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Showing posts with the label arena

City of the Dead - Dunkelschwamm

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       Fight waves of zombies in a city themed arena. The map description makes it seem like fighting waves of zombies is all that happens but there is a nice exploration aspect as well. SCMapDB page Authors: Searanger, EdisLeado Date of release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of City of the Dead (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | October 16, 2023 | 4960 characters      City of the Dead is a zombie map wherein the goal is to escape using a helipad. To do so, you must explore a city block full of explorable buildings locked off by various obstacles.      The map begins players in a spawn armory where players can take their pick of beginning weaponry or ammo. Right from the start the map's clunkiness, which is a theme throughout, becomes apparent. Grabbing ammo or a weapon will immediately chuck players into the map proper, so if you grabbed ammo, you're a sucker. There are weapons to be found throughout the map, but they do not respawn (with the exception of g

City of the Dead - GrandmasterJ

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      Fight waves of zombies in a city themed arena. The map description makes it seem like fighting waves of zombies is all that happens but there is a nice exploration aspect as well. SCMapDB page Authors: Searanger, EdisLeado Date of release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of City of the Dead (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | October 16, 2023 | 3192 characters      I wanted to play a scary map for October and I thought a zombie horde would fit the bill. Instead of meeting a brain dead map with a wad of zombies in an arena I was met with a small facsimile of a town with strategically placed weapons and ammo. In the second half of the map I was really scared of running out of ammo, that is the true horror.      The game starts us off in a pure white hallway that is really blinding. Then we have white text that tells us how many seconds until the round starts, it is almost impossible to see. Go through a doorway to end up in a spawn room, health and HEV along with a

Castle Defence - Dunkelschwamm

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       Defend a castle! This is one of those times where the map name absolute describes exactly what is happening here. Defend a nuke for a set amount of time, which is apparently broken so just go until enemies stop appearing. SCMapDB page Author: generic Date of release: 2010 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Castle Defence (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 10, 2023 | 3488 characters      Castle Defense is a hoard map with a veritable multitool of a player defense area. The "castle" is a rather large fortress fit with gates, retractable turrets, mounted guns, SAMs, multiple armories, a barracks, and a goddamned nuke. That last thing is what you'll be spending the map defending against waves and waves and waves of HECU.      The enemies assaulting the player come in your standard HECU flavors, but come in large numbers wielding RPGs. There's also a heavy helping of heavy weapons grunts, and some supporting apaches. Of particular note is an osprey

Castle Defence - GrandmasterJ

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      Defend a castle! This is one of those times where the map name absolute describes exactly what is happening here. Defend a nuke for a set amount of time, which is apparently broken so just go until enemies stop appearing. SCMapDB page Author: generic Date of release: 2010 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Castle Defence (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 10, 2023 | 4115 characters      This defense map could have been really good, but it appears that it currently doesn't have a game end and just continues forever, there may also be map events that do not trigger. It's unfortunate because I think this map does defense really well and I would like to see it working.      So we start in a big tower and we are informed the power is out, now I didn't really know this at the time, but the main power is our basic stuff like doors and turrets and the auxiliary power is our advanced stuff like reinforcements. I found the main power and turned what I thought w

Choose - Dunkelschwamm

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       This is a variety map, walk through a teleporter to be dropped off in a fun room. There is an arena, control room, maze, armory, crusher, and a very saucy place. SCMapDB page Author: halo4life Date of release: 2006 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Choose (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 9, 2023 | 2752 characters      Choose is a real swiss army knife of a map. It reminds me of the reeeaaally old Garry's Mod construct map, where you just press buttons to spawn everything. This map really harkens back to that.      So, you've got a bunch of doors. There's an armory for restocking your ammo, an arena for pressing buttons which spawn horrible monsters to fight, an invisible maze for banging your head against your keyboard until blood pours of your ears, a "crusher room", a "pron" room, and a control room.      The armory gives you a bunch of the good shit. Tau, RPG, Gluon- the works. It's good, because it's nice to have f

