Sven Co-op Map Reviews

      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...

    The map description states that this map is a test only, and it definitely feels like it. It's fullbright, filled with standard prefabs, and it all looks and feels thrown together. SCMapDB page Author: Tuntis Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Black Mesa Defense (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 1, 2023 | 1455 characters      Black Mesa Defense is two maps. You start on one, and bafflingly end up on another, and then the experience ends.      The maps are full bright. The first is a collection of prefabs and a haphazard smattering of enemies, with a ladder to a button, then a big yellow brush. The second map has a ladder to the exit after a brief skirmish with a gaggle of grunts. The map equipped us with M16 with grenade launchers, so what was thrown at us was quickly reduced to jelly. I was excited to be equipped with HEV when I saw charges in the second map, but those were lies and di...

    The map description states that this map is a test only, and it definitely feels like it. It's fullbright, filled with standard prefabs, and it all looks and feels thrown together. SCMapDB page Author: Tuntis Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Black Mesa Defense (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 1, 2023 | 1108 characters      This map is functional. We start out in a huge room, the map is fullbright so I can see everything. It's full of prefabs. Enemies appear in clumps around the map, we start with M16s and grenades so we make short work of them. Then we climb up a tall ladder and the map ends with neither of us quite know which one of us triggered that or if it was timed.      The next map is much like the first map, but shorter. It also had a large brick of HEV charger, totally nonfunctional, how mean.      It's a functional map, it doesn't look good, it was mostly made of...

    Stomp around a tiny city like Japan's favorite Kaiju. There are four maps of increasing Godzillaty destruction in a fullbright expanding city, but they don't transition to one another. SCMapDB page Author: Lymphoid Date of release: 2002 Maps in package:4 Map review of Godzilla (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 18, 2023 | 2671 characters      Very simple setup here: Godzilla is a set of 4 toy maps wherein you can destroy a tiny city. These are tiny cities as conceived of by children- just stretches of grass with giant blocks of grid pattern. But, each of those blocks can be destroyed with enough whacks of a crowbar!      The first map is as simple as can be: destroy all of the buildings. There are some other destructibles like trees and roads, but you just destroy everything. There is nothing else. Not even a map end.      The second verse is very much same as the first: second map is the...

      Stomp around a tiny city like Japan's favorite Kaiju. There are four maps of increasing Godzillaty destruction in a fullbright expanding city, but they don't transition to one another. SCMapDB page Author: Lymphoid Date of release: 2002 Maps in package:4 Map review of Godzilla (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 18, 2023 | 2802 characters      Godzilla is a collection of four maps, each on an escalation of players destroying a city.      The first map is a small city. The map may be small and there may not be a lot of buildings, but there are some very big buildings that take a lot of hits to destroy. Also the map uses stock textures and the skyscrapers use that concrete ceiling with the squares that kinda look like windows. After destroying all the buildings the map does not end and I have to manually switch to the next one.      The next map is like three times as big, players have to ...

    This is an early version of another map called Holodeck. I recommend skipping this and going straight to that map. But it does have a separate entry on the map database so here is a separate review. SCMapDB page Author: Shnuh Date of release:2002 Maps in package:1 Map review of Biodome (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 4, 2023 | 3380 characters      Biodome is a sandbox map for Sven Co-op, wherein an arena comprised of a flat square area adored with turret towers with bridges between them set the stage for players to toy with the tools of Sven Co-op.      This map is split up into two parts. The first is the arena. The arena is where players spawn, and it's where the action is focused. Players can use a ladder to exit the arena, but until they do that they are IN the arena. Depending on the whims of the players who climbed the ladder, the arena may be peaceful, populated with allies, full of weapons, full ...

      This is an early version of another map called Holodeck. I recommend skipping this and going straight to that map. But it does have a separate entry on the map database so here is a separate review. SCMapDB page Author: Shnuh Date of release:2002 Maps in package:1 Map review of Biodome (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 4, 2023 | 2264 characters      The screenshots of the map look fullbright, and indeed the map is fullbright. It also appears to be the beta of another map called Holodeck. That one has lighting and everything.      The map is a stadium type of map, there is a combat zone with some raised walkways around and buttons up top that players can press to spawn NPCs. The buttons are labelled but can still be vague. Most of the enemy spawners had two buttons, one is green and that indicates friendly. There are some unlabelled buttons and one caused rockets to rain down on both myself and my teamma...

