Sven Co-op Map Reviews

      Inspired by the very similar Breakfree 1 and 2, in this map players ride an elevator up through some deadly obstacles. Elevators in Sven Co-op are prone to killing players so only the luckiest folks will make it to the end. SCMapDB page Author: Zorak Date of release: 2009 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Break GO: Game Over (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 29, 2023 | 2424 characters      Break-Go: Game Over is a map inspired by Breakfree. I would characterize it almost like a fanmap, for how much of Breakfree's gimmick it apes. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it does feel pertinent to point out as it very succinctly characterizes this map.      Much like Breakfree, Break-Go features a floating loser pool which players respawn in and which moves parallel to the main gameplay elevator. The elevator houses the players, goes up, and stops at the top where players can kill a scientist a...

      Inspired by the very similar Breakfree 1 and 2, in this map players ride an elevator up through some deadly obstacles. Elevators in Sven Co-op are prone to killing players so only the luckiest folks will make it to the end. SCMapDB page Author: Zorak Date of release: 2009 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Break GO: Game Over (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 29, 2023 | 2321 characters      This map was inspired by Breakfree, and right when the map started I thought that maybe I was playing the next map in that series. But no, this map was made by a different author and does a few things differently, but it's also mostly the same.      So the whole premise of the map is that players are on an elevator going up through a shaft filled with obstacles. We have lots of rotating brushes that will splatter incautious players and dead players get stuck in a viewing room where they can only watch the live players ...

      This map touts many puzzles and platforming, some of it is even decently clever. The visuals are trippy and interesting and I just now learned from the map description that the whole thing is fullbright, it looks great for fulbright. SCMapDB page Author: TheBard Date of release: 2009 Maps in package:1 Map review of Braindrain (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 16, 2023 | 2757 characters      Braindrain is a platforming puzzle map that pulls some intelligent tricks, some bullshit tricks, and does so with eye-blasting visuals and some fun audio.      First of all, the texturework is great. There's a good number of visual effects that go on in this map, some of which I rarely see (like distorted perspective stretching in a hallway) and the fun looks carry the map. Between every puzzle is a cute little interesting area, and each area is interesting in itself.      There are some really fu...

      This map touts many puzzles and platforming, some of it is even decently clever. The visuals are trippy and interesting and I just now learned from the map description that the whole thing is fullbright, it looks great for fulbright. SCMapDB page Author: TheBard Date of release: 2009 Maps in package:1 Map review of Braindrain (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 16, 2023 | 3604 characters      This map has a variety of non-combat challenges. It advertises itself as a puzzle map but I would say it has just as many platforming elements to it as well. There are a couple areas that are annoying and tedious that I cheated around but I[m having trouble feeling guilty about it.      So my teammate and I start the level and we are at the top of a big room filled with red gridlines. We are standing on transparent floors that have light red gridlines on them and there are multiple floors of this down to the bottom o...

    Agog means to be very eager to hear or see something. Be agog for this map as it has interesting visuals, puzzles, combat, and some very impressive sequences. Mind the eye strain. SCmapDB page Author: RNG Date of release: 2009 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Psychic Agog (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by dunkelschwamm | January 22, 2023 | 3527 characters      Psychic Agog is a seemingly "beta" map release by RNG. It's been in this state going on 14 years now, so I think it's probably safe to presume RNG's interests have moved on and we can take a look on what this beta release stands to say on its own now.      The map is an action walkthrough with the slightest, slightest hint of a puzzle element. Players traverse a surreal (but not THAT surreal by RNG standards) illusion world which exists as some sort of experiment. Players traverse the initial stage by exploring an open area and solving tiny contextual puzzles in the environ...

    Agog means to be very eager to hear or see something. Be agog for this map as it has interesting visuals, puzzles, combat, and some very impressive sequences. Mind the eye strain. SCmapDB page Author: RNG Date of release: 2009 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Psychic Agog (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 22, 2023 | 3584 characters     This map is just a beta and is unfortunately never going to be 'finished', however it is still playable and is fairly polished as well. The first half has some trippy scenery followed by some space zombie fighting with cube gathering.      The map starts us out in a big black and white grid field with some basic but evocative geometry. large cubes dot the area along with some floating and gyrating cubes above, some interesting towers and some buildings with obvious purpose. This is a puzzle, an escape room of sorts and it is pretty fun. Each time we solved a piece of it there would be...

