Project Auburn 2 is a little rough around the edges, but is perfectly playable in its current state.

For starters, it’s a Medium-Long Custom Map with only 2 extremely long Chapters and then a quick and very easy anticlimactic Finale. Cutting both of these first two Chapters in half and then increasing their difficulty would have helped improve the campaign's overall flow.

There’s also no/not enough Rescue Closets despite the extreme length of the first 2 Chapters, as I had someone die to a failed Witch cr0wn almost immediately on Chapter 1, and they then had to sit out through the entirety of the long first Chapter.

There are two Crescendo events on Project Auburn 2, one placed at the midway point on each of the first 2 Chapters. However, these Crescendo events summon so many relentless waves of hordes, that it becomes unclear if you’re meant to hold down a position and wait, or if it’s actually a Gauntlet. Both of these horde events are in fact just regular Crescendos, but there’s no initial indication of this provided by the map, which results in confusion and potential chaos (this is often an unclear and frustrating thing on your first playthrough of a Custom Map).

The difficulty pacing on PA2 is decent, with there being no Tier 2 weapons until Chapter 2. The relative difficulty of Project Auburn 2 is kept somewhat low as a result of its high generosity of supplies (especially First Aid Kits, Defibrillators, Pills/Adrenaline, Ammo Piles, and Pipebombs/Molotovs), as well as its very easy Finale.

Project Auburn 2 also notably includes some custom assets, which help to sell its industrial location. The custom lockers on this campaign can also be opened to reveal Medkits/Defibs and other supplies, which is a fun little novelty (although with the frequency of supplies already provided, the extra supplies from these lockers felt a bit excessive).

Project Auburn 2’s Chapter 3 Finale is a very easy, basic, and lackluster Defend-Tank-Defend-Tank set in a large construction complex.

This Finale can be largely trivialized by just camping in the room right next to the escape helipad, which contains the First Aid Kits and Tier 2 weapon pickups (which you can effectively use as infinite ammo). The escape helicopter will arrive on the fenced-in helipad right next to this room, which further trivializes this Finale if you hold here.

Project Auburn 2's Finale area also notably has at least one exploit/god spot where most Infected can’t reach you, which is on top of some wood frame custom assets that were placed next to the helipad roof. The Tanks can also notably get randomly stuck on their own under these glitchy wood frames (which happened to the first Tank on my playthrough, making this Finale even easier).

Ultimately, Project Auburn 2 is a perfectly playable Custom Map in its current state, but it has a number of unresolved key issues all throughout, which hold it back from reaching its true potential.


For more Expert Custom Map Reviews and ratings, see my full Collection here. https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2252724380