       Imagine a large expanse of white and black tiles floating in the void. Fight enemies in one big leak. There is a secret area and the entrance there is invisible and out of the way. SCMapDB page Author: Pastacake Date of final release: 2019 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Battle Mania (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | October 22, 2022 | 1673 characters      Battle Mania is an arena map where you battle waves of enemies on a checkerboard brush in the void. Not a void, *the* void. There is no lighting, as the entire map is a leak.      Press a button, open a door, battle alongside a gorilla against zombies, a robot with too much health, two invincible headcrabs, a xenomorph (with too much health), and Richard Boderman (with an amount of health I think might be excessive). Players are equipped to deal with this via a shotgun, mp5, handgun, 357, crowbar, and medkit with nowhere near enough ammo. As the gonome enemies b...

      Imagine a large expanse of white and black tiles floating in the void. Fight enemies in one big leak. There is a secret area and the entrance there is invisible and out of the way. SCMapDB page Author: Pastacake Date of final release: 2019 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Battle Mania (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | October 22, 2022 | 1774 characters      Battle Mania is a big checkerboard flat plane filled with zombies. A large friendly Ape spins around in an invisible breakable enclosure. As the game goes on and we kill enemies, more and more powerful enemies appear. It culminates in a fight against Richard Boderman and the map ends as soon as he is dead. The map is fullbright and my teammate surmised it was because there is nothing between players and the void. Falling off the side of the checkerboard will result in falling forever without death. That's kind of a cool feature.      Except there is also extra stuff be...

       In this map player's get attacked right away by a wave of enemies, I guess players get ambushed. SCMapDB page Author: Lymphoid Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Ambush (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 26, 2022 | 7843 characters      Ambush is a walkthrough map for Sven Co-op that is really interesting to me from beginning to end. There are a lot of "bad" Sven Co-op maps which fail on basic technical concepts, but what intrigues me about Ambush is that every rookie mistake features a kind of jerry-rigged compensation- the problem is never "solved", it's only rendered inert by a workaround.      Here's an example: The players spawn in a truck in a tunnel. The truck takes up a lot of the tunnel, but overall both are pretty cramped- the tunnel's size not helped by having a truck wedged in it. The player's weapons are all supplied as items around the truck. Now, any sane person might th...

      In this map player's get attacked right away by a wave of enemies, I guess players get ambushed. SCMapDB page Author: Lymphoid Date of final release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Ambush (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 26, 2022 | 5244 characters      To quote my teammate, "there was an ambush."      Right off the bat the spawn area was hit by a squad of HECU and a heavy weapons grunt. The spawn area is a tunnel with a truck parked in it, players can spawn to the side of the truck with the ammo or inside with the some guns. A wonky jump over the car leads to two batteries and a climb to the top and back of the truck has snarks. Under the truck is a revolver. This sounds like a nice selection of guns but with the waves of enemies hitting spawn meant I had to basically navigate an obstacle course while under fire just to have a chance of fighting back. I opted to jump over the truck hood to get some cover, th...

       Abelkerky is a map highly reminiscent of Stadium. It's got a spawn area with tons of weapons and a big pit full of infinitely respawning enemies.  SCMapDB page Author: Einar svc Date of final release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Abelkerky (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 8, 2022 | 1859 characters      Abelkerky is what appears to be a slaughter map full of respawning zombie soldiers, voltigores, and gonarchs. The arena in which they spawn is a large pit with a ramp leading down into it, up to an upper floor with two entrances and the respawn point for the zombies. To get into the arena, there are two doors and some friendly turrets with heavy health, all going back into the player spawn. The player spawns with full health and all of the Sven weapons available at the time of the map's release, as well as a minigun at spawn and an extra uzi.      The brushwork and design of the map is extremel...

      Abelkerky is a map highly reminiscent of Stadium. It's got a spawn area with tons of weapons and a big pit full of infinitely respawning enemies.  SCMapDB page Author: Einar svc Date of final release: 2007 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Abelkerky (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 8, 2022 | 2267 characters      I didn't know what to make of this map before playing. The map description is completely useless redundant info, and the screenshots don't really look like anything. This map is an attempt at a stadium-like map, with a large pit full of respawning enemies and plenty of ordinance to drop on them.      It's not done as well as other stadium maps, namely stadium. Player start with almost all the weapons and full ammunition for them. There are HEV batteries, dual uzis, and a chaingun in spawn, but since players start with full HEV the batteries are there for resupply. There is no ammunition so once you us...