Sven Co-op Map Reviews

       This is yet another Black Mesa map, taking place in the facility with parts of Xen merged in places. The map set is fairly difficult but short. SCMapDB page Author: The Fox Date of final release: 2005 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Area Zero (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 12, 2022 | 6357 characters      Area Zero is an old pair of maps by The fox. The first is Black Mesa themed, the second Xen themed. The genre is straight-forward run-n-gun action and the brushwork is mediocre. Let's go over it.      First off, the presentation. Players will be struck right away by the flat, boring lighting, the bland brushwork and blocky architecture. Some rooms are outclassed by Wolfenstein 3D in atmosphere. The environment feels unbelievable, a series of Doom-like corridors which vaguely imply function. Effects are lazily and haphazardly thrown around with little fanfare. Some environments, especially in the first map, do manage to be effective- some corridors ev

      This is yet another Black Mesa map, taking place in the facility with parts of Xen merged in places. The map set is fairly difficult but short. SCMapDB page Author: The Fox Date of final release: 2005 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Area Zero (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 12, 2022 | 3911 characters      Area Zero is a simple Black Mesa themed walkthrough map from 17 years ago at the time this was written. I didn't expect much from it and so I was surprised at some of the tricks it pulled on me, like hitting us with baby headcrabs out of nowhere. Overall the map did look blocky and rough but there were some features that showed real promise.      Players start out with no weapons and no medkits. I died a lot on this series, there is no ammo and there is no health in the first map. Players find a wrench in spawn area and fight through some minor enemies and then a shock trooper. We pick up a shotgun around the same time.      Players go up an elevator a

       This map is a work in progress and may change drastically in the future. That said, it's really only missing a proper game end and everything else looks good and works well. SCMapDB page Author: Gruntzz Date of final release: 2022 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bounty (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 10, 2022 | 6181 characters      Bounty is a map heavily inspired by Hotline Miami, from the aesthetic to the gameplay. What's the gameplay like? Why, you run into a room fulla guys and immediately get shot to death, that's what!      This is a work-in-progress map (as of June 10 2022) as far as I understand, so take this review as constructive criticism that I'll happily revisit in a re-review should this map be updated.      Getting on with the review: let's start with the aesthetic. I think one of Hotline Miami's greatest strengths is its strong sense of aesthetic, but visually and sonically. Bounty captures the lighting, mood, and s

      This map is a work in progress and may change drastically in the future. That said, it's really only missing a proper game end and everything else looks good and works well. SCMapDB page Author: Gruntzz Date of final release: 2022 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Bounty (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 10, 2022 | 5352 characters      I know this map is a work in progress and when it updates I will revisit this review. The map is a brutally hard search and destroy/assassination mission where one shot will literally kill you, oh and survival mode is on. The first thing we did was turn survival mode right off, the map was playable after that. The respawn timer was very long, I think that is a totally acceptable alternative to survival mode.      Players start in the street, with a nice looking but eerily empty beach and beach chairs immaculately lined up in columns and rows. Players can swim in the water and drown which gives a custom death announcement, whi

       The map description simply reads "The average sven player cannot beat this." The map is a room with a box and a button, what mysteries does this map hold? SCMapDB page Author: GAMESABA Date of final release: 2008 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Area 491 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 5, 2022 | 1754 characters      Area 491 is a map that I don't understand, but can beat. You begin in a room with a box and a button. If you press the button you will explode, but if you break the box and then press the button you will not explode and you will complete the map. The box takes quite a few hits to destroy, but with teamwork it doesn't have to take long.      The map itself is pretty boring looking. Little effort is put into beautification, and if I had to describe the aesthetic it would be "debug room". The button gives no indication that it will explode, I'm guessing for troll reasons, and the box which must be destroyed gives li

      The map description simply reads " The average sven player cannot beat this." The map is a room with a box and a button, what mysteries does this map hold? SCMapDB page Author: GAMESABA Date of final release: 2008 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Area 491 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 5, 2022 | 1591 characters      This is a Japanese troll map consisting of a big room with a button on one wall and a box in a corner. There is some stuff on the wall but that's all texture, none of it does anything. Running to the button will trigger an explosion that will kill you instantly and a message in Japanese (romanji) that my teammate is hard at work Google translating as I write this. It means something like "hey pretty good, it takes guts" if Google translate is any good.      The secret to beating the map is destroying the box, which has a ton of health, and that will stop the explosions. When the explosions are off you can run up and press

