Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2

Gas Fever
Warhawk 5 Dec, 2023 @ 4:00pm
Gas Fever. Quality: 7.5/10, Difficulty: 7.5/10, Length: Short-Medium. Played On Expert Twice.
Gas Fever is a solid all-around Custom Map.

It’s shorter than most Custom Maps, being Short-Medium in length, with 3 moderately-long Chapters.

The relative difficulty of Gas Fever is kept well-balanced as a result of there being reasonably challenging horde events, Tanks on each chapter, some tricky Witch spots, exploding barrels ('suicide barrels', as I like to call them on Expert), and a balanced generosity of supplies provided throughout the campaign.

Chapter 1 is well designed, and I have no major complaints. There’s enough interesting areas, Alarm Cars, and other features to make it stand out (getting a Witch in the dark area is particularly spooky).

The Alarm Car + Explosive Barrel close to it that sets it off + Crescendo event at the very end of Chapter 1 was potentially quite dangerous, especially with the Infected able to rain down from the roof if you’re too close to the Safe Room. But we ultimately managed fine here on both times that I played through this map with friends and Pubs. I recommend setting off the Alarm Car/Crescendo at the same time in order to cancel one of them out.

There were a couple of times on Chapter 1 where I felt invisible walls were improperly used, but nothing too egregious.

You can also potentially find a x4 Hunting Rifle pickup on Chapter 1, which I like.

Chapter 2 is also solid, and culminates in what is easily the most difficult part in Gas Fever, a Moderate Gauntlet through a warehouse and across the bridge from The Sacrifice. However, as long as you use your Bile/Pipe Bombs/Molotovs efficiently here, this Gauntlet shouldn't be too bad for a decent team.

Although on my first playthrough, we notably had a Witch spawn in an unavoidable spot at the bridge’s ladder at the end of the Gauntlet, which was a big problem (someone died to this, as we had no time/shotguns to deal with her).

Commons can also notably block you on this short ladder at the end of the bridge and/or camp the top of it, hitting you repeatedly as you try to climb up it. They can also climb on the handrails and hit you from many different angles around the ladder itself. Try to get up this ladder as quickly as possible to avoid getting stuck on it.

At the top of the bridge tower, you can press a control panel to raise the bridge behind you and end the Gauntlet, with the Safe Room not being too far from here.

Gas Fever’s Chapter 3 Finale is a somewhat lengthy and potentially challenging Start Three Generators-Defend-Tank-Defend-Tank-Defend-Tank-Climb A Dumpster And Run To The Car set in a construction site.

However, it should be noted that on both of my playthroughs, the second Tank on this Finale spawned and then immediately suicided due to Frustration, with the Tank music starting and stopping abruptly.

With human players, you can easily coordinate to start all three generators simultaneously, effectively skipping this part of the Finale.

This Finale is pretty easy if you hold the right spot, otherwise it could definitely give you some trouble (the roof and lower areas are bad).

I found that holding in the back of the construction building on the second floor, behind the stairs with a roof above you, was a very strong spot on this Finale. With the Infected only being able to attack from the front of the spot, there being good sightlines, and plenty of escape routes when the Tank attacks.

At the end of the Finale, the climb over the dumpster and run to the Jimmy Gibbs Car can be a bit of a problem, as the ending Tank can spawn on the overpass in between you and the car, the dumpster is only accessible from the second floor of the construction building (notably the bottom area is a dead-end, and an obnoxious improperly-used invisible wall blocks you from being able to jump onto a ledge and then down to the dumpster from the roof, which nearly got me killed on both times that I played through Gas Fever), and Specials can also continually spawn on the overpass between you and the escape car.

It should also be noted that the escape car has no protection from Common Infected, Specials, and Tanks from attacking people waiting by it (which is atypical for most vanilla/custom campaigns). So everyone needs to know where to go and get to the car as quickly as possible when the dumpster lowers, as a delay could be fatal.

Gas Fever also has a glitch that causes most of your end credits statistics to be erased, which will annoy people who like to see the ending stats.

Overall, Gas Fever is a very well-designed and enjoyable map. It's well recommended if you're looking for a Short-Medium Length Custom Map.


For more Expert Custom Map Reviews and ratings, see my full Collection here. https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2252724380
Last edited by Warhawk; 17 Dec, 2023 @ 10:45pm