What is the hardest custom campaign?

[IgnacioLuchaLibreNacho]

Some friends and I just finished Dark Wood on expert realism after countless tries before. It is without a doubt the most difficult, frustrating, and sadistic campaign I have ever played, even more so than Chernobyl: Chapter One which is known for its insanely high common spawn rate.

What do you guys think is the hardest custom campaign?

[**DeiRowtag]

If you like troll map go for

Glubtastic 1,2,3

[Sharpie The Dragon]

Cold Stream.

[Helrika]

bloody moors is tough. i finished it 2 man realism expert no bots, 4 man should be doable

[janedoe]

on my mind i remember only labirinferno and the curse of lazar castle was most hardest campaigns, try them if u have at least 400-500+ hours

[Olde]

If you're talking about playing specifically on Expert Realism, Labirinferno[www.gamemaps.com] is probably the hardest "legit" campaign. By legit I mean it doesn't rely on godawful platforming, puzzle-solving, or scripted tank/witch/other SI spam. Labirinferno (map 1 specifically) is just a hellishly long maze that pretty much needs to be memorized and have as many resources conserved as possible. Speaking of mazes, several other maze maps are also ridiculously hard on Expert Realism, including Mass Maze[www.gamemaps.com], The Ancient Maze[www.gamemaps.com], Left4Dust 1[www.gamemaps.com] and Left4Dust2[www.gamemaps.com]. Silent Hill: Otherside of Life[www.gamemaps.com] isn't really a maze but I saw a screenshot showing that it took a pair of skilled L4D2 players something like 22 hours to beat it by themselves on Expert Realism. Military Industrial Complex III v666 is difficult enough to make you want to tear your hair out.

Certain Chinese maps are also notoriously difficult for really artificial reasons. For instance I think cc_pa is probably impossible on Expert Realism because of a certain room, but you may be able to prove me wrong. Other contenders are somefun[www.gamemaps.com], Road to Tower[www.gamemaps.com], and Grey Box[www.gamemaps.com] (the last of which I think actually requires four human players in order to defend four different points simultaneously).

Don't blame me if you lose your sanity with these ones.

[FireWolfBoy]

The Curse of Lazar Castle

[PöpThèséFøøls]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2063033411

[Olde]

What is everyone's deal with Curse of Lazar Castle? It's really not that hard. Maybe if all you're used to is tame normie campaigns like Urban Flight and Back to School...

Try hehe20 with zero restarts if you think Lazar's Castle is in any way hard.

[FireWolfBoy]

Originally posted by Olde:

What is everyone's deal with Curse of Lazar Castle? It's really not that hard. Maybe if all you're used to is tame normie campaigns like Urban Flight and Back to School...

Try hehe20 with zero restarts if you think Lazar's Castle is in any way hard.

It’s difficult if you’re with teammates who are not used to Expert difficulty and struggle fighting Commons. The place is very dark and doesn’t have much supplies lying around. Plus, there’s that event later on in the game which I won’t spoil for anyone here.

[Olde]

Originally posted by Guardian:

It’s difficult if you’re with teammates who are not used to Expert difficulty and struggle fighting Commons. The place is very dark and doesn’t have much supplies lying around.

That's an issue with pretty much any campaign. You could make the same argument for No Mercy on Expert (aside from the supplies).

Originally posted by Guardian:

Plus, there’s that event later on in the game which I won’t spoil for anyone here. :neutral_face:

The map 4 event? Yeah I'll admit that is a slog, but it can be prepared for with throwables; it's not that tough if you know how to kite.

[FireWolfBoy]

Originally posted by Olde:

Originally posted by Guardian:

It’s difficult if you’re with teammates who are not used to Expert difficulty and struggle fighting Commons. The place is very dark and doesn’t have much supplies lying around.

That's an issue with pretty much any campaign. You could make the same argument for No Mercy on Expert (aside from the supplies).

Originally posted by Guardian:

Plus, there’s that event later on in the game which I won’t spoil for anyone here.

The map 4 event? Yeah I'll admit that is a slog, but it can be prepared for with throwables; it's not that tough if you know how to kite.

If people are going through that chapter four event for the first playthrough (especially on Expert difficulty), I’d wager they’re bound to restart because of the unexpected lol.

All of the points you’ve made above are fair though.

I may have to try that hehe20 map though, never heard of it before. I suggest you try playing Pesadelo no Castelo Lazar (the hardcore version of the map) on Realism Expert. It’s on a different level.

[Olde]

Originally posted by Guardian:

I suggest you try playing Pesadelo no Castelo Lazar (the hardcore version of the map) on Realism Expert. It’s on a different level. :neutral_face:

Interesting, I guess I haven't tried that version. Will give it a shot.

Back on the subject of difficult campaigns, people looking for a challenge should try out the Space Jockeys series if they haven't. I think the fourth one (Return of the Space Jockeys) is possibly the most difficult.

[FireWolfBoy]

Originally posted by modsley:

Gamers who like really tough experiences are the same ones who played Diablo 3 Inferno Difficulty and expect other players to watch what can only be described as a bad experience made worse by recording it.

Some gamers play to just chill out (casual) and some gamers play to overcome challenges (hardcore). I personally don’t mind playing with either types.

[John]

Originally posted by ＧＥＯＲＧＥ:

The Curse of Lazar Castle is definitely one of the hardest custom campaigns that exist for Left 4 Dead 2. I've tried a lot of maps (including Dark Wood) and they usually took me 1-2 hours at much to finish, but Lazar Castle took me 4 hours and a lot of restarts to complete (even if I played it for the first time on Normal. I can't imagine it on Expert).

Me and my team only do realism expert, 99% of the times it's a team of 3 and we kick the remaining bot. Curse of lazar Castle was actually pretty easy, well not easy easy, but there were enough supplies and it was kinda obvious what to do. It was a well made both in terrain/atmosphere and events, something new to keep our attention and the difficulty was just good enough while the individual chapters not so long that a restart meant us going, "ugh not this @&$* again.

Dark Woods on the other hand looks like cr*p, plays like cr*p, open areas with trees where commons and specials can spawn behind every second, maps too long so restarts were a pain in the cheeks, it was just obnoxious level design. The reason we can't be bothered to every play it again was because it was boring and annoying us into fatique.

For a difficult ones, the Silent Hill map is always a good contender, probably not the hardest, but it is pretty difficult, especially, as stated before, we only play realism expert. So the tank on that roundabout ride is pretty stupid, even more if a witch also spawns there.

The biggest challenge for our team is map design. If it is well made, doesn't matter how challenging it is, we'll overcome it. If it is atrocious, no matter what happens we won't care after 10 minutes and one death means we'll just quit. Which usually happens when we get annoyed and not pay attention anymore.

One thing we get into is that a lot of customs are made by people without keeping (realism) expert in mind. That is why a lot of customs have these ridiculous long chapters with almost no supplies, some customs can't even be completed cause the events they made don't work for realism. Or another annoying thing is when the designers play with such noobs they just add supplies around every corner making it too easy even for realism expert.

[FrankurFunk!]

100% Blood harvest. Hordes are next level, holy crap. You either drift apart by some special infected combing you, or you get circled by the horde. The part where you fought to the safe room was next level.