Sven Co-op Map Reviews

       Dock Battle is a very early map with a very common gameplay type of the era, neverending swarms of enemies. Unlike similar maps this one does not have a safe place for players to spawn. SCMapDB page Author: Mad Jonesy Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Dock Battle (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 16, 2022 | 3363 characters      Dock Battle is a horde style map that is shaped like two boats and a dock, and features an unmanned mounted gun that constantly fires on players. I had wondered if I need to go up and confront it, and felt this suspicion confirmed with the discovery of a gauss gun. The gauss gun jump is disabled, however, so our plan fell short. Indeed, this is a map about being shot by never-ending enemies.      The map, as mentioned previously, is shaped like two boats and a dock, which was likely very novel in 1999 when this map came out. Honestly, even in the year 2022, the concept of battling on multiple boats feels ho

      Dock Battle is a very early map with a very common gameplay type of the era, neverending swarms of enemies. Unlike similar maps this one does not have a safe place for players to spawn. SCMapDB page Author: Mad Jonesy Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Dock Battle (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 16, 2022 | 4601 characters      Dock Battle is a map with a simple blocky dock jam packed full of enemies. Both humans and aliens constantly respawn all over the place fighting each other but also not forgetting to attack the players as well. When the map first started I was standing in full view of an mounted gun which started shredding me with the motd still up. The map description says something like the map could be played with your eyes closed, when the gameplay is neverending chaos and combat then yeah I guess you can totally play with your eyes closed.      The map doesn't start off well, getting immediately attacked before you c

      Monsters sit in better mousetraps of varying degrees of creativity and involvement from the player in a gallery of fatal contraptions. SCMapDB page Author: Michael Koeberlein, LordSlayer Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alien Die 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 11, 2022 | 3376 characters      The sequel to Alien Die is much better than the first. The concept is the same, a map with a bunch of monsters stuck in traps with buttons players can press to kill them in unique ways.      The map is broken up into three areas, the spawn room, the nextdoor room with a teleporter, and the long room on the other side of the teleporter. The spawn room has a tram between two rows of sandbags. Zombies appear on the tracks in the middle endlessly and there is a button that will make the tram move back and forth, crushing the zombies into gibs, until the button is pressed again. The zombies can sometimes escape their trough, but it's rarer

       Monsters sit in better mousetraps of varying degrees of creativity and involvement from the player in a gallery of fatal contraptions. SCMapDB page Author: Michael Koeberlein, LordSlayer Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alien Die 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 11, 2022 | 3709 characters      Alien Die 2, sequel to (in my opinion mediocre) map Alien Die, is a significant improvement on the formula of watching enemies die while placed safely away from the players themselves. This time there are far more interesting contraptions, an overall better aesthetic which gives the map a sense of identity, and better distribution of set pieces. This time, instead of everything being messily placed in a circle around a big death pit, the map is broken up into four sections where each toolbox comes with its own set of fun gimmicks.      I would say one of the biggest improvements that this map has over the previous Alien Die (other than e

       This is one of those maps that is meant for fun, the whole map consists of monsters in traps. While some monsters do wander out of the traps overall it's not dangerous. SCMapDB page Author: LordSlayer Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alien Die (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 11, 2022 | 2949 characters      This is a simple entity playground wherein you can use crushers, explosion generators, lasers, and NPC in-fighting to kill lazily respawning enemies. These Machiavellian devices are operated via buttons with misaligned textures.      While playing, I thought a lot about this game I made in middle school where you pick up a little sprite guy and throw him into spikes, or drop him to his death, or use weapons to crush him. It wasn't an interesting game at all, but I entertained myself and my friends with it. While I was playing this, I just became nostalgic for that game and wanted to go back to it. I don't tell you

      This is one of those maps that is meant for fun, the whole map consists of monsters in traps. While some monsters do wander out of the traps overall it's not dangerous. SCMapDB page Author: LordSlayer Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alien Die (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 11, 2022 | 2620 characters      Alien Die is a short and simple map where you kill aliens. Most of them are trapped in glass boxes so players can kill them at their leisure. Two zombies and a headcrab spawn on traps that don't trap them in a glass box and they walk right off and can be very annoying wandering around the map slapping me when I am not paying attention to it. There were also three scientists walking around the map but they died real fast to wandering monsters, there may have been more who died before I saw them.      I like the idea this map had, but I'm not so sure about the execution. There was one box with a houndeye and vortigaun

       Alien Battle is a simple arena map. Players start in some sort of fort and fight off infinite waves of alien slaves. The map is based off of Starship Troopers according to the map description but it's hard to tell from the map itself. SCMapDB page Author: Ttam Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alien Battle (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 5, 2022 | 1602 characters      Alien Battle is a tiny little infinite-wave vortigaunt fight in a tiny little fort map. The fort looks like something like a ruins, but it has cover in a lot of the right places. Atop desert dunes ahead of the base, vortigaunts spawn 3-4 at a time, On the front battlement of the fort there is a mounted gun which can instagib the vortigaunts and is perfectly lined up with how they spawn in. You can easily kill all of them immediately when they spawn using this gun.      There's not much else to this map. The brushwork is pretty spartan, and there's so li

