Aftershock

Title: Aftershock
Link: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/6056
Author(s): Imitate
Survivors: L4D2
Notes: Finale and rescue areas are a bit difficult to determine.

This is a single-map campaign designed for a 2012 disaster map competition. It takes place in an underground bunker, leading up to a wide open forest, and after a very brief holdout, concludes with a standard finale in an underground parking garage. I guess it's supposed to have an earthquake theme but this isn't conveyed well at all. Overall it is very easy, doesn't look great, doesn't play great, and has some issues with indicating where to go. It accomplishes pretty much the bare minimum of what should be acceptable for a short campaign and isn't fun to play through.

By comparison to much better established campaigns, this single map isn't very good. It doesn't look inspired and doesn't yield interesting gameplay. The most interesting part is the underground bunker in which the survivors start. After rising out of it, a horde is called and a tank may be featured as well, which is bad news because at this point primaries haven't even been given out yet. After that, there is a long jaunt through a very linear forest section. This is bad in how little threat infected pose here because the area is so open. It also doesn't look polished or detailed at all.

This leads to a gas station that must be destroyed in order to proceed. I figured I'd shoot the gas station just to see what would happen, and if I didn't, I don't know how long I'd be there to try and figure out how to pass through a barricade. After this, there's more walking through a linear path until you reach a parking garage. I will say that the path that you walk is probably the best looking part of the campaign, since it imitates a forest fire, but it still doesn't look too terribly great.

In the parking garage on my first time playing through, I scoured the entire area to find the radio to call for help, which is very easy to miss because it doesn't light up until you're right on it (plus it's on a dead infected). After rescue is called, the finale is incredibly easy because they spawn from very far away and never have enough time reach you. Once the finale is over, there's again no indication what to do. People on Gamemaps have said they thought the finale is endless but there actually is an ending. If you take a different path out of the parking garage, you'll actually trigger the ending, which is hilariously pathetic. It's just a couple of cement blocks that flop down. The end section is also bewildering because it grants invulnerability to the players (I only noticed this after the second wave of the finale).

Difficulty: Aside from an early horde before primaries and a couple of tank spawns, this is easily doable, especially the finale section.

Final Verdict: This is a very mediocre and forgettable campaign that doesn't challenge players or provide interesting locations or environments in which to play. It looks unpolished and doesn't give the player any key information at all. It's short and honestly isn't worth the time to play through or the ridiculous amount of space that such a short campaign takes up. The nav is all done wrong so the file is about 200 MB larger than it's should. Terribly mediocre at best, not worth your time.

Rating: 1.36/5.