But as the fans' ire would attest to, those promised DLCs have not exactly been streaming in like a bad case of diarrhea. It's more like constip- forget it.
Anyway, Valve has finally released a campaign/versus map to appease the fans, as well as whet their appetite for their upcoming blockbuster Left 4 Dead 2. And here is a review of it.
Crash Course is a smaller campaign than the main four, at half-an hour's length max meant to fill in the gaps of what happened to the survivors in between their helicopter escape at the end of No Mercy and their eventual appearance on a derelict highway in Death Toll. For the more hardcore fans of Left 4 Dead, they would either have followed the forums or found out for themselves that there were audio files found in the Left 4 Dead program folder that were never used in the final game.
These audio tracks had a voice that was identified to be the rescue pilot who picks up the survivors on the hospital rooftop, who turns into a zombie. Subsequently, Francis shoots the zombie and the helicopter crashes, leaving them stranded in a back alley, the start of Crash Course.
But on to the map itself proper. Off the bat, I would say honestly that it doesn't feel as inspired as the main campaigns. It was great to be let loose in a new playground as always, but there is nothing exciting about the adventure itself. A bunch of linked up back alleys, with scattered abandoned cars, and a looming bridge at one point that seemingly foreshadows a bridge scene most likely to appear in Left 4 Dead 2.
You get to fire a cannon once but that's just to start a crescendo event. That event itself is also very uninspired because of how Valve doesn't give us enough room for exploratory planning as the ones found in the other campaigns. You just fire the cannon and perch on the back of a truck and shoot zombies as they come at you. In other campaigns, there were multiple ways to tackle a crescendo event.
There also aren't any sprawling spaces like those found in Death Toll or Blood Harvest, and the design itself seems to be a bit confusing, with plenty of side paths that lead to dead ends. Granted, there were a lot of dark corners that did amp up the tension a bit with zombies that could pounce out at any time.
Essentially, what I'm getting at, is the sense that Crash Course is pretty much a well-disguised corridor shooter. 9 months since Left 4 Dead vanilla was released and this is the standard that is produced? Like one of the players I was in a game with said, "They spent 9 months working on Left 4 Dead 2, and 3 days putting this together." Don't get me started on the lazily put together finale.
Standing on a rooftop in some truck yard to fend off onslaughts of zombies? Seriously? That's the best they can come up with? The only exciting part is when the generator at ground level needs to be powered up again as it halts mid-way through the finale, all the whilst zombies race to eat your brains.
Moving on to the audio, there has been promise of brand-new dialogue between the survivors, but when the campaign lasts just under 30 minutes, when is there opportunity to hear all of it? What I heard so far though did put a smile on my face, when everyone was reprimanding Francis for shooting the pilot and subsequently putting them in a fix.
Perhaps I'm expecting too much but I was hoping that in light of the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2, this DLC would be an opportunity to reveal subtle new elements that would be in the second game. Like perhaps a new weapon, or the very exciting sounding Gauntlet-style finale, in which instead of fending off zombies at one location, survivors are forced to keep running.
Other than a shiny new movie poster in the loading screen, this DLC doesn't do anything more than extend Left 4 Dead's playtime by half an hour. And when fans are asking for more, isn't it prudent for Valve to properly deliver?
Sure, it's fun, but only because I hadn't played L4D in awhile. Other things this DLC brings include streamlined matchmaking tools for online play, and it does indeed feel a lot smoother to get into a game than before. They've included new HUD elements to Versus play that show your teammates cool-down of abilities so synchronized attacks can be better coordinated.
All in all, I personally am disappointed at the quality of content with this release. I'm sure after a couple run-throughs of this with friends, and in Versus, we'll go back to sitting on our haunches waiting for Valve to release the DLC we've all been waiting for. Do hold your breath however, apparently more DLCs are planned. I predict though we won't see the next one until Left 4 Dead 2 is out.
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