Strikeback Beta 3 (2006)

In between Escape and Strikeback coming out, I had become quite active on the Sven Co-op forums. I joined the Creepsworld SC Mapping Review Teamthen joined the Forum moderating team, firstly as mod for the Map Showcase forums, and then as a Super Moderator. I found it took out a lot of time however, and I didn't have the drive to continue, so dropped out of the forums for a few years.

My mapping continued however, and I was largely shaped by how Escape was received. I was particularly critical of the looks of the map, and was determined to make a better looking one. Strikeback was a definite move in in that direction. However, in my opinion, it might also have lost out on gameplay at the same time. Strikeback was released six years after Escape on the Sven Co-op Forums.


The positive points are the looks of the map, the diversity of settings, and just the fact I released it. I think the diversity of areas is impressive, and the texturing and architecture have been really thought about. The movement between internal and external areas keeps it interesting. Finally, after about 6 years of on-off mapping, I was really pleased just to release something!


The negatives were that the gameplay is not particularly good. I think that after striving to create a good looking map after Escape, I forgot to keep the gameplay innovative and exciting. Essentially this is just a 'run and shoot' scernario, with little else to excite players. The monsters were 'plonked' onto the map, with gameplay an afterthought.


All that said, I am proud of this map as well, and as I still have the .rmf (which I lost for Escape), I think I should look at it again sometime and make the series I had always intended. 


To play you need a copy of Half-Life 1  (available on Steam, under the Half-Life 1 Anthology) and Sven Co-op, which you can download here. Then unzip the file above to the Halflife directory. Load up Sven Co-op, and play the map.

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