Sven Co-op Map Reviews

      This map is sort of a mall, we have a big building with stores, bars, and some sort of storage area. There's a locked door players must find their way behind but beyond that the map is light on interaction and focuses more on exploration. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto, RNG, Poka Date of release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Shopping Centre (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 1, 2023 | 2901 characters      Shopping Centre seems to be a shopping mall including some vaguely interesting shops from the likes of Robootto, RNG, and Poka, including the Sushi Shop from Poka and Robootto's collab Indojapan, and some of the stuff from RNG and Robootto's collab Metal Bar.      For the most part, it's just for walking around. I think there's an interesting sense of discovery, as you find yourself hopping off from high places to find your way around. However, aside from one secretive tunnel which leads to...

      This map is sort of a mall, we have a big building with stores, bars, and some sort of storage area. There's a locked door players must find their way behind but beyond that the map is light on interaction and focuses more on exploration. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto, RNG, Poka Date of release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Shopping Centre (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 1, 2023 | 2733 characters      This is a map of a shopping center with the shops being contributed by three different mappers, RNG, Robootto, and Poka. Robootto is known for a very avant garde style bordering on nonsense. RNG is known for making very detailed grit. I don't know Poka very well.      Players are dumped in the main hallway, which is pretty blocky and plain. We have thick windows and big signs allowing us to see the stores that line the way, we have quite a selection, two of which I've seen before. There is a sus...

      Welcome to a store that sells toilets. There are no enemies, but there are plenty of weapons, scientists, and toilets to play with. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Toilet Store (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 23, 2023 | 1621 characters      Toilet Store is a hangout map that takes place in a madcap surrealist toilet store. Players spawn outside, can work their way in by breaking a glass door, and then find themselves in a toilet store populated by scientists and a G-man. The toilets are silly, have breakable glass lids. Some of them elevate, some of them go into the ground. Some are raised up. Some are in kiosks with wacky textures. There's an indestructible front door. There's a cash register. There's a rocket launcher on a bizarre grate wall outside. There's weapons just kinda laying around, some ammo laying on top of toilet seats.      If it...

      Welcome to a store that sells toilets. There are no enemies, but there are plenty of weapons, scientists, and toilets to play with. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Toilet Store (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 12, 2023 | 1655 characters    So we start off in what looks like an alley. There are some huge cardboard boxes here that we can use to jump on and grab a rocket launcher that balances precariously on the edge of sanity and reason. Then we break down the glass and enter the toilet store.      The first thing we discover is that the toilet lids are destructible and sometimes they hide supplies in the toilet bowls. I start on breaking those while my teammate discovers that some toilets sink down into the ground. We both find a toilet that floats up.      After we finish examining all the toilets we turn our attention to the scientist...

      It's a fairly standard kill box map. There are a bunch of monsters in a pit, safely away from players, and players get to pour death down the hole at their leisure. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Splatter (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 11, 2023 | 2038 characters      Splatter is a gimmick map for Sven Co-op. Some hatches in the floor allow easy access for players to drop explosives and other armaments down upon infinitely respawning aliens. That'll teach them to be aliens!      Players are supplied with rockets, satchel charges, grenades, a gauss rifle (necessary for catapulting one's self up into an upper area), under barrel grenades, and some other weapons. What matters is the explosives you can drop on the enemies. This is surprisingly fun, and the small area through which you can shoot at the enemies can make for some fun games of trying t...

      It's a fairly standard kill box map. There are a bunch of monsters in a pit, safely away from players, and players get to pour death down the hole at their leisure. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Splatter (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 11, 2023 | 2032 characters      Spawn in a safe room filled with weapons and take a peek through some holes in the floor to a pit filled with monsters. Drop a satchel charge in, launch a rocket, perhaps lob an underbarrel grenade. The monsters respawn near instantly.      That's about it for interactivity. There are some interesting things to look at, some checkerboard missing textures, a stack of unbreakable boxes, and a weird booth behind some chain link with a bunch of satchel charges in front of it. The map description says that's an admin room, and it certainly had a bunch of buttons that did some stuff. But th...

    The map description says 'jump around on steel beams' and it certainly looks like that in the screenshot, but there is a minimum of jumping. Walk up the beams to the top, explore dead end hallways, and maybe jump to your doom. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Splatter of Matter (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | February 11, 2023 | 1224 characters      Splatter-of-matter (or SOM for short) is a Sven-Coop map experience by robootto. It features a four-way symmetrical layout (or, as my buddy pointed out, "rotational symmetry") and a spiral ascent with branching hallways. One hallway leads to a shotgun shell room. The rest lead to dead ends, though some of those dead ends also have ammo. There's a ring of every weapon at the bottom where the players spawn. If you jump from the highest point down to the middle, you will gib and splatter. I have to imagine that is the intent of the...

