Sven Co-op Map Reviews

           Piha is a façade of what appears to be an apartment building, the map description claims this to be the author, Robootto's, house. There isn't much interactivity or stuff to do in this map. SCMapDP page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Piha (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 28, 2022 | 2627 characters      Piha is a map by Robootto, crafter of extreme woes and enigmas, but contains neither woe nor enigmas— a fact which left me uneasy through my experience. Instead, Piha is a fairly passable façade of a home, facing some bushes, and with a brutalist blocky backend with ladders to climb all over it. There's not a lot of interactivity to comment on, so instead I'll judge it by its presentation.      Piha reminds me in some ways of the castle in Mario 64, by displaying a magnificent façade in front which develops atmosphere, but leaving everything around it simple or plain. I think of this kind of de

           Piha is a façade of what appears to be an apartment building, the map description claims this to be the author, Robootto's, house. There isn't much interactivity or stuff to do in this map. SCMapDP page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Piha (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 26, 2022 | 1554 characters      This map is mostly a façade of an apartment building. It's got a nice open lot, presumably for parking, in front of about 8 units, four on the first floor and four on the second floor. Ther eis only one part you can really enter, the cluster of units on the left has a staircase up to the two units upstairs, only the one on the right exists and is a simple affair consisting of a room with an American flag and a balcony.      There are some ladders providing access to the roof from the back of the apartment building, but I can see no way to get over there without cheating. I noclipped through the whol

       The map works exactly as described, first players must attack and then players must defend. The secret to attacking is finding the small black boxes with red lights on them and destroying them. The secret to defending is to hold on to your butts! SCMapDB page Author: NIPPER Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Attack & Defend (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 8, 2022 | 3902 characters      Attack & Defend is a classic Sven Co-op map, going on almost 18 years old as of writing this. It was made by Nipper, an absolutely prolific mapper known for high quality, high quantity output.      This map is simple: you attack, and then you defend. Players start in a safe spawn cave with two exits into the battle. Players progress by destroying multiple red-light boxes on the fences which block progression. When each box is destroyed, the fence falls allowing forward movement. All the while, players must content with strategically entrenche

      The map works exactly as described, first players must attack and then players must defend. The secret to attacking is finding the small black boxes with red lights on them and destroying them. The secret to defending is to hold on to your butts! SCMapDB page Author: NIPPER Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Attack & Defend (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 8, 2022 | 4941 characters      I love Attack Defend. I used to play it a lot back in the day and when I got a say in what the next map would be I would say this one. The map is frenetic action through and through. It completely embodies what I remember as the best part of old school Sven Co-op, crazy chaotic action with a bunch of people.      The map starts off with players attacking a fortified hill. There is a trench at the top with two bunkers in the hill below, charging the trench at the top requires running past these bunkers which fill up endlessly with soldiers. There is

      ApacheCo is a symmetrical map with two sides, a day side and a night side. Each side has its own Apache and the map will end and declare that one side is the winner once one of the Apaches go down. This gimmick would work better if the map had weapons. SCMapDB page Author: Fourth Letter Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of ApacheCo (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 17, 2022 | 1846 characters      Apacheco is a Sven Co-op map that's as gimmicky as they come. Players enter the arena through one of two portals, choosing a team- night or day. In each, they meet with friendly Barneys and attempt to push through waves of grunts using only pistols with a clip's worth of ammo. If they manage to push through, they get to an arena that is in either night time or day time, and face an apache helicopter with way too much health for how no weapons everybody has. Eventually one of the helicopters is destroyed and the "day" or &quo

      ApacheCo is a symmetrical map with two sides, a day side and a night side. Each side has its own Apache and the map will end and declare that one side is the winner once one of the Apaches go down. This gimmick would work better if the map had weapons. SCMapDB page Author: Fourth Letter Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of ApacheCo (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 17, 2022 | 4129 characters      ApacheCo is your standard "kill the apache" fare found in most maps with 'apache' in their name, but this one has some twists. The first twist is that the map has two sides to it, a daytime section and a nighttime section. The other twists are that there are no weapons, there are swarms of respawning human grunts, and the outside area has a ton of other enemies running around. It's hard to do much of anything.      When I appeared in the spawn room I first noticed the detail in making the reflective floor (the room copied

       From the maker of the first Apache comes Apache 2, with not one, but two Apaches! There is also a swarm of soldiers present to make things more difficult. SCMapDB page Author: Wildcat Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Apache 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 4, 2022 | 3080 characters      Apache 2 is exactly what it says on the tin: An apache, too; as in, two apaches.      Apache 2 is a small map consisting of a friendly base full of friendly soldiers, ammo caches, and resupplies. Climbing to the roof from a ladder pitches the players immediately against two apaches, but also gives cover in the form of walled structures atop the roof, and a minigun for a good defense in the form a good offense. You can't spend too much time up there, however, unless you have enough people on the ground level making sure Blackops soldiers don't rush the base, kill your soldiers, and make resupplying a ninja nightmare.      That's real

