork is evocative of a real location without losing the Half-Life-cute that clearly conveys level bounds for jumping around and jungle-gyming the ruins. There's plenty of buildings to move around, and some subterranean areas and plenty of above-surface area to cover, so it doesn't get old too fast.

    My buddy mentioned there were some misleading details of the map. It did give a lot of impression that there was more, and plenty of details in the map DO lead to passages and more items and such. So, there's a lot of things that look like openable doors or breakable boards or even open doors which will push you back because they're meant for spawning enemies. Especially when unsure of what's going on because apparently elements of the map are broken, this was pretty confusing.

    Overall, I think Zombie Squad is a worthwhile venture. If you like endlessly fighting hgrunts, give this a go! It's very nice, and I think would work best with 4-6 players controlling lots of area.

Pros:

  • Very lovely ruins with lots of functional detail
  • Great layout for fighting neverending hgrunts
  • Good pickups scattered around for players to stay outfitted in the chaos

Cons:

  • I think the zombie models were broken in my play, and I'm not sure from what I saw they would have added much
  • Also, capture points?
  • A little one-dimensional, in that it's a map crawling with hgrunts with players sprinkled in
  • Some misleading details in the middle of a chaotic hitscan hell map

Score: 7.8 / 10

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