Icon of Helll - GrandmasterJ



     I'm starting to think the third L in the title is a typo. Icon of Hell(l?) is a conversion of a mod with a lot of futuristic and archaic visuals all thrown together in an interesting linear experience. It's also got custom models and scripted weapons which really help sell that this is as a new experience.

SCMapDB page

Original map author: Lefront

Conversion author: Reuniclus-579

Date of original mod release: 2013

Date of final Sven Map release: 2024

Maps in package: 7

Map review of Icon of Helll

(originally posted on SCMapDB) 

by GrandmasterJ | April 29, 2026 | 4593 characters

    Let's start with an obligatory 'I have not played the original mod' for this conversion so I don't know how the original plays. There are a few areas where a checkpoint would not have been unnoticed and some places where it seems players are expected to just die. But beyond those points this is a very competently done conversion.

    The first thing that strikes me is how the map series looks, it's got lots of textures from Doom 3 and the Sven standards of Afraid of Monsters and Cry of Fear. There's a lot of interesting texture choices that I'm not sure everybody will enjoy, but I was loving the unique aesthetic. For instance, very early on we have Doom 3 sci-fi corridor textures mixed with what looked like old tile. It reminded me of Knights of the Old Republic where the player would go to a planet with ancient ruins and there would be equally ancient machines just sitting there. Later on I swear we were in an area inspired by FEAR and the last map is straight up Duke Nukem 3D's second level. It was a big hodgepodge of styles and even if it was garish at times it was never boring.

    The map is incredibly dark and players don't get flashlights. At one point we had to go through a dark vent and we got all turned around before getting out. I made a comment to my partner and shortly after we hit a map end and got a lantern in the next map. Right when the lack of light became annoying we were given a lantern. The lantern is great by the way. Players can toss the lantern and it will light up the surroundings, if a player dies with the lantern out it will stay. We very quickly started tossing lanterns around corners and switching to heavier weapons.

    The map maintains a spooky mood throughout, I almost didn't realize the majority of the map was corridor after corridor. The areas we were in frequently didn't make any sense, I'm positive we were in space at the beginning but it seemed like we transitioned to some office buildings and we definitely ended on a street. There were notes but they were all in Russian so perhaps I simply missed important story due to the language barrier. Regardless, I had a lot of fun with this map.

    The Cry of Fear weapon pack is amazing and I loved using them. They needed manual reloads and I swear on more than one occasion when I should have had a full magazine I would switch to a weapon and it would be empty. It stopped when I started paying more attention so maybe I was just not used to the new weapons. Make sure you keep them topped off.

    It's not all sunshine though, there are numerous places where enemies will spawn directly on top of the player and enemies are powerful enough to kill in a couple of hits. I'm pretty sure that was added in for the conversion, because otherwise how would somebody survive that in single player? The lights go out, and lanterns do not illuminate anything here, and then they come back on and a whole wad of enemies spawn in. That mechanic consistently killed us. I don't think survival mode would work with this map because of it.

    The map could really use some checkpoints. I spent a lot of time walking down dark corridors to catch up to where I was and since there are locked doors and keys sometimes the path would not be so straightforward and I'd get lost. It only got bad in a few maps but it was a noticeable problem.

    There were a lot of button-controlled doors that had hard to see buttons. I started to expect it after a while but there are a ton of painted on doors with no real distinction between them and the actual real doors players can go through. Combine that with the darkness and sometimes the path forward wasn't clear.

    Overall the map was great and I really liked it, but it has a couple of annoyances that could be tweaked. The darkness works well with the lantern mechanics and the texture use, while nonsensical at times, was very interesting and felt fresh.

Pros:

  • Great atmosphere throughout
  • I love the wacky texture use and trying to guess where the textures were from
  • Cry of Fear weapons were very fun
  • Special shout out to the lantern, who knew taking away player flash lights could actually be fun?
  • New models are always welcome

Cons:

  • In dire need of checkpoints
  • Multiple spots where very damaging enemies are dumped on players
  • Maybe the story clears this up, but the location progression is nonsense
  • Easy to get lost

Score: 7.5 / 10


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