       Arctic Mission is a fun little romp through things that can vaguely be described as 'Arctic'. It is short and sweet with fun combat in interesting locations. SCMapDB page Author: TruckStopSantaClaus Date of final release: 2019 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Arctic Mission (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by dunkelschwamm | June 5, 2022 | 4478 characters      Arctic Mission is a map by TruckStopSantaClaus. It's action-centric, with players marching gun muzzles forward through aliens and soldiers, room after room. It covers a few different environments throughout, but a lot of it gives military complex vibes after an initial outdoor area with lots of snowy evergreen and some cavernous bits.      All of this is done with some moody lighting which I think creates a pleasing atmosphere, and also plays up an interesting theme I see throughout: you begin outdoors at a normal residential home which is bright and pleasing within, then after being lost in the woods you come t

          Arctic Incident is a conversion of a single player mod of the same name. Some conversions are just singleplayer experiences dropped into Sven Co-op, but this map has been updated to be more co-op friendly. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: XF-Alien Conversion authors: AlexCorruptor, Outerbeast, and Tunac Date of original mod release: 2015 Date of final Sven Map release: 2021 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Arctic Incident (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by GrandmasterJ | June 5, 2022 | 4278 characters      There is an incident in the arctic, strange arctic creatures have invaded an arctic scientific research base, the arctic military is there to kill both the arctic creatures and the arctic scientists, and you have to escape. It's arctic Black Mesa. This two map set is a conversion of a mod by the same name, so it definitely sits on the easy side even if my teammate and I did die a couple of times each. Despite being a conversion of a single player experience, the conve

          Arctic Incident is a conversion of a single player mod of the same name. Some conversions are just singleplayer experiences dropped into Sven Co-op, but this map has been updated to be more co-op friendly. SCMapDB page Original mod authors: XF-Alien Conversion authors: AlexCorruptor, Outerbeast, and Tunac Date of original mod release: 2015 Date of final Sven Map release: 2021 Maps in package: 2 Map review of Arctic Incident (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by dunkelschwamm | June 5, 2022 | 4448 characters      Arctic Incident is a Half-Life mod which this mapset aims to port to Sven Co-op. Does it do this faithfully? I don't know, as I haven't played the original. However, my understanding is that some maps were consolidated and the weapons have been changed. If that's the case, then this is a very solid port which made some good decisions, as both the maps and weapons work great.      The maps are arctic themed, and mostly revolve around a research base in the

      Arctic Mission is a fun little romp through things that can vaguely be described as 'Arctic'. It is short and sweet with fun combat in interesting locations. SCMapDB page Author: TruckStopSantaClaus Date of final release: 2019 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Arctic Mission (originally posted on SCMapDB)  by GrandmasterJ | June 5, 2022 | 4278 characters      I feel like if there wasn't already two maps called Arctic Escape then this map would also be called Arctic Escape. The map starts off with players around a campfire (that does hurt if you stand on it) and the story is that we have to escape this terrible place and go home. Unlike the other Arctic Maps this doesn't take place in some remote research outpost in the middle of nowhere, there are some nice looking houses in an environment I would call alpine if it had more trees.      The map definitely has that blocky goldsrc charm to it. The map is divided up into the first half where the player visits some secl

       Apprehension is a map that looks like Black Mesa but the story is about terrorists capturing scientists. There are also aliens here so if you ignore the story completely this map plays like yet another Black Mesa map. SCMapDB page Author: HeAdCrAb KILLA Date of final release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Apprehension (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 5, 2022 | 6095 characters      Apprehension is the name of this map from HeAdCrAb KILLA. Despite the festive name, Apprehension is what I would consider to be a very straight-forward walkthrough action walkthrough map with a typical Black Mesa style. Specifically, the map focuses on grand fire fights between players, ally soldiers, and various enemy factions. Within the map you find yourself fighting grunts, robogrunts, robogrunt gargantuas, and Race X as your primary foes. You face these with an MP5, a shotgun, a handgun, grenades, and later a 357, a rocket launcher, and if you play your cards right qu

      Apprehension is a map that looks like Black Mesa but the story is about terrorists capturing scientists. There are also aliens here so if you ignore the story completely this map plays like yet another Black Mesa map. SCMapDB page Author: HeAdCrAb KILLA Date of final release: 2005 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Apprehension (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 5, 2022 | 5000 characters      I played the first half of this map quite a few times, there was a door that we just couldn't seem to open. But we revisited the map and tried again and it seems the map opens via a computer console in a security office. I know I've used that console many times in the past, why did it work now suddenly? I restarted the map and did some testing. You have to hit the button three times to open the door. Granted, there are three red lights that switch to green when you use it, but also I didn't notice that until my fourth playthrough of the map and only after I was s

