Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2

Inferno City: Part 1
Warhawk 5 Dec, 2023 @ 6:03pm
Inferno City. Quality: 8.5/10, Difficulty: 7/10, Length: Very Long. Played On Expert.
Inferno City is a very long, but also very enjoyable Custom Map, overall. It’s quite well-designed and polished all throughout, which is impressive considering its length.

The only major issue that prevents Inferno City from being an easy 10/10 campaign is its continual and frustrating navigation issues, which are present all throughout. Simply put, Inferno City has too many big buildings, streets, parks, stores, and other fully-textured back areas that have absolutely nothing in them and serve no purpose. If these areas were culled/blocked off (or at the very least contained some supplies), the map’s overall Quality would immediately improve, as nobody quite appreciated getting lost constantly. This is especially true in the city and skyscraper areas, where finding the path often became a guessing game and a chore due to backtracking.

I also feel that Chapters 1 and 2 were harder than the later Chapters on Inferno City, as a result of their pitch darkness, foliage, uneven terrain, slowing water, Alarm Cars, relative lack of supplies, and the presence of a Crescendo in a bad area on Chapter 1, a house on Chapter 2 that has suicide bars placed on almost all of the windows; which makes it a deathtrap if a Tank spawns near it and traps you inside (which happened on our playthrough), and a surprise Crescendo at the end of Chapter 2. This in my opinion represents a minor difficulty pacing issue with this campaign, as the later Chapters of a campaign should usually be the most challenging. Personally, I’d recommend improving this by just making the later Chapters a bit harder, as I feel that the challenge of the first two Chapters is currently perfect as-is.

The relative difficulty of Inferno City is also lowered as a result of it being very generous with supplies overall, particularly in the later Chapters (including First Aid Kits, Defibrillators, Pills/Adrenaline, weapons, Ammo Piles, and bombs). We notably never found a single Laser Sights pickup, despite searching almost every nook and cranny on Inferno City, however.

The relative difficulty of the campaign is raised somewhat as a result of there being Moderate Gauntlet events present on Chapters 3 and 4. However, the map provides enough Bile Bombs and other supplies during these Moderate Gauntlets, such that they shouldn’t be a big issue for a half-decent team.

The addition of optional, separate map-themed addons by the creator is also a nice little thematic touch, which shows the map designer's dedication to small details and a desire to put 110% into their work. This is highly appreciable.

Inferno City’s Finale is a very interesting and unique 6-Can Easy Scavenge-Pause-Tank-Pause-Defend-Tank-Defend-Tank set in the upper floors and roof of a skyscraper.

The more standard Defend and Tank portions of this Finale atop the roof are reasonably challenging, but nothing too crazy. There are plenty of good places to hold on the roof, although the tight quarters could potentially make the Tank fights a little awkward. The escape helicopter arrives on the fenced-off helipad very close to the Finale area, making it easy to get to.

There’s notably one spot in the Finale area where Special Infected can potentially get stuck, which is problematic as the stuck Special can take up one of the three Max Alive Special Infected slots during the Finale, which can in turn significantly lower the relative difficulty of the Finale.

Inferno City also currently has crashing issues for many people on Chapter 4. One of my friends notably got this issue on our playthrough, although they were apparently able to fix it by unsubbing and then resubbing to the campaign again.

Ultimately, Inferno City is a very enjoyable and rather lengthy Custom Map in its current state. It suffers from some significant navigation issues as well as some minor pacing issues, which prevents it from being an easy 10/10 Custom Map. However, the campaign is very well-designed and polished all throughout, which largely makes up for these shortcomings.


For more Expert Custom Map Reviews and ratings, see my full Collection here. https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2252724380
Last edited by Warhawk; 17 Dec, 2023 @ 10:45pm