Pros:

- Maps are very similar to Dead Island, so if you enjoyed DI you will definitely like these maps.  Very well done!  Lots of detail, clean and tight.

- Great mini-finale on Map 4, wasn't expecting that and it was nicely executed.

- Lots and lots and lots of infected hidey-holes.  Had a tank drop down right in front of me and punch me across the room, screamed like a little girl when it happened.  It really kept us on our toes.

- Level goals are well labeled without breaking game atmosphere.  The darker suspended text was a great idea - we could still see it, but it wasn't glaring out at you.

Cons:

- Finale is slightly confusing - I'm still not sure what you're supposed to do when various parts of the roof light up.  Run to them, maybe?  We ran out of time to run the finale again and figure it out, but we will next time!

- Some of the sound is slightly off so hordes sound like they're all around you or coming up behind you when they're not.  I think this is due to there being a lot of tunnels and openings for infected to pop out of (ceilings, behind walls, etc.), so perhaps this is intentional.  Not a huge con by any stretch but something I noticed.

- Able to jump to the saferoom from the upper railing in the sewer level (I forget which map, 3, maybe?) rather than going under and up the ladder.  Not a huge deal, but if it's not intentional you might want to fix it.  We discovered this by accident not realizing you could go along the floor.

- Really, not a lot of cons.

Conclusion:

This campaign was well-paced and does look a whole lot like Dead Island.  It was really neat moving through familiar environs and seeing how the author adapted DI mechanics for L4D.  I'm also really glad to see a new quality campaign for L4D and that there are mappers still supporting this (superior) game!

I thought the finale was very creative and the map itself is gorgeous.  I spent a whole lot of time just running around checking it out before we started the finale.  I did like that the SI kept spawning even though we were in the pre-finale period, I always think it's kind of cheesy that everything is quiet just before you call for help, so that was cool.  Lots of places to run around (and away from the tank).

Just a great campaign, this one is definitely staying in my regular rotation with We Don't Go To Ravenholm, I Hate Mountains, and City 17.  Nice work!

Pros:

I liked this campaign very much!  It's huge, but very interesting and fun.


- Very elaborate and creative environments (though the Atlas statue at the end of a blind alley with a fence in front of it was odd) - loved the mixture of scenery and creative use of space

- Tricky not-flashing alarmed cars are very sneaky!

- Fun panic events overall - I liked that some never really ended and after a few minutes we came to realize that we needed to get the heck out of Dodge rather than fighting them.

- Splodey barrels!  :D

- Riding on the tank was a bit weird but exhilarating (we were supposed to ride on top of it, right?  ;)  I was all like "OMG A TANK WOOO!"

- Not having a single linear route was great as I like to explore - more realistic as a city environment

- Bridge (map 3) was very, very cool - I enjoyed the visual and the gameplay of this section (and the truck full of splodey barrels ;)

- Waterworks (map 5) also very cool

- Haven't played this on versus but these maps are deadly!  Might be too hard for survivors but it would be fun to run around as Infected.

- All in all, I enjoyed this campaign a lot and plan to play it again many more times.

Cons:

Let me start by saying my list of Cons is huge - this is just because I'm a programmer and started my career as a software tester so I'm trying to be as thorough in reporting issues as possible.  :)

I THINK THIS CAMPAIGN IS GREAT AND PEOPLE SHOULD PLAY IT, so my comments here are just to help the developers work out the kinks.  Please don't think I'm slamming this campaign because I'm not!

Developers: I do have a demo of our gameplay if you'd be interested in seeing it for examples of what I'm reporting.  Just, no laughing, please - I'm not the best player ;)

Onward...


There were two major, show-stopping bugs:

- I and a bot were both pushed out of the first elevator as the doors were closing.  The bot ported up to my friend as it ascended but I was stuck on the ground floor.  I tried idling to see if the bot would port as well, but ended up having to leave the game and come back in as another character.  We saw the bot standing down there for most of the level, then it mysteriously ported to us at a random point later on.

- In the starting saferoom on map 6 my friend was playing Bill and the character was standing just above the floor in its natural rest position (not a civilian).  We couldn't get it to move through displacement or shoving, and he had to log out and come back as a different character, too.  We continued on (Bill bot remained in the saferoom, not moving) and got to the elevator in the airport to discover that you needed all living survivors in the elevator to use it.  Back to the saferoom where we tried everything to kill Bill, he bled plenty but he wouldn't take any damage.  By this point it was late so we gave up.  A big disappointment, though we did get some great screen shots of the many ways we tried to blow him up.


These are less severe bugs, but should be addressed at some point:

- Surround sound is askew - I never realized how much I've come to depend on it!  CI mobs and SIs sound like they're right behind/beside/on top of you when they're actually nowhere to be seen.  Made it difficult to pinpoint them while wearing headphones.

- AI SI are sometimes stuck when they spawn - we spent most of map 1 hearing a boomer making alert noises like he was about to puke on us but didn't see him until we were well into the offices.  Also heard a perma-smoker at a couple of points.  Since we couldn't get to them the SI spawn rate was affected.

- A little frustrating to go through one map and start the next to find yourself on the other side of a easily-climbable chain link fence from where you were.  The use of the maps was very creative but I think the obstacles need to be more realistic.

- Some of the panic events weren't that tough as CI get routed down one narrow area and are easily picked off long before they get to you.

- Tank spawns in map 2 got stuck in light posts and behind fences more than once so we were able to whittle it down before it got itself free.

- Not always clear what needed to be done, for instance the parking garage panic event we sort of ran around being confused and dying a couple of times before we figured it out.  A few more hints might be a good idea.

- Building textures on one map (5, maybe? I forget) were HUGE and pixelated.  I felt like a tiny miniature person and only felt confident that I hadn't accidentally stumbled outside of the map because there were cars and bus shelters and other props there.  It looked very strange.

- Too many medkits, too many throwables.  I mean, it's nice to have these things, don't get me wrong, but I didn't get any sense of needing to conserve things as they were so readily available.

- The bots were extra stupid.  This is likely a Valve issue but MAN were they dumb.  Walking into  fire, opening the saferoom door with a tank outside of it (just let FrancisBot DIE, LouisBot!) using medkits and pills on yellow and even green.  I'm starting to think Valve is making the bots stupider with each L4D release so that people get disgusted and stop playing in favor of L4D2.

Conclusion:

Just played this last night and it's a very enjoyable campaign - the sort of thing that made my buddy comment "If Valve got their hands on this and tweaked a few things, it would be perfect for a core campaign."

There were only two really major game-breaking bugs and the other stuff, while buggy, was tolerable enough that we could still enjoy the campaign.  We still need to go back and try the finale again but I'm looking forward to playing it, which isn't always the case with a show-stopping bug like the one we ran into (I usually just quit those campaigns with disgust and delete them).

Great job!