Left 4 Dead: Crash Course DLC Review
DLC Campaign Is Not Worth The Price For Those Who Have To Pay
Oct 10, 2009
Valve's newest DLC pack for the zombie apocalypse first-person shooter Left 4 Dead can be viewed two different ways: a token offering by Valve to show their user base that they haven't abandoned the less than a year old title for the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 or an overpriced campaign that does little new and ends way too early.
These two views can be attributed to two kinds of people: those who purchased Left 4 Dead for PC and those who purchased it for the Xbox 360.
Treading Familiar Territory
Crash Course takes place short after the events of the No Mercy campaign found in the original game. After the four survivors escape the hospital via helicopter before crashing it somehow. As always, players immediately grab what they need from the guns and first aid pile before racing through city streets while slaughtering hundreds of zombies.
It's more of the same players have to come to expect from Left 4 Dead. Those who continue to play the same four chapters over and over in any of the game's modes will find Crash Course a welcome, slightly refreshing addition.
Less Than Professional
Unfortunately, it's so much more of the same it can't justify the seven dollars needed to purchase it. Whereas the four original campaigns were set in distinct, unique environments Crash Course looks like a mix of the urban areas of No Mercy and the small town environment Death Toll. It's odd that Valve would release an update so similar to what players have already purchased when the original game already suffers from repetition.
Oddly enough, this campaign seems to be the most poorly designed as its difficult to ascertain where to go. This is especially odd since the four original campaigns were some of the best designed in first-person shooters because they designed the environments in such a way that correct path seemed obvious without being blatant.
The whole thing comes off as one of the many custom campaigns the mod community has created for the PC version of Left 4 Dead specifically because it reuses so much of the game's assets. Even worse, it has more in common with a typical mod than some of the ones that create all new environments and are, frankly, better than Crash Course.
The game's short length is also disappointing, but it comes with the benefit of allowing players to play through an entire Versus session in around 30 minutes. The Versus mode that pits a team of survivors against a team of special Infected was the first DLC pack for the title and the game's long campaigns weren't designed for the new mode.
Conclusion
Despite that Crash Course means that Valve isn't completely dropping the original Left 4 Dead, Xbox 360 players are better off passing this up and waiting for the upcoming sequel. PC players who haven't played this yet can feel free to try it out or not. Chances are if they have an active internet connection they already have it.
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