      Alien Battle is a simple arena map. Players start in some sort of fort and fight off infinite waves of alien slaves. The map is based off of Starship Troopers according to the map description but it's hard to tell from the map itself. SCMapDB page Author: Ttam Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alien Battle (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 5, 2022 | 1382 characters      Alien Battle is a very simple arena map. Players spawn in a fun little fort and vortigaunts spawn in continuously and invade the fort. When I first spawned in vortigaunts ran up and started attacking me right away, so that was annoying. Players only have mp5s, no medkit, no crowbars. There was a mounted gun on the front of the fort, it gibbed the vortigaunts instantly and you can maneuver it into a position to kill most vortigaunts the moment they spawn in.      The map wasn't much really. There is ammo and HEV spread around so killing vortigaunts is never re

            Aggregate Pain is another conversion of a standalone Half-Life mod. It takes place in Black Mesa and players fight both soldiers and aliens. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Michael Sisk Conversion authors: Garompa Date of original mod release: 1999 Date of final Sven Map release: 2017 Maps in package: 3 Map review of Aggregate Pain (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 5, 2022 | 1939 characters      Aggregate Pain means Total Pain.      That's what the mod's creator seems to indicate on the map description. I guess must have been updated for more recent versions of Sven, as it has modern Sven monsters despite being dated originally for 1999.      The map follows walk-through format for the most part, with the players moving from room to room clearing out enemies and occasionally dealing with other obstacles. I'm gonna be completely honest, no matter how hard I try I cannot remember most of these maps. I'll tell you what I do remember.   

           Aggregate Pain is another conversion of a standalone Half-Life mod. It takes place in Black Mesa and players fight both soldiers and aliens. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Michael Sisk Conversion authors: Garompa Date of original mod release: 1999 Date of final Sven Map release: 2017 Maps in package: 3 Map review of Aggregate Pain (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 5, 2022 | 3200 characters      Aggregate Pain is a very short three map series. The map is set in Black Mesa like a lot of maps are, this map does almost nothing to stand out.      The first map players start in a truck. A human grunt stands right outside and will begin shooting so don't dawdle. One my first playthrough three more grunts came around the corner and I had a big fight right out of spawn. On my second playthrough the grunts stayed put. There is a hallway with a lot of enemies at one point with two heavy weapons grunts. After another hallway the map ends.      We played the

       Svencoop is THE eponymous Sven Co-op map. It is the first map ever created for the mod, it was the only map included when Sven first came out, and it's been included in every single release since then. SCMapDB page Author: Sven Viking Date of final release: 1999 (updated a lot, last in 2010) Maps in package: 1 (but there is a separate Svencoop 2 map) Map review of Svencoop 1 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | February 5, 2021 | 2906 characters      SvenCoop 1 is a charming and simple cooperative map from a simpler time that is largely overshadowed by the maps which have since followed.      Throughout it makes many attempts at fun cooperative activities. A couple times this involves two guys pressing buttons at once, there's this one puzzle where you have to lower these blocks which slowly raise back up which each have buttons behind them to press at the same time but while you're trying to lower these baby gargs spawn in. There's this one puzzle w

      Svencoop is THE eponymous Sven Co-op map. It is the first map ever created for the mod, it was the only map included when Sven first came out, and it's been included in every single release since then. SCMapDB page Author: Sven Viking Date of final release: 1999 (updated a lot, last in 2010) Maps in package: 1 (but there is a separate Svencoop 2 map) Map review of Svencoop 1 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | February 5, 2022 | 4279 characters      I've reviewed quite a few maps on this site, for my 100th map I decided I wanted to try out the original map, the eponymous svencoop1. Don't actually fact check if this review is my 100th, just take my word for it. I didn't quite know what to expect.      To get straight to the point, overall, its good but not amazing. But I'm playing this in 2022, more than 20 years after its release, well past the point where talented mappers have flooded the market with high quality maps. That other review written b

       Gargantua pit is a simple arena with two gargantuas stomping around. Use a wide variety of weapons to bully them into submission.  SCMapDB page Author: Jake Andres Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Gargantua Pit (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 29, 2022 | 4677 characters      Garg Pit (or, gargpit) is a map with a very simple purpose: put players in an arena full of respawning gargantuas, and then sell that the victims of this hell are the gargantuas. I think it does that pretty well.      The setup is simple: A donut shaped outdoor arena of immense size houses a central tower with two entrances. Within the tower is the player's spawn: a safe haven away from the hazards of gargantuas or bullsquids. In here a plethora of ammo spawns, as well as HEV and Health flowing from wall chargers as freely as if from Dionysus's own krater. From this oasis the players are able to teleport to one of two elevated positions of their ch

