SECTOR-74: March of the survivors (unofficial)

Review

Wow, this is a long campaign, might be one of the longest I've ever played, apart from the Half Life 2 campaign. There's a lot to talk about, this is gonna be a long one. Chapter 1 settles us in quite nicely, and kind of gives you a feel of what you're getting yourself into, all the maps will follow this pattern of not having much direction on where to go, so you will be spending a lot of time exploring the open ended chapters. The mapping right off the bat is quite janky and doesn't really follow the usual.. "logic" shall we say of a typical L4D2 map, not everything in these maps is collided the way you'd think they are; the objects I am talking about, you can walk right through a lot of objects in this campaign, thankfully in some cases it will prevent the survivors from getting stuck which is nice, but it leads to a rather.. odd or immersion breaking experience, if you care about that that is...

Just going to get this out of the way right now; do NOT play this campaign with bots, a very unfriendly bot campaign with some chapters becoming very challenging due to bad navmesh at times (complex level geometry) and others being flat out unbeatable due to damage-sponge bosses, which I'll get to later.

Anyways, chapter 1 is a fine chapter and one of the nicer ones I have to say. Chapter 2 is where I was really impressed, and honestly, definitely my favourite chapter without contest. (Can I just say I love the comic-style transition cinematic you got goin' on between levels, really awesome.) Chapter 2 has you fighting your way through a moving train, and where it introduces the very... unique concept of the infected being able to use vehicles... Yeah, pretty crazy alright.
Chapter 3 is definitely a you like it or hate it chapter, a super open ended dark forest. In which; you'll have to complete certain objectives which aren't that difficult at all, just takes a very long time to traverse the map and you have no clue where you're going most of the time due to being at night.

Chapter 4 is an underground.. base or facility. This is the chapter where you can say goodbye to useful bots, as they will probably commit suicide off the ladder at the beginning or later on.. Still a pretty tame and enjoyable chapter though, pretty crazy level this one, I quite like the mysterious feel to it.

Chapter 5 is a huuge facility map, a whole underground bunker that spans a long distance and everything. i died so many times on this chapter but I have to say I had a lot of fun on this chapter, you get a pretty cool adrenaline rush hauling ass throughout the facility. The director can screw you over real bad on this chapter so get ready to start malding as the director throws a special at the worst possible time..

Chapter 6 is a really straightforward defend chapter, you're just holding out against the infected for a while on a chopper, a really cool cinematic feel to this chapter as you're circling an island.
I finally had to take a break on chapter 7 as at this point my playtime was well over 2 hours.
Chapter 7 is a brutal chapter with bots, but absolutely possible, very wonky geometry and navmesh on this chapter in particular (you can definitely get stuck in some places). You can cheese a tank spawn or two if you just retreat to a point to where they cannot follow you anymore.

Chapter 8 is where the BS factor definitely steps up a notch... A brutal obstacle course with a huge emphasis on trail-and-error based gameplay. I wouldn't be surprised if many people get impatient with this one, I wasn't bothered to beat it legit after a few attempts so I just god-moded my way through.

Chapter 9 is a labyrinth. Pro-tip for those who don't know: just follow where the director spawns the special infected (excluding smokers) and it'll put you on the correct path.
Chapter 10 follows the same labyrinthian style, although not as much. A large underground facility that you must escape from.
Chapter 11 is absolutely crazy, you must navigate through a flying place and attempt to escape. This chapter is impossible with bots and one of the more frustrating ones. For the final shootout with the enemy chopper, I would've added a lot more supplies or a healing station of some kind, it's quite difficult to dodge their attacks, and just ended up being un-fun.

Chapter 12 is yet another maze like map, this time outside though, you're just looking for a vehicle to escape with.
Chapter 13 is a really cool shootout chapter, again impossible with bots, where you must defend your truck from enemy vehicles. If you're familiar with Glubtastic 3, this and the next chapter follow the same formula to that campaigns train chapter.
Chapter 14... the finale. My least favourite. The epitome of filler/padded content right here, you take on the same custom enemies over and over again, which are absolute damage sponges by the way, an absolutely brutal chapter that I would be impressed to see a group take on honestly. I must've been playing for around 30 minutes (not counting the other fail attempts), and I was still going! I decided to call it quits early as I was just extremely bored.

So, after just over 2 hours yet again, I "finished" the campaign, totalling almost 5 hours of gameplay I'm pretty sure it was. What a mess this campaign was, I have to say, the first 2 hours were quite a blast and a lot of fun, following chapter 7 however, the BS factor was increased to such a degree that I stopped having as much fun as I did in my first play session. I feel like L4D2 absolutely was not made for having boss fights, and this campaign might be the epitome of my opinion regarding that.
I'm not going to call this campaign bad, because it certainly is not, a lot of love and time and effort was clearly put in here, I guess it just isn't for me, and certainly not for everyone, but I am curious as to what others think.
If you feel up to the challenge... get a group of 4 and take on this 5 hour beast of a campaign, and see how you fare...