Sven Co-op Map Reviews

       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 dunkelschwamm | January 7, 2024 | 3588 characters      Civil Defence is a very simple sequence of gunfighting arenas in a warehouse district setting. Players fight their way out of a building by escaping along its fire escape, then through the district, before moving through a sewers area to the final battle. The first third of the map sees players fighting blackops grunts and assassins, before things take a sudden shift and see the players fighting an odd combination of vortigaunts, gonomes, and shock troopers (with a few itchyosaurs, and eventually a voltigore, thrown into the mix).      The battles in this are intense. W...

      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...

       This is, of course, a remake of another map by the same name. While it does offer many improvements over the original it also has an unfortunate area that we had to cheat past. SCMapDB page Author: GiGaBiTe Date of release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Central Bunker Remake (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | October 9, 2023 | 4758 characters      Central Bunker: Remake is a ground-up remake of Central Bunker, which we have previously reviewed. How does this hold up?      This plays almost exactly like I remember Central Bunker playing, but without the lag. The short narrative of gameplay is: you start outside, with far too few weapons and ammo fight your way through a lobby full of Barnabus/Ottos and ceiling turrets, grab some new weapons, go down an obnoxious elevator, fight a great battle with aliens and grunts beside an electrified pool of water, work your way through many more grunts until you find a bi...

      This is, of course, a remake of another map by the same name. While it does offer many improvements over the original it also has an unfortunate area that we had to cheat past. SCMapDB page Author: GiGaBiTe Date of release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Central Bunker Remake (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | October 9, 2023 | 1537 characters      The remake of the original Central Bunker does indeed offer much improved optimization and visuals. The map looks great. I didn't see a whole lot of difference in the gameplay, but I did see a much better offering of supplies. I liked the original but rated it a 5 mostly because I thought this one would make it obsolete. But unfortunately there was a section in this map where we had to get past a fan that would inevitably pull us in and turn us to paste. My teammate even looked up a review where the player eventually noclipped past that point, something we had to resort to as well. ...

       Aliens have invaded a city and it is up to YOU to repel them! There is one part that needs two players to complete but a community tweak that removes that part, the map does seem balanced for two people. SCMapDB page Author: Foofinoo Date of release: 2017 Maps in package: 1 Map review of City Invasion (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | August 6, 2023 | 3028 characters      City Invasion is an action walkthrough map with some minor story elements. That is to say, it tells you what is happening throughout the action and why, sort of. Players are expected to clear a "city invasion" of invading aliens with the occasional help of some soldiers.      The combat itself is broken up into really solid action setpieces which flow into one another seamlessly. You've got just about every xenian you can think of up to the gonarch, and even some voltigores (though they infight with the xenians, much to our delight). There's an ar...

      Aliens have invaded a city and it is up to YOU to repel them! There is one part that needs two players to complete but a community tweak that removes that part, the map does seem balanced for two people. SCMapDB page Author: Foofinoo Date of release: 2017 Maps in package: 1 Map review of City Invasion (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | August 6, 2023 | 3892 characters      The city has been invaded by aliens! Fight your way through a factory, make some friends along the way, and have a boss battle in the sewers. The map is a straightforward walkthrough map that delivers a good looking and well done experience.      We start out with a shotgun and mp5 in addition to our usual loadout as well as armor. This is enough to take on the rest of the map and there are other weapons we can find as well like the revolver and uzi. The SAW and rpg make an appearance but they are exclusive weapons that you have to drop before changing t...

       This is a very good example of a walkthrough map, it's got lots of action and changes up the gameplay just enough to keep from being repetitive. It is very old though and uses a lot of the standard Half-Life assets. SCMapDB page Author: Hezus Date of release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Central Assault (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 20, 2023 | 3411 characters      Central Assault is on BOMS and I can see why. It's funny- looking back on it I just remember some really funny looking proportions, artifacts of mapping from two decades before I sit and write this now. But really, my sentiment throughout is that this is a really good looking map. Some gorgeous natural environments, some fun lab equipment, lots of varied environments- some goofy, but most of it very striking.      I think that a lot of Central Assault has that disarming quality. Players spawn in a teleporter station that teleports, thank...