      Gargantua pit is a simple arena with two gargantuas stomping around. Use a wide variety of weapons to bully them into submission.  SCMapDB page Author: Jake Andres Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Gargantua Pit (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 29, 2022 | 2172 characters      This map was made way back in 1999, one of the first maps made for Sven Co-op, and is one of the official maps featured in one of the early releases of Sven Co-op. I didn't really know what to expect, but it felt very similar to 2bases.      The whole point of the map is to bully two gargantuas in an arena with an arsenal of weapons. The correct word for it is bully. At first my teammate and I took teleporters to high vantage points and shot at the gargantuas from afar, but I got bored and started to run around the arena. The arena has ammo and HEV scattered around but it also has access to the spawn area and a generous bounty of high explosives. Players

       Deth is a very early Half-Life mod made in 1999. The map description states this is the author's first map and it shows. It's also got a highly topical picture of Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: DETH Conversion authors: w00tguy123 Date of original mod release: 1999 Date of final Sven Map release: 2019 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Deth (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by dunkelschwamm | December 30, 2021 | 1860 characters      Deth is a very early map for Sven and apparently the first by its author. I wouldn't go as far as to say that it isn't obvious from the result that this map is by a beginner, but I will say that for a beginner's map it's not terrible. Worth playing, though? Well, let's hash that out.      The map begins with a series of rooms which are oddly proportioned and lightly sprinkled with some push-over enemies. Poor brushwork and misaligned textures barely convey a real world environment. It'

      Deth is a very early Half-Life mod made in 1999. The map description states this is the author's first map and it shows. It's also got a highly topical picture of Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: DETH Conversion authors: w00tguy123 Date of original mod release: 1999 Date of final Sven Map release: 2019 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Deth (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by GrandmasterJ | December 31, 2021 | 2090 characters      This map is one of the first non-official release maps on scmapdb. I never expect much from old maps because the whole scene was still new, this one was a decent enough attempt at a first map.      The map doesn't look great first of all. The spawn room has some enemies in there so players spawn in having to deal with that. Plus the textures used for was not scaled in a way that looks good. The carpet was a texture with a big logo on it that tiled in a patter that didn't really look good or even centere

       USS Darkstar is not a Star Trek themed map, let me get that out of the way now. It is an original setting with a massive space ship filled with a bunch of biological specimens that closely resembles a zoo. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Neil Manke Conversion authors: Lymphoid first and later Lossy Date of original mod release: 1999 Date of final Sven Map release: 2017 Maps in package: 18 Map review of USS Darkstar (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by dunkelschwamm | December 29, 2021 | 4044 characters      USS Darkstar is a classic Half-Life mod made by Neil Manke and Black Widow Games, famous for the They Hunger horror conversion. Instead of pulpy horror cliches, USS Darkstar harps on sci-fi tropes, while forging a very unique identity of its own. At times it reminds me a bit of System Shock, at other times it reminds me a bit of Star Trek: TNG.      This conversion to Sven Co-op is brilliantly executed. Balancing is in proper check, everything works correctly (aside from occ

      USS Darkstar is not a Star Trek themed map, let me get that out of the way now. It is an original setting with a massive space ship filled with a bunch of biological specimens that closely resembles a zoo. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Neil Manke Conversion authors: Lymphoid first and later Lossy Date of original mod release: 1999 Date of final Sven Map release: 2017 Maps in package: 18 Map review of USS Darkstar (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by GrandmasterJ | December 29, 2021 | 3259 characters      This map is one of the oldest maps on scmapdb that are not official releases. It's actually a conversion of a single player mod from way back when that I never played. It's got a lot of maps in the campaign but the first section is a lot of nice scenery, practically showing off the areas you will be fighting in later. I don't think you even see enemies or weapons until map 5 (out of around 16). The last map itself is just a cutscene and credits.      I loved the en

       This map is exactly what it describes, two bases in a large arena with human grunts infinitely spawning in. The name starts with '2' which places it quite high in the alphabetical listing of maps.  SCMapDB page Author: Sharpe Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Halloween Construction (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | November 28, 2021 | 2034 characters      2bases is a fun way to race up the scoreboards with friends. Without a lack of pressure to stay alive, and with a metric ton of military ordinance to go to town on respawning grunts, it's hard to find much to complain about.      When a friend and I first hopped on this map, we were initially swept under the tide of respawning grunts. It was difficult to first get our footing and realize the wealth of resources around us, but upon familiarizing ourselves further with the layout of the map we quickly began dismantling the foothold the grunts had built and began dominating th

      This map is exactly what it describes, two bases in a large arena with human grunts infinitely spawning in. The name starts with '2' which places it quite high in the alphabetical listing of maps.  SCMapDB page Author: Sharpe Date of final release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of 2 Bases (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | November 28, 2021 | 1972 characters     This is a very simple straightforward map where the players are given loads of ammo, health, and HEV to fight tons of human grunts.     I really appreciate this map for what it is trying to do. There is no end of the level and no end to the grunts, it is just a neverending deathmatch. I really like how the author didn't skip the underbarrel grenades. I absolutely love using them and most of my time on this map is spent bunnyhopping around and lobbing grenades. After a little bit of playing I got really good at hitting the grunts directly and being rewarded with a rain of gibs. The map design