Sven Co-op Map Reviews

       A fairly standard horde map with an Osprey, not the monster that drops off endless supplies of soldiers but a big driveable func_vehicle Osprey. Fly around the battlefield and shoot soldiers. SCMapDB page Authors: CkDead Date of release: ???? Maps in package: 1 Map review of Ck Osprey (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 7, 2024 | 2683 characters      CK Osprey is a horde map wherein you face many respawning HECU grunts in a desert arena segmented by big rock formations. Players spawn in a partitioned helipad in the corner of the map, where they can drive and ride an osprey over the desert arena. Alternatively, players can enter a garage to drive a truck around to attack from. Alternatively alternatively, players can climb up onto overlooking towers to fire down on the respawning enemies. This continues endlessly until either the map's time runs out or somebody votemaps.      This mostly works out, especially ...

      A fairly standard horde map with an Osprey, not the monster that drops off endless supplies of soldiers but a big driveable func_vehicle Osprey. Fly around the battlefield and shoot soldiers. SCMapDB page Authors: CkDead Date of release: ???? Maps in package: 1 Map review of Ck Osprey (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 7, 2024 | 1797 characters      This is a fairly simple horde map, players get a little fortress with plenty of supplies and a big drivable Osprey we can use to fly over a battlefield of infinite human grunts. There is a sentry gun that overlooks spawn and it will absolutely shoot players the moment they appear, but there's only one and it had a reasonable amount of health. Underbarrel grenades with M16s, crossbows, grenades, and an mp5 lay on the ground to help players kill the grunts. I much prefer the crossbow. There was also a turret on top of a tower but I didn't interact with it much.      The r...

      Drop into a blocky city and start killing hordes of monsters. Eventually through some arcane invocations (breaking the right stuff) the enemies will cease to appear. SCMapDB page Authors: Agent Zero the Koraa Hunter Date of release: 2018 Maps in package: 1 Map review of City Rush (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | October 16, 2023 | 4583 characters      City Rush is a horde map set in a modestly mapped block town. Much of the map is spent wandering around wondering whether you're doing the right thing to make the map proceed.      You could say the map is broken up into two acts: the first is getting to know the map as it is desolate save for players. There are three buildings of interest at any given time: a building at the start with your starting weapons and a small table full of ammo (impossible to not be a greedy grabber here on more populated maps), an armory with extremely durable windows which must be shattered to...

    Drop into a blocky city and start killing hordes of monsters. Eventually through some arcane invocations (breaking the right stuff) the enemies will cease to appear. SCMapDB page Authors: Agent Zero the Koraa Hunter Date of release: 2018 Maps in package: 1 Map review of City Rush (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | October 16, 2023 | 3543 characters      City Rush is a map that focuses heavily on a zombie horde, of the too-much-health variety. The map explicitly tells us to break a window and it takes a lot of damage and we were doubting what the map was telling us. But an early word of advice, keep hitting those windows. After that we faced a huge swarm of enemies that eventually petered out.      On map start my teammate and I ran in different directions, he tripped a cutscene that I had to watch and then shortly after I tripped a cutscene that he had to watch. I'm glad these scenes are over quickly and before zombies get here b...

       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 the...

      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 i...

       Suit up squad, it's time to go fight human grunts that this map calls zombies. This map is a horde map taking place in a burned out urban block, supposedly there are points to capture but I didn't see any. SCMapDB page Author: cyberdaemon Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Zombie Squad (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 17, 2023 | 2601 characters      Zombie Squad is a well detailed horde map wherein grunts and hwgrunts (and, like, an assassin) swarm the players from every angle. Thankfully, within the details of the ruins are plenty of weapons, and a reasonable smattering of HEV and health pickups.      The description makes it sound like maybe my experience with the map is broken. There were, like, 3 soldiers which looked like zombies in the map. I think far more were meant to be zombies? Also, the MOTD makes it sound like there's some funny control point business, like there's an objectiv...

      Suit up squad, it's time to go fight human grunts that this map calls zombies. This map is a horde map taking place in a burned out urban block, supposedly there are points to capture but I didn't see any. SCMapDB page Author: cyberdaemon Date of release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Zombie Squad (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 17, 2023 | 3342 characters      Fight a never-ending horde or human grunts in a really well made destroyed dense urban section. Did I say human grunts? I meant zombies, but all the zombies have guns and I think the included models have to overwrite the default human grunt models and I didn't do that so most of the enemies I fought were default HECU soldiers. So this map did not feel like a zombie map in the slightest.      My teammate and I spawn in different areas, I start in a closet and walk out to find batteries. I exchange gunfire through a window and pick up a crossbow and sat...

