Sven Co-op Map Reviews

       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 sniper rifles (with terrible accuracy, wtf?) t

      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 GrandmasterJ | June 22, 2023 | 3290 characters      This map is a nice collection of carnival games. There is a shooting gallery with two mounted guns and a collection of red things to shoot. Each red thing destroyed spawns a goody on the ground off to the side of the booth. There is also an invisible wall to prevent players from shooting at the red things. Then we have a game where we drop satchels down some tubes that also unlock some goodies, a dunk tank that we do not seem to be able to interact with, and a booth with three slightly offset holes we have to throw a grenade through. Right in the middle of the area is an egon gun with lots of ammo

       We've been Captured! Now we must escape the prison with the help of Otis and go to Black Mesa I guess? The map is pretty simple and straightfoward with a storyline that screams 'early Sven map'. SCMapDB page Author: pcgamer58 Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Captured (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 22, 2023 | 2742 characters      Captured is a pretty simple and functional walkthrough action map. Players fight from a cell through some wacky N64ish-surreal landscapes against soldiers using some pretty boilerplate weapons.      There isn't much to say here. The map doesn't look great, doing the bare minimum to evoke each environment. The indoor areas benefit best from this, but the more natural environments, as mentioned early, really come across as surreal and wacky. Structures exist with little purpose, with wacky random hazards strewn about. It all serves the function of the gameplay.      To that end, the map isn&

      We've been Captured! Now we must escape the prison with the help of Otis and go to Black Mesa I guess? The map is pretty simple and straightfoward with a storyline that screams 'early Sven map'. SCMapDB page Author: pcgamer58 Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Captured (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 22, 2023 | 3006 characters      So we are in a jail near Black Mesa, Otis comes over and helps us break out and we go on an adventure to freedom. We start with nothing but a medkit and find a crowbar in the jail cell with us and in the next few rooms we find our first enemy, a human grunt, and a pistol with one magazine.      Then we go to the next room with more enemies and more weapons. Right after this room we get our first respawning enemies, I think there are 15 in total but it was really worrying when we didn't know if they were going to end. Right afterwards we have to go up a ladder and when they kept respawning they w

       This map is less of a fun vacation in the wilderness and more of a flat plane where players fight a bunch of enemies. It's short and straightforward with some interior areas later. SCMapDB page Author: Jose Fung Date of release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Camp (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 19, 2023 | 3986 characters      Camp is a walkthrough action map which pits players against HECU while fighting their way from the surface into a science lab to sabotage a big red laser machine. Along the way, things get fucky and players must shoot aliens as well.      Two things struck me almost immediately about this map. First: it's pretty ugly. The outdoor area is big and flat and features a draw distance that many important details (including an enemy apache) hide behind. Indoor areas are better, but only by virtue of cubes of equal quality to that outdoor area more effectively convey indoor areas. Later, some of the lab stuff is very fun looki

      This map is less of a fun vacation in the wilderness and more of a flat plane where players fight a bunch of enemies. It's short and straightforward with some interior areas later. SCMapDB page Author: Jose Fung Date of release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Camp (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 19, 2023 | 2727 characters      Camp starts us out in a big wide open field with some massive cargo containers with a couple of overly large trucks. We're fenced in but otherwise the map is a flat plane with a skybox. The level is big enough for draw distance to be a problem. There is a helicopter and a swarm of human grunts about.      We spawn with tons of weapons, so my teammate and I were hitting the apache with explosive crossbow bolts and keeping the grunts at bay with uzis, mp5s, and shotguns. Eventually we both die and my teammate gets to spawn farther along in the level where he struggled through with more swarms of enemies until death and he

    Buro is a prologue to a map series that was never made, which is a shame because it is a beautiful map. The map is very nicely designed bank filled with assassins that ends when players enter the vault. SCMapDB page Author: Alex546 Date of release: 2010 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Buro (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 15, 2023 | 2488 characters      Buro is an action map which takes place in a bank being attacked by special operatives. The players counterattack, intercepting the blackops assassins. Players spawn with random loadouts of useful boilerplate weapons- revolvers or deagles, shotguns or mp5s or m16s or uzis. It adds an annoying bit of spice that makes every spawn awkward.      The map is very form over function. Each room is certainly evocative of a real life location that blackops massns and fassns have been dropped into. Rooms and hallways are often awkward for accommodating multiple players, and progression is mostly linear. There&