      The map description says 'jump around on steel beams' and it certainly looks like that in the screenshot, but there is a minimum of jumping. Walk up the beams to the top, explore dead end hallways, and maybe jump to your doom. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Splatter of Matter (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | February 11, 2023 | 1370 characters      I was afraid this was going to be a hardcore climbing map, but it's really not. The whole map is one big room with a series of metal bars connecting platforms in the corners. There is no jumping around needed, just balancing on the bars is enough.      The way the map is laid out, there is a hallway at each corner of each landing, enticing the player with no less than 12 dead ends. At the top there are actual rooms down these hallways but only one door opened and it only had shotgun shells. One other room had sh...

      Get angry! Wrath is a very simple level, in fact the included screenshot shows about half the level. Also the map description says the vortigaunts are endless but after about ten they stopped spawning in. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Wrath (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 28, 2023 | 1880 characters     Wrath is a map by Robootto which contains a vortigaunt spawner, a chamber with four miniguns, and four vertical shafts filled with colored lights which players will fall through consecutively via a teleport trap if they attempt to use one of the few interactable parts of the map. The map is plainly textured, but features a look that leaves quite an impression.      Indeed, I wanted to play and review this map tonight because of how it caught my eye that RNG's map Disintegration of Time contains a chamber which so resembles this map. If you go to Disin...

      Get angry! Wrath is a very simple level, in fact the included screenshot shows about half the level. Also the map description says the vortigaunts are endless but after about ten they stopped spawning in. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Wrath (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 28, 2023 | 1734 characters     This is a very short map with no game end. Players spawn in a red room with a vortigaunt spawner. It does hurt players the moment they spawn and it does respawn vortigaunts but there is a limit, probably ten or around there. So after we killed all the vortigaunts we tried in vain to break into the window of the room in the middle of the room. I decided to head through what looked to be a doorway and fell down a rainbow colored shaft, then hit a teleporter at the bottom and fell through another shaft. Four shafts in total and then I landed inside the room in the middle o...

      Three almost identical lanes with obstacle courses. Run like the Terminator! Then longjump back and do it again, the map has no end. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Terminator Run (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 14, 2023 | 3033 characters      Terminator Run is an obstacle course map for Sven Co-op by robootto.      Robootto's pretty infamous for maps that don't really see their concept through, but I think Terminator Run is an example of a Robootto map that makes a lot of sense to me- it's a simple 3-person obstacle course with 3 (nearly) identical courses side-by-side, each a different color. Parallel to these courses are windowed corridors which spectators can traverse with ease.      When the map begins, players use a glass door which slowly lowers. It lowers so slowly that players with more experience with the engine will know exact...

      Three almost identical lanes with obstacle courses. Run like the Terminator! Then longjump back and do it again, the map has no end. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Terminator Run (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 14, 2023 | 2029 characters      This is a very straightforward map, players spawn in front of three colored lanes with an obstacle course to the other end of the map. There is a blue, red, and green route but they are all the same, except for blue becuase it does not have a shotgun at the end and the other two do for some reason.      The obstacle course itself is fairly simple, with bars blocking the way that must be jumped over or crawled under, some other simple platforming challenges, and the one I really failed at which was the ceiling ladder. At the end is a big drop into the last stretch to the finish line. As I mentioned before, red and gr...

      Don't jump down! Or do because besides hunting for hidden weapons all the gameplay is at the bottom of a pit. There is no end game trigger so this map is best for sightseeing.  SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2006 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Splatter 3 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 1, 2023 | 2260 characters      Robootto does it again with another Sven Co-op map. Relax, sit back, fire weapons endlessly into the pit of despair. Is there anything worthwhile at the bottom of the pit? If you find finding the answers to questions its own reward, then possibly!      Explore the above-pit world, which is a semi-decently brushed and not-decently textured cave interior filled with tau-or-tripmine-only reachable ledges. Don't worry- you get both! By crawling the cave, players can nearly complete their arsenal: a tau gun, snarks, tripmines, machineguns, grenades- the works.  ...

