Sven Co-op Map Reviews

      Old school classic Frogger, hop across the freeway and a river to reach some buttons, press them all to go to the next round. Any misstep and you will die horribly. SCMapDB page Author: LentoMan Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Frogger (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 18, 2023 | 3162 characters      Frogger is a 3-tiered arcade "puzzle" "skill" game map for Sven Co-op.      The setup is simple: run past 4 lanes of speeding cars, reach the dock, then jump across 4 lanes of giant logs in quick-kill water to 4 button alcoves. Hit the button, get killed, start over, hit all the buttons, end the round. The next round is more complicated: the second round adds invincible turrets which the players must distract using the hivehand- really creative! The third round adds an RPG to explode the turrets, shortly followed by a crossbow to sniperfight snipers who appear in the button alcoves. With that completed, the m

      Old school classic Frogger, hop across the freeway and a river to reach some buttons, press them all to go to the next round. Any misstep and you will die horribly. SCMapDB page Author: LentoMan Date of release: 2004 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Frogger (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 18, 2023 | 2794 characters      I felt a bit of deja vu when I saw this map, I had previously seen it in another map by the same author, retrohunt. That map was duck hunt fused with frogger, but this map is all frogger.      Players have to traverse a very busy and deadly street and then jump across logs in a poison river and jump into alcoves to press buttons. Pressing all four buttons ends the round and there are three rounds. Turrets and weapons start appearing in round 2 and the map gets quite difficult. I had racked up about 60 deaths myself from just running into traffic and hails of gunfire. The map uses a clever mechanic where turrets will shoot at bees f

    Despite the name this map is a Shadow Warrior themed map, no Black Hawks around, bird or helicopter. It's got both key hunt elements just like games in the old days and its got plenty of combat as well.  SCMapDB page Author: Lt.JC Date of release: 2006 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Black Hawk (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 16, 2023 | 3883 characters      Black Hawk is a map for Sven Co-op which aims to take inspiration from Shadow Warrior, making a series with a more classic build-engine style.      This build engine inspiration is especially apparent in the flow of the map. There's a lot of key hunting, monsters spawning in a monster-closet-adjacent fashion, and secret hunting for weapons. The two main maps in particular are extremely similar to the first two maps of Shadow Warrior at first glance, with the first map being almost beat-for-beat in terms of progression. I think this key hunt style works great, and my teammate had ment

      Despite the name this map is a Shadow Warrior themed map, no Black Hawks around, bird or helicopter. It's got both key hunt elements just like games in the old days and its got plenty of combat as well.  SCMapDB page Author: Lt.JC Date of release: 2006 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Black Hawk (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 16, 2023 | 7587 characters      I haven't played much Shadow Warrior and as a result I suck at it. This map is a lot like its source material, at least according to my teammate who saw the inspiration right away, it has challenging combat in some areas and a lot of annoying key hunt elements. There are three maps in total, the first and second are walkthrough maps that pick up right after the other and are built very similar to levels in Shadow Warrior. Then there was the bonus map that was a brutal platforming co-op journey.      We spawn in a street, for various reasons my teammate and I went afk for a bit and I ca

    Players get dropped, quite literally, into a wreck building and must kill hundreds of zombies with a lot of health. New areas open up at certain milestones and then there is a boss. SCMapDB page Author: Ice Box Date of release: 2011 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Black Haze (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 12, 2023 | 4018 characters      Black Haze is a zombie horde survival map. Players must survive 3 rounds of seemingly endless 1000 hp "zoomies" zombies (as my teammate and I called them, on account of their zooming speed). To combat them, players can scavenge a veritable arsenal from the area we explore.      The area to explore is a "building in ruins". My teammate and I both had the initial impression of it being a shopping mall due to its layout and the beginning taking place in some sort of plaza, but there are strange autopsy tables in most of the rooms so maybe not a shopping mall. It's brushed decently enough, bu

      Players get dropped, quite literally, into a wreck building and must kill hundreds of zombies with a lot of health. New areas open up at certain milestones and then there is a boss. SCMapDB page Author: Ice Box Date of release: 2011 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Black Haze (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 12, 2023 | 3209 characters      Both the map description and the message of the day is somewhat vague on what is expected of the players. This map is a wave defense map where players have to kill a set number of zombies to unlock the next stage. This particular map has three areas and ends after a boss.      I played this with one other person and it was slow and boring. The zombies have 1000 health each and are extremely fast. With a lot of players I can see fun gameplay with people gunning down zombie swarms but all the weapons were scattered around and there was a shortage of ammo. Most of the time when I would spawn in I would run to the nea

      Welcome to a store that sells toilets. There are no enemies, but there are plenty of weapons, scientists, and toilets to play with. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Toilet Store (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 23, 2023 | 1621 characters      Toilet Store is a hangout map that takes place in a madcap surrealist toilet store. Players spawn outside, can work their way in by breaking a glass door, and then find themselves in a toilet store populated by scientists and a G-man. The toilets are silly, have breakable glass lids. Some of them elevate, some of them go into the ground. Some are raised up. Some are in kiosks with wacky textures. There's an indestructible front door. There's a cash register. There's a rocket launcher on a bizarre grate wall outside. There's weapons just kinda laying around, some ammo laying on top of toilet seats.      If it sounds like I'm just listing