      From the maker of the first Apache comes Apache 2, with not one, but two Apaches! There is also a swarm of soldiers present to make things more difficult. SCMapDB page Author: Wildcat Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Apache 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 3, 2022 | 1690 characters      The sequel to Apache 1 funnily enough has two apache helicopters. The map description says take down two but we only killed one and the map immediately ended.      Players start off in a hallway, in two rooms on either side of he hallway there are weapons, including a rocket launcher. There is also a set of HEV and health stations, but one HEV station is nonfunctional, which is a shame because that severely limits how much armor players can get. At the end of the hallway is a way outside where a swarm of soldiers waits and two apaches fly overhead. I kept ignoring the guys and hitting the helicopters, they had a lot of health. My teammate helped

       This map appears to be the opening sequence of a larger map set. Players spawn in the back of a truck, trapped with no hope of escape. If a player noclips out and uses a certain section of the truck's front bumper the truck will move to the other end of the tunnel it is in. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Metsa0 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | February 20, 2022 | 2308 characters      Metsa is, I speculate, an unfinished idea for a map. Perhaps it was an inspired narrative idea, to have several players driven, confined by a cage, in a truck through a jungle toward the next map as his version of the Half-Life tram ride intro. But, that's all entirely speculation.      I figured I would begin my review with speculation because there's little else to go on. The map is clearly broken. Players spawn in the back of a truck, as described above. However, there's nothing pushing the truck forward.

      This map appears to be the opening sequence of a larger map set. Players spawn in the back of a truck, trapped with no hope of escape. If a player noclips out and uses a certain section of the truck's front bumper the truck will move to the other end of the tunnel it is in. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Metsa0 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | February 20, 2022 | 1320 characters      Players spawn trapped in the back of a truck. There is a gauss cannon here but nothing else. It is very boring and there is nothing to do.      Noclipping out of the truck reveals a long hallway. There are explosives on the sides that trigger enemies when they explode. It was only after my teammate persisted in trying to get the truck to move that the truck did actually start to move. Apparently he used the back bumper and that worked, the truck started moving. We tried getting the truck to move while inside it but that p

       Aerial Contact is a reimagining of the classic map series Apache Battle. Five Apache helicopters will assault the player and all five must be destroyed to win the map. SCMapDB page Author: Hezus Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Aerial Contact (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | February 19, 2022 | 3324 characters      Aerial Contact is a map that takes a strange approach to a simple concept: fight five apaches, one after the other, from a secure complex while grunts and male assassins harass from afar. The assassins and grunts respawn endlessly, while the apaches only respawn enough times for you to fight five before the map rather abruptly ends in fanfareless victory for the players.      One of the main features of the map is two large turrets. One is situated in the fortified complex in which the players spawn- this turret is a big machinegun which turns at a glacial pace. Across from the fortress there is a rocketlauncher turret whic

      Aerial Contact is a reimagining of the classic map series Apache Battle. Five Apache helicopters will assault the player and all five must be destroyed to win the map. SCMapDB page Author: Hezus Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Aerial Contact (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | February 19, 2022 | 2522 characters      The map concept is simple, kill apache helicopters. The spawn area is at the bottom floor of a tower along with a door to the outside, a tiny bit of HEV and ammo, and a ladder up. The middle floor has a glass window that will instantly be shattered by the apache shooting inside. There is a shotgun and grenades along with some trip mines here. There is also a gun turret that is so very slow, I find it useless. The third level has unbreakable glass, a magnum with some ammo, and the button to open the door at the bottom floor. This door will close slowly both setting a time limit on getting out and ensuring players can not retur

       Putki is a kz map, which stands for Kreedz Climbing. There is a long and arduous platforming section that leads to the goal, which is nothing. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Putki (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 29, 2022 | 2750 characters      Putki is a Robootto map, which means you know for certain upon starting it up that you are in for confusion as to whether the map is laughing with you or at you. This is one of the maps that, for me, feels like it leans more toward the latter, but I think that could also just be inherent in the design goals of a challenging platforming tube- which is exactly what this map is.      Put properly, Purki is a Robootto map wherein you traverse a challenging platforming tube. The tube is glass, and the platforming contained within is mostly wood blocks. It has a sorta cramped diameter, but can fit woodblocks and ramps which are incredibly steep and difficult to

