Ranking campaigns from WORST-BEST

[Gas Lightyear]

I just want to hear how you would rate the non-dlc campaigns for left 4 dead 2.
I will make another post about the left 4 dead 1's campaigns later.

For me, it would be:

5: Swamp fever
stage 1 = a swamp
stage 2 = a swamp
stage 3 = a swamp
stage 4 = a mansion
So...the entire campaign takes place in a swamp with the exception of the finale? And they didn't even bother to make the swamp cool (with the exception of the first stage, which was almost interesting) ? It's just way too bland and repetetive for me.

4: Hard rain
Most people say they like hard rain for 4 reasons. In which i will respond to.
"OMG! THE RAIN IS SO COOL"
yeah, it looks awesome. But it doesn't have a major inpact on gameplay. Limiting your vision and hearing is not that bad, meaning that all it really does is slow you down (which i find is more annoying than cool)
"OMG! THE BACKTRACKING IS SO COOL"
Ummmmm....you would think so, but i find it more lazy of the developers than interesting
"OMG! THE WITCHES ARE SO COOL"
You serious? The witches can easily be killed and avoided easily unless your playing realism. I understand you for when you do play realism, but i am confused when non-realism players say how "awesome" the witches are.
"OMG! THE FIELD IS SO COOL"
Yes, yes it certainly is.
Don't get me wrong, i love hard rain. It has my favourite music out of all the campaigns, and is rather unique compared to the others. But i just find it a bit overrated.

3: Dead center
This campaign was once my favourite. But i later on found that it had some wierd level design. One thing i did like though was how silly and non-serious it was.
1st stage
(What i liked) : The top floors were amazing for chargers, making this my alltime favourite level on versus.
(What was wierd) : The infected have a HUGE advantage upstairs (all them insta-kills), but then the survivors have a HUGE advantage downstairs (all that fire).
2nd stage
(What i liked) : The gun shop was cool. The cola mission was hilarious and fun aswell. Mix them both together and this becomes one of the most memorable chapters.
(What was wierd) :The cola mission was a massive "♥♥♥♥ you" to the fans of the origanel game's theme.
3rd stage
(What i liked) The idea of an overrun mall is cool. The tou shop crescendo was also a big difficulty spike compared to the previous 2 levels.
(What was wierd) : Mall's should be the last thing you would expect to look boring. Yet this level looks just as boring as some of the levels in swamp fever.
4th stage
(What i liked) The mall actually looks really cool. I love the fact i am not just surviving, but actually completing an objective, unlike the other finales.
(What was wierd) Finding out the scavenge is it's own gamemode, and then getting ♥♥♥♥ed off that this finale was not origanel at all.
This campaign had so many things i loved, and the good certainly outway the bad. But it just had a fair amount of flaws that stopped it from being higher.

2: Dark carnival
You can probably tell i like making lists. So i'm just going to make another on for all the awesome moments i had with this campaign:
-Motel: great for exploring and searching around. The motel felt real, detailed, and was just a fun area to poke around and search through the rooms.
-Minigames: there are several hidden minigames you can play in the carnival, which is lovely and clever. If ever just want to kick back and relax, you can enjoy what they have to offer.
-Roller coaster: You fight on a ♥♥♥♥ing roller coaster!!!!! Need i say more?
-Gate crescendo: Doesn't look like much at first, but little do you know that this is actually the hardest moment ingame. It's even harder than the bridge finale, and unlike any other chapter of any other campaign, this one for me will ALWAYS result in one person dieing.
-Concert finale: Finale on a concert stage, with guitars to fight with, several areas to set up, and awesome rock music blaring in the backround.
Oh, and the clown zombies are epic aswell. This easily is the most fun campaign, and i'd say it's rather flawless. But is one campaign on the list that still manages to prevail over the awesomeness dark carnival demonstrates.