Choose - GrandmasterJ

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      This is a variety map, walk through a teleporter to be dropped off in a fun room. There is an arena, control room, maze, armory, crusher, and a very saucy place. SCMapDB page Author: halo4life Date of release: 2006 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Choose (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 9, 2023 | 1452 characters      The simply named Choose is a sort of variety map where players start in a room with teleporters to various attractions. We have a room labelled Crusher, OMG Free Pr0n, Control Room, Arena, Maze, and Armory. There was also a dancing gonome.      The Crusher room has some buttons that trigger traps to kill scientists. They kind of just run around and it can be tough to actually get them into the traps. There is also a conveyor that dumps scientists into a spike. The promise of free pornography is worth it and players should definitely check it out. The control room is a bit of gameplay to access a menu of sorts for the level, the arena is a fight p

Bunker - Dunkelschwamm

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      A fairly standard horde map, Bunker features a bunker from which players and allies can shoot out a the swarms in relative safety. For some reason weapons are outside the bunker forcing players to brave the ocean of enemies outside. SCMapDB page Author: Halgmor Date of release: 2012 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bunker (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 12, 2023 | 2266 characters      Bunker is a defense horde map which features a couple fun toys to keep players entertained.      The main setup is a bunker surrounded by open desert which enemy grunts/robogrunts endlessly spawn into. Within the bunker are some friendly grunts and the aforementioned toys. Across from the bunker is a big room full of weapons with a funny secret shooting range.      The toys are a button which opens and closes the bunker door- great for when you want to invite grenades and bullets into your and your teammates' much shortened lives. There's a couple mounted gu

Bunker - GrandmasterJ

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      A fairly standard horde map, Bunker features a bunker from which players and allies can shoot out a the swarms in relative safety. For some reason weapons are outside the bunker forcing players to brave the ocean of enemies outside. SCMapDB page Author: Halgmor Date of release: 2012 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bunker (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 12, 2023 | 3231 characters      True to the name, there is indeed a bunker that players spawn right outside. There are no weapons in the bunker besides an mp5 outside the front door, all the weapons are in a weird boarded up passage to a big room with a ton of weapons and ammo strewn about. Most of the level is a wide field around the bunker that is so big we can see the darkness that is draw distance gnawing at the edges of reality. Grunts of the human, robot, and heavy weapons variety spawn in droves constantly.      There are some friendlies in the bunker but they do very little. There are some tur

Bridge 2k - Dunkelschwamm

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      The 2k version of Bridge (both were made in 2001) is lengthier with a whole complex to be explored after the bridge section. It is much more in line with traditional walkthrough maps and has far less respawning enemies. SCMapDB page Author: Hezus Date of release: 2018 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bridge 2k (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 21, 2023 | 3420 characters      Bridge 2k is a sequel or reimagining of sorts of Bridge, which is a map that I think wasn't terribly good. Bridge 2k honors that by also not being terribly good, and I'll go into why I think that here.      Bridge 2k's design philosophy is thus: take an obtusely long path to a blocky, flatly lit chamber, and then become inundated with respawning grunts until you are no longer inundated by respawning grunts.      I've gone to great lengths to describe what I think is bad about fighting respawning grunts in this fashion before, so I'll keep it contained to thi

Bridge 2k - GrandmasterJ

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      The 2k version of Bridge (both were made in 2001) is lengthier with a whole complex to be explored after the bridge section. It is much more in line with traditional walkthrough maps and has far less respawning enemies. SCMapDB page Author: Hezus Date of release: 2018 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bridge 2k (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 21, 2023 | 3166 characters      So I played Bridge which was a bridge with a bajillion respawning enemies and a paucity of ammo. The sequel/remake promised more, but did it deliver?      So my teammate spawns above, on top of the bridge, and I spawn under the bridge. This split up of spawn points really hampers any attempt we make at cooperating against the respawning grunts. While my teammate struggles with respawning human grunts and an apache up top I am throwing myself against about six turrets with respawning grunts below. It takes a while but I get the turrets down and eventually the grunts stop spawning an

