Published: Saturday, 3rd October, 2009 10:26am

Left 4 Dead - Crash Course DLC

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Left 4 Dead's DLC Crash Course is a visceral, intense, burst of zombie slaying fun.

The new map begins straight after No Mercy's finale and bridges the gap between Death Toll.

Turns out the pilot was infected, and Zoey gets no end of grief from Francis about it. The two levels start from the crash site, with Zoey, Francis, Bill and Louis running through alleyways to a bridge and scrapyard: on their way crowning Witches, punting Hunters, bursting Boomers, exploding Smokers and slaying Tanks merrily on the way - apart from Bill: voice actor Jim French was apparently on vacation and the veteran uses recycled lines.

The game is funny with lots of new banter between survivors, appart from the auld yin of course.

Francis hates a lot of stuff but one of the best lines comes from Zoey: "Funny, sexy, brunette zombie killer wanted to lead three helpless men to safety, Ahh." And of course just wait until you get to the Safe House - internet trolls don't like Alison, or her stupid poems.

Each chapters has it's own crescendo event as well. One sees the survivors having to fire a Howitzer left by the army to clear a blocked path, the second starting a generator to lower an armoured 'Dawn on the Dead' style truck and make your escape.

The levels are fast paced but last longer than you might've thought. The original press release for the game said is was aimed for quick versus matches of under 30 minute. The first couple of runs my team made were roughly half an hour - in campaign. Maybe because we didn't know where the hell we were going. Usually a close-knit squad, our silhouettes were all over the place first go.

Crash Course is a great taster of things to come in November when L4D2 is released. Cars spawn in different places making it easier to accidentally set of alarms; thanks to the update before the DLC, infected now have recharge timers, and best of all 10 new achievements - six geared specifically for versus aiming to teach n00bs better means of attack.

Unfortunately none of the achievements are for the Free Survival pack that came out in April. Sad, because it would have given many a reason to play the unused mode.

NB. VALVe - For Survival mode in L4D2, please keep it to one special infected type at a time. It's not funny when three team members get tongued by smokers at the same time...

The Good:

Intense fun with tons of new lines from Francis, Zoey and Louis.

10 New Achievements.

Two new Survival levels.

The Bad:

PC gets it free but Costs 560 points on the 360 - Didn't stop me though...

Only two chapters.

It's not L4D2

The Ugly:

Boomer bile all over your face.

No lines from Bill.

Gamertag: SandyK1LL