1: The parish
What do i love most about the parish? The answer is obvious...the theme. While the campaigns from left 4 dead 1 tried to convey a certain tone, the left 4 dead 2 ones were lacking story and background. The parish on the other hand, did this perfectly. It possibly had the darkest concept (the military not being able to help, and actually killing innocents to cover up evidence). The jazz music was also one of my favourite soundtracks, and it seems like everything was here for a reason. The "saints will never come" song was not only catchy, but added on to it's surroundings. The orange enviroment and sunset gave the map a very southern feeling, and the birds and planes in the background was very entertaining. The level design itself was also great. The park on the second chapter was one of the best areas for versus matches, as it proved to be the one area where jockeys could actually be useful. The parade float crescendo was a great spot for smokers, thanks to all the allies and difference in terain, not to mention how long it was. The float design and the already mentioned music that pays throughout made it 10x better. There is also my favourite section in the whole game: the impound lot. Why do i love it so much? The reason, is that it is the one part in the game where stealth was actually involved rather than your usual run & gun. I felt like i was playing tactically and trying to watch what i did, rather than mindlessly shooting zombies. FYI, this is the worst spot to fight a tank. Oh, and don't get me started on the bridge finale. Easily the best final level ingame, it plays out as one long run from point A-B instead of collecting cans or surviving hordes. The fast pace action made it very intense, and there were lots of spots for chargers to take you down. The tanks on the map were possibly the hardest to fight in any map of the series due to the cars, zombies, and linear structure (the sacrifice was also pretty brutal with tanks). Despite being a straight line, the bridge had many alternative routes and levels, allowing more variety. By the time you are in the helicopter at the end, probably limping...you feel like jesus christ himself. This was a perfect way to wrap up the game, and to this day remains as my favourite level.

Now i ask...how would you rate the origanel left 4 dead 2 campaigns? Don't bother giving long descriptions like i did, all i really want is your opinion. But details would be nice.

[Ruke (Soreasan)]

Why exclude non dlc maps on steam, where everyone gets the DLC maps for free?

Anyways, this would be my list.

Best scenery - Cold Stream with the wooden ladders, concrete roadblocks, rivers, sewers, pine trees, and a boulder for the tank to throw around.

Craziest - Dark Carnival. What other campaigns do you get to play Whack a Mole, shoot Moustachio to death and rescue Gnome Chompski, run across a rollercoaster, and perform a rock concert for the finale, slaughtering hordes and tanks with pyrotechnics? Easily one of the most craziest mashups campaigns you can see in the game.

Most frusterating - Hard Rain, esspeccially if your allies aren't top notch and are getting slaughtered by the witches. Luckily they're easily avoidable by most good players until they get charged/boomed/blinded and unleash the horror of their wrath.

[Munkee]

Originally posted by Soreasan:

Why exclude non dlc maps on steam, where everyone gets the DLC maps for free?

Anyways, this would be my list.

Best scenery - Cold Stream with the wooden ladders, concrete roadblocks, rivers, sewers, pine trees, and a boulder for the tank to throw around.

Craziest - Dark Carnival. What other campaigns do you get to play Whack a Mole, shoot Moustachio to death and rescue Gnome Chompski, run across a rollercoaster, and perform a rock concert for the finale, slaughtering hordes and tanks with pyrotechnics? Easily one of the most craziest mashups campaigns you can see in the game.

Most frusterating - Hard Rain, esspeccially if your allies aren't top notch and are getting slaughtered by the witches. Luckily they're easily avoidable by most good players until they get charged/boomed/blinded and unleash the horror of their wrath.

coldstream sucks lol.
Worst map I ever played. It's almost hordes 24/7.

for me.

easiest to hardest:
Dead Center
Dark Carnival
The Parish
Swamp Fever
Hard Rain
Coldstream

[Nosfrat]

From worst to best IMO (for campaign, I didn't play enough VS, especially not on the stock L4D2 maps):

5 - Hard Rain: First two chapters are decent, last 3 are so dull they feel like a single long chapter with nothing interesting other than walking at the speed of a paralyzed Slowpoke. Also, not seeing anything while thunder and intense downpour somehow draw zombies to a group of four silent survivors whose smell is completely washed away by the gusts and torrential water... 100% stupid. Worker uncommons' programming is idiotic as well.
1: I love this one. Sniping heaven.
2: Meh. Cool for crowning, boring for everything else. Annoying when you randomly startle witches across the map. I wish it had sitting witches instead, then maybe crowning would actually be a challenge when needed. The cane field sucks.
3: BOOOOOOORING (hardly anything to do, nothing to kill, can't see jack)
4: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING (seriously, can't walk fast, can't see jack, just 100% boring)
5: Boring...

