Thread: Dam It

Has anyone played this custom campaign yet? Well, it's more of a really, really long level than a campaign. I played through it on Normal Single-Player and here are my findings:

Environment is fantastic. Starting outside in a thunderstorm, you make your way into the abandoned military facility beneath a dam, culminating in the first crescendo, where enemies come from almost every angle until an electronic door opens. Inside, everything gets claustrophic. Flickering lights, almost total darkness, and a myriad of different side rooms and passageways really give it a creepy and desperate atmosphere. Due to the confusing, maze-like nature of the facility, hordes will come from every passageway, and are almost unpredictable. Eventually, after a crescendo in a generator room (this one is rather easy to win), you make your way to the surface, where ammo, grenades, and weapons are scattered throughout a large NM5-esque system of buildings and "islands." The minigun is well-placed, but without the support of your teammates you will get screwed over fast.

Enemy placement was also excellent. The two non-finale tanks I encountered rightfully scared the hell out of me. The first was tucked inside a side room. I heard its growling from the moment I entered the dam facility and didn't find it for a few minutes. Unfortuantely, its scare effect was slightly diminished by the fact that it didn't trigger until I shot it. If it had run at me fists blazin' the moment I opened the door, I admit that I probably would have lost right there. The second tank had more of an effect. After trekking through a series of sewers, I went up a ladder and opened a manhole-TANK MUSIC. This one was deviously placed and had a large shock factor.

Panic events were extremely frequent. I was horded literally the moment I stepped out of the starting area, and twice more before I even entered the dam. Inside the dam, hordes, as stated, will come from all over the place, darting around the pitch-black side rooms and dimly-lit hallways to get to me. Boomers were difficult to fend off inside at point-blank range.

The difficulty was well-placed as well. Even on normal difficulty, I ran out of medikits quickly and frequently lost teammates. When I jumped in the chopper at the end (mostly due to bot stupidity), all three of my teammates were overcome by the final horde and tank and were killed. I had only one kit by that time as well.

I do have a coupel gripes though: Tier 2 weapons were impossible for me to find until the finale. I know they existed, because my bot teammates had them. I didn't bother going back to look for them because I would only get horded. The generator room crescendo was also easy to fend off.

There should definitely be a versus mode of this map. The lack of rescue-ing and single-level campaign design will definitely test the limits of our best regulars. It is also excellent for a human-controlled infected team to set ambushes to constantly harass the survivors.

A single level for vs though isn't that good. The game could be over in 5 minutes flat. Or, one team could get all the way, and the second team bite it right out of the gate. 5 maps is pretty good. Even if one team messes up once it could all change around in the finale (as happened to poor smoken last night! )

I'll have to take a look at this one but I doubt it'll be something I'd want to play on vs.

link?

i'll try it... but i don't like co-op

So I played it and the first thing I noticed is that its WAY too dark. It seemed like 75% of the rooms I went into were pitch black. That brings me to my next point. There were way too many side rooms on the inside and most of them were the same. Bedrooms with bathrooms (is there a hotel in the dam?). It seemed like if there was a free wall, this person threw as many of those rooms as he could. I must have searched about 30 of these things and the only think I found was an oxygen tank. Its a nice concept but it should be broken up to at least 3 stages.

Played it again a few minutes ago with Krom, Iron Man, and a guy named Freeman who I don't know. I noticed a few interesting things:

1. Special spawns are seemingly random. We had three tanks this time: one about ONE MINUTE into the game, another one that spawned in the middle of a horde I can't remember where, and one that spawned AT THE FINALE AREA. Someone (I think it was Freeman) was looking for ammo when suddenly I hear "AAARGH!" and see Francis getting punched out of a window and the tank music blaring.

2. Special AI seems to be above average, at least in the outdoor areas. Hunters would make long-distance pounces with excellent accuracy, smokers would strike at bad times (such as during a tank battle), and boomers...well, they still sucked.

3. The Finale minigun has multiple spawns. In my first play-through, it spawned on the side of the radio building, near the ladder. On this play-through, it spawned in the center of the building's roof.