Sven Co-op Map Reviews

      Just another average Black Mesa themed walkthrough map. Backattack is a small collection of Black Mesa themed areas with some heavy combat sprinkled around. SCMapDB page Author: Sust Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Backattack (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | September 10, 2022 | 2139 characters      BackAttack is an action map featuring lots of spawning enemies and some weapons in some interesting environments which mostly encourage players to spawn at doors and floor firepower into the next room before proceeding forward.      First players are tasked with clearing out a hallway to a garage, a vent from there to a beautiful room which respawns grenades as you fight a helipad full of soldiers, then aliens, then aliens and soldiers. Then you crawl into the next area where you fight a room full of soldiers and another room with soldiers and aliens and then an outdoor area full of soldiers and then the map is over. It's pretty short,

      Just another average Black Mesa themed walkthrough map. Backattack is a small collection of Black Mesa themed areas with some heavy combat sprinkled around. SCMapDB page Author: Sust Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Backattack (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | September 10, 2022 | 3433 characters      The map description reads "a small indoor/outdoor walkthrough map" and that is really the best way to describe it. This map has your standard Black Mesa fare, with lots of underground hallways, crates, plenty of vents, and some desert outdoor areas. The map is fairly short, but the enemies have tons of health and there is not much ammo around, it is definitely geared for more players on a server.      Players start off in a tunnel with a crate. The crate breaks as players walk by and a headcrab feebly attacks. You're going to want to go inside this crate because it has the revolver in it. Right after that is a locked door, a b

       Despite the presence of a '2' in the title this map is not a sequel. It consists mostly of vaguely Black Mesa themed areas filled with enemies and long walks. SCMapDB page Author: Penguin Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Assault On Black Mesa 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | August 7, 2022 | 5579 characters      Assault on Black Mesa 2 is a confusingly named two-part slog of a walkthrough series wherein players wade through snarks, turrets, snipers, and grunts while forced most of the time to rely on equipment which does the job half-well. Shoot at great distances with a pistol and some uzis, or drop down on huge clusters of enemies without any crowd-control weapons on-hand. Eventually the map gives you weapons, though sometimes those weapons become dilemmas when checkpoints open a ways past their pickup. Do I return to battle faster to aid my comrade, or do I restock? It would be easier with more people, but the pittance of

      Despite the presence of a '2' in the title this map is not a sequel. It consists mostly of vaguely Black Mesa themed areas filled with enemies and long walks. SCMapDB page Author: Penguin Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Assault On Black Mesa 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 7, 2022 | 7830 characters      Assault on Black Mesa 2 (apparently there never was a 1) is an old school Sven map from back in the 2.0 days that definitely plays like an old school map. It also has the problem that plagued many older maps with respawning players walking long distances back to where all the action is happening.      The map set has two maps in it. The first map puts players in a canyon with a truck trailer behind the players and some ammo and green military crates. There are teleporters in the truck trailer and weapons do spawn in the crates as the map progresses. These are good features that show the mapper cares about players, but un

       Assault the other end of the map! This map has a very simple layout, spawn on one end of the map, fight to the objective on the other side of the map.  SCMapDB page Author: Medlam Date of final release: 2000 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Assault (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 28, 2022 | 3203 characters      Assault is a pretty dumb fun not very pretty map. In harsher words, assault is a fun map that is dumb and kinda ugly. But, within, I think there's a lot of fun to be had.      The main conceit of assault is that the players assault a base that infinitely vomits grunts, and is heavily fortified with turrets, rescue a scientist with more HP and resurrections than Jesus, and take him back to base. To aid in accomplishing this, players are given a ton of weapons, lots of supplies along the way, some friendly Barneys, and a bunch of mounted turrets. The mounted turrets are great, gibbing grunts left and right with heavy bullets or explosives- and nei

      Assault the other end of the map! This map has a very simple layout, spawn on one end of the map, fight to the objective on the other side of the map.  SCMapDB page Author: Medlam Date of final release: 2000 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Assault (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 26, 2022 | 4664 characters      This is not a map without a point where players just kill enemy after enemy forever. There is a scientist with 1000 health locked in a cage directly across from spawn between two red doors that dump human grunts out.      So when I first spawned in I inspected an elaborate wall texture and noticed that some parts of the wall were offset from others, huh. Then I went through a door with a slightly misaligned texture that was like two feet thick with 'Freeman' written over it. It didn't Z-fight, but it did sink into the wall and disappear completely. I looked up and saw that the sign was it's own block taking up half the doorframe and th

       Artifact is a custom map converted to Sven from Team Fortress Classic. It's a hard as nails platforming map that has me questioning if there is an important change in player movement across games that makes the map harder than it should be. SCMapDB page Original map author: Kami Conversion authors: AdamR Date of original mod release: 2003 Date of final Sven Map release: 2020 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Artifact (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by dunkelschwamm | July 24, 2022 | 4815 characters      Artifact is a map that, much like the hidden temples in Indiana Jones, hides peril lurking beneath great beauty. The foliage, the textures for the stone reliefs, the models for the key objects, the waterfalls and giant trees- they all look fantastic. But within, trap brushes swiftly kill players and require hard jumps back to spawn and the backtracking that comes with that.      Let me just be up front: I didn't beat a single one of these puzzles wherein death was a threat

