Sven Co-op Map Reviews

    Explore a massive bedroom and office and find a bunch of secrets. Players get lots of weapons and low gravity to make navigation much easier.  SCMapDB page Author: Fourth Letter Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of DBJR (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | April 30, 2023 | 2719 characters      DBJR is a rats map which takes place inside of a bedroom and an inconsistently proportioned hoarder's office. There are a handful of silly little secrets and a room wherein players can spawn waves of enemies to fight in the main bedroom. The description said these waves happen periodically, but in many dozens of minutes playing we never saw this happen outside of our direct involvement.      The visuals of the map itself are a treat. There's a really cute textured brush for the outside perspective instead of a skybox. There's the obligatory computer running hammer working on the map itself. There's a be...

      Explore a massive bedroom and office and find a bunch of secrets. Players get lots of weapons and low gravity to make navigation much easier.  SCMapDB page Author: Fourth Letter Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of DBJR (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | April 30, 2023 | 4136 characters      I'm a big fan of rats maps, maps where the map is so big the players feel like they are very small. This rats map has the gravity turned down low and longjump given to players on map start, so it's pretty easy to get around.      We start off in a big room and begin to explore. I guess I am just naturally suicidal because the first place I checked out was the fan cord plugged into an outlet, which will gib players if they get near it. Right next to that is a teleporter to the top of a computer from where we can survey the room. A paper airplane makes loops in mid-air, the long jump really helps in g...

       Shrink down extra small and fight for control of the bedroom as tiny green men. This map is highly reminiscent of old classic Army Men games like Sarge's Heroes. SCMapDB page Author: RaptorSKA Date of final release: 2019 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Toysoldiers (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | September 11, 2022 | 5154 characters      Toy Soldiers is an action walkthrough map wherein players take on the role of toy soldiers in a room which has been freshly conquered by enemy toy soldiers. We get the benefits of a rats map and the charm of playing as colorful plastic soldiers smashed together. How does it work?      Well, Toy Soldiers is one of the highest rated maps on Sven Co-op Map Database for good reason. The map is a perfect length, follows good practices of moving spawnpoints forward and keeping players stocked with quickly restocking ammo/HEV/health depots. The health and HEV wall generators seem to nev...

      Shrink down extra small and fight for control of the bedroom as tiny green men. This map is highly reminiscent of old classic Army Men games like Sarge's Heroes. SCMapDB page Author: RaptorSKA Date of final release: 2019 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Toysoldiers (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | September 11, 2022 | 6153 characters      Toy Soldiers is a rats map with the army man theme. I love rats maps, something about being small and fighting to the death in a huge room really appeals to me. With the extra effort of custom models (reskins to be either green, tan, grey, or blue) the map is even more charming.      Before we get to the fighting players get to spawn inside the house at normal size. We can look outside at the lawn, the car parked in the driveway, some impressive bushes that most people probably won't notice. It's a fun start to the map, using the play set with the glow sprite will start the map properly...

       The map author, Robootto, has a tendency to make nonsense maps. This map has a nonsense name (or at least I could not figure out the meaning) and is a simple objectiveless rats style map. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Karpaselamaa (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | January 22, 2022 | 3180 characters      I often wonder if Robootto was an elaborate troll or just a truly baffling mapper whose design somehow accidentally hated the player.      Karpaselamaa is a "rats style" map which in this instance means it includes LARGE objects. By this metric, some other Robootto maps may be considered rats maps too.      In this case the large objects are a television, a glass of water, a remote control, and a houseplant. You'll notice that I didn't say an environment- usually a rats map is like "bedroom" or "kitchen" or "garage" or something. Nah, this i...

      The map author, Robootto, has a tendency to make nonsense maps. This map has a nonsense name (or at least I could not figure out the meaning) and is a simple objectiveless rats style map. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Karpaselamaa (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | January 22, 2022 | 2591 characters I really like rats maps. I love being small in a big world and running in and out of everyday items. I feel like the approach the author took to making a rats map is to make things as inconvenient and frustrating as possible.      Players spawn on top of a potted plant thing. There are branches below that look like they can be platformed, this is a trap, players bounce off and fall to their deaths. There is a thin slice of elevator floating right next to spawn, players who don't want to die should jump on top and ride the slow elevator all the way down where it will sink into the gr...