4 - Swamp Fever: Boring overall. Not dark enough, too many supplies, too many slow-down areas, mudmen are annoying as all hell, and it's too open to give a claustrophobic horror feel.
1: I kinda like this one. The ferry part is boring but the first half and the planks part is kinda cool.
2: GRENADE LAUNCHER GALORE! I -LOVE- the GL, and this chapter has like 69 of them. Boring otherwise.
3: Bo. Ri. Ng. Too short, too, and no gauntlet (though the crescendo sure feels like one). Tank spawns always make for an horribly boring fight.
4: Double tanks, that's all I like about this finale. The HMG is at an awful location, can't jump without taking damage, the maze goes unused, full daylight all of a sudden (though that looks sexy), etc. Boring.

3 - The Parish: would be ranked 2nd if it weren't for the riot uncommons. Seriously, these little PIECES OF ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoy me beyond belief. Decent map overall, a bit too long and drawn out at some points, but not too easy and definitely fun to play. But the beta was much better...
1: Boring, as with most first chapters. Lack of supplies and too short.
2: The park is too open, but the crescendo is fun. Decent.
3: Almost always a grenade launcher so I like this one. Killing 250-300 CIs in the parking lot alone is fun. The graveyard is idiotic and annoying.
4: Fun one though the float music make me wanna rip my ears off. Second half leaves a lot to be desired.
5: Stupid. Fun, but stupid. Too many supplies, saferoom contains 8 kits, and how the hell does lowering a bridge call an endless amount of infected COMING FROM THE SUPPOSEDLY SAFE AREA while the military is bombing half of the city? Awful location for the HMG, too. It should be mounted right where you climb on the truck after the tank.

2 - Dead Center: I absolutely love the first two chapters. Last two ones are meh.
1: Melee only, absolute fun and lots of supplies. Sucks when you get out of the elevator but w/e.
2: Long, hard and with a grenade launcher most of the time. The gauntlet is stupid but being able to grab any gun with lasers makes up for it. LOTS of stuff to kill here, decent mix of open and enclosed areas.
3: Too many hordes, too dark, not enough supplies. Since an update last year, it's almost impossible to get the downstairs path, so the alarm crescendo is always too easy.
4: Boring, as with all "collect" finales. Tank is easy to avoid, specials get stuck and commons are easily distracted with the amount of tacticals lying around.

1 - Dark Carnival: hands down the best campaign. Overplayed and maybe even overrated, but just plain fun with varied environments and a perfect balance between open and tight indoors areas. Three gauntlet crescendos ensure this is by far the hardest campaign, and although the finale's a complete joke, getting there isn't exactly easy (at least with 3 bots in expert realism).
1: Long, fun and perfect for sniping.
2: Same as above, but with too many supplies. Still fun, with a LOT of stuff to kill.
3: I absolutely love this one. Boomstick massacre in the tunnel of love (though fighting a tank there is a pain), and chainsaw/melee rampage while running the coaster. Stupidly over the top, but definitely a blast.
4: Short but brutal. The gauntlet almost forces one to hold onto their bile jar from chapter 1. As hard as it is, I still love this one.
5: Boring. Great music, especially for a fictional hard rock band, but there's no challenge whatsoever in this finale, even without abusing the scaffolding.

[Gas Lightyear]

Originally posted by Munkee, Yes or No ✔:

Originally posted by Soreasan:

Why exclude non dlc maps on steam, where everyone gets the DLC maps for free?

Anyways, this would be my list.

Best scenery - Cold Stream with the wooden ladders, concrete roadblocks, rivers, sewers, pine trees, and a boulder for the tank to throw around.

Craziest - Dark Carnival. What other campaigns do you get to play Whack a Mole, shoot Moustachio to death and rescue Gnome Chompski, run across a rollercoaster, and perform a rock concert for the finale, slaughtering hordes and tanks with pyrotechnics? Easily one of the most craziest mashups campaigns you can see in the game.

Most frusterating - Hard Rain, esspeccially if your allies aren't top notch and are getting slaughtered by the witches. Luckily they're easily avoidable by most good players until they get charged/boomed/blinded and unleash the horror of their wrath.

coldstream sucks lol.
Worst map I ever played. It's almost hordes 24/7.

for me.

easiest to hardest:
Dead Center
Dark Carnival
The Parish
Swamp Fever
Hard Rain
Coldstream

How would you choose maps in terms of there fun factor though?

