Arcadia

Title: Arcadia
Link: https://www.gamemaps.com/details/7641
Author: Special KBS/2K Games/Irrational
Survivors: L4D1
Notes: A "Let's Build" map. Best played with human companions. Unlocking the pipe wrench may crash your game.

Arcadia is a single-map let's build campaign that takes place in the underwater city of Arcadia, a location from the first BioShock game. The recreation is faithful to the multiplayer version of the map (seen in BioShock 2) and contains a lot of custom details and homages to the original BioShock game. Obviously, it has Left 4 Dead 2 elements and doesn't take liberties with different gameplay elements, it simply uses Arcadia as a backdrop for the let's-build concept.

"Let's-build" maps are interesting for variety. They are essentially goal-oriented survival maps, which expands upon the element of holding out against never-ending waves of  infected, while also giving you a goal to shoot for. It also deals with the concept of item progression very nicely. Essentially you must unlock each weapon and item you want, and in order to get the higher tier items, you must first unlock a certain number of lower tier ones. To unlock one you simply have to hover over the item in a list or chart, and then hold the use button until it unlocks. In this case it usually takes anywhere from 15 to 20 seconds to unlock a weapon, then an additional 5 seconds to equip it. If you switch between weapons in the chart, your previous weapon will be dropped so a bot can pick it up. The same concept holds for unlocking medical supplies and other weapon supplies such as ammo piles and laser sights. Additionally, there are a couple of medical stations that will heal you for 10 HP if you hold "use" on them for 5 seconds.

The goal here in Arcadia, after first supplying yourself with enough means to support your team and be able to survive, is to find certain resources throughout the map to construct a bomb to clear some debris, after which you must construct a bathysphere to leave the city. Finding the items isn't that much of a chore; there is one clearly sectioned off area (with a door that opens when you get close to it) that holds two of the items, while the rest of the bomb is created by taking fuses from four Big Daddys. Since this is a let's build map, it is absolute cancer without at least one other human player, preferably with microphone communication to best strategize and let everyone know the plan. I've played this twice, once with three other players and this latest time with one player, and both times strategy was key.

This is one thing I really like about the map. I enjoy instances in games where I know all the information and then coordinate accordingly. The locations of the three build trees (unlock branches) are in vastly different places, so you really have to be on top of things in terms of priority and letting the other players know your plan. When it works, it feels like you really were able to come up with a good plan. When it doesn't work, it doesn't really feel like it was the game's fault; you learn from your mistake and figure out what part of the plan you need to change for next time. 

There are a couple of things that keep this from being great, though. First off, the difficulty really hits you from the beginning. There is just a ton of infected hitting you from all sides almost constantly. You feel this especially with the fewer human players on the team there are. With only one other player, or God help you if you play this by yourself, you may have enough of a frustrating time that it's better to change the difficulty to Easy or start kicking tanks. This is compounded by the other issue, which is that it can just be a pain sometimes to unlock things on the build trees. From the game taking too long to register that you're holding down "use" on an item to outright not even displaying the chart, it sometimes really feels like this is a game mode that's more or less hacked in. When a split second is the difference between life and death, that second where the map doesn't register you as starting to unlock an item is a real pain in the ass.

Lastly, the submersible just takes way too goddamn long to build. Even without infected attacking it feels like it takes a lot longer than it should, as you're building a number of parts slowly. It will be an annoyance for the one person who has to hold "use" the entire time while everyone else covers him. It doesn't help that the bots tend to simply get stuck and aren't able to defend themselves. I suppose the author must have known this because the rescue closet works immediately and indefinitely, so I guess that's a plus, but it still doesn't rectify the initial problems I have with the map.

Difficulty: This is definitely a difficult map that borders on annoyance. I would go so far as to say don't even play this unless you can find another person to join you. It is that frustrating to play with bots. Even with a team, you may need to change the difficulty lower than usual at least to find all the resources. This is best played with a well-coordinated team and will be very frustrating the fewer players there are.

Final Verdict: For a let's build map, this is one of the best in my opinion, if not the best. However, it does have optimization issues. It can lag or even crash. The dispersal of build trees and the goal is good, but the constant waves of infected and frequent tanks is a bit of a detraction. If you're into let's build maps, this one is a must. It's a bit difficult to rate this as a campaign in general because it's so different, but I still recommend this to players who enjoy campaigns if they can find some people to play it with.

Rating: 4.1/5.