      Artifact is a custom map converted to Sven from Team Fortress Classic. It's a hard as nails platforming map that has me questioning if there is an important change in player movement across games that makes the map harder than it should be. SCMapDB page Original map author: Kami Conversion authors: AdamR Date of original mod release: 2003 Date of final Sven Map release: 2020 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Artifact (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by GrandmasterJ | July 24, 2022 | 8431 characters      I feel like every part of this map is engineered to be the most absolute bullshit. This is one of those maps where five minutes into playing it I look at the time limit, see that we have 70 minutes left, and think to myself "we're not going to beat this". My teammate and I used noclip the entire map, there was not one section that we did not cheat to get through. This map was originally made for Team Fortress Classic, I have to think to myself, is there some moveme

       The follow up to Svencoop 1, the sequel continues showing off things that can be done with Sven maps. Be warned, the map can be rendered unwinnable if you aren't paying attention. SCMapDB page Author: Sven Viking Date of final release: 2008 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Svencoop 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 17, 2022 | 9968 characters      200 map special wooooo      Sven Coop 2 is the continuation of Sven Coop. It's a mostly linear walkthrough map with a couple puzzles, some combat, a crazy action setpiece at the end, and some wacky design decisions. Here I'll discuss them.      So, what is Sven Coop 2 trying to do with its design? I think it's trying to experiment- show interesting things that can be done in Sven Coop and spur creativity. Design is problem solving, and Sven Coop seeks very much to solve the problem of "How do we broaden what coop gameplay can be when applied to Half-Life's sensibilities?" Sven Coop 2

      The follow up to Svencoop 1, the sequel continues showing off things that can be done with Sven maps. Be warned, the map can be rendered unwinnable if you aren't paying attention. SCMapDB page Author: Sven Viking Date of final release: 2008 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Svencoop 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 17, 2022 | 7913 characters      I couldn't really give an honest review of the first map in this series. It was really a demonstration and a bar setter for the rest of the maps for Sven Co-op. To be honest, I didn't much like it, but I'm spoiled with over 20 years of not only improved mapping resources but also fewer limits and more functionality of the engine. Svencoop2 comes right on the heels of the first map, just one year later. It keeps on demonstrating gameplay mechanics and has very fun cutscenes but it definitely wears on me a lot more than the first game.      The map starts off where the last one ended, a flooded room. T

       This map is a series of arenas that players fight enemies in. It really lives up to its name, there isn't a whole lot left to describe. SCMapDB page Author: eMTeG Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Arena Fights (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 1, 2022 | 5554 characters      Arena Fights is a map which promises fights in arenas, and it delivers some of those. There's some stuff in-between that is what I would call "goldsrc fluff": button puzzles, arbitrarily raising water puzzles, getting around lasers to access teleports- whatever. That's not what we're here for. We're here for some Arena Fights!      Arena Fights delivers three Arena Fights brand arena fights. The first arena fight of the three arena fights is an arena fight fought in an arena rather plain- players file in through a fire door (the only of two in the spawn which respond to touch- though both are identical) into a rectangular prism of a

      This map is a series of arenas that players fight enemies in. It really lives up to its name, there isn't a whole lot left to describe. SCMapDB page Author: eMTeG Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Arena Fights (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 1, 2022 | 5262 characters      The map is Arena Fights and I can confirm that there are arenas and players do fight in them. The map description really does sum it all up nicely, there are three areas with different enemy composition and pressing buttons opens the way forward.      The map starts players off with almost a full complement of weapons. I would have liked an egon gun but I did start with 10 underbarrel grenades so all is forgiven. There is a ton of HEV in the spawn area even though players start with full HEV. There are two blast doors here but only one opens right now.      The first arena is full of friendly soldiers behind a defensive position. Pressing the accessbile button

       Neptune Labs is a map set in space orbiting Neptune, not under the ocean as the blue tint may imply. The map is unfinished and abandoned but has been updated to end properly and give the full walkthrough map experience, even if it is somewhat short. SCMapDB page Author: Keen Date of final release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Neptune Labs (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 15, 2022 | 3602 characters      Neptune Labs is a medium-length walkthrough map by prolific mapper Keen. It showcases a lot of creativity, a decent amount of ingenuity, and an overall enjoyable experience.      The most striking and charming aspect of the map is its art style. Details are brushed in very interesting and uncommon ways, and the textures are made with this semi-abstract cartoony style that's hard to explain but really evokes a certain atmosphere. It passively oozes personality up the wazoo, in technical terms. The brushwork for the outside of the Neptune lap is a

      Neptune Labs is a map set in space orbiting Neptune, not under the ocean as the blue tint may imply. The map is unfinished and abandoned but has been updated to end properly and give the full walkthrough map experience, even if it is somewhat short. SCMapDB page Author: Keen Date of final release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Neptune Labs (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 15, 2022 | 4445 characters      According to the notes in the map description this map is unfinished. It definitely feels unfinished, there are so many minor details that have been overlooked it feels like a really well done amateur map. There are so many Black Mesa themed maps that having a map set in space in orbit over Neptune is novel and the custom textures, level design, story bits delivered every now and then really helped sell the setting.      We started out in a small craft heading towards the space station. At first, due to the double meaning of Neptune, we thought the ma

       Another Day At The Office is set in laboratories made by the same company who built Black Mesa because even though we are not in Black Mesa it looks just like Black Mesa. SCMapDB page Author: BonkTurnip Date of final release: 2021 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Another Day At The Office (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 2, 2022 | 9868 characters      Another Day at the Office is two walkthrough maps with a focus on backtracking, action set pieces, and regathering ammo after gruelingly punishing firefights that feel designed by somebody who doesn't participate in many firefights in Sven.      The first map is a collection of loosely strung together action vignettes. After making a choice between an egon room and a room with a scientist who will give you access to a sniper, a spore gun, and a displacer- the latter is far more preferable, without it you'll lack any decent ranged during the map's first sniper fight- the map opens into a series of