However, if i were to rank the campaigns in terms of difficulty like you did, it would be

Hard rain (1 crescendo)
Swamp fever (3 crescendos)
Dead center (1 crescendo) (2 rolling crescendos)
The parish (1 crescendo) (1 optional crescendo) (2 rolling crescendos)
Dark carnival (3 rolling crescendos)

[Nosfrat]

LOL @ rating difficulty depending on crescendos.

Dead Center and The Parish are both (much) easier than Swamp Fever. The long chapters and double tanks during the finale makes the latter harder, despite having no gauntlets.

Dead Center is easy because it's short, the first chapter and the finale are a joke and chapter 3 is pretty easy as well, while Swamp Fever's first chapter is nearly as long as other campaigns' chapters 2 and 3.

Hard Rain is harder than people give it credit for, sure maps 3 and 4 are easy as can be, but the second chapter is LONG and Witches can be a problem in realism. And the finale is hard. Camping on the roof is easy but there's no easily accessible ammo, and getting to the boat alive is no easy feat.

Cold Stream is definitely the hardest of all 'official' campaigns. The second chapter's crescendo is just BRUTAL, and the longest of any gauntlet in the game (I'm pretty sure it's longer than both Dead Air 4 and Death Toll 4). Chapters 1 and 3 are easy, but then the finale is a pain due to many reasons that don't need to be mentioned.


For the other campaigns, I'd rate them like that (from easiest to hardest)


No Mercy: the easiest one, but not by much. The finale is hard.

Dead Air: some people find this one hard but seriously, apart from chapter 4, it's not. Joke of a finale.

Crash Course: only two chapters but both are really long, LOTS of cars for tanks to throw around and having to restart chapter 2 after dying at the last tank is painful.

The Sacrifice: not too bad. LOTS of bile jars, the first tank fight isn't too bad if you prepare for it correctly and chapter 2 isn't too hard, despite its length. The finale is very easy, as you can easily control its pace by activating generators when you want to. Also, lots of space to lead tanks around. Sacrificing can be hard with randoms but not that hard either.

Death Toll: long and weapons are scarce. Chapter 3 is random. The finale is almost another chapter on its own, though it's rather easy.

The Passing: while the end of chapter 2 is tough in itself, the finale is the true problem. Having to spend 5 minutes hearing pointless dialogue upon restarting doesn't help.

Blood Harvest: I'm not sure this is the hardest one, but between the two gauntlets (yes, the bridge at the end of chapter 4 IS a gauntlet, even if they eventually stop spawning (which I'm not even sure of)) and the finale, it's one of the hardest. No visibility, scarce supplies and hiding specials... everyone hates this one for a reason.

[Munkee]

Fun would be Dark Carnival, all the minigames.
Least fun, Cold Stream, I'm not sure how that is a level, looks worse than most custom maps. Back to school or I Hate Mountains would of made better maps. My opinion

[+]3D[+NuclearRodent]

the carnival for me. i feel 5 years old again. shame you can't use the cotton candy machine or ride any of the attractions on the second level

[Ümboida the devourer]

worst campaign is Coldstream as there consent hordes and no lube for the butt rape

and I completely think swamp fever is very atmospheric to me, that some parts include fogs, and the banjo like music as the map not make you feel claustrophobic but it want to make you feel paranoid due the fact the swamp water makes you slow and depressed to show the darkness and the broken down shanties, the man hanging from a tree, pile of dead cows, and also with paranoia with mudmen messing you up since there hard to spot due they blend In and have a walk cycle simular to the jockey.

[Ümboida the devourer]

Originally posted by Munkee:

Fun would be Dark Carnival, all the minigames.
Least fun, Cold Stream, I'm not sure how that is a level, looks worse than most custom maps. Back to school or I Hate Mountains would of made better maps. My opinion

the down side of the map is where you have to go into the stadium with takes a long time to get past the zombies

[Rozz Synthclair]

My favorite Left 4 Dead 2 campaign is The Passing!

[Cursed Hawkins]

Originally posted by Steve Ignorant:

My favorite Left 4 Dead 2 campaign is The Passing!

What is with these Necromancers? PAY ATTENTION TO THE POST DATE!

[K+/\/n#!>Y_$4I]

Cold Stream. Not fun at all. & Crash Course. The only think cool about crash course is the truck (with teeth)

[White Temple]

Originally posted by Steve Ignorant:

My favorite Left 4 Dead 2 campaign is The Passing!

You've heard of the illuminati? Steam forum ignoranti.