Sven Co-op Map Reviews

      A fairly standard horde map with an Osprey, not the monster that drops off endless supplies of soldiers but a big driveable func_vehicle Osprey. Fly around the battlefield and shoot soldiers. SCMapDB page Authors: CkDead Date of release: ???? Maps in package: 1 Map review of Ck Osprey (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 7, 2024 | 1797 characters      This is a fairly simple horde map, players get a little fortress with plenty of supplies and a big drivable Osprey we can use to fly over a battlefield of infinite human grunts. There is a sentry gun that overlooks spawn and it will absolutely shoot players the moment they appear, but there's only one and it had a reasonable amount of health. Underbarrel grenades with M16s, crossbows, grenades, and an mp5 lay on the ground to help players kill the grunts. I much prefer the crossbow. There was also a turret on top of a tower but I didn't interact with it much.      The r...

      Kill a bunch of soldiers and aliens in some generic warehouses and offices somewhere in a red brick city. It's a pretty straightforward map that requires at least two people. SCMapDB page Authors: Daniel Plant Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Civil Defence (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 7, 2024 | 1418 characters      Players fight their way out of an high rise, onto the streets, through some sewers, then back onto the streets. It's soldiers at first but then suddenly aliens start to appear. Progressing in the map is rewarded with enemies spawning in already cleared out areas, so respawning is fun.      Combat sections typically consist of arenas or hallways that enemies can flood into. They don't have crazy high amounts of health and we can generally gun them down pretty fast, but when we have to fight male assassins with snipers and M16s with grenades it gets tricky. There is HEV scattere...

       Inspired by 'I am Legend' players fight the eponymous Dark Seekers in an abandoned city. Solve puzzles, find a way to escape, and beware the large amounts of high health enemies! SCMapDB page Authors: Goanna Date of release: 2008 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Dark Seekers (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 7, 2024 | 4838 characters      Dark Seekers is a duo of horror maps based loosely on the I Am Legend scenario. In the first map you search buildings to find necessary items to solve puzzles while being harassed by the titular dark seekers- zombies which run and take quite a bit of damage to kill. The second map takes the players through a dark seeker infested subway tunnel, until they surface into a warzone where hostile soldiers battle dark seekers in the streets. Both maps are very different in gameplay tone, but manage to feel appropriate together in atmosphere and theme.      The first map is slow i...

      Inspired by 'I am Legend' players fight the eponymous Dark Seekers in an abandoned city. Solve puzzles, find a way to escape, and beware the large amounts of high health enemies! SCMapDB page Authors: Goanna Date of release: 2008 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Dark Seekers (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 7, 2024 | 3574 characters      The short version is that we fight a bunch of fast zombies in spooky derelict city and subway levels. The eponymous Dark Seekers are inspired by the vampire things in I Am Legend and they definitely do resemble the things I saw in the movie, bald, pale, and fast. A big list of objectives is at the start of each map and it is immensely helpful as both maps are pretty big and it can be a pain figuring out where to go.      We start off in a city and on our first steps forward we find the dark seekers, all sitting on the ground and as one they turn their heads and rise to their feet...

    Drop into a blocky city and start killing hordes of monsters. Eventually through some arcane invocations (breaking the right stuff) the enemies will cease to appear. SCMapDB page Authors: Agent Zero the Koraa Hunter Date of release: 2018 Maps in package: 1 Map review of City Rush (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | October 16, 2023 | 3543 characters      City Rush is a map that focuses heavily on a zombie horde, of the too-much-health variety. The map explicitly tells us to break a window and it takes a lot of damage and we were doubting what the map was telling us. But an early word of advice, keep hitting those windows. After that we faced a huge swarm of enemies that eventually petered out.      On map start my teammate and I ran in different directions, he tripped a cutscene that I had to watch and then shortly after I tripped a cutscene that he had to watch. I'm glad these scenes are over quickly and before zombies get here b...

      This is a nice looking map with a mixture of combat, platforming, and puzzles. A lot of the map looks well done and then there are some spots where enemies just get dumped in the level and one terrible platforming section. SCMapDB page Author: Headz Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Crood Coop (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | August 19, 2023 | 4582 characters      This is a fun map with really nice visuals, lots of explosives, and monsters with a lot of health. There are also some interesting puzzles and lots and lots of walking.      We start in a room with a turret, the map slowly fades in and we get to hear the turret deploy and target us. We are shot before we can really see or do anything and if I was alone that fight would have been ten times harder and more frustrating. We get a shotgun here and enough shells and 9mm to supply one player fully, leaving one of us to wait for it to all respawn. ...

