Sven Co-op Map Reviews

       Despite the presence of a '2' in the title this map is not a sequel. It consists mostly of vaguely Black Mesa themed areas filled with enemies and long walks. SCMapDB page Author: Penguin Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Assault On Black Mesa 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | August 7, 2022 | 5579 characters      Assault on Black Mesa 2 is a confusingly named two-part slog of a walkthrough series wherein players wade through snarks, turrets, snipers, and grunts while forced most of the time to rely on equipment which does the job half-well. Shoot at great distances with a pistol and some uzis, or drop down on huge clusters of enemies without any crowd-control weapons on-hand. Eventually the map gives you weapons, though sometimes those weapons become dilemmas when checkpoints open a ways past their pickup. Do I return to battle faster to aid my comrade, or do I restock? It would be easier with more people, but the pittance of

      Despite the presence of a '2' in the title this map is not a sequel. It consists mostly of vaguely Black Mesa themed areas filled with enemies and long walks. SCMapDB page Author: Penguin Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Assault On Black Mesa 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 7, 2022 | 7830 characters      Assault on Black Mesa 2 (apparently there never was a 1) is an old school Sven map from back in the 2.0 days that definitely plays like an old school map. It also has the problem that plagued many older maps with respawning players walking long distances back to where all the action is happening.      The map set has two maps in it. The first map puts players in a canyon with a truck trailer behind the players and some ammo and green military crates. There are teleporters in the truck trailer and weapons do spawn in the crates as the map progresses. These are good features that show the mapper cares about players, but un

       This map is a series of arenas that players fight enemies in. It really lives up to its name, there isn't a whole lot left to describe. SCMapDB page Author: eMTeG Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Arena Fights (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 1, 2022 | 5554 characters      Arena Fights is a map which promises fights in arenas, and it delivers some of those. There's some stuff in-between that is what I would call "goldsrc fluff": button puzzles, arbitrarily raising water puzzles, getting around lasers to access teleports- whatever. That's not what we're here for. We're here for some Arena Fights!      Arena Fights delivers three Arena Fights brand arena fights. The first arena fight of the three arena fights is an arena fight fought in an arena rather plain- players file in through a fire door (the only of two in the spawn which respond to touch- though both are identical) into a rectangular prism of a

      This map is a series of arenas that players fight enemies in. It really lives up to its name, there isn't a whole lot left to describe. SCMapDB page Author: eMTeG Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Arena Fights (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 1, 2022 | 5262 characters      The map is Arena Fights and I can confirm that there are arenas and players do fight in them. The map description really does sum it all up nicely, there are three areas with different enemy composition and pressing buttons opens the way forward.      The map starts players off with almost a full complement of weapons. I would have liked an egon gun but I did start with 10 underbarrel grenades so all is forgiven. There is a ton of HEV in the spawn area even though players start with full HEV. There are two blast doors here but only one opens right now.      The first arena is full of friendly soldiers behind a defensive position. Pressing the accessbile button

      Listed alphabetically, the list of maps tend to form clumps. Garg is first in line in the clump of Gargantua themed maps and is pretty indicative of what these maps tend to play like. SCMapDB page Author: ShotGunKiller Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Garg (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 15, 2022 | 2300 characters      Garg is a map which I think really embodies a lot of the attitude of Goldsrc and Source mappers: it's a simple idea executed in a strange and interesting way with a bunch of side-content for those who are looking for a little more.      The conceit is simple: In a small patch of land surrounded by sheer cliff faces, a small outpost is harassed by a Gargantua! With some minor exploration, the players can easily become equipped to kill it. After the garg dies, it respawns to be killed again using the cleverly acquired arsenal all around the map. After killing the garg 3 times we presumed the gargs to be respawning

      Listed alphabetically, the list of maps tend to form clumps. Garg is first in line in the clump of Gargantua themed maps and is pretty indicative of what these maps tend to play like. SCMapDB page Author: ShotGunKiller Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Garg (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 15, 2022 | 2364 characters      The map description is very apt for this map, it is an arena with infinitely respawning gargantuas and an arena with some exploration bits. Players start on a cliff overlooking the garg and the arena, I immediately saw a rocket launcher on top of a building, when I ran across the bridge to get it the bridge broke and I fell in with the garg. You have to jump up the crates in front of the building to access the rocket launcher, there is a vent around the side of the building that allows access to the inside and some goodies. There are some other sections with enemies, like the long hallway on the other side of the rea