      This is a very good example of a walkthrough map, it's got lots of action and changes up the gameplay just enough to keep from being repetitive. It is very old though and uses a lot of the standard Half-Life assets. SCMapDB page Author: Hezus Date of release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Central Assault (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 20, 2023 | 4244 characters      This is a pretty old map, over two decades old at the time of this writing, and if the Best of Map Showcase tag means anything then people thought it was pretty good. I think so too, it's a good map and it is a really good example of a fairly straightforward walkthrough map.      The story is that we are clearing aliens out from an ordinance facility, the first enemies we fight are HECU so I don't get it but whatever. This is told to us via exposition dump game text in a briefing room, after which we go through a teleporter, press a button to g...

      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 an...

      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 (showi...

    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 co...

      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 wit...

      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...

        There is not a whole lot of breaking or getting free, this map is an obstacle course with a moving elevator. It's a real fun concept and it is executed fairly well, but Sven Co-op elevators will kill players more than any obstacle in the map. SCMapDB page Author: Beather Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Breakfree (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 10, 2023 | 3591 characters      Breakfree is a gimmick map which plays and sounds like an old Sega Genesis boss map. An elevator takes you through a vertical obstacle course- intangible to the elevator, but quite tangible (and deadly!!!) to the player. All of it spectated upon by an evil scientist running an experiment! How does it work?      Well, first of all it doesn't. I'm not going to mince words here- I have a lot more I want to say about this map, but the first thing to mention is that elevators are fucking broken in Sven...

      There is not a whole lot of breaking or getting free, this map is an obstacle course with a moving elevator. It's a real fun concept and it is executed fairly well, but Sven Co-op elevators will kill players more than any obstacle in the map. SCMapDB page Author: Beather Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Breakfree (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 10, 2023 | 2781 characters      I thought this map was going to have platforming, and I was sort of wrong. The entire map is an elevator, two players are required to start it up and when it does, it plays Sonic music. Then we have to dodge all sorts of wacky obstacles as the elevator goes up.      If you are familiar with the goldsrc engine or a variety of Sven Co-op maps, you may have realized a flaw in this design. At numerous points in the journey my teammate and I would spontaneously explode. We would always assume an obstacle came thro...

    Despite the name this map is a Shadow Warrior themed map, no Black Hawks around, bird or helicopter. It's got both key hunt elements just like games in the old days and its got plenty of combat as well.  SCMapDB page Author: Lt.JC Date of release: 2006 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Black Hawk (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 16, 2023 | 3883 characters      Black Hawk is a map for Sven Co-op which aims to take inspiration from Shadow Warrior, making a series with a more classic build-engine style.      This build engine inspiration is especially apparent in the flow of the map. There's a lot of key hunting, monsters spawning in a monster-closet-adjacent fashion, and secret hunting for weapons. The two main maps in particular are extremely similar to the first two maps of Shadow Warrior at first glance, with the first map being almost beat-for-beat in terms of progression. I think this key hunt sty...

      Despite the name this map is a Shadow Warrior themed map, no Black Hawks around, bird or helicopter. It's got both key hunt elements just like games in the old days and its got plenty of combat as well.  SCMapDB page Author: Lt.JC Date of release: 2006 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Black Hawk (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 16, 2023 | 7587 characters      I haven't played much Shadow Warrior and as a result I suck at it. This map is a lot like its source material, at least according to my teammate who saw the inspiration right away, it has challenging combat in some areas and a lot of annoying key hunt elements. There are three maps in total, the first and second are walkthrough maps that pick up right after the other and are built very similar to levels in Shadow Warrior. Then there was the bonus map that was a brutal platforming co-op journey.      We spawn in a street, for various reasons ...