Rewind to May this year. It’s E3 and Valve has turned up ready to show off a new game they’ve been working on. Most people think that finally Half Life 2: Episode 3 will be announced – it has been nearly two years now. Then during Microsoft’s conference footage appears of a zombified New Orleans.
Fans and critic alike are stunned. It’s been less than a year and a sequel is already coming out. This is Valve not Activision.
The following weeks follow with complaining and boycott groups. The outrage is just short of flaming torch wielding crowds converging on Valve HQ.
Back to the current day we see Valve’s response to these accusations of franchise milking, Crash Course, technically the second DLC for Left 4 Dead yet the first to add new maps for campaign and versus mode.
And is it worthy of calming the angry mob? Yes and no. As its name suggests there is a crash, the copter from No Mercy (life’s never simple in a zombie invasion), and picks up from there.
The survivors are expected to traverse abandoned warehouses, dank industrial sites and truck depots until they reach their destination, a fenced truck stop housing an armoured truck of similar appearance to the armoured buses from the Dawn of the Dead remake.
Scratching beneath the surface of the level though we see what this DLC really is, preparation for the sequel. It literally is a crash course in some of the newer features of L4D2 as well as helping fine tune existing teamwork skills.
For example the truck stop finale has the inclusion of the faulty generator. It needs to be on for the truck to lower but it has the nasty habit of stopping at the worst moments. By including this Valve clearly are preventing players from finding a nice spot to camp in the finales, encouraging players to run and gun – something of a necessity for the sequel as shown by some of the challenges that are to be faced.
The achievements also are appropriate encouraging players to work more as a team but also pushing players towards some of those moves which some players may not even be aware of such as the pounce damage. Often the best way to get a gamers attention is to reward them with gamerscore. Nothing feels better than boosting the e-peen.
That said this is not a simple cobble job. While it has the similar depressing feel of Death Toll its essential considering the aim is to get to Riverside. Nonetheless the level design is balanced with each camping spot having some potential flaw and maps having branching paths to keep the infected on their toes.
Take one point in the second stage. Players can either take the short path which has them run close to an alarmed car or they can take the slightly longer route that may avoid the car but equally brings up a number of different ambush opportunities for the special infected.
Each stage is long as well. Doing helps in prolonging the versus experience which this DLC was geared towards. With evenly skilled teams this is fine. However teams lacking co-ordination or skill can very rarely make it to the end of the map thanks to the extend length. At least with the main campaigns the shorter sections gave even the worst team a slight chance.
Then there is the problem that the whole DLC itself is just two maps. They might be well crafted maps made in the space of a couple of months to prove Valve haven’t given up with the original but the small amount on offer is a little disappointing.
That said the smaller campaign does mean versus matches can be completed in half the time, perfect for those who can’t sit through the whole hour and a bit needed for a full match. Additionally the new move recharge meters are helpful for co-ordinating attacks.
Overall it depends on what you want with Left 4 Dead. If you enjoy the campaign mode more than versus then you may as well be better waiting for the sequel. If, however, you have a hankering for special infected slaughter then these two maps are a perfect addition to the rest of the versus maps. So if you’re interested then it’s free on PC and 560 Microsoft points on Xbox Live.
3 out of 5
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