Ravenlock
11-01-2009, 12:32 AM
It's Halloween! Which naturally means that More Than The Sum is obligated to focus on a horror game, and with the very flexible modability of Left 4 Dead (and the impending release of its sequel), there was no other logical choice.
Unfortunately, the two mods that we wanted to focus on for this edition are actually releasing today - Halloween - so we haven't had time to try them out yet. Our report on Cold Case (http://cc.l4dmapdb.com/) and Dead Before Dawn (http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=67&Itemid=15) will comprise Part 2 of the Zombie SPOOKTACULAR, coming soon. In the meantime, we decided to tag-team Death Aboard (http://www.l4dmaps.com/details.php?file=33) and Vienna Calling (http://www.l4dmaps.com/details.php?file=2895), two popular full user-made campaigns currently available for your zombie-hunting pleasure.
By the time we're done you'll either be so frothing with anticipation for Left 4 Dead 2 that you'll hardly be able to contain yourselves, or so sick of zombies that you'll never play Left 4 Dead again. Let's find out which! On with the show.
DEATH ABOARD: TERROR ON THE HIGH SEAS...?
ERIC: So we decided to start with Death Aboard, because it hints very strongly in its poster and description that it's going to take place on a ship, and zombies on a ship sounds awesome.
MIKE: Which is why it starts in a prison.
ERIC: Right! ....Wait, what?
MIKE: A prison with many conspicuously placed ramps.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2471/4063408714_cf9b07b3da.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408714/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2742/4063408734_aa5084ff86.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408734/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2436/4063408780_ff8e4a81df.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408780/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
ERIC: Yeah, everything in Death Aboard is a suspiciously convenient ramp. That twisted metal fence is a ramp, that pile of debris is a ramp, those planks somebody left against the wall are a ramp... and the first 2? 3? levels of Death Aboard actually have nothing to do with being aboard anything. Except I guess an island with a prison on it. You see the boat in the background from time to time, but mostly you're in a prison yard, and then some prison cells, and then... the prison offices, I guess? I wasn't really clear on what cubicles were doing there, but some of the design for the cell blocks was pretty impressive.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2804/4062661027_112809c3ef.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661027/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
MIKE: What was not impressive was the inclusion of a rather awkward puzzle that felt entirely out of place in the gory streets immediately outside of the prison. Eric and I spent a good five minutes running around like zombies with our heads off trying to figure out what we were doing wrong.
ERIC: Ordinarily I would avoid spoilers, but honestly I feel like we should just explain this one so that if people want to play they don't think it's just broken and restart the map like we did. I mean, the security door - different in no way from any other security door you open in L4D - simply wouldn't work.
MIKE: Seconds before deciding to just skip it and start at the next level, we noticed an out of place wire below a sewer grate just in front of the switch. After a quick trip to the undercity we plugged that bad dad in and were ready for the inevitable flood of zombies that always accompanies security doors and their switching.
ERIC: And Death Aboard has a LOT of security doors. Anyhow, it was actually a pretty clever idea, but when the big arrow is telling you "throw the switch" and the switch doesn't work and there's no indicator telling you to go do another thing first, it just looks broken. The good news is, slightly thereafter you actually do get to the boat, and a sinking boat with zombies is just as awesome as it sounds.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2457/4062661099_b5eef76f95.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661099/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
MIKE: Unfortunately, no zombie pirates.
ERIC: I'm undecided on that point. Some of them might have been very casually dressed pirates. They did have bad teeth, and none of them looked like they'd had enough citrus.
MIKE: The boat/pirate ship itself was totally sweet. It was a shipping barge that had been turned on its side, presumably by a very large zombie. Scattered around the deck were the ubiquitous shipping containers required in any good Source mod. They were fertile ground for some very exciting firefights.
ERIC: The boat kicks ass. There are a few actual surprises in there that I don't want to spoil - if you play this mod, play it for the boat. Hell, start on that level. After the boat there isn't a whole lot of noteworthy content, except for....
MIKE: The balloon!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2448/4062661155_093535c5c9.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661155/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/4063408824_4db252ae42.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408824/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
ERIC: You escape on a hot air balloon. Yes, really. Best escape ever. It's like Up! without talking dogs.
MIKE: And more zombies.
ERIC: So that's Death Aboard. Play it for the boat, stick around for the hot air balloon ride. There isn't a ton of awesome stuff, but it's all pretty good, there's only one really sticky design point and the boat rocks. Next, we're off to...
VIENNA CALLING: NO SERIOUSLY, WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE?