Garg Hunt - Dunkelschwamm

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      As the title suggests we fight a gargantua in this map. The level is very small and consists of only one small arena dotted with some obstacles and a couple of supplies. The garg respawns when killed and there is no end. SCMapDB page Author: Socrates Date of release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Garg Hunt (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 18, 2023 | 2741 characters      Garghunt is a classic map with a classic goal: hunt the garg.      But it is a ruse, you see! To hunt the garg, you must first earn the hunt! To do so, you must first be hunted! Players spawn with a pistol which is ineffectual against the titular garg. So, instead, players are encouraged to roam the map with the garg in hot pursuit as they find weapons which can put a dent in the beast. This generally comes in the form of satchel charges, RPG rockets, and the odd explosive crossbow bolt. All of these can be found on the battlefield, though the RPG is found on a ledge where

Garg Hunt - GrandmasterJ

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      As the title suggests we fight a gargantua in this map. The level is very small and consists of only one small arena dotted with some obstacles and a couple of supplies. The garg respawns when killed and there is no end. SCMapDB page Author: Socrates Date of release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Garg Hunt (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 18, 2023 | 1335 characters      Fresh from the year 1999 we have a very simple arena map dedicated to fighting a single garg (at a time). This was an official map from the first version of Sven Co-op. It's light on the gameplay, very unpolished, and somewhat annoying to play.      We have a few weapons scattered around the arena like a revolver, mp5, gauss gun, satchel charges, and a rocket launcher on a ledge next to a bullsquid. Rush the rocket launcher and then the garg is easy to take down, map over. But it is an arena horde map so the garg just comes back forever. The arena itself has some boxes, a li

Bridge - Dunkelschwamm

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    The map is a bridge covered in turrets and infinitely repsawning human grunts. There is a target at the far end we have to shoot in order to end the map. That's about it for the map description. SCMapDB page Author: Hezus Date of release: 2001 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bridge (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 18, 2023 | 4227 characters      Bridge follows the same simple conventions which gave us the Icon of Sin bossfight in Doom 2 back in the '90s: make a target you must shoot at an inconvenient angle, and guard that angle with infinitely respawning enemies. Ladies and gentlemen: Bridge.      The Bridge features a high road and a low road: both are inundated by turrets and respawning grunts. The low road has some unobvious routes to the higher route, but offers many more advantageous points from which players can deftly remove the turrets from the equation (the only enemies which do not respawn). The players on the topside have a harde

Bridge - GrandmasterJ

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      The map is a bridge covered in turrets and infinitely repsawning human grunts. There is a target at the far end we have to shoot in order to end the map. That's about it for the map description. SCMapDB page Author: Hezus Date of release: 2001 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bridge (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 18, 2023 | 3065 characters      The goal of Bridge is to cross the bridge. A whole swarm of human grunts, a plethora of turrets both sentry and ceiling mounted, and an apache stand in our way and all but the turrets respawn endlessly. Players have a shotgun and mp5 in addition to standard crowbar, glock, and medkit. It's a simple concept that I spent about 30 seconds in before deciding it sucked and turning cheats on.      I first spawn in and I am getting shot. The map has an upper part where we cross the top of the bridge and a lower part where we can climb up some rocks to the other side. Enemies waltz right into spawn to shoot p

City - Dunkelschwamm

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      Fight a neverending horde of enemies in a small city block. The slice of city is very simple with nothing much else to see, although the tallest building is almost entirely destructible and will fall apart. SCMapDB page Author: Killer99 Date of release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of City (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 29, 2023 | 2198 characters      City is a horde map wherein soldiers and xenian military (vortigaunts and alien grunts, specifically) are teleported onto a small block with one destroyed building full of soldiers, one strangely shaped building with a sideways vending machine in front of it full of aliens, one near-fully destructible building with lots of soldiers, and one tall building that vortigaunts are always on top of.      Players are given a few boilerplate weapons to deal with this, but most notable get grenades and a tau gun. Their power really helps prevent any of the enemies from being far too spongey.      I d