       This map is a remake of the first level of the classic FPS Wolfenstein 3D built as a map in Sven Co-op. The level layout itself is mostly accurate with only tiny details added but the enemy composition and weapons is all standard Half-Life stuff. SCMapDB page Author: $kud Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Wolfenstein 3D Level 1 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 17, 2022 | 2605 characters      Wolf3dlvl1 is a remake of the groundbreaking E1M1 of Wolfenstein 3D, also known as Level 1. E1M1 of Wolf3d was the first experience many had in 1992 of 256-color first-person gameplay with characters resembling humans- and we blew their nazi brains out.      Wolf3dlvl1 takes Wolfenstein 3D's mechanics and massages them to create a more enjoyable experience when the level is transitioned into Sven Co-op. For example: there are more enemies now, and those enemies are far more capable than the brownshirts originally featured in Wolfenstein 3

      This map is a remake of the first level of the classic FPS Wolfenstein 3D built as a map in Sven Co-op. The level layout itself is mostly accurate with only tiny details added but the enemy composition and weapons is all standard Half-Life stuff. SCMapDB page Author: $kud Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Wolfenstein 3D Level 1 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 17, 2022 | 1823 characters      Wolfenstein 3D is an old game, one of the first FPS games ever made. The first level is iconic to many gamers and its done pretty well here. There are some obvious differences like the HECU not acting at all like the standard brown shirts, difference in weapons, and there are some additional rooms added behind the cell door walls, usually with goodies.      Personally I've seen a lot of Wolf3D's first level so I don't have much to say about the level design. I will say I always thought the original Wolf3D's level design was pret

       In this map player's get attacked right away by a wave of enemies, I guess players get ambushed. SCMapDB page Author: Lymphoid Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Ambush (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 26, 2022 | 7843 characters      Ambush is a walkthrough map for Sven Co-op that is really interesting to me from beginning to end. There are a lot of "bad" Sven Co-op maps which fail on basic technical concepts, but what intrigues me about Ambush is that every rookie mistake features a kind of jerry-rigged compensation- the problem is never "solved", it's only rendered inert by a workaround.      Here's an example: The players spawn in a truck in a tunnel. The truck takes up a lot of the tunnel, but overall both are pretty cramped- the tunnel's size not helped by having a truck wedged in it. The player's weapons are all supplied as items around the truck. Now, any sane person might think that

      In this map player's get attacked right away by a wave of enemies, I guess players get ambushed. SCMapDB page Author: Lymphoid Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Ambush (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 26, 2022 | 5244 characters      To quote my teammate, "there was an ambush."      Right off the bat the spawn area was hit by a squad of HECU and a heavy weapons grunt. The spawn area is a tunnel with a truck parked in it, players can spawn to the side of the truck with the ammo or inside with the some guns. A wonky jump over the car leads to two batteries and a climb to the top and back of the truck has snarks. Under the truck is a revolver. This sounds like a nice selection of guns but with the waves of enemies hitting spawn meant I had to basically navigate an obstacle course while under fire just to have a chance of fighting back. I opted to jump over the truck hood to get some cover, the truck's hood is destruct

       Alien fight is a map about fighting xenomorphs, the aliens from the famous movie franchise Alien. Players go from room to room fighting them in waves. SCMapDB page Author: Original Prankster Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alien Fight (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 11, 2022 | 3864 characters      Alien Fight is a map which lives up to its name: the players fight aliens in it. They fight aliens a lot in it. When you hear "fight aliens" you might be thinking of a lot of games with aliens stalking interesting settings for you to fight in. But: have you ever fight a bunch of alien xenomorph bullsquids in a smallish box room coming out of a spawner until you find your way out into another smallish box room with respawning xenomorph bullsquids by finding the z-fighting on a breakable wall? What about if you did that… four times?!      I feel like it's very rare that I play an unofficial (or, often, official for that m