MIKE: Welcome to wonderful Vienna: a city of time, of art, of architecture. Visit the magnificent cathedral of Stephansdom. Take in some culture at the Grand State Opera house and the Imperial Court Theatre. Come see the majestic castle-like Gasometers and their ultra sleek sister buildings. Vienna is a feast for the eyes; the Volkstheater, the NeuBurg, the MichaelerTor, the Hofbug, the Karlskirche, the HaasHaus, Donnerbrunnen. A home to elaborate inventions of stone, steel, and glass, true testaments to the very ingenuity of man, Vienna is a mecca of manmade beauty.
ERIC: Unfortunately, approximately 0% of that stuff made it into Vienna Calling. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not necessarily saying you shouldn't play the mod. It has some of the most batshit crazy level design I've ever seen.
MIKE: Honestly, this mod could have been titled anything from London Calling to Springfield Massachusets calling.
ERIC: True, but if this IS what Vienna is really like, I am totally going there. Their clothing stores sell not only fashion, but also beds and other furniture, and they have carpeted check out lines!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2623/4063408876_a457bdc693.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408876/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2713/4062661193_14765512e4.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661193/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2785/4063408902_f95cf36a61.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408902/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3507/4062661255_3463a7c73e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661255/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
MIKE: And the tunnels of their metro are adorned with nudie posters!
ERIC: I suspect that part may actually be accurate.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2653/4063409000_30a5a24a92.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063409000/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
....Hot?
ERIC: Seriously though, describing all the weird, seemingly out-of-place stuff in Vienna Calling would require its own article. You will fight through a department store, some catacombs, a train depot, a toxic waste river, a construction site, some weirdly suburban areas, and an extremely special gas station.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2668/4063408992_107fae6deb.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408992/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
Catacombs! Spooky.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/4063408942_7a7848bee5.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408942/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
This manhole cover - on the street - had a hardwood floor and a vending machine under it.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2725/4063408976_ffc72937fd.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408976/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
Streetsigns are pretty much the only reason to believe you're in Europe.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3518/4062661387_9059df9610.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661387/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
Well, okay, stuff like this too, I guess.
MIKE: Except you won't actually fight through any toxic waste; you'll fall in it and die immediately. Which I did. Along with our AI partners who seemed magnetically attracted to the stuff.
ERIC: Yeah, unfortunately, some parts of Vienna Calling pretty much require a full 4-man complement, because the AI programming simply can't handle the level design. I can't necessarily call it a knock against the mod because the parts in question are pretty cool, but it's kind of a bummer. The mod definitely has some pretty exceptional set pieces.
MIKE: One in particular took place inside a ruined train terminal. I won't say too much, but I will say this: counter terrorist zombies.
ERIC: The almost-final fight outside the gas station (at least it looked like a gas station, there was a ton of propane around) was another highlight. And then the fact that the gas station contains as its safehouse an elevator that goes to a restaurant IN THE SKY. That was the most surreal beginning of a level I think I've played in a long time.
MIKE: Yeah, we stepped outside after what seemed like a 20 second elevator ride and were treated to a complete scenic view of Vienna/Chicago/Dublin.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2534/4062661417_f47762b350.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661417/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
I'm on top of the world!
ERIC: And then it wraps up pretty quickly. In violent fashion.
MIKE: For me and the AIs at least. The service at this sky restaurant was terrible. They ate US..
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2583/4063409090_2145c20091.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063409090/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
Mike serves whoopass from the kitchen.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2464/4063409062_4775f8e0f6.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063409062/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
...I don't even understand what's going on in this room.
ERIC: But seriously, I do recommend this mod, at least as much as I do Death Aboard if not more. I spent most of it confused and disoriented, but I really was having fun the whole time, and some of the stuff they did here was very creative even if it didn't make much sense. The absurdity of the whole thing felt appropriate in a B-horror movie sort of way, as if they wanted to make a zombie movie in Europe but only had access to sets around Cleveland and some foreign posters. ;)
So there you have it, Part 1 of the More Than the Sum Zombie SPOOKTACULAR! If you download either of these mods (which I should mention are VERY easy to install, just double-click the extracted .VPK and you're done), leave us a comment and let us know what you think - also tell us if you've got some favorite Left 4 Dead custom content that we should try.
Once Cold Case (http://cc.l4dmapdb.com/) and Dead Before Dawn (http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=67&Itemid=15) are in our zombie-shooting hands, we'll give those both a run and be back with Part 2 as soon as we can.