       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. ...

      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 p...

       Ride on a helicopter, sans Wagner, and shoot down at the enemies below. Occasionally enemy helicopters will appear but there is a rocket launcher on the map so they go down easy. SCMapDB page Author: Unknown Date of release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Chopper Ride (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 2, 2023 | 1898 characters      The Chopper Ride is a nonstop action map starring a brush helicopter and a donut of desert around a mountain full of respawning HECU. If that sounds awesome to you, you're in for a treat.      I think the Chopper Ride is truly made for people who like Michael Bay movies and want to play that feeling. Grab a bunch of weapons, ride around on an invincible helicopter raining hell down on, uh, enemy combatants forever. One part of the desert donut has a respawning apache so your helicopter can fight another helicopter like a mirror fight. There's not very much to it, outside of t...

      Ride on a helicopter, sans Wagner, and shoot down at the enemies below. Occasionally enemy helicopters will appear but there is a rocket launcher on the map so they go down easy. SCMapDB page Author: Unknown Date of release: 2002 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Chopper Ride (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 2, 2023 | 1522 characters      This is a very simple but fun horde map where players get to fly a helicopter on a fixed route around a big arena filled with human grunts and sometimes apaches. Players spawn up top on a cliff and there is a path around the center of the map in a big donut where all the enemies are, opposite player spawn is another cliff we can access the chopper.      The map has some ok weapons, in spawn we get a crossbow, rocket launcher, underbarrel grenades (which come with an M16), and an uzi. The chopper starts here but it can be controlled like any other func_vehicle so any player can drive...

       What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets. But enough talk… Have at you! Explore Dracula's castle, which in this case means a smattering of respawning enemies and long walks through them. SCMapDB page Author: Gadabout Date of release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Castlevania (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 2, 2023 | 4169 characters      Castlevania is a non-linear walkthrough action map for Sven Co-op which aims to recreate the feeling of a Castlevania game. The map is divided up into 6 sections: The introduction area, the hub, the underground, the chapel, the clock tower, and Dracula's arena. Aside from the hub and final arena, each section comprises of a collection of challenges and a boss.      These challenges take two primary flavors: platforming puzzles, and combat. Platforming puzzles in this map range from fair to tedious. Much of it revolves around barnacle grappling, which als...

       What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets. But enough talk… Have at you! Explore Dracula's castle, which in this case means a smattering of respawning enemies and long walks through them. SCMapDB page Author: Gadabout Date of release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Castlevania (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 2, 2023 | 3838 characters      I was really excited to play this map, I am a big fan of other game franchises shoved into the old school mess that is goldsrc. I haven't played much Castlevania, but the moment we started my teammate ran over to a torch, destroyed it, and then whooped for joy when it dropped ammo so I'm assuming this map nails it.      The map has two primary components, platforming and combat. Combat is against some low health enemies that respawn forever and quickly, mostly stuka bats and Barnabus, both very annoying. There is no armor anywhere so we die very quickly. Becau...

       Here is another horde map, this one taking place in the eponymous cemetery with the stated goal of grinding experience for XP mod. The map certainly does feel like a grind. SCMapDB page Author: GForce Date of release: 2010 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Cemetery (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | July 1, 2023 | 1507 characters      Cemetary is a charming little map of a spooky cemetery wherein infinite zombies spawn, which players may shotgun to their hearts' content. There's a house you can enter (which you spawn in), a church you can enter, and a house you cannot enter which tells you the credits (shoutouts to GForce). There's a really fun upper area of the cemetery with a bridge that connects them, which breaks up the field.      It's a fairly short map, but it's got enough fun details to really complete the atmosphere of a spooky cemetery. Just enough. I like the touches like a shovel in a mound of dirt, and t...

      Here is another horde map, this one taking place in the eponymous cemetery with the stated goal of grinding experience for XP mod. The map certainly does feel like a grind. SCMapDB page Author: GForce Date of release: 2010 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Cemetery (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | July 1, 2023 | 2011 characters      This map is meant to farm experience for XP mod if the map description is accurate. I guess for that it works well. The map is a big cemetery full of infinitely spawning zombies. We get shotguns and lots of ammo and we start with full armor so in the rare instance we do get hit we take almost no damage.      The map looks pretty good, but it does have some chunky and blocky parts. It also uses a lot of models that looks pretty good, but totally give away that they are models in both lighting and look. At one point my teammate pointed out a shovel in a blocky chunk of dirt, it was a well done s...

      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 team...

      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 bu...

      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 battle...

      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 f...