      Putki is a kz map, which stands for Kreedz Climbing. There is a long and arduous platforming section that leads to the goal, which is nothing. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Putki (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 29, 2022 | 1386 characters      This map is very simple, players start out next to health chargers and access to a glass tube filled with platforms. Players must jump up increasingly difficult and complex platforms high up into the tube until they finally reach a ladder up to a small empty house at the top.      The platforming is ridiculously hard, I failed at the easy stuff and my teammate got almost to the end before he fell off and decided to noclip back to where he was instead of climbing. I don't blame him. I am not a fan of first person platforming and I was very annoyed at the platforming in this map. My teammate didn't like it either.      There is no reward at the end of

       We must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs, in the deep places of the world. SCMapDB page Author: NIPPER Date of final release: 2004, community fix on 2019 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Moria (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 23, 2022 | 5667 characters      Moria is one of many Nipper map projects which recreates a piece of pop culture. This time, it's the Mines of Moria scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring. This begins in the ambush scene where the orcs and the cave troll attack, and ends after the fellowship flee the Balrog.      Nipper has been an expert mapper for Counter-Strike for years, playfully recreating and parodying things through brushwork and simple textures in the top tiers. For that, it shouldn't be much of a surprise to learn that the map looks pretty good. It looks like the scene from the movie, with some fun small details included. The map doesn&#

       We must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs, in the deep places of the world. SCMapDB page Author: NIPPER Date of final release: 2004, community fix on 2019 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Moria (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 23, 2022 | 6267 characters      When I was a wee lad playing Counter-Strike 1.6 I knew of Nipper from the great and fun maps he made, usually with a prominently displayed "NIPPER" somewhere in the map. When I first got into Sven all those years ago I saw that Nipper had made a bunch of Sven maps and from then I had just assumed they were the greatest Sven maps ever made. Now that I'm older and cynical I can understand that not all of Nipper's ideas were solid gold.      The map starts off with a pet peeve of mine, enemies in player spawn. This isn't so bad in this map, as players spawn on a raised platform around the edge of the room. But the middle area

       This map has three rooms, a bedroom, a balcony/bathroom/closet area, and dark hallways that lead nowhere. The map description says as much. This map is very small. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Koti (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 22, 2022 | 1797 characters      koti is a map which seems to exist as only a showcase of a brushwork representation of a bedroom. Being that it is a Robootto map, it's weird as shit.      The bedroom itself is like the Twilight Zone- everything is off just a little. There's a ladder to a bunk over a computer desk, but there's not actually any bed up there. There's an alien looking game system, around which are game boxes for individual levels. I have never bought games one level at a time, but apparently that's how games work here. Also the ceiling light is this bizarre glittering cube with a glass cone sticking out of the bottom. The computer in

      This map has three rooms, a bedroom, a balcony/bathroom/closet area, and dark hallways that lead nowhere. The map description says as much. This map is very small. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Koti (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 22, 2022 | 1133 characters      Its hard for me to get mad at a map with a description as accurate as Koti. This map is a bedroom connected to dark empty rooms. The bedroom has what appears to be a bathroom complete with a window players can shatter and look outside. There is some sort of game system with a button on top players can use to open and close a cd tray. There is what appears to be a closet door that players can't reach due to the layout of the room. The top bunk is inaccessible due to being too close to the ceiling. The proportions were a little off, parts of the room were too cramped to even stand, and everything besides the room is devoid of anything

       The map author, Robootto, has a tendency to make nonsense maps. This map has a nonsense name (or at least I could not figure out the meaning) and is a simple objectiveless rats style map. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Karpaselamaa (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 22, 2022 | 3180 characters      I often wonder if Robootto was an elaborate troll or just a truly baffling mapper whose design somehow accidentally hated the player.      Karpaselamaa is a "rats style" map which in this instance means it includes LARGE objects. By this metric, some other Robootto maps may be considered rats maps too.      In this case the large objects are a television, a glass of water, a remote control, and a houseplant. You'll notice that I didn't say an environment- usually a rats map is like "bedroom" or "kitchen" or "garage" or something. Nah, this is Robootto. You

      The map author, Robootto, has a tendency to make nonsense maps. This map has a nonsense name (or at least I could not figure out the meaning) and is a simple objectiveless rats style map. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Karpaselamaa (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 22, 2022 | 2591 characters I really like rats maps. I love being small in a big world and running in and out of everyday items. I feel like the approach the author took to making a rats map is to make things as inconvenient and frustrating as possible.      Players spawn on top of a potted plant thing. There are branches below that look like they can be platformed, this is a trap, players bounce off and fall to their deaths. There is a thin slice of elevator floating right next to spawn, players who don't want to die should jump on top and ride the slow elevator all the way down where it will sink into the ground (or rather into the