Left 4 Community love: A Review of New Add-On Campaigns

So, there's a new Add-Ons manager for Left 4 Dead, and it's pretty sweet. It allows for basically one-click installation of third-party campaigns and mods. This has led to a huge surge in the use of community campaigns. A HUGE one. I don't have numbers, but every time I've looked for games, at least a third of campaigns in the browser that show up are third party. Community maps never get that kind of attention. This is awesome, and it's exactly where PC developers need to be going, because this is the shit that makes the PC awesome (It's also the shit that makes us PC gamers pretentious, but hey, we're only pretentious because we're better). So, with this surge in community awesomeness, there's interestingly enough, a few campaigns that have stood out as being more popular than others. I've played them, I've played the shit out of them, they were delicious, and have definitely kept my interest in a game that supposedly lacks DLC. Let's take a look at them, shall we? First off, Death Aboard:

From what I've seen, Death Aboard is the most popular Add-On campaign by far, and for good reason. It's freakin' great. It was the first full custom campaign to come out, so by the time the manager was available, many of the bugs in the campaign had already been ironed out.

But anyway, in Death Aboard, you start off in a dark and eerie prison complex, and have to find your way from the maze of dark corridors of the prison complex through some sewers to a prison yard, all the while fighting undead inmates. From there, you enter the prison yard, and break out into some urban area, and then to the docks. Use one of these as a safehouse, and then enter the huge cargo ship.

This is one of the coolest parts, the ship is beached, and on it's side, so you have to adjust to the screen being tilted at about a 30 degree angle or more sometimes. There's a lot of water damage and rust, and you must climb up railings and such with caution. You exit through the ships propeller, in one of the most difficult panic events I've come across, and dash into a beach house.

From there you climb up a cliff to a lighthouse for the finale, where you are rescued by a freakin' hot air balloon.

So already, we see there's a ton of creativity here. The only part that I would say really lacks anything is the early prison levels, since they tend to get repetitive. I mean, it is a prison, so the repetition doesn't seem unrealistic, but there's definitely some copypasta going on in some of the corridors. A minor gripe really. The panic events there are also pretty easy even without much planning (and I play everything on at least advanced).

But man, does the ship make up for it, by leaps and bounds. It's been months since I was genuinely scared by L4D until I played that. Even after replaying it several times it is extremely difficult to tell where the hoard will come from. That's something the official Valve maps don't have. There's also an extremely difficult panic event where you try to open the large metal door to get out through the huge propeller. Here pretty much no matter what you do, you will be surrounded by zombies. God help you if a boomer comes.

I'm making it sound a little unbalanced. It's not like it's impossible to do, but on expert I haven't been able to do it in one try. It's tough, but it's set up for some of the greatest gaming moments I've had in months.

The lighthouse finale is actually a tad easier than the boat, though not by much. It reminds me of Zombie D-day, as you're sitting on top of a large beach/hill/cliff/lighthouse, and you can see the hoards come from miles away. This is the opposite of the ship, but works just as well in creating fear, because after unloading a few sniper rifle magazines into the mass of zombies running toward you, you'll realize there's still a ton more. Oh shi-

This would make the tank easier to defeat, but (spoiler) he doesn't always come from the beach, and I've found myself struggling to keep up with the group as we rush from the lighthouse back down to the beach, being pursued by a towering inferno. You also get rescued down by the beach, so there's a ton of different ways to do the finale, all of which are challenging, and really fun.

Wow, that was bit longer than I wanted, anyway, let's check out Night Terror:

Night Terror is significantly more buggy than Death Aboard, but it's totally forgivable, because Night Terror is just filled with awesome. Night terror isn't really a coherent campaign or story, but instead, each level is just something awesome. It was created (mostly) by Nipper, who did a bunch of weird (but awesome) CS 1.6 maps like crazytank. The first level is the mansion from 28 Days Later. You have to progress through it, and there is (of course) a panic event where you hold out in front as the zombies come across the lawn. You really feel like you're in the movie for this one. The second level is an almost exact replica of the Haunted Mansion ride in Disney World. There is a ton of attention paid to detail here, and a lot of work was done to replicate the tacky effects and holograms, all of which become actually scary when zombies come swarming out of every grave. There's even a panic event where you trigger a cart and ride through the graveyard, all the while defending against MASSIVE (and somewhat unbalanced) hoards of zombies. If you make it through, the cart quietly pulls into the exit area, as if nothing happened. It's a great moment. The next level brings you to the freakin' Mines of Moria from The Lord of the Rings. There's a lot of attention to detail in this one as well, though the actual mines get pretty repetitive (the giant hall with pillars is pretty much just that, a lot of pillars). The Tank actually always comes at the same time in this one. Right when you cross the bridge of Khazad-dum, a tank comes where the Balrog does in the movie. And here's the kicker: the fastest way to kill the tank there, is to have one of your members sacrifice himself and jump off of the bridge, the tank will follow, killing you both. FLY, YOU FOOLS! It's fucking epic, and fucking amazing. The next level I'm actually kind of embarrassed about, as I assume it must be from some movie, or book or something, but I can't put my finger on the reference in this one. It's still enjoyable, though, and reminds me of a classic jungle level from Serious Sam. It's jungle ruins, with long corridors lit by moonlight. It is the weakest level. There's not a lot of memorable events and some copypasta is pretty apparent. Though, all is made well when you discover that the next level, the final level, is the cabin from The Evil Dead. You enter through the cabin, and go through a passageway to the wierd, vortexy version of the house from The Evil Dead 2. There you hold out, and get rescued through a vortex, headed toward The Army of Darkness. It's thoroughly enjoyable, though not as difficult as it should be. Still, you will be satisfied. Well, these are going on a tad longer than I'd want, so I think I'll leave Dam it! and Back to School for part 2. Night Terror and Death Aboard are really must-plays, so get out and kill some zombies!