Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2

Dark Wood (Extended) Part 1/5
Pingas Pincher 15 Aug, 2022 @ 3:05am
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Dark Where? (review)
This map pack was recommended on steam and a website for it's unique design and style. the reviews seemed high and well rated. Well, it is quite unfortunate that it doesn't quite live up to this.

A number of decent ideas and environments were compiled together to make this mod, but somehow the execution didn't quite hit the nail. There was some thought placed into the layout of each map, and dang, each map is long and detailed - but this works to it's detriment. The levels are too long. Something like thrice the length of the original L4D maps. The author stated in his FAQ that this was intentional, but the design of the base game doesn't really accomodate for this. Playing on any difficulty greater than advanced means you'll be punished each time you die as you'll respawn and have to redo the long level again. This can be tiring, especially for multiple playthroughs as it becomes something of a slog after a while.
One of the benefits of the original maps was that the comparatively smaller designs allow for more detail and memorability. The opposite seems to have occured here as they've added in detailed levels, but the length and lack of readability detracts from the fun.

Several questionable design choices were placed into here e.g. unique uncommon infected, but then throwing in the rest of the uncommon infected in as well, even when it doesn't really make sense. Why would riot police be in an underground laboratory? Why would there be survivor zombies in a sewage plant? The unique map-specific zombies are introduced, but their backstory is never really explained through the map. Where did they come from? Why are they bullet proof? Who did this to them? Was it the lab? The virus? The forest? It's added in, but somehow the narrative was lacking for them.

The maps are convoluted and hard to navigate. The original L4D maps would occasionally diorientate but overall the smaller maps meant that you'd find the exit quickly. Here, the padded map lengths and lack of light means that it's an unusually dark puzzle to navigate with easy to miss exits. Heck, there's even back tracking e.g. flick a switch, run up a ladder, run down this ladder into a nearly identical room, find another little switch, run back. Many 'dead' doors exist as well i.e. doors which appear to be ordinarily operable, but aren't, and there's no external sign to indicate thus. Overall the readability of each of the rooms is sorely lacking.

There also seems to be a wild shift in tone in each level, one minute you're in in some old crypt, next an industrial sewer, then some nuclear waste site, then some back at some old crypt mixed with a sewer. It doesn't help that the levels are each so long that you're constantly coming back to the same themes. Somehow the author's tried to add too much variety, without specializing or refining any one area, and as a result it's a jack of all trades, master of none. It tries too hard to take a little bit from each of the original L4D1 maps without adding anything noteworthy of it's own. There's the small rural town, the industrial warehouses, sewage plants, forested woods - but nothing unique enough to make the maps stick out by their own merit.

Each of the areas are so tight and confined as well that I just walked around with a crowbar and breezed right through. Not really any large open maps where you can practice sniping. the forests are too dark and wooded, and once you're past the mountains everything's enclosed.

Also not sure why they put the Easter Egg level in? Why not just make a different map by itself? It didn't add anything to the map and just added to the padding.

Overall many ideas that weren't given enough time or attention to individually stand out, and as a result it's bland and un-memorable.

Oh, and the authors seem quite friendly too :)