The Parish - 2/5: Park

The Park is the second chapter of the campaign The Parish. It involves players running through a park and a military evac station, in which a Gauntlet Crescendo Event will cause Survivors to run through wave after wave of infected through a fenced "maze" to the top of a tower to shut it off. Once the doors are open and the infected around the evac center are dead, the Survivors must then trek through a bus station till a freeway comes into view, which seems to head the toward the bridge. Close by is a saferoom.

Campaign
The chapter starts in a 99 Cent store. In there you will often find Pipe bombs, Molotovs, Adrenaline, Pills, Tier 1 Weapons and Frying pans. Once you leave the room, you will come to a street that is blocked off, an Army Humvee, which occasionally may have first aid kits, pills, adrenaline, or various throwable weapons, and a giant staircase. Make your way up the stairs and to the Bienville Park. Once in side the park there will be an underpass where you may find some pills or adrenaline, sometimes also a throwable weapon. After that you will have to make your way through a maze of hedges. Make your way to the middle of the hedge maze and you will see a generator with a randomly spawned Tier 1 or Tier 2 Weapon. Take the path to the left of the generator to an open area with a gazebo. The gazebo typically has melee weapons (machete, guitar most often) a few Tier 1 weapons and a select Tier 2 weapon amongst the white chairs underneath it.

If you take the right path there should be a restroom. There is a chance of finding a melee weapon and possibly a Tier 2 in both places though the melee weapons would be inside the restrooms. Head behind the bathroom and go toward the row of buildings. Go left and you will see a generator. Behind the generator is a small canopy which usually has 2 first aid kits or 1 kit and 1 defibrillator. Throwable weapons, pills and/or adrenaline can often be found next to the door at the far end of this area. Head through the alley to the right of the generator. On the other side, there is a trailer to the left. This is the Crescendo Event. Watch out! Don't go into the trailer while being chased by a tank, because he'll climb on it and break into in via glass ceiling. There are healing items and other supplies inside. Once you're ready, open the door and head to the tower to turn off the alarm. You must make your way from one end to the other while fighting off infinite numbers of Common and Special Infected. After this you will make your way through an abandoned bus station, leading you to a lot filled with buses. At the far end of the lot, take the way to the right, and the safe house is directly in front of you.

The Infected
This stage contains a lot of open areas and multiple paths. Teamwork must be enforced in order to cause any significant damage to survivors. Keep in mind that the Gauntlet Crescendo forces survivors to be on the move or risk more and more Common Infected. If you don't feel confident enough to kill, slowing down the survivors during this event and preventing them from pressing that button should be enough to have your AI infected partners damage them enough.

Boomers: You are easy prey here, as the fences make them easy to shoot before you can barf on the survivors. Try staying out of the survivors' sights until you get close to them, and if you need to recharge your bile, hide behind a solid wall instead of running away, but don't practically hug the wall, as parts of your bloated body will stick though the walls, giving the survivors an easy kill, and not allowing the bile from the explosion to cover them. In the case of the Crescendo Event, vomiting on Survivors might not attract additional infected, but it will help focus their attacks on covered survivors, damaging them enough to slow down the team. Also, the bile will blind them temporarily, which will cause a lot of problems attempting to go through the narrow walkways, (just be sure not to vomit on them too early, as the infected do have to climb the fences first, which will take time.)

Chargers: During the first areas of the chapter, the open areas may not help you. Survivors can easily dodge a running charger, and even if you do capture a Survivor, the open areas will still make you an easy target. The hedge maze can give you decent cover if you aim properly, but at least attempt to capture lone wolf survivors rather than charging the group. You are a lot more powerful in the crescendo event, as the fences make the area very cramped (in a good way for you). Charges will be very hard to dodge, and a well aimed one could allow you to bowl into all 4 survivors and separate one of them from the rest. Also, the nearby common infected help, as they can act as both a way to slow down the remaining survivors from getting to their pinned comrade, and also work as a sort of meat shield for you, lowering the damage you will take from the survivors before they get closer. Both help you to incapacitate or even kill your victim.

Hunters: This chapter is similar to the Waterfront, minus all the high buildings. You will have to be a little more tactical when it comes to damage pounces. Try to work together with other infected or pick off loners. Bile covered survivors make great targets. In the crescendo event, as the survivors try to turn off the alarm, try pinning one to slow their team down. While protecting the alarm is a great idea, attacking the last survivor allows for the common infected to get closer; and someone attempting to save that survivor would get caught in the damage as well, especially should another special infected attack the would-be savior.

Jockeys: Because of your ability to control survivors, you can do well in the hedge-maze. Taking a survivor away from their team and forcing them into a trap can turn tides for each team. Remember to talk and plan with your infected team, as the Jockey (though underestimated) can excel here. You can really be helpful during the race to the alarm. While the survivors are busy trying to mow down a horde of infected, try riding one backwards in the map. This will slow down the survivors, damage their companion, and give your teammates time to respawn. For maximum damage, ride the survivor into an oncoming horde of common infected, which will more than likely incapacitate the victim, slowing the survivors down even more.

Smokers: Attempt to separate the survivors anyway you can. Work with other infected and use the chapter's static objects as cover and to damage survivors. During the Crescendo Event, grab the survivors into covered areas or as they are on the planked walkway. Keeping the alarm going, even for a little bit longer, can damage the survivors.

Spitters: There are a couple of areas where your spit can delay survivors, but your main goal this map should be to add on any extra damage you can. Spit on Hunters, Smokers, or Chargers when they are stationary with their victim, and attempt to spit as close to a Jockey you can. Your acid will slow the survivors down during the crescendo event, as they will not be able to cross it without taking damage, which, when mixed with damage from the waves of commons, will make crossing acid a very unwanted choice. Your objective as a Spitter will obviously be to spit directly in their path, preferably close to them, as it will slow them down even more. If you're about to die, try to die right in front of them, as this will cause the same general effect. The acid will also give your teammates time to respawn.

Tank: You can incapacitate a team of survivors quickly if he spawns near the starting safe-room or right before the trailer, as the start contains a car you can incapacitate survivors with, and the area between the park and the trailer contains a dumpster. In some cases, it is possible to incapacitate all 4 survivors at once with these if they're bunched together, making for a very easy round.

Trivia

 * This chapter/section was originally called, The Quarantine.
 * If a Witch spawns in the area before the trailer, and if you evade it and get inside the trailer, it's possible to shoot the witch through a small window at the door and kill the Witch without it harming any of the survivors.
 * During the Crescendo Event, if you look behind the table that's under the tent, there are two dead CEDA operatives in Hazmat suits.
 * The Survivors will sometimes comment on the piles of corpses outside the CEDA checkpoint and their apparent demise at the hands of the military.
 * In the demo when you got to the saferoom at the end all of the better weapons (Tier 2) appeared meaning all you could do is to sit around and wait for a Horde or some of the Special Infected.
 * Sometimes, a Tank will spawn on top of the trailer and go through the glass window at the top of the trailer and will proceed to attack the survivors.
 * The cereal boxes in the safehouse at the beginning apparently contains a free Team Fortress 2 figure, according to the backside of the boxes (and there are 10 of them)
 * The Park, specifically the area around the statue in the park was originally meant to be a procedurally generated maze for the player, however in testing the maze was too in depth and the players often were lost in the large maze. The Cemetery however salvages the idea with four distinct possible paths chosen by the Director.
 * There is an effective shortcut at the rolling crescendo (watch-tower alarm) by jumping onto the table that is underneath the awning, then jumping onto a pole that is holding it up. Get a running start for momentum to jump on top of the adjacent barbed-wire fence. Either drop to the ground and climb the two ladders, or