      We descend into the eponymous bunker and fight aliens and soldiers in our quest to turn off the power. The map is nice enough but there is a supposedly better remake that exists which sort of makes this version obsolete. SCMapDB page Author: Max Helbig Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Central Bunker (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 23, 2023 | 3129 characters      This map is action packed and ammo starved. We fight our way to the bottom of a big bunker complex past an odd assortment of enemies until we kill a garg and complete the map. There are a lot of areas that connect with each other and the map opens up in a cool way, but it never gives us enough ammo.      We start outside, be careful trying to jump down the hole or go through a door, the big door explodes and it took me with it. The hole is a shortcut that currently kills you. After the door is blown open we can go through an adjacent d...

      Case Closed is one of the many singleplayer Half-Life mods ported over to Sven Co-op. We go around and see all the familiar sights around Black Mesa, especially the sewers, and eventually we are able to get out. SCMapDB page Original map author: EraSerx Conversion author: Hezus Date of original mod release: 2001 Date of final Sven Map release: 2005 Maps in package: 10 Map review of Case Closed (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by GrandmasterJ | July 9, 2023 | 4977 characters      We return back to Black Mesa once again in a port of a single player mod that puts us in the shoes of a janitor. We wander through familiar sights, mostly sewers, fight familiar enemies and eventually we hit a cutscene of our extraction and the map just kind of lingers there forcing me to end the map manually.      As soon as we start the map I notice something, I am lagging. My teammate doesn't have the same problem and I am hosting, it gets better in some ...

      Hang out and wait in a lobby and amuse yourself with a giant sound system with lots of different music. This map is meant to be a waiting room so there isn't much else to do here. SCMapDB page Author: Sence Date of release: 2019 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Chillplace v1337 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 6, 2023 | 1509 characters      This is sort of a sequel to Chillplace v2 or maybe a remake. The goal is the same, as a sort of lobby or waiting room map. Besides pressing buttons on a massive sound system to play a staggering number of music tracks there is no gameplay. I noclipped around and saw nothing hidden either.      The scenery is pretty good looking though. We have some majestic mountains with incredibly stretched out textures. It looked pretty bad close up but it also gave the map a warped sense of scale that worked well with the scenery and dim blue lighting. There's also a chilling horrible monster...

      The only interactive feature of this map seems to be a big boombox that plays many sounds. The rest of the map is a tiny room that looks very interesting, the map is a lobby so there isn't all that much to do. SCMapDB page Author: Sence Date of release: 2013 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Chillplace v2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 2, 2023 | 2197 characters      This map is supposed to be a waiting room between maps, and I think it accomplishes that. The map is entertaining enough for about five minutes but then it gets old.      The map itself is a really fantastic looking grassy green hill with a big well detailed tree in the middle. The hill slopes down rather sharply and ends in a black abyss, rock cliff walls surround us on the other side of the abyss. We can't drop down because there is an invisible wall keeping us on top of the hill. There are a lot of invisible walls, they become problematic around the ...

      Ride on a helicopter, sans Wagner, and shoot down at the enemies below. Occasionally enemy helicopters will appear but there is a rocket launcher on the map so they go down easy. SCMapDB page Author: Unknown Date of release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Chopper Ride (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 2, 2023 | 1522 characters      This is a very simple but fun horde map where players get to fly a helicopter on a fixed route around a big arena filled with human grunts and sometimes apaches. Players spawn up top on a cliff and there is a path around the center of the map in a big donut where all the enemies are, opposite player spawn is another cliff we can access the chopper.      The map has some ok weapons, in spawn we get a crossbow, rocket launcher, underbarrel grenades (which come with an M16), and an uzi. The chopper starts here but it can be controlled like any other func_vehicle so any player can drive...

       We have another Carnival map, but I don't think this one is a sequel as the author is unknown. It has some fun rides that work well when they aren't killing players. Beware spawning in the ceiling. SCMapDB page Author: Unknown Date of release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Carnival 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 26, 2023 | 2948 characters      Carnival 2 is a map apparently by an unknown author. I guess that means it's not an official, canonical sequel to Carnival by Kune. This map works a bit as a spiritual successor, in that it follows a similar premise. However, this time around the map functions purely as a hangout map and not as a walkthrough action map.      The rides are front-and-center on this map. Though there is a barely functional skee ball game in a cellar beneath a desert butte, just about everything else in this map that cries "carnival" is crying it through jankily constructed carn...