    I'll give you ten guesses as to what this map is about. After breaking the progressively stronger glass panes a scientist and his two friends is revealed. SCMapDB page Author: Shinkichi Date of final release: 2009 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Break The Glass (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | October 27, 2022 | 1941 characters      Break The Glass is a map for Sven Co-op. Several panes of glass stand parallel to one another, completely from one side of a large room to the other, obstructing the player's progression forward. The player must break through each using crowbars to proceed. Does it work?      I'd say maybe with a bunch of players it would. The players move from one end of the room to the other breaking the glass, which takes a while to break each pane, until they get to a scientist, a barney, and an otis. Bashing the brains out of the scientist immediately ends the map. The guards are inconsequential, and will onl...

      I'll give you ten guesses as to what this map is about. After breaking the progressively stronger glass panes a scientist and his two friends is revealed. SCMapDB page Author: Shinkichi Date of final release: 2009 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Break The Glass (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | October 27, 2022 | 1287 characters      In Break the Glass we break some glass. The map is one big room with the same brick texture on all sides and many glass panes separating players from Otis, Kliener, and Barney. The glass panes get progressively stronger and players are only armed with a crowbar. With two players it took about ten minutes to break through, kill the scientist, thus instantly ending the map.      We restarted again, this time cheating to get SAWs, and blazed through about 1400 rounds each before breaking all the panes and killing Otis and Barney and letting the scientist live. He ran in terror as we shot at his...

      Featuring 15 authors, 7 years of development (or 12 depending on how you define 'development time'), and 7 individual maps, The Community Map Project is a beast of a map set. Somewhat unrelated, but this post taught me that Blogger has limits to how many labels a post can have, a max of 20, when I was tagging this post I was forced to leave out 'series' and 'Black Mesa'. SCMapDB page Authors: al_peggio, Amckern, Aurora, BMT, Dan200, eMTeG, Fortune2, Hezus, Koelzk, Morgan, Nih, PD-KC, Penguin, The_6th_monkey, The-Real-Game (Due to the number of authors and the page tag limit of 20, not all authors are tagged) Date of final release: 2009, updated version 2015 Maps in package: 7 Map review of The Community Map Project (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | August 14, 2022 | 11013 characters      The Community Map Project is a series of maps for Sven Co-op. They play as a mostly walkthrough set which features lots of action, some interesting s...

    Featuring 15 authors, 7 years of development (or 12 depending on how you define 'development time'), and 7 individual maps, The Community Map Project is a beast of a map set. Somewhat unrelated, but this post taught me that Blogger has limits to how many labels a post can have, a max of 20, when I was tagging this post I was forced to leave out 'series' and 'Black Mesa'. SCMapDB page Authors: al_peggio, Amckern, Aurora, BMT, Dan200, eMTeG, Fortune2, Hezus, Koelzk, Morgan, Nih, PD-KC, Penguin, The_6th_monkey, The-Real-Game (Due to the number of authors and the page tag limit of 20, not all authors are tagged) Date of final release: 2009, updated version 2015 Maps in package: 7 Map review of The Community Map Project (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | August 14, 2022 | 6073 characters      This is an interesting map pack and presents somewhat of a problem to review. It's got about 15 authors and according to the map description it did not ha...

       Big Lolly is a conversion of a standalone mod made for the author's brother's birthday. It's short and sweet,  pun intended . SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Cayle George Conversion authors: Royal-soldier Date of original mod release: 2003 Date of final Sven Map release: 2009 Maps in package: 6 Map review of Biglolly Coop (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 30, 2022 | 3752 characters      Biglolly Coop is a Sven Co-op port of the Half-Life mod Big Lolly. My understanding is that Big Lolly was originally made as a birthday gift to the author's brother. If my brother were to make a mod like this for me, I wouldn't even know what to say.      The port is very straight-forward and faithfully plays out the original mod in Sven Co-op. I remember playing this port a while back and having difficulty with it, but seeing that it has been patched makes sense as to why this time around the experience was so smoot...

      Big Lolly is a conversion of a standalone mod made for the author's brother's birthday. It's short and sweet, pun intended . SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Cayle George Conversion authors: Royal-soldier Date of original mod release: 2003 Date of final Sven Map release: 2009 Maps in package: 6 Map review of Biglolly Coop (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 30, 2022 | 1854 characters      Biglolly is a map that looks really good. The textures are nice, the level design is interesting, and the candyland concept is really fun. The map series may consist of 5 maps but each one is so short the whole thing just flies by. Enemies are zombies reskinned to be gingerbread men, headcrabs reskinned to be red gummy bears, and cockroaches reskinned to be tiny sour patch kids. There are also some nice butterflies flying around the maps and players can pick up snarks which are green gummy bears. The crowbar was a lollipop and the pistol was a ...