      Don't jump down! Or do because besides hunting for hidden weapons all the gameplay is at the bottom of a pit. There is no end game trigger so this map is best for sightseeing.  SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2006 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Splatter 3 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 1, 2023 | 1702 characters      I spawned in front of a sign that says "Don't jump down!", which is the same as what is written in the map description. In order to progress in the map you have to jump down.      There isn't a lot to this map, players spawn in a large, cavernous room that looks like a cavern. A deep pit exposes respawning enemies, most notably a gargantua. There are plenty of weapons scattered around the room but none of them really help in getting through the bottom of the pit, the enemies spawn too fast and the best garg killing weapon is a crossbow. There is a door down there tha...

      Welcome to a place of secrets. This map is a heaping pile of secrets and sometimes they actually work. The map works best when you are simply wandering around looking at the sights. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Secret Place (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | November 13, 2022 | 3224 characters      Secret-Place is a Sven Co-op map by robootto, designed for God only knows what hideous machinations.      The map consists largely of white blocky areas of impractical scale and clownish colored lighting, illusory walls into unlit pitch-dark mazes which themselves contain more illusory walls and some breakable walls. Being that this is a robootto map, the sight of destructible walls makes my blood pressure spike. There's no telling how long you'll be stuck whacking away at a destructible until it gives. Thankfully, most destructibles are fairly brittle. Howev...

      Welcome to a place of secrets. This map is a heaping pile of secrets and sometimes they actually work. The map works best when you are simply wandering around looking at the sights. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Secret Place (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | November 13, 2022 | 2780 characters      I'm always uneasy with secret maps for the sole reason that it is hard for me to tell if I've found everything, I'm pretty bad at finding secrets so I'm usually missing like half the map. To add to my difficulty the author for this map is Robootto, who is known for off the wall and barely functional (and sometimes completely nonfunctional) maps. So a secret map where the secrets might not even work, great.      So the map starts and I start breaking through an obvious breakable wall. We go through a few of these, picking up the odd weapon and some ammo, my teamma...

       Welcome to the most evil map of Sven Co-op. Enter the big chompy mouth and then attempt to explore. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Satanic Dark Wrath Castle (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | October 9, 2022 | 1673 characters      Satanic Dark Wrath Castle is a map by robootto to, I presume, show off some esoteric brushwork ideas. The map begins with the players outside of the titular castle, which is entered either through a chomper trap front door or a higher up entrance that players ascent blocks to reach. Once inside, the map is dark save for some intense colored lighting and some strobes. The inside and the outside of the castle, alike, are mostly nonsensical structures which are a bit interesting to look at, the way geometric shapes tend to be from time to time, but drenched in eye-searing strobe.      Players can find doors that open to the word "Hel...

      Welcome to the most evil map of Sven Co-op. Enter the big chompy mouth and then attempt to explore. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Satanic Dark Wrath Castle (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | October 9, 2022 | 3237 characters      This is a satanic map, I can tell because at one point I opened a room that had the word 'Hell' written out in very long 3D block lettering and above it, on the back wall, was the phrase 'satanic map'. This is definitely the most evil map of all Sven, only a monster would place player weapons individually in vats of opaque water.      Players spawn in a small courtyard, with the aforementioned vats of water each containing a weapon. There are two doors here, one is locked and I don't know how to open it. The other is a mouth with sharp spikes that absolutely will chomp on players attempted to get past it. Fret not because there is a smal...

       There are two castles in separate rooms joined by a catwalk at the very tops of the castles' towers. Cramped and slow elevators allow access to the tops of the towers, enemies pack the corridors below. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Robo's Castle Wars (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | October 2, 2022 | 2567 characters      Robo's Castle Wars is a map by robootto. Like many maps by robootto, it defies classification both by pure unique spirit and because its hostile presentation is enough to dissuade any from trying.      Castle wars starts by plummeting players down through two vertical shafts that teleport the player forward before they impact the ground. It's annoying and it happens every time the player respawns. It's a very robootto move, and I think I've seen it more than one of his other maps.      The main body of the map is a kind of...

      There are two castles in separate rooms joined by a catwalk at the very tops of the castles' towers. Cramped and slow elevators allow access to the tops of the towers, enemies pack the corridors below. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Robo's Castle Wars (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | October 2, 2022 | 2543 characters      This map has some colored lighting that gives the whole thing a surreal feeling. The texturing is pretty bad and very flat but that adds to the somewhat disorienting experience of playing this map. Half the time I was playing I was intrigued by the level design and aesthetic but the other half I was annoyed at the elevators and respawning headcrabs.      Players spawn in a long shaft headed down. Players of Nuclear Poison by the same author will recognize this shaft as being the entire map of Nuclear Poison pasted right in. At the bottom of the...