Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2

The Palace V4.0
Nicky Grimes 11 Nov, 2022 @ 6:47pm
Review: Nice View but Missed Potential
Pros:
- Lots of space for survival and versus mode.
- Visually appealing infrastructure. Very realistic to an irl theater.
- Good amounts of elevation. The author took careful detail in making a very cool platforming part for the trucks.
- A very cool Duke Nukem poster in the lobbies. I was hoping to see more posters like that, but I understand as it saves time and space.
- Resources are scattered across the map in terms of weapon and ammo, but not a lot of medkits. To some, this can be a good challenge of endurance, and learning to reserve your medkits wisely.
- Tier 2 weapons are offered shortly before exiting the theater. This prepares you to venture outdoors without much trouble.
- Different pathways that aren't hard to navigate through.

Cons:
- Unfortunately as most L4D2 communities are, it relies too much on an NSFW meme to bump up the ratings. Quite an unpleasant sight to see, but you can look away from it while going to the next room. There's no way to avoid the audio, nor a mechanic to turn both the video and the audio of that particular Family Guy clip off.

- Campaign mode has no Finale. Having at least a Finale to finish a campaign off is one of the must learn tutorials while creating a map. After you finish both day and night mode, it simply stops with your characters stuck. To remedy this, you must exit via console or returning to the lobby.

- Special Infected can get stuck on the signs. Alternatively, they might spawn in invisible walls.

- Night mode can strain the eyes, and cause navigation problems for some. If you're not used to navigating through dark levels with only a flashlight, this may cause a problem. Look for flares on the ground.

- Not a lot of medkits are scattered throughout the level. When resources are depleted, there's only *one* medkit for each area of the level. There's not enough for all 4 players to heal at the same time.

I enjoyed the short experience that I had on Palace, but this map might not be something I would want to play again as it stops abruptly after finishing the playthrough.

Overall, it's a pretty cool map for starters! You can tell the author took their time into making the visuals look great. Unfortunately, it doesn't leave a satisfied feeling. It leaves players guessing if there is more, or if there are things that could be improved about it. It also shows that memes where it relies on nsfw humor doesn't age well in the long run.

This would work well as a survival map, but it could also be a great short campaign if the map finishes properly, or follow this method:
- First level is daytime, finale is night time.
- Nighttime is the first level, and day time is the last level.

Walkthrough Videos:
Day Mode
Night Mode
Last edited by Nicky Grimes; 11 Nov, 2022 @ 7:23pm