       USS Darkstar is not a Star Trek themed map, let me get that out of the way now. It is an original setting with a massive space ship filled with a bunch of biological specimens that closely resembles a zoo. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Neil Manke Conversion authors: Lymphoid first and later Lossy Date of original mod release: 1999 Date of final Sven Map release: 2017 Maps in package: 18 Map review of USS Darkstar (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by dunkelschwamm | December 29, 2021 | 4044 characters      USS Darkstar is a classic Half-Life mod made by Neil Manke and Black Widow Games, famous for the They Hunger horror conversion. Instead of pulpy horror cliches, USS Darkstar harps on sci-fi tropes, while forging a very unique identity of its own. At times it reminds me a bit of System Shock, at other times it reminds me a bit of Star Trek: TNG.      This conversion to Sven Co-op is brilliantly executed. Balancing is in pr...

      USS Darkstar is not a Star Trek themed map, let me get that out of the way now. It is an original setting with a massive space ship filled with a bunch of biological specimens that closely resembles a zoo. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: Neil Manke Conversion authors: Lymphoid first and later Lossy Date of original mod release: 1999 Date of final Sven Map release: 2017 Maps in package: 18 Map review of USS Darkstar (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by GrandmasterJ | December 29, 2021 | 3259 characters      This map is one of the oldest maps on scmapdb that are not official releases. It's actually a conversion of a single player mod from way back when that I never played. It's got a lot of maps in the campaign but the first section is a lot of nice scenery, practically showing off the areas you will be fighting in later. I don't think you even see enemies or weapons until map 5 (out of around 16). The last map itself is just a cutscene and credit...

      SEXR is a rats map set in the author's bedroom. It's not meant to have linear progression, the map description clearly states it is meant to be a lobby map. Despite this there are areas that act very much like a linear sequence of objectives. SCMapDB page Author: SharkMan Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of SEXR (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | December 12, 2021 | 3114 characters      I sometimes think that making Sven Co-op maps might have the same appeal as making model railroads- creating a tiny little world and journeying through it. It's this combination of concepts in my mind that makes me a big fan of rats style maps in Counter-Strike and Sven Co-op. Maps in which you play as tiny soldiers in a gigantic version of mundane locations, turning everyday household items into tactical positions for going to war, are just endlessly charming to me. So, how do you mess it up?      Firstly, SEXR mi...

      SEXR is a rats map set in the author's bedroom. It's not meant to have linear progression, the map description clearly states it is meant to be a lobby map. Despite this there are areas that act very much like a linear sequence of objectives. SCMapDB page Author: SharkMan Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of SEXR (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | December 12, 2021 | 5209 characters      I really love the rats maps in Counter-Strike so when I was very excited when I saw this map. Overall I liked it but there definitely came a point where I wanted the map to be over. I think we reached the end of the map, there wasn't really an indication of whether we did or not.      The map takes place in a bedroom. Players spawn in all over the room, I spawned on top of a computer desk. On top of different furniture are different weapons. Two major problems with this set up is that there were no ladders to get do...

    Hamsters is a classic map made for Counter-Strike 1.6 by the legendary mapper, Nipper. The whole map is a hamster habitat floating in space. The walls are transparent making enemy movement obvious. It's a really good map for Counter-Strike 1.6. SCMapDB page Author: Nipper Date of final release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Hamsters (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | November 28, 2021 | 1120 characters      Hamsters is a classic Nipper Counter-Strike map. This port is faithful in its port of that map and changes nothing, making it little more than a hangout map. While crawling around in tubes does have a McDonald's playplace feel to it and the spinning wheels are very fun, this port has pretty limited options for Sven players.      If you have a hangout server, I think you should probably stick to maps made specifically for hangout servers and maybe leave this one off the rotation. I can't imagine players finding more th...

    Hamsters is a classic map made for Counter-Strike 1.6 by the legendary mapper, Nipper. The whole map is a hamster habitat floating in space. The walls are transparent making enemy movement obvious. It's a really good map for Counter-Strike 1.6. SCMapDB page Author: Nipper Date of final release: 2016 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Hamsters (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | November 28, 2021 | 787 characters      I've played the original Hamsters map on Counter-Strike 1.6 so I knew what I was getting into. But I expected a few enemies or some sort of additions or upgrades for Sven. Nope, this is the map from Counter-Strike in Sven. That's it.      I guess it would be a good PVP map, but this is Sven CO-OP, I don't think I've ever actually played PVP. Pros: Classic Nipper map from 1.6 Great for PVP Cons: It's ported to Sven but has nothing added for Sven gameplay nobody plays PVP Novelty of being a hamster falls off immediately, ...