Left 4 Dead DLC Impressions
NAME: Left 4 Dead DLC: Crash Course
FORMAT(S): PC, Xbox 360
DEVELOPER: Valve
PUBLISHER: Valve
Valve have just released a new DLC pack for Left 4 Dead called Crash Course. This adds a new campaign designed for versus mode (but fully playable in campaign mode) and 2 associated survival maps based off the new campaign. Being quite a big fan of Left 4 Dead myself I took a look at the DLC to give my own honest impressions. The new campaign is about half the length of the standard campaigns that shipped with the game, however it is split into 2 sections each of which seems longer than a single section from a standard campaign.
As the campaign is about half the length of the campaigns that shipped with the game but it does seem to pack in just about the same amount of zombies, causing this to be a bit faster paced than what you may be used to. In around half an hour of gameplay my team encountered roughly the same amount of enemies I would expect to encounter during a ‘full’ one hour campaign. Also, the longer sections can cause some frustration as there is much farther to travel following a bad encounter with a tank so if you play on the higher difficulties you might find yourself repeating sections many times.
This quicker pace and generally more frantic atmosphere does have an effect on the feel of the game. For example whilst playing a standard campaign the quieter moments in a campaign are the moments when you really take in the atmosphere of the game but I feel that having a much quicker pace stops you from taking in the atmosphere as you’re simply too busy dealing with the many enemies who are undoubtedly charging towards you. Also there is the AI, which struggles at the best of times, it really has a hard time coping with the new campaign given that the areas are more closed in and the frequency of special infected such as witches and tanks you can see your AI teammates making some really dumb descisions and getting killed for it much more than they would in a standard campaign.
Having said all that I do enjoy this campaign, so long as you get four good people together you will really enjoy the faster pace as you don’t have to worry about what the AI is doing. The 2 new survival maps are taken straight from the campaign and are as good as any of the other maps, and if you’re into versus mode this campaign was made with that in mind and will quickly become a goto map for any dedicated versus mode player. So if you enjoy Left 4 Dead you should probably give this a go, it doesn’t do anything drastically different and if you want a more action oriented campaign then this has you covered.
Crash Course is avaliable now on PC and Xbox 360, If you own the PC version steam downloads and installs this automatically so you already have it and for Xbox 360 owners it is avaliable on Marketplace for 560 Microsoft points.
Left 4 Dead sounds like just the sort of game I’d like to play, but having no 360 and having no intention of buying one, I guess I’m stuck (oh, and my PC has zero chance of running anything more complicated than tetris)
I absolutely LOVE left 4 dead, and have the sequel preordered. I cannot wait to get my hands on that beast!