L4D 'Crash Course' Campaign is now out

[Zipfinator]

I still don't see how it links the two campaigns.

Explains how they got from the Helicopter that could have taken them to an army base to the ground. Otherwise I guess you're supposed to piece together that they drove to the highway until something happened to the truck (Out of gas, car block, etc).

[AverageJoe]

Not bad, wasn't too hard etc

I'm not amused at the fact they replaced the menu video again because it deleted my Thriller vid which took a while to download >_>

And yeah the end with the truck, what a waste. Could have been so more epic and I still don't see how it links the two campaigns.

I think alot of people wouldn't have understood how Crash Course is linked with No Mercy.
A: Same helicopter.
B: Cut from the game, originally the Pilot was supposed to go on and on about he wasn't feeling well and might be infected himself while the survivors geared up for battle.

So it's a bit of an obscure nod to No Mercy but hey whatever.
It would have been way cool if at the beginning of Death Toll the Armored Ice Cream Truck O' Doom escape vehicle was there instead of the cop car.
And on top of that there are probably ways to link the other three campaigns together also.

[Zipfinator]

And on top of that there are probably ways to link the other three campaigns together also.

Valve has already acknowledged that people have pieced together how they planned out the campaign progression if it was linked through dialogue/events, guess this was the biggest missing piece.

[cypher543]

Here's the thing... and you all can gang up and beat me, if you want...

I used to love L4D because frankly I love anything that let's me blow some zombies the hell up. But it got pretty old after a while. They all started to die the same way. I was hoping this campaign would get me interested again, but it didn't. Honestly, I didn't feel that it was Valve-quality work. It looks very rushed and there weren't many "Oooooo! Ahhhh!" moments, aside from blasting the bridge with that huge-ass gun. I'm probably thinking this way because I took a break from L4D and played BioShock for about a week, so I've gotten used to the deep stories and really top-notch environment design. Actually, what AverageJoe said about the helicopter pilot would have been awesome. I really wish L4D had some more detail in terms of character and story progression, rather than just throwing me in a level and saying "Shoot shit."

Anyway... Das Ende der rant.

[Phott]

Here's the thing... and you all can gang up and beat me, if you want...

I used to love L4D because frankly I love anything that let's me blow some zombies the hell up. But it got pretty old after a while. They all started to die the same way. I was hoping this campaign would get me interested again, but it didn't. Honestly, I didn't feel that it was Valve-quality work. It looks very rushed and there weren't many "Oooooo! Ahhhh!" moments, aside from blasting the bridge with that huge-ass gun. I'm probably thinking this way because I took a break from L4D and played BioShock for about a week, so I've gotten used to the deep stories and really top-notch environment design. Actually, what AverageJoe said about the helicopter pilot would have been awesome. I really wish L4D had some more detail in terms of character and story progression, rather than just throwing me in a level and saying "Shoot shit."

Anyway... Das Ende der rant.

I agree to this man's statements! ...

[Megadude]

Here's the thing... and you all can gang up and beat me, if you want...

I used to love L4D because frankly I love anything that let's me blow some zombies the hell up. But it got pretty old after a while. They all started to die the same way. I was hoping this campaign would get me interested again, but it didn't. Honestly, I didn't feel that it was Valve-quality work. It looks very rushed and there weren't many "Oooooo! Ahhhh!" moments, aside from blasting the bridge with that huge-ass gun. I'm probably thinking this way because I took a break from L4D and played BioShock for about a week, so I've gotten used to the deep stories and really top-notch environment design. Actually, what AverageJoe said about the helicopter pilot would have been awesome. I really wish L4D had some more detail in terms of character and story progression, rather than just throwing me in a level and saying "Shoot shit."

Anyway... Das Ende der rant.

I agree to this man's statements! ...

QFT

[blackdeath]

Crash Course looks like someone set off a bomb in the middle of a gigantic Bus, Truck, and Shelving Unit Convention.




About the only thing interesting was the voice acting.

