Redemption 2 (Complete) is a Long but very good Custom Map that starts on a mountainside, and is primarily set in a long, winding, and labyrinthine underground research facility known as Helix, which appears to be heavily inspired by Black Mesa from Half-Life 1.

This is one of those Custom Maps that pulls all of the stops. It uses custom art, assets, melee weapons, original voice acting, etc to make its locale feel authentic and unique. There’s even a couple of NPCs that you can interact with, which is a notable novelty that most Custom Maps lack (people seem to love trying to shoot them, sit on them, vocalize with them, etc).

The combat and map design of Redemption 2 is very solid, for the most part. Expect a lot of close-quarters combat on this map, where the Shotguns (and ironically the Sniper Rifles) excel.

There are notably some long vent crawl spaces present on this campaign. Be sure to move through these vents as quickly as possible and don’t stop inside of them, otherwise you run the risk of getting swarmed by Common Infected, which become bash/stumble-immune whilst they’re crouching in these vents (this is a major design flaw of L4D2 itself, which these vents majorly highlight). If a Tank happens to spawn near these vents, you can also trivialize him by getting him stuck inside the vents and then shooting him.

I only have two significant complaints with Redemption 2.

The first is that it’s not always clear what you’re supposed to be doing during some of the horde events, as well as the last part of the Finale, on your first playthrough. There are direction tips that briefly appear and some vague NPC dialogue that are intended to inform you what you should be doing, but it’s easy to miss or not hear/understand these during the franticness of combat, and the map definitely would have benefited from using more clear instructions/glow effects.

This is especially true on the penultimate Crescendo in the computer lab, where it’s initially unclear if you’re meant to hold, or try to run somewhere when the lights go out (it’s the former, but only after you hack the computer with a keyboard), and on the Finale, when you’re meant to find and deposit Oxygen Canisters and then press-and-hold the pneumatic machinery with them inserted.

The Finale Oxygen Canisters don’t glow like normal Scavenge Gas Cans, nor does their deposit point, which is underneath the central train turn table platform, in an initially-hidden compartment that only opens during this phase.

My second significant complaint is simply that the Finale, which is in a Defend-Double Tank-Oxygen Canister Scavenge-style, is too easy to cheese due to bad Infected pathing.

For example, there’s a turned-over train car that you can get on top of in one of the dark backmost tunnels. The Common and Special Infected have no way to properly path/climb onto this toppled train car, and as a result they just get stuck in one spot beneath it in large clumps, thus trivializing the only Defend segment of this Finale.

There are also power boxes and other props spread around that you can get on top of, in order to crush the Common Infected that try to climb up them from a single point underneath you, as they’re not properly pathable/climbable from all sides by the Nextbot AI.

The Double Tanks of course can offer teams some trouble (especially if they get a good hit on the forklift), but with high health, bombs saved up, and the wide-open Finale area to kite them around; they shouldn’t be too big of an issue for a half-decent team. Special Infected spawns appear to be capped to 1 during the Double Tank phase, restricting their disruptive potential.

The Oxygen Canister Scavenge phase is also very easy to rush through, as you only need 3 of them, so long as your team knows what they’re supposed to be doing with the Canisters.

Redemption 2 also has a secret room that you can enter by bringing the Gnome to it, as well as lots of wall writing, map lore, and easter eggs; for people that enjoy those juicy little extra details.


For more Expert Custom Map Reviews and ratings, see my full Collection here. https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2252724380