SaltHell Park

Title: SaltHell Park
Link: https://www.gamemaps.com/details/3418
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=121225704
Author: Hypnocyst
Survivors: L4D2
Notes: N/A

SaltHell Park is a very substantial five-map campaign that, by the author's own note, takes place in the Victorian Saltwell Park in Gateshead, UK. The campaign is absolutely fantastic, with an uncommonly high level of detail, even among the best campaigns, and at all times feels like a real place, affords great gameplay, maintains the L4D2 feel, and is even well-optimized. SaltHell Park really feels like a passion project for the author, as an extremely high level of care is very apparent from the opening cutscene to the end. Even the way music transitions and easter eggs are hidden through the campaign speak to the author genuinely wanting to put out something of a high level of quality.

On my most recent playthrough of this campaign, I was happy to learn that there are also alternate paths, at least in the first map, of which I wasn't aware. The first map looks nice, if a bit desolate. One of the jarring things about the first map is a bit of a change in the color overtones, which can give a little bit of a disconnected feel as the color correction changes from location to location, but overall this isn't a big deal. The first map mostly deals with suburban homes and includes a sewer, until it eventually opens into a large parking space overtaken by the military. The dispersal of weapons, items, and ammo is just right here, forcing players to rely equally on primary and secondary weapons, but providing just enough items here and there to keep things fun. I'm not totally sure how I feel about the alarm house (it feels a little weak), but having that be the weakest part of the campaign isn't really a mark off, and it only means it can get better.

The second map leads into the park proper, and there seems to be equal parts with grassy areas and large industrial structures, including huge crates and a crane, and an exciting gauntlet event when opening up a couple of large gates. I'm not sure what any of the machinery is for, but oddly enough, the level design is so compelling that it doesn't really call attention to itself while you're playing. There's a great match between the level of detail in the park and streamlined gameplay. Again, resource distribution feels constantly fair and might even be a bit more lax than it could be, but in either case it doesn't get any complaints from me. The gauntlet event at the end is quite intense and is something I look forward to when starting the map.

The third map has a lot of variety as it takes players through various courtyards and a boat ride. Unfortunately this is where I see most players have commented on crashing. It seems due to a memory page pool problem, and since the problem is so consistent with where it takes place, it seems that, even if it was never a problem for me, maybe this could've been resolved for a few other people. In any case, the level of detail is consistently great here are there's a mix between some suburban and forested areas in a convincing combination here. The boat ride is nice, although probably not necessarily needed for gameplay purposes. It's probably true to real life, so in any case it has that going for it. A downed plane makes an appearance, as does some gauntlet running, and it's sort of on the gauntlet here that I scratch my head as to why this is here. It's fun, no doubt, but if I had to take out one gauntlet event to make the others have more impact, it would probably be this one. Although it's easy to criticize when not mapping. The third map is overall pretty fun but the boat ride is probably the most memorable part, while the other sections are simply not as memorable.

The third map is where things get truly great. The level of detail is amazing, and even more amazing is how compelling the level design is. Players are lead through a sprawling green park, with highly detailed trees, bridges, and a hedge maze filled with witches. Following the path along, the survivors duck into some underground tunnels, where they finally climb out to another side of the park by some ambulances. This takes them to some kind of factory, where there's a holdout event where an explosion causes a huge horde to arrive as you wait for the fire to die down.

In the past, this holdout has caused me some trouble, but either time or the author's revision has made this a lot more manageable. As it stands, this event now seems perfectly balanced, and it's very fun to play. Unfortunately, it seems that the horde always stays behind you, as progressing forward kind of doesn't have a lot of infected in your path. The ending is a bit weird, as it has the Jimmy Gibbs car knock over a lamp-post into an alarm car. This lamppost has actually killed me before (unintentionally on my part, I might add), so I'm now always aware to stay out of its line of fire. The horde caused by this alarm is unexpectedly large, so it might be a nuisance that comes out of nowhere for some players. However, by this point you should have all the weapons you need to deal with them.

The fifth map is the finale, and it starts in a greenhouse before the finale holdout itself, which takes place in and around a crematorium. There's some voice acting that actually isn't terrible, and I think for some reason or another, the way to signal the chopper is by burning some corpses, making ash rise into the air. Talk about a morbid-themed rescue signal. In any case, it's original if nothing else. This finale area is tough but doable. It used to have double-tank spawns, but the author fortunately listened to feedback suggesting he scale it back and make it only spawn one tank per wave. This is in fact exceedingly rare, an instance of a map maker listening to feedback and revising his campaign for the better because of it. The tanks end up punting players off the roof with ease, which is why the double-tank spawn is too much.

Once the rescue chopper has arrived, a bridge falls, opening the way forward. There's still a gauntlet part to reach the rescue helicopter, and in my opinion it's the perfect length to make it challenging but still fair. The rest of the map still has the same high level of detail, even if some of the military emplacements look a little derivative from the very end of Cold Stream.

 

Difficulty: SaltHell Park is almost perfectly balanced, with a steady but fair rise in difficulty from the beginning to the end. The finale is the most difficult part, as it should be, but with a bit of coordination and with nobody separating themselves, it should be more than possible to complete on the level difficulty most players are comfortable with.

Final Verdict: SaltHell Park is extremely good. It feels realistic, facilitates incredibly fun gameplay, and has a super high level of polish throughout the entire five-map span. Plus, it's is very much replayable with its nine hidden gnomes offering up easter eggs to those who can find and shoot them. Just about the only things that set this back slightly are one unmemorable gauntlet part in the third map, a little bit of an overly drab and dreary atmosphere, and the geometry of the building in map 4, which when scrutinized looks a little basic. That's it. I've intentionally held off on going into detail because the campaign's quality speaks for itself. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.7/5.