Download Death Aboard here (http://www.l4dmaps.com/details.php?file=33), and Vienna Calling here (http://www.l4dmaps.com/details.php?file=2895).
Unfortunately, the two mods that we wanted to focus on for this edition are actually releasing today - Halloween - so we haven't had time to try them out yet. Our report on Cold Case (http://cc.l4dmapdb.com/) and Dead Before Dawn (http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=67&Itemid=15) will comprise Part 2 of the Zombie SPOOKTACULAR, coming soon. In the meantime, we decided to tag-team Death Aboard (http://www.l4dmaps.com/details.php?file=33) and Vienna Calling (http://www.l4dmaps.com/details.php?file=2895), two popular full user-made campaigns currently available for your zombie-hunting pleasure.
By the time we're done you'll either be so frothing with anticipation for Left 4 Dead 2 that you'll hardly be able to contain yourselves, or so sick of zombies that you'll never play Left 4 Dead again. Let's find out which! On with the show.
DEATH ABOARD: TERROR ON THE HIGH SEAS...?
ERIC: So we decided to start with Death Aboard, because it hints very strongly in its poster and description that it's going to take place on a ship, and zombies on a ship sounds awesome.
MIKE: Which is why it starts in a prison.
ERIC: Right! ....Wait, what?
MIKE: A prison with many conspicuously placed ramps.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2471/4063408714_cf9b07b3da.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408714/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2742/4063408734_aa5084ff86.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408734/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2436/4063408780_ff8e4a81df.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408780/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
ERIC: Yeah, everything in Death Aboard is a suspiciously convenient ramp. That twisted metal fence is a ramp, that pile of debris is a ramp, those planks somebody left against the wall are a ramp... and the first 2? 3? levels of Death Aboard actually have nothing to do with being aboard anything. Except I guess an island with a prison on it. You see the boat in the background from time to time, but mostly you're in a prison yard, and then some prison cells, and then... the prison offices, I guess? I wasn't really clear on what cubicles were doing there, but some of the design for the cell blocks was pretty impressive.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2804/4062661027_112809c3ef.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661027/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
MIKE: What was not impressive was the inclusion of a rather awkward puzzle that felt entirely out of place in the gory streets immediately outside of the prison. Eric and I spent a good five minutes running around like zombies with our heads off trying to figure out what we were doing wrong.
ERIC: Ordinarily I would avoid spoilers, but honestly I feel like we should just explain this one so that if people want to play they don't think it's just broken and restart the map like we did. I mean, the security door - different in no way from any other security door you open in L4D - simply wouldn't work.
MIKE: Seconds before deciding to just skip it and start at the next level, we noticed an out of place wire below a sewer grate just in front of the switch. After a quick trip to the undercity we plugged that bad dad in and were ready for the inevitable flood of zombies that always accompanies security doors and their switching.
ERIC: And Death Aboard has a LOT of security doors. Anyhow, it was actually a pretty clever idea, but when the big arrow is telling you "throw the switch" and the switch doesn't work and there's no indicator telling you to go do another thing first, it just looks broken. The good news is, slightly thereafter you actually do get to the boat, and a sinking boat with zombies is just as awesome as it sounds.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2457/4062661099_b5eef76f95.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661099/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
MIKE: Unfortunately, no zombie pirates.
ERIC: I'm undecided on that point. Some of them might have been very casually dressed pirates. They did have bad teeth, and none of them looked like they'd had enough citrus.
MIKE: The boat/pirate ship itself was totally sweet. It was a shipping barge that had been turned on its side, presumably by a very large zombie. Scattered around the deck were the ubiquitous shipping containers required in any good Source mod. They were fertile ground for some very exciting firefights.
ERIC: The boat kicks ass. There are a few actual surprises in there that I don't want to spoil - if you play this mod, play it for the boat. Hell, start on that level. After the boat there isn't a whole lot of noteworthy content, except for....
MIKE: The balloon!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2448/4062661155_093535c5c9.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661155/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/4063408824_4db252ae42.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408824/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
ERIC: You escape on a hot air balloon. Yes, really. Best escape ever. It's like Up! without talking dogs.
MIKE: And more zombies.
ERIC: So that's Death Aboard. Play it for the boat, stick around for the hot air balloon ride. There isn't a ton of awesome stuff, but it's all pretty good, there's only one really sticky design point and the boat rocks. Next, we're off to...
VIENNA CALLING: NO SERIOUSLY, WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE?