      We have another Carnival map, but I don't think this one is a sequel as the author is unknown. It has some fun rides that work well when they aren't killing players. Beware spawning in the ceiling. SCMapDB page Author: Unknown Date of release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Carnival 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 26, 2023 | 2338 characters      This is a fun little map with some carnival rides scattered around. We have a roller coaster thing, one of those centrifugal force spinners, skee-ball, a big arm thing, a dunk tank, and a ferris wheel.      I spawned inside a ceiling. For those of you who don't know, pressing 'L' will unstick the player. This is vital to respawning because of the spawn point above the skee-ball. There is another spawn point on top of a rock wall, the spawn points are very strange in this map.      But after I pressed L and unstuck myself I found all the rides were re...

       It's all fun and games here, except for a short walkthrough section at the end. But besides that there are three different games to play and they all give prizes! Be careful pressing that yellow button though. SCMapDB page Author: Kune Date of release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Carnival (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 22, 2023 | 3065 characters      Carnival is an action carnival game map. Players play carnival games which revolve around using weapons, fight aliens by using weapons, roam around in an underground playground, take an underground tram ride, and fight more aliens.      Okay, so let's break things down. Things start with three main games: throw a grenade at a perfect arc through three panes of glass to a target (the most challenging as the grenade bouncing back is most likely to harm the players); throw satchel charges into chutes to explode tiny triggers within; and use mounted snipe...

          Building is a short jaunt through what seems to be some sort of skyscraper filled with human grunts. It's not too difficult and will be over very fast. SCMapDB page Author: Jouko Lehtonen Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Building (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 29, 2023 | 2374 characters      This is a fairly standard walkthrough map and it takes place in a sort of bland office environment instead of Black Mesa. It played very straightforward with human grunts filling rooms. At first we have pistols but we eventually pistol two heavy weapons grunts down and take their miniguns which made most of the rest of the map much easier. There were shotguns, revolvers, and uzis around but when I ran out of minigun ammo another heavy weapons grunt appeared and I just got another one. I went from pistol to minigun.      The gameplay is interspersed with sections where we have to...

      The extended version of Breakout, which can be found on the same page as this map on the database, feels more like a revised and finished version. It's a lot of standard looking Black Mesa architecture with tons of buttons to open doors and spawn monsters.  SCMapDB page Author: Chris Silcock Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Breakout Extended (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 13, 2023 | 4766 characters      So this is the extended version of Breakout, which is also available for download on the Breakout Extended page but doesn't have it's own page. We didn't realize we could play the original until right before writing our reviews so we just noclipped through it to see the difference. The difference is a whole new section, almost half the map added after the dead end in the original. We didn't play for realsies but we did try to end the map to no avail, so I'm guessing this is more like a fin...

      Breaking the tradition of the previous two entries, number three ditches the elevator and goes for a straight up platforming map. Visit beautiful Wing Fortress from Sonic 2 and confront Eggman inside. SCMapDB page Author:Beather Date of release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Breakfree 3 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 30, 2023 | 3430 characters      Breakfree 3 is the third and final map in the series, this time instead of going up an elevator shaft like the first two we get to platform over a big airship. My teammate told me the level is based on Wing Fortress and then showed me a video of the level and I can agree that this is indeed a recreation of a Sonic 2 level.      We start in a room with a minute long timer before the map starts. There are things that look like buttons here but these are lies and do nothing. When the minute is up we get teleported onto a plane, well my teammate made i...

      Explore a massive bedroom and office and find a bunch of secrets. Players get lots of weapons and low gravity to make navigation much easier.  SCMapDB page Author: Fourth Letter Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of DBJR (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 30, 2023 | 4136 characters      I'm a big fan of rats maps, maps where the map is so big the players feel like they are very small. This rats map has the gravity turned down low and longjump given to players on map start, so it's pretty easy to get around.      We start off in a big room and begin to explore. I guess I am just naturally suicidal because the first place I checked out was the fan cord plugged into an outlet, which will gib players if they get near it. Right next to that is a teleporter to the top of a computer from where we can survey the room. A paper airplane makes loops in mid-air, the long jump really helps in g...

      This map is a visual as well as an architectural mishmash. Players must navigate the unusual level design and appearance to find giant floating blue orbs. Collecting ten out of twelve will end the map. SCMapDB page Author: Keen Date of release: 2012 Maps in package:1 Map review of Boredgasm (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 16, 2023 | 3211 characters      This map has a lot of author credits and is labelled as unfinished. Plus the main author, Keen, is known for his wacky mish mash of artstyles. The result is a crazy melange of twisty hallways, secret doors leading to secret areas, and some unique and tasteless art.      We start off more or less in the middle of the map, from the map description I know we have to look for blue orbs and press on Picard's face, but none of that is communicated in-map. We spent a good long time exploring all the crazy nooks and crannies and finding orbs before running out...

      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...