      Alien fight is a map about fighting xenomorphs, the aliens from the famous movie franchise Alien. Players go from room to room fighting them in waves. SCMapDB page Author: Original Prankster Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alien Fight (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 11, 2022 | 4581 characters      The map starts players off in a rough looking spaceship with a nice view of space and four perfectly lined up alien controllers. There is a mounted gun here that is controlled by one half of the nearby terminal, it's a little funky to use. There are three ways to go here, on the left side of the stretched out credits texture is an infantry class teleporter and on the right are demolitions and medic. The way the classes work is that players spawn with nothing, or at least they should, sometimes I or my teammate would spawn with a medkit, but that disappeared for me. The teleporters put players in a room with another teleporter and y

       Alamo is a level taken from the Half-Life mod Heart of Darkness. Unlike other mod conversions to Sven this is just the one level taken out of context. It's set somewhere in Asia, not Texas. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: foolish_mortal Conversion authors: Trempler Date of original mod release: 2002 Date of final Sven Map release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alamo (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | February 27, 2022 | 3882 characters      So, the map is a Heart of Evil map I gather with a bunch of new shit added to it. Because of that, it takes the form of a Vietnam war style scenario but with alien attacks added.      First off, the brushwork is great. Heart of Evil was a pretty primo mod to begin with, but it's been too long so I can't quite remember any of this from the original mod. That said, still: the urban warfare is felt in collapsing buildings and intricate brushwork mixing heaps of debris with crumbling architecture. The texture

      Alamo is a level taken from the Half-Life mod Heart of Darkness. Unlike other mod conversions to Sven this is just the one level taken out of context. It's set somewhere in Asia, not Texas. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: foolish_mortal Conversion authors: Trempler Date of original mod release: 2002 Date of final Sven Map release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Alamo (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | February 27, 2022 | 6472 characters      The point of Alamo is to assault what appears to be a ruined military base, but not the actual Alamo. The map is from the mod Heart of Evil so it must be meant evoke a feeling of being in Vietnam, the player spawn is in a multi-tier rice paddy so right off the bat it does give players an Asian vibe.      When the map starts there are some friendly NPCs. My teammate and I spent some time messing around before the map started and eventually enemies invaded spawn and started shooting at us. I imagine our allies ran st

       Affliction is a standalone mod converted to Sven Co-op set in Black Mesa. There are a lot of maps for Sven with the same story, this one is fairly standard. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Toni Hiltunen Conversion authors: Outerbeast Date of original mod release: 2002 Date of final Sven Map release: 2021 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Affliction (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | February 19, 2022 | 3871 characters      Affliction is a Half-Life mod which was converted and updated, here, for Sven Co-op. This conversion features two maps which seem to combine the maps of the original mod at teleport points. The maps still feel mostly balanced for a single player, with fire fights coming in short, easy bursts often. The levels, for taking place almost entirely in interior settings, feel open and breezy, with breakable glass partitions allowing the interior spaces to breathe even more. Mix in some scripted peaceful NPC interactions and a cinematic opening sequen

      Affliction is a standalone mod converted to Sven Co-op set in Black Mesa. There are a lot of maps for Sven with the same story, this one is fairly standard. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Toni Hiltunen Conversion authors: Outerbeast Date of original mod release: 2002 Date of final Sven Map release: 2021 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Affliction (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | February 19, 2022 | 3285 characters      This map set started off on a really cool car crash that send players down into a tunnel. It's a fun scripted event. Unfortunately survival mode is on by default. I usually turn that off when I play, the first map was fine, there was only one death between my teammate and I. The second map however has some brutal poison followed by a heavy weapons grunt which killed us a lot, making disabling survival mode a must. My first death on this map set was from climbing inside a destroyed computer, the bottom of the computer was concave and I was fa

       When a map has a name as simple and powerful as 'Adventure' it better live up to it. This is a walkthrough map where the gimmick is that each room is thematically unrelated to the last. SCMapDB page Author: Acky Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 3 Map review of Adventure (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 30, 2022 | 5051 characters      Adventure is a 3-part action mapset that is as straight-forward as it is jampacked with action. The setup is simple: grab a bunch of weapons from the arsenal room, and then room after room, the players fight soldiers, aliens, and turrets in lightly segmented battles.      The first map is the roughest of the bunch. It begins with a strange, clearly broken mechanic where you are, I think, inside of a ventilation room where the air current is pressing you against the ceiling. Bullsquids within this room were also pushed against the ceiling- so hard, in fact, that they moved upwards into the ceiling and out