MIKE: Welcome to wonderful Vienna: a city of time, of art, of architecture. Visit the magnificent cathedral of Stephansdom. Take in some culture at the Grand State Opera house and the Imperial Court Theatre. Come see the majestic castle-like Gasometers and their ultra sleek sister buildings. Vienna is a feast for the eyes; the Volkstheater, the NeuBurg, the MichaelerTor, the Hofbug, the Karlskirche, the HaasHaus, Donnerbrunnen. A home to elaborate inventions of stone, steel, and glass, true testaments to the very ingenuity of man, Vienna is a mecca of manmade beauty.
ERIC: Unfortunately, approximately 0% of that stuff made it into Vienna Calling. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not necessarily saying you shouldn't play the mod. It has some of the most batshit crazy level design I've ever seen.
MIKE: Honestly, this mod could have been titled anything from London Calling to Springfield Massachusets calling.
ERIC: True, but if this IS what Vienna is really like, I am totally going there. Their clothing stores sell not only fashion, but also beds and other furniture, and they have carpeted check out lines!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2623/4063408876_a457bdc693.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408876/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2713/4062661193_14765512e4.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661193/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2785/4063408902_f95cf36a61.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408902/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3507/4062661255_3463a7c73e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661255/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
MIKE: And the tunnels of their metro are adorned with nudie posters!
ERIC: I suspect that part may actually be accurate.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2653/4063409000_30a5a24a92.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063409000/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
....Hot?
ERIC: Seriously though, describing all the weird, seemingly out-of-place stuff in Vienna Calling would require its own article. You will fight through a department store, some catacombs, a train depot, a toxic waste river, a construction site, some weirdly suburban areas, and an extremely special gas station.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2668/4063408992_107fae6deb.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408992/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
Catacombs! Spooky.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/4063408942_7a7848bee5.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408942/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
This manhole cover - on the street - had a hardwood floor and a vending machine under it.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2725/4063408976_ffc72937fd.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063408976/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
Streetsigns are pretty much the only reason to believe you're in Europe.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3518/4062661387_9059df9610.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661387/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
Well, okay, stuff like this too, I guess.
MIKE: Except you won't actually fight through any toxic waste; you'll fall in it and die immediately. Which I did. Along with our AI partners who seemed magnetically attracted to the stuff.
ERIC: Yeah, unfortunately, some parts of Vienna Calling pretty much require a full 4-man complement, because the AI programming simply can't handle the level design. I can't necessarily call it a knock against the mod because the parts in question are pretty cool, but it's kind of a bummer. The mod definitely has some pretty exceptional set pieces.
MIKE: One in particular took place inside a ruined train terminal. I won't say too much, but I will say this: counter terrorist zombies.
ERIC: The almost-final fight outside the gas station (at least it looked like a gas station, there was a ton of propane around) was another highlight. And then the fact that the gas station contains as its safehouse an elevator that goes to a restaurant IN THE SKY. That was the most surreal beginning of a level I think I've played in a long time.
MIKE: Yeah, we stepped outside after what seemed like a 20 second elevator ride and were treated to a complete scenic view of Vienna/Chicago/Dublin.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2534/4062661417_f47762b350.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4062661417/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
I'm on top of the world!
ERIC: And then it wraps up pretty quickly. In violent fashion.
MIKE: For me and the AIs at least. The service at this sky restaurant was terrible. They ate US..
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2583/4063409090_2145c20091.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063409090/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
Mike serves whoopass from the kitchen.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2464/4063409062_4775f8e0f6.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/colonyofgamers/4063409062/sizes/o/in/set-72157622706541116/)
...I don't even understand what's going on in this room.
ERIC: But seriously, I do recommend this mod, at least as much as I do Death Aboard if not more. I spent most of it confused and disoriented, but I really was having fun the whole time, and some of the stuff they did here was very creative even if it didn't make much sense. The absurdity of the whole thing felt appropriate in a B-horror movie sort of way, as if they wanted to make a zombie movie in Europe but only had access to sets around Cleveland and some foreign posters. ;)
So there you have it, Part 1 of the More Than the Sum Zombie SPOOKTACULAR! If you download either of these mods (which I should mention are VERY easy to install, just double-click the extracted .VPK and you're done), leave us a comment and let us know what you think - also tell us if you've got some favorite Left 4 Dead custom content that we should try.
Once Cold Case (http://cc.l4dmapdb.com/) and Dead Before Dawn (http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=67&Itemid=15) are in our zombie-shooting hands, we'll give those both a run and be back with Part 2 as soon as we can.
Download Death Aboard here (http://www.l4dmaps.com/details.php?file=33), and Vienna Calling here (http://www.l4dmaps.com/details.php?file=2895).