The Tsunami City: Dark Tide V1.2 is a short Custom Map that feels like it was designed purely to be extremely difficult and frustrating. Expect to restart a lot if you’re not playing with an A-team of friends.

The entire campaign is set on a series of bizarre, liminal rooftops, cranes, and other props in a flooded city.

Right off the bat Chapter 1 starts with a scripted Witch next to a suspended beam that has a slowdown effect. If anyone dies to this Witch, there’s also a Defibrillator provided in the previous area, which makes this more of an inconvenience/delaying tactic by the map designer, more than anything else. Especially since no Specials/hordes spawn in this starting area to pressure you to move quickly.

Just after this Witch, there is a lift you have to activate by flipping a switch, which will start a very lengthy Very Hard Gauntlet, which culminates in a confined area with Double Tanks + Horde attacking. This Very Hard Gauntlet also notably includes major navigation issues (due to relying on unconventional ladders such as random drainage pipes and ventilation ducts), and improperly-used invisible walls in some areas. All of which can add artificial difficulty and frustration to this already extremely-difficult event. Without efficient use of Bile Bombs, Bile cheese, luck, or 3 skilled friends, you should expect to have a lot of difficulty on this Very Hard Gauntlet.

Chapter 2 actually has some regular gameplay, with idle Commons and Special Infected being spawned by the AI Director. It’s also notably far easier than either Chapter 1 or the Chapter 3 Finale, with there only being two regular Easy Crescendos, a Wedding Witch that is easy to avoid, and a random Tank.

The Finale is where this map gets truly hellish. The Tsunami City: Dark Tide's Finale is a 12 Can Unfair-difficulty Scavenge set in a maze-like, three-storey, Dead Center-esque shopping mall, with two scripted Tank traps on top of the regular 1-2 Scavenge Tank spawns that you’ll likely encounter by default.

The area just before the mall Scavenge area contains the generator refuelling point and a mounted gun, and loads you up with every Tier 2 gun in the game, an Ammo Pile, 8 First Aid Kits, 4 Defibrillators, 2 of every bomb, 2 boxes of both types of Special Ammo, and guaranteed Laser Sights. However, even with all of this, this Finale is a rage Finale.

The first Tank trap is behind a piano on the top floor, with a Gas Can placed in front of it to lure you in. Upon the trap being sprung, the Tank will spawn and can immediately hit the piano in front of it, in order to Down whomever activated the trap.

I personally recommend throwing a Bile Bomb and then rushing and activating this first Tank trap immediately, so that you don’t have to potentially fight two Tanks + Horde simultaneously later on. You can also notably activate this first Tank trap and then immediately shoot the objective Gas Can placed next to it, thus igniting this Tank for ‘free’.

The second Tank trap is a particularly cruel and unusual one, with this Tank instantly appearing in the ending elevator on the second floor, the moment you hit the button to open it. You have to use this elevator at the very end of the Finale in order to reach the sailboat escape vehicle below, making this last Tank trap particularly trolly and frustrating, especially on your first playthrough of this campaign.

This is compounded by the fact that the horde will likely be right behind you as you run for the elevator, and there’s a metal barrier + invisible walls that prevent you from being able to loop the Tank on this floor. Hence, this second unavoidable Tank trap creates a very awkward situation if your team isn’t prepared for it.

And this is on top of the fact that the Scavenge portion of the Finale itself is hellish, as a result of the sheer numbers of Commons and Specials constantly attacking from all angles, the multiple Tanks + Hordes that you have to fight, and because of all the metal barriers and invisible walls that the map designer placed in order to section off parts of the upper floors and the objective Gas Cans.

These metal barriers and invisible walls in particular turn this otherwise manageable Scavenge into a nightmarish one, with navigation to the various objective Gas Cans and ending elevator being obfuscated by them, and because they also create multiple dead-ends on the upper floors, which the Tanks can easily force you into.

As a result of all these traps, tricks, and problematic level design, you should only attempt to play The Tsunami City: Dark Tide V1.2 on Expert difficulty if you’re looking for a challenge with a group of experienced friends. Trying to play this campaign with Pub players and/or Survivor Bots will most likely result in significant pain and frustration, especially on the Finale.


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