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Map review of Damned Forest
by dunkelschwamm | June 6, 2026 | 4071 characters
Damned Forest is a short atmospheric horror map that comes across as a teaser of things to come. It feels out features, like the cutscene camera, model replacements, and guiding NPCs around for cinematic purposes. That said, I think this map does those things well and with enough personality that it's a worthwhile experience anyway.
First of all, it's a very simple walkthrough map. The quickest play-by-play is: You watch a cutscene, walk around avoiding some pits, avoid an alligator to get a crowbar to break a barrier, watch another cutscene, fall in a pit, wall down a hall, fall in another pit, wall down another hall, watch another cutscene, walk through some woods, watch another cutscene, grab a shotgun, backtrack through some zombies to a pit, and the map ends. All said and done you could probably clear this map in less than a minute if not for the cutscenes.
The map creates a working atmosphere out of mostly default and Afraid of Monsters assets, from what I can tell. There's a zombie with a great walking animation I don't recognize but I love it. There's an alligator replacing a garg that waddles adorably toward the player while struggling to navigate the spike brushes intended to evoke natural ground. Things are inconsistent, though: like early on there's extremely thick fog manifested through a low scrolling fog layer and a bunch of fog sprites- but that immediately clears the moment you turn a corner. Most of the natural environments look clunky in all the wrong places, but environments like buildings look superb. The best-looking natural environment in the ending forest is marred by a big glowing pool of water.
Most of the map's best qualities are in its cutscenes, and I think it knows that by the way it hurls slurs at us in the MOTD to urge us to pay attention to them. The opening cutscene was really impressive. The mid-game cutscene with the guy with a sword builds a lot of intrigue (despite that he never appears again). I'd also include the Resident Evil 4 merchant cameo here, all his characterization outside of being a meat mannequin beside some respawning shotguns and ammo is delivered through a couple voice lines in a cutscene.
Speaking of voice lines, the map starts with music and then features VO during the opening cutscene. I could not make out what is being said in either because they are so quiet as to be nearly inaudible. Upon a second attempt to hear what the cutscene VO is saying, I don't think it was anything important, but rather an attempt to test VO as a possible feature. Thankfully, moving forward narrative is delivered via on-screen text (though it speeds through the text a bit quickly, again making following all the information difficult).
Sadly, the map ends on a cliffhanger and to my knowledge Sence never followed this up with a sequel.
There's also a bit where one player gets to experience a side experience that ends in a jumpscare and death. It's effective and looks pretty good.
I can't really recommend this map unless you're looking to just check out a quick procession of things you can do with Goldsrc mapping. I think each segment is an interesting challenge from a mapping standpoint, but in execution made for a pretty dry experience that didn't really gel with what Sven Co-op offers.
Pros:
- The cutscenes were mostly pretty impressive
- The pilfered assets and good lighting combined to make some effective atmosphere
- I really liked the animations on the zombie model
- For a brief moment toward the end it's pretty fun blowing away zombies with a shotgun
Cons:
- Most of the natural areas look kind of bad
- The cutscenes, while neat, don't really amount to much
- The pacing and balance of the experience is all over the place and ends before it feels like it begins
- Places where we could crawl out of the map into a noob-box in the void
Review originally from *
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