       This is one of those maps where the title says it all. The map is an arena set in a subway and players fight against neverending zombies. The map has no end or objective, just endless zombies. SCMapDB page Author: SLeNd3rMaN23 Date of final release: 2001 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Zombie Survival Subway (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | June 4, 2022 | 2759 characters      Zombie Survival Subway is a Nexon zombie survival map in Sven without the cool Nexon weapons or enemy variety. Players fight swarms of sprinting medium-tier zombies who make, I think, some of the most annoying sounds in a Sven map yet. Players get their weapons in a spawn room (instead of spawning the player with them already in possession, as most Nexon maps usually have the good sense to do), and does little to resupply them as they battle an endless onslaught of mediocre enemies.      The big selling point is the visuals, as is often in Nexon maps. The map centers around two subway cars

      This is one of those maps where the title says it all. The map is an arena set in a subway and players fight against neverending zombies. The map has no end or objective, just endless zombies. SCMapDB page Author: SLeNd3rMaN23 Date of final release: 2001 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Zombie Survival Subway (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | June 4, 2022 | 2046 characters      Zombie Survival Subway is pretty much the most standard zombie experience a Sven Co-op player could ask for. Players start in a room with some weapons, sniper rifle, M16 (sans grenades), shotgun, and desert eagle. There are green portals that players walk through to drop into the arena itself.      The arena is a sectioned off part of the subway to two derelict subway cars next to each other. The whole area is very well detailed, which from the credits plaque in-map and from what the map description says, this map was ported from Counter-Strike Nexon. I think the zombie models and animations

       Welcome to the surreal pool. This map has some trippy dimensions and overall weird construction, giving the map a surreal and liminal feel to it.  SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2001 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Poolarea (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 30, 2022 | 3725 characters      Poolarea is a very interesting map by notorious mapper robootto. The map features a large pool area liberally seasoned with aliens, grunts, assassins, and a gargantua. The fun doesn't stop there, as secrets unveil more battles in side areas and more weapons to take the map with.      I guess Poolarea is meant as a hangout map where the secrets and objectives of taking out the enemies are tertiary to the main RP-style hangout spot Gldsrc tourism aspect. I get that. As a matter of fact, I'd say it's one of robootto's more successful accomplishments in that realm. The diving boards are all there, all reachable, and I think it's a nice

      Welcome to the surreal pool. This map has some trippy dimensions and overall weird construction, giving the map a surreal and liminal feel to it.  SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2001 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Poolarea (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 30, 2022 | 5513 characters      At this point in my map reviewing career I've played a lot of maps. I'm still not even 15% of the way done yet. But I have played a LOT of maps by this mapper, Robootto. I've come to expect a certain caliber of map from him. Maybe its the fact that I've just played two maps in a row that weren't actively malicious to the player, but this map is different than what he usually creates.      The map starts off in a strange room with a weird line in the wall, some weird tile blocks on either side of a steep staircase, and a bunch of ammo for weapons we don't have. There is a door here that is breakable and part of the wall with the we

       Pink is a brightly colored and garish map with a short platforming section and then a boss fight around a big cup of water. It's very short and has no ending, there is an inaccessible hallway in the last room that does nothing. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Pink (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 30, 2022 | 3159 characters      Pink is a map by robootto which uses xeno.wad to make an experience comparable to being gummed by a toothless giant with halitosis.      The players begin in a platforming segment over nonlethal pizzalava. The pizzalava is not lethal, thankfully, but it is shameful to fall in. Almost the entire platforming segment can be bypassed by just falling into the pizzalava and walking to the penultimate platform, jumping onto that, and then jumping onto the platform which leads to the exit.      What follows is the hallway of breakable transparent brushes and headcrabs. From there

      Pink is a brightly colored and garish map with a short platforming section and then a boss fight around a big cup of water. It's very short and has no ending, there is an inaccessible hallway in the last room that does nothing. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Pink (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | May 30, 2022 | 2257 characters      Pink is a gross looking map that uses a lot of the uncommonly used alien textures. The map looks pretty gross. It starts off with a pretty bad platforming section, there are grenades here you definitely want and some shotgun shells on other platforms, the water here doesn't hurt at all so swimming is harmless. Thankfully the whole section is skippable, I swam to the end of the sequence, climbed onto the last platform and jumped to the end.      After the platforming players go through a hallway, over a shotgun, past three zombies, down a short slip-n-slide, down a long d

       The map with the unpronounceable name is about a rocket ship. It kind of goes up but not all the way and it is very slow. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of final release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Tuukkekovajatka (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | May 30, 2022 | 1389 characters      Tuukkekovajatka is a robootto map and boy howdy is it a robootto map.      Alright, here's the gist of it: you start on a raft(?) floating in nonlethal lava(?) which you swim in to a ladder(?) which you climb up into a room(?) which houses a rocket(?) which you can fly up to another blue room(?) or if you prefer jump off early to get to the pink platform. As the map description says, the rocket unfortunately does not fly high enough to get into the flower room.      This entire map is very blocky, the lava room where the player starts makes no sense, the rocket is pretty ugly looking but hats off to robootto for making an evocative enough concave elevator rocket bru