After initiating a challenge within its devoted Left 4 Dead 2 community on Steam, the folks at Valve have confirmed plans to release the game’s Dead Air DLC early. It’s all due to the fact that over twenty thousand people took the challenge to heart and completed its objective of unlocking the Stream Crosser achievement from the game’s new Cold Stream campaign. In fact; within the first twenty-four hours of the challenge being issued, its criteria had been met over 60 thousand times. Impressive.
The developer confirmed that its challenge was to serve two different objectives, as they were hoping that it would not only serve as a promotional tool but also a stress test. It was hoping to see an influx of users on the Cold Stream campaign servers, in order to see how well they handled the stress of a ton of users playing at once.
Diehard fans of the series will surely remember that the Dead Air campaign was a part of the original Left 4 Dead. It offered a fun romp through decaying buildings as players were tasked with making their way to a gassed up jet at a near-by airport. One that was deserted by human beings, but not the undead who had taken up refuge at the popular transit location. This campaign ended with one of the more memorable finales from that game – a final standoff on the tarmac, beside the fueling jetliner, with tons of zombies coming from many different angles.
As promised, Valve will be bringing its Dead Air campaign back to life (on Steam at least,) on or before July 23. The mentioned date is said to be the latest possible one for the imminent release, as it could come earlier.
There hasn’t been any news about any of this coming to the XBOX 360 version of the game, but it certainly would be nice if it’s announced sometime in the near future. Dead Air was one of my favourite campaigns, taking both the original and sequel into account.