Figured i'm make some comments on City 17 (as i play it on Singleplayer)
Firstly, huge warning, bot pathing is a bit dodgy in places (especially the very start).
First level is the tunnels where you start off with no guns and wind up fighting endless Antlions. You get Dead Centre gear basically. Halfway through where you hit the 'use cars to block antlion holes' bit you get tier 1s (i picked up my shotgun and set off a car alarm on the first shot
). A few car alarms and witches and the safe room up ahead (probably a bit too far to just leg it) if you set 1 off).
Second level starts with an epic crescendo up the demolished multi-level car park in a VERY charger/jockey/smoker friendly area. Bots are just... fail and need to teleport to get up. Followed by a very big climb up a ladder which is almost too easy to incap (since Nick did it himself...). Followed by a second crescendo (yes 2 in 1 level) at the lift where you hold off Antlions. Though its a bit too easy to hold off the horde by sitting at the back of a wide area with only 1 path for infected to attack (i guess specials can spawn on another bit but its predictable). Then you exit into to the surface with random dead combine soldiers on the way up the lift, shame the Citidel wasn't imported onto the skybox, and the saferoom nearby.
Third level gets Hard Rain style storms to mimic the Citidel portals shockwave (lots of people whining about it on the dlpage but jesus its better than nothing and works nicely). The level is pretty much as is from HL, with a nice no-way-back bit when you hop over the fence after you dealt with the snipers and a run along the top where you can pull them back down for an incap (i didn't hang, i tried
), and another 'drop' after that. Then you get the 'destroy the barricade' crescendo from Dead Air with commons dropping in from all over the place. Past the area you fought the Antlion Guardian (dissapointed it didn't force a tank here tbh... and i took 2 steps forward after typing that and it spawned 1 at the end of the area ><) lots of cars around, and the saferoom right after it.
Fourth level has a Jukebox in the first room for all you Midnight Riders/Jonathan Coulton fans
theres a forced horde (it seems) halfway down the street where the Strider attacks, also a tank which seems like it was supposed to be during the horde, couldn't say in 1 playthrough. You then get a smoke filled burning building (like DC1), complete with the collapsable floor (headcrab trap) which will be nice for slowing people down. Followed by a very evil looking thin bridge (though getting onto it with a charge before you get killed is made very hard, but still a likely insta-win spot) followed immediately by a very nasty spot where you could be taken back almost to the start of the level and an even worse insta-win bridge (this time the charger can get onto it very easily it seems) that also triggers a crescendo in the corridors of the hospital. After this you get the chopper bit in the building, replaced by the Dead Air finale plane taking the roof off the building (awesome). Back into the hospital corridors (where some random music kicked in) with a couple of drops taking you into a smoke filled room and some more corridors before the saferoom in another long level.
Fifth level opens into the final area where you had to run back and forth with evacuees. Though in this case you simply fight your way through to the train station and the finale is in there where you fought the Striders. The finale is pretty sweet though a bit easy, at least in coop, on versus it could be a lot better. The first tank glitched and i never saw it, the second tank looks like it might have some chances if it plays smart with its team. The train you have to get into the back of it (the side thats furthest inside the station), i'm not sure if the side it stop at could change or not.
TLDR version Its a really good campaign and looks like it could make an excellent versus game too. It uses things from both L4D and L4D2 and is an nigh perfect replica of Half Life 2: Episode 1 (if memory serves). Its not surprising that Valve mentioned it officially given how good it is. Download it now! Give it a run through (or just play Episode 1) and i hope we can get a full team of 8 to play it later. I think Insanity may be overkill, cevo could be bad enough