      Welcome to a store that sells toilets. There are no enemies, but there are plenty of weapons, scientists, and toilets to play with. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Toilet Store (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 12, 2023 | 1655 characters    So we start off in what looks like an alley. There are some huge cardboard boxes here that we can use to jump on and grab a rocket launcher that balances precariously on the edge of sanity and reason. Then we break down the glass and enter the toilet store.      The first thing we discover is that the toilet lids are destructible and sometimes they hide supplies in the toilet bowls. I start on breaking those while my teammate discovers that some toilets sink down into the ground. We both find a toilet that floats up.      After we finish examining all the toilets we turn our attention to the scientists wandering the aisles. There are plenty of weapons strewn

    Blitzwar is a map originally made for Counter-Strike and reworked to include round based combat. It's fairly small and there are only five rounds that only last for 90 seconds each, but the enemies are deadly and it can be challenging. SCMapDB page Original map author: Elber Conversion author:Enuze Date of original map release: 2010 Date of final Sven Map release: 2011 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Blitzwar (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 11, 2023 | 4095 characters      CS-Blitzwar is a round-for-round action map wherein players must exterminate an opposing team of soldiers within 90 second rounds. The map has two start points, and it is randomized each play which will host the players and which will host the enemies.      The enemies are mostly Barnabuses, Soldiers, Blackops, and Otises. However, there are also Agent Smiths who seem to dart around a bit more erratically, and special "Cheater" minibosses who appear. The minibosses

      Blitzwar is a map originally made for Counter-Strike and reworked to include round based combat. It's fairly small and there are only five rounds that only last for 90 seconds each, but the enemies are deadly and it can be challenging. SCMapDB page Original map author: Elber Conversion author:Enuze Date of original map release: 2010 Date of final Sven Map release: 2011 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Blitzwar (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 11, 2023 | 3692 characters      Lots of maps get converted to work in Sven Co-op, this one is a counter-strike map converted to work with round based gameplay. The map description stops there and was so vague we didn't really know what we were getting into.      The map works by spawning a handful of enemies and telling players to clean them out in 90 seconds or less. The map uses a more realistic weapon damage model where bullets hurt! It is very easy to get sniped from across the map and enemies will ap

      It's a fairly standard kill box map. There are a bunch of monsters in a pit, safely away from players, and players get to pour death down the hole at their leisure. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Splatter (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 11, 2023 | 2038 characters      Splatter is a gimmick map for Sven Co-op. Some hatches in the floor allow easy access for players to drop explosives and other armaments down upon infinitely respawning aliens. That'll teach them to be aliens!      Players are supplied with rockets, satchel charges, grenades, a gauss rifle (necessary for catapulting one's self up into an upper area), under barrel grenades, and some other weapons. What matters is the explosives you can drop on the enemies. This is surprisingly fun, and the small area through which you can shoot at the enemies can make for some fun games of trying to get your explosive in the hole from

      It's a fairly standard kill box map. There are a bunch of monsters in a pit, safely away from players, and players get to pour death down the hole at their leisure. SCMapDB page Author: Robootto Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Splatter (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 11, 2023 | 2032 characters      Spawn in a safe room filled with weapons and take a peek through some holes in the floor to a pit filled with monsters. Drop a satchel charge in, launch a rocket, perhaps lob an underbarrel grenade. The monsters respawn near instantly.      That's about it for interactivity. There are some interesting things to look at, some checkerboard missing textures, a stack of unbreakable boxes, and a weird booth behind some chain link with a bunch of satchel charges in front of it. The map description says that's an admin room, and it certainly had a bunch of buttons that did some stuff. But there is no discernable way in or out,

    This map was built to play a way that Sven never really supported. So it was abandoned. It's a box (or two) full of headcrabs for a project that was cancelled due to the main concept not working out. SCMapDB page Author: Socrates Date of release: 2000 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Crablegs (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 11, 2023 | 1278 characters      Crablegs is a map for Sven Co-op. It features two darkened arenas with floating water surfaces in the center. Each arena is a cube with inaccessible catwalks with infinitely spawning headcrabs. The player has no flashlight, so facing the headcrabs is a nightmare. To make matters worse, players spawn with a revolver drawn which is a terrible weapon for fighting headcrabs in the dark. Switching to the crowbar helps, but it doesn't help anything of particular note because there doesn't seem to be any end to the endlessly spawning headcrabs.      Maybe with a lot of players fighting the h

      This map was built to play a way that Sven never really supported. So it was abandoned. It's a box (or two) full of headcrabs for a project that was cancelled due to the main concept not working out. SCMapDB page Author: Socrates Date of release: 2000 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Crablegs (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 11, 2023 | 1481 characters      This map consists of two rooms, each with the shallowest puddle in the middle in which headcrabs pour into endlessly via a hole high up in the wall. There is another platform up around where the headcrabs appear, it even connects the rooms which are otherwise cut off from each other. There is no way up there unless players want to create a tower.      Players start with crowbar, medkit, and revolver. Then they get buried in headcrabs. If I've learned anything from this map it is that headcrabs can be real dangerous if you need to fight 50 of them at once.      Also, we don't have flashl