[source-maps]

negative nancies
ITS AWESOME !

[Afnopo]

Was worth the 0$ but it was really not worth Valve's time. Instead of working on Episode 3 we get this.

[Mr-Jigsaw]

Well, actually you get both, don't get impatient.

[no00dylan]

Crash Course looks like someone set off a bomb in the middle of a gigantic Bus, Truck, and Shelving Unit Convention.

If there ever is such a convention...

I must go

[Blink]

I also felt that this was a very average and dare I say boring campaign. It was literally giant spaces filled with trucks, big boxes and warehouses.

Absolute yawnfest and something I would expect from an average community member, not Valve.

[The Wanderer]

I also felt that this was a very average and dare I say boring campaign. It was literally giant spaces filled with trucks, big boxes and warehouses.

Absolute yawnfest and something I would expect from an average community member, not Valve.

Yea i thought the exact same way after playing trough it. Also the very obscure way you need to find your way, it's more like a maze than anything else. No clear path, no indication.

And the general polishment wasn't what I'd expect from Valve. Regardless i did prepurchase L4D2

[joe_dirt976]

concurred, i did half a versus match and bailed. It's not what i've come to expect from valve. At least i got a couple of free props from it.

[stoopdapoop]

I quite enjoyed it, Valve's other maps are usually tight spaces filled with Trucks, boxes, warehouses, and trees, nice to see them open up a bit. Makes playing infected a lot more interesting, and the direction of oncoming attacks less obvious. Covering good infected spawns with players is a lot harder now (dare I say, impossible in most circumstances?) If you even have two people on the infected team that kinda sorta coordinate (a little) then they'll be rewarded a lot more than in other campaigns, I feel. And the survivors are alot more vulnerable when running between buildings.

Panics are awesome in this map though, the infected come from everywhere, and they don't all come in one mass that you can mow down with a few shotgun blasts, it makes you sweat in some parts of the map. Excellent nav work.

Aesthetically the maps are terrible though, not at all up to valve spec, but I wouldn't dare say it looks like an average community map. Buildings are somewhat bare, lighting is strange in places. Like someone else stated, textures are sloppily assigned to both faces of some walls. Almost no new models, but some very clever uses for old ones. But if you can look past the graphics, the gameplay is excellent, I hope L4d2's maps play like this.

In Valve's other campaigns, you could usually tell exactly what path survivors are going to take, within a margin of error of about 2 inches. It's not that people don't wan't to go somewhere else, it's that they can't, the maps were just too linear. With this map, there are almost always multiple paths to the same areas, and it really varies the gamplay in a way that I think valve originally envisioned l4d to be. Yeah, technically the other campaigns have "alternate" paths but they really don't, you're still in the same areas, and the infected can set up at the same spots, and you're usually within direct line of sight with another path and it's not that way with this map, not to mention the 'out of the way' rooms where items can spawn.

I'm a bit dissapointed that they put a massive building right next to the crescendo spot though, I don't know why they thought that would be a good idea, everyone always ignores the battlestation with the minigun and the army truck (for good reason, you can get damage pounced really easily from roof) and crouch in a corner inside of the room. And what's even more disappointing is that valve seemed to expect this, so they put a couple of DISTANT infected breakable walls around, but they don't do anything because they're so far away from the camping spots. Maybe if the zombies didn't have to run 500 feet in plain sight before they got to you, it'd be alot better.

And I may be wrong about this, but it seems that the item spawn densities are really high, When I'm playing with my bros, we get like a pipe in every building, and it makes the whole thing smooth as butter. We get so many pipes and molotovs that we can clear just about any major area before we run through it. BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT if we get boomed, they don't help that much, like I said zombies come from everywhere, and they're spread out, so even if you throw a pipe or two, you won't get everyone.

I just can't wait till all the noobs uninstall the game again they're making my vs. matches lame

My verdict: Great fun, but ugly, if you didn't like the game before the maps, you won't like it after. If you play seriously then it's an excellent change of pace, if you don't, then you might still like it