       This map is all about fighting the mafia (triads?) in China. It's got the Shanghai aesthetic down pretty well and a very well made harbor. SCMapDB page Author: MysticMDT Date of final release: 2010 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Shanghai Harbor (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | December 12, 2021 | 2077 characters      Shanghai Harbor is a good ol' map. It's a straight-forward walkthrough map with bosses placed throughout, themed areas between them, an overarching theme, a clear goal, clear routes of progression, clear enemies and a clear threat, a clear sense of completion, and great visual style throughout.      Battle your way through a palatial harbor castle full of blackops grunts and female assassins, a sewer system full of mutant gonomes and headcrabs, and the harbor full of snipers. Take out each of the mob bosses along the way and stock up on an increasingly versatile mercenary weapons as you forge your w...

      This map is all about fighting the mafia(triads?) in China. It's got the Shanghai aesthetic down pretty well and a very well made harbor. SCMapDB page Author: MysticMDT Date of final release: 2010 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Shanghai Harbor (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | December 12, 2021 | 2632 characters      This map has a really nice vibe to it, the architecture and the enemies go together well to suggest a high stakes shootout between the mafia and the players.      The map starts with me getting shot. I am not a fan of enemies in the spawn area so this immediately put a sour taste in my mouth. Luckily the rest of the map washed it out, that was the only time enemies shot me at spawn and they were quickly dealt with.      I died a lot in this map. Each room is filled with male and female assassins. Players have a good selection of weapons they start with but it is still quite challenging with h...

       Half-Quake Amen is a rather famous mod with a focus on save scumming and nasty traps. I haven't played the standalone mod but from what I hear it's really focused on messing with the player. Now it is available for Sven Co-op at the expense of some of its features. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Muddasheep Conversion authors: Royal-soldier Date of original mod release: 2002 Date of final Sven Map release: 2009 Maps in package: 26 Map review of Half-Quake Amen Coop (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by dunkelschwamm | December 1, 2021 | 3027 characters      Half-Quake Amen is one of my personal favorite Half-Life mods. It's funny, tricky, and does a lot of weird gonzo shit that pokes fun at the concepts of "intuitive gameplay" and "rule of fun" which were all the craze when Half-Life had come out. Often the player is comedically punished for relying on intuition, and the mod reminds you from beginning to end that this is Half-Quake and you ...

      Half-Quake Amen is a rather famous mod with a focus on save scumming and nasty traps. I haven't played the standalone mod but from what I hear it's really focused on messing with the player. Now it is available for Sven Co-op at the expense of some of its features. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Muddasheep Conversion authors: Royal-soldier Date of original mod release: 2002 Date of final Sven Map release: 2009 Maps in package: 26 Map review of Half-Quake Amen Coop (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by GrandmasterJ | December 1, 2021 | 3283 characters      I remember when the original Half Quake came out and my friend absolutely raved about it. He kept trying to get me to play and but I wasn't all that into the modding scene at that point. So when we got back into Sven and saw that Half Quake was converted we finally got to playing it.      I had fun. I love the concept of the creators themselves having a conversation with the play...

      This map is an attempt to recreate, or at least pay homage to, the super fast racing series F-Zero. It has a track and forces players to be these floating car things. Be warned: there are flashing lights and high pitched music in this map. SCMapDB page Author: Royal-soldier Date of final release: 2009 Maps in package: 1 Map review of F-zero X (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by dunkelschwamm | December 1, 2021 | 2640 characters      Quomodo umquam domum perveniam postquam tam celeriter fui?      F-Zero X is a racing game for the N64 known for intense speeds, gravity-defying courses, rockin' soundtracks, and BOOST POWER.      f_zero_x, the map for Sven Coop, is a barely functioning facsimile of F-Zero X which features a crunched version of Dream Catcher from the F-Zero X soundtrack and gameplay to match the seizure-inducing flashing start area. That's actually worth mentioning a little greater, actually: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

      This map is an attempt to recreate, or at least pay homage to, the super fast racing series F-Zero. It has a track and forces players to be these floating car things. Be warned: there are flashing lights and high pitched music in this map. SCMapDB page Author: Royal-soldier Date of final release: 2009 Maps in package: 1 Map review of F-zero X (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by GrandmasterJ | November 30, 2021 | 1421 characters      This map is terrible.      The map starts off with the players in a garish room with large black buttons that say 'start'. Player speed is so high that the briefest tap on W sends you flying headfirst into the opposite wall. I don't know how but my teammate managed to press the start button. As for me I just could not position myself in front of it. I keep flying into a wall and sliding into the corner. I tired using the button from the side but it just didn't work.      My teammate meanwh...