    We return to the dark pigmented facility, the first map we were a bystander and now we get to be soldiers. Visually it looks like Black Mesa but there is not a lot that the two maps have in common. SCMapDB page Author: Agamemnon Date of release:2003 Maps in package:1 Map review of Black Facility 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 11, 2023 | 3296 characters      Black Facility 2 is the sequel to Black Facility. It is an action walkthrough map for Sven Co-op.      In whatever regard this is related to Black Facility 1, frankly can be easily dismissed. This is a new boilerplate Black Mesa style facility that starts in an outdoor area and proceeds into a base which players sabotage. The story, as far as I can tell, and the progression of the map, have little to do with Black Facility 1.      The beginning of the map has players unarmed through some vent crawling and going through a metal detector. This doesn't exactly happen, however, as the gam

      We return to the dark pigmented facility, the first map we were a bystander and now we get to be soldiers. Visually it looks like Black Mesa but there is not a lot that the two maps have in common. SCMapDB page Author: Agamemnon Date of release:2003 Maps in package:1 Map review of Black Facility 2 (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 11, 2023 | 4083 characters      This is the second installment of the Black Facility series that takes place somewhere that looks just like Black Mesa in which we fight aliens. In the first map we escaped the facility, but now we are back, starting from outside and working our way in.      Right in the first area we had some issues. We start off in a outdoor cliff hallway, my teammate jumps on a crate and onto a cactus then onto the cliff wall giving him a view out of the map. We spawn with no weapons so we start looking around. We find a friendly human grunt that explains out mission parameters and tells us we get weapons a

      Welcome to a scientific facility that looks and feels like Black Mesa but isn't, probably. Fight and scavenge your way up the elevator shaft to an eventual escape. SCmapDB page Author: Agamemnon Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Black Facility (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 5, 2023 | 3104 characters      Black Facility is a Black Mesa style walkthrough map for Sven Co-op. It is mostly action-oriented, with basic goals delivered through dialogue with scientists, as you make your way to escaping the Black Facility.      The map begins with players at the base of an elevator shaft with some busted up elevators. Through dealing with the scientists, pushing buttons, shooting aliens, and fighting the military. Once you start ascending the elevator shaft, most of the map is hallways, occasional simple arena rooms, making up experiment chambers and living areas. Locker rooms, a cafeteria, console rooms, the works. You fight ab

      Welcome to a scientific facility that looks and feels like Black Mesa but isn't, probably. Fight and scavenge your way up the elevator shaft to an eventual escape. SCmapDB page Author: Agamemnon Date of release: 2003 Maps in package: 1 Map review of Black Facility (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 5, 2023 | 4123 characters      Welcome to a secret facility somewhere in America that looks like black Mesa but maybe isn't. Regardless, xen aliens and soldiers show up and are mere speedbumps in the path of the players.      We start off at the bottom of an elevator shaft, a zombie immediately approaches me so I climb a rope dangling from the elevator above and wait. My teammate joins the server and the zombie hits him before he has a chance to react. We spawn with 75 HEV so the hit barely scratches him, but I don't think enemies have any business being in spawn right off the bat like this.      We can climb up the rope or walk forward. Going f

    Welcome to the Holodeck, a map where players can run around an arena while other players spawn monsters in. I'm guessing it's based off the holodeck in Star Trek but I don't remember the that show ever making the holodeck look like this. SCMapDB page Author: Shnuh Date of release:2004 Maps in package:1 Map review of Holodeck (originally posted on SCMapDB) by dunkelschwamm | March 4, 2023 | 1925 characters      Holodeck is, if I'm following correctly, a follow-up update to Biodome ( http://scmapdb.wikidot.com/map:biodome ) by the same author. To recap, that is to say, Holodeck 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. I wrote a brief review of biodome which you can see on its page on this site. I recommend looking into that and coming back here to find out how this map differs.      Not by a whole lot. T

      Welcome to the Holodeck, a map where players can run around an arena while other players spawn monsters in. I'm guessing it's based off the holodeck in Star Trek but I don't remember the that show ever making the holodeck look like this. SCMapDB page Author: Shnuh Date of release:2004 Maps in package:1 Map review of Holodeck (originally posted on SCMapDB) by GrandmasterJ | March 4, 2023 | 2802 characters      I played the beta of this map and it was not bad, it looked pretty bad and weapon selection was terrible but the arena combat was fun. Some of these problems even got fixed in this version!      The map is now lit properly and that is already a huge improvement. The arena in unchanged, a pit in the center of the map with some short towers and bridges. There is a ladder up top to an area with buttons overlooking the combat zone that can spawn monsters, weapons, explosions, water, whatever. The buttons are still fairly vague and there are new additions from