City - GrandmasterJ

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      Fight a neverending horde of enemies in a small city block. The slice of city is very simple with nothing much else to see, although the tallest building is almost entirely destructible and will fall apart. SCMapDB page Author: Killer99 Date of release: 1999 Maps in package: 1 Map review of City (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 29, 2023 | 2674 characters      City is a fairly standard arena horde map, this time based on a simple city street. We have some multi-story buildings scaled way down to be simple boxes with only enough room for windows and stairs. Vortigaunts spawn in clumps staggered with clumps of alien grunts and human grunts, who do shoot each other when they spawn in together. The weapon selection isn't bad but it is very medium. We get an mp5, shotgun, crossbow, gauss gun, grenades, and a single satchel charge in addition to the standard pistol, medkit, crowbar.      The moment the map starts players are taking damage. We spawn in t

Bossbattle - Dunkelschwamm

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      Battle exactly one boss in an well made arena using barnacles to fly around the arena and summon bombs. The map ends when the one boss is dead. SCMapDB page Author: Streamfox Date of release: 2017 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bossbattle (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 24, 2023 | 3350 characters      Bossbattle is a battle against a boss. Which boss? Why, the gargantua, of course! How are you going to fight the gargantua? Why, with a barnacle and timebombs, of course!      The setup is pretty simple: a big indoor arena sizeable enough for a player to maneuver around a gargantua, complete with grapple points for the player-held barnacle. Press buttons on ceiling-bound grapple points when they highlight to place bombs directly beneath, then lure into gargantua into said bombs when they go off. The buttons are chosen seemingly at random, at which point it's up to the players to grapple up to it and press it. This can be a chaotic frenzy as t

Bossbattle - GrandmasterJ

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      Battle exactly one boss in an well made arena using barnacles to fly around the arena and summon bombs. The map ends when the one boss is dead. SCMapDB page Author: Streamfox Date of release: 2017 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bossbattle (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 24, 2023 | 2817 characters      The entirety of this map is one boss battle in a fancy arena. Players have barnacles only and must press buttons on the ceiling to summon bombs, and then lure the gargantua boss into the bomb. It's a really short map with only one thing going on, but it is done really well.      Players get dumped in a spawn zone with a little rack filled with barnacles, not the enemy, but animated models that actually grant us barnacles. A lives meter is on one wall and the gargantua's health is displayed on the other, there are also boss health meters inside the arena. Floating health symbols of various colors (showing various amounts of health regained) l

Bossrush - Dunkelschwamm

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    The title gets us ready for boss after boss in some sort of a rush, but instead we have a bunch of teleporters to arenas filled with normal enemies with lots of health. There is also a button that needs two people to press it and that completely neuters the map. SCMapDB page Author: enuze Date of release: 2017 Maps in package:2 Map review of Bossrush (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 17, 2023 | 4119 characters      Bossrush is two maps: the bonus map, and the map that is not the bonus map.      The map that is not the bonus map gives the player 10 boss battles: 8 to choose from a grid of portals in any sequence, and two at the end. These boss battles take the form of enemies with extremely high HP in cube rooms fought with shotguns, MP5s, pistol, and revolver. Sometimes a clever spin is put on the battle, such as some invincible enemies aiding the main target enemies. For the most part, though, fighting comprised of running backwards from enemies wh

Bossrush - GrandmasterJ

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      The title gets us ready for boss after boss in some sort of a rush, but instead we have a bunch of teleporters to arenas filled with normal enemies with lots of health. There is also a button that needs two people to press it and that completely neuters the map. SCMapDB page Author: enuze Date of release: 2017 Maps in package:2 Map review of Bossrush (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 17, 2023 | 4276 characters      The whole idea behind this map is fighting a handful of enemies with really high health and that's pretty much it. After all the enemies are dead we get to fight some boss waves before the map ends. There is also a bonus map, I think we can get to it via a secret in the first map, but we didn't find it and instead manually changed level to it. The bonus level is much the same as the first, but all on one flat expanse of land.      So players start out in a room with a hallway we can't enter with a button above the doorway, and a