      Buro is a prologue to a map series that was never made, which is a shame because it is a beautiful map. The map is very nicely designed bank filled with assassins that ends when players enter the vault. SCMapDB page Author: Alex546 Date of release: 2010 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Buro (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 15, 2023 | 4747 characters      When my teammate and I first started this map up we both took one look at it and agreed it was beautiful. Then my teammate said "time to give it a bad review!" and I wished upon a star that he was wrong. I haven't decided on a number score yet, but I will say that the map had a lot of good with a little bit of bad.      After a lengthy and cinematic cutscene my teammate and I are dumped outside a bank. He reads the message of the day which informs us of our mission but I don't bother and instead start poking around spawn. One thing that only became apparent when we started fighting i

      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

      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

    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 dunkelschwamm | April 30, 2023 | 3066 characters      Breakfree is the third and, afaik, final chapter of the Breakfrees by Beather. You wouldn't think so without the map name, as aside from the Sonic reference there isn't much connecting it to the previous maps and their elevator gimmick. This is probably for the best, as it means this is the most playable of the breakfrees years later.      If you've played Wing Fortress Zone, the penultimate zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Sega Genesis/Mastersystem, you know what much of this will be. High winds blowing you around, fans that you hover above, bottomless pits, rotating platforms abov

      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 it onto the plane and I appeared in mid-air next t

      The sequel to Breakfree is more of the same. We don't have to go back down the elevator and there is now a boss fight! Unfortunately the biggest obstacle is still the elevator mechanic itself. SCMapDB page Author: Beather Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Breakfree 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 29, 2023 | 2270 characters      Breakfree 2 is the sequel to Breakfree. Visually, it is a huge upgrade with liberal use of Sonic 2 textures and an Eggman model for the scientist to match the Sonic 2 music. The music is the exact same.      This time around the map is split into two parts: the annoying elevator part, and the annoying boss part. The annoying elevator part is somehow more annoying than the previous map, offering large brushes that shoot from out of unpredictable places in the wall at a faster speed than players can dodge. There are also similar grinders and rotating brushes that the elevator passes over and obscu

      The sequel to Breakfree is more of the same. We don't have to go back down the elevator and there is now a boss fight! Unfortunately the biggest obstacle is still the elevator mechanic itself. SCMapDB page Author: Beather Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Breakfree 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 29, 2023 | 3293 characters      I'm getting something of a crisis of conscience with the Breakfree series. I just played Break Go, which was inspired by this series, and gave it a higher score than the original based solely on how much I exploded on the elevator. Elevators in Sven Co-op are very dangerous and throughout this map we were constantly exploding for no reason.      So I'm going to try to judge this map without taking into account how many times I was randomly killed by the floor. We start off and the map is fullbright, just like the first one. We hit a button that is hard to discern against the background that

      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

      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

    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

      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

      A remake of the map by the same name, there are only slight differences between this map and the original. We must defend against waves of enemies both in and out of our base and protect the random dumb scientists who flood the area periodically. SCMapDB page Author: GiGaBiTe Date of release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Between a Rock and a Hard Place Remake (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 1, 2023 | 2965 characters      Between a Rock and A Hard Place is a pretty good two defense maps for Sven Co-op. This remake is, in our playthrough, almost the same map. However, it did differ in some ways.      There was a turret with a secret button to activate. We never did find that secret button. This feature went entirely overlooked.      There was apparently better flow to the upper hallways and better traffic management in the stairways. I didn't notice this in-game, but believe it. I remember getting caught up on that stuff more in the

      A remake of the map by the same name, there are only slight differences between this map and the original. We must defend against waves of enemies both in and out of our base and protect the random dumb scientists who flood the area periodically. SCMapDB page Author: GiGaBiTe Date of release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Between a Rock and a Hard Place Remake (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 1, 2023 | 3678 characters      So this map is a remake, and it's really close to being the exact same map as before. Check out the review of the original if you want, here's a quick recap. The level is divided into two sides by a chasm and players have to defend one side, enemies usually come across the bridge but there is also a narrow tram line across. Players fight both aliens and humans coming out from doors across the way, and even a couple inside our base, until a helicopter arrives and we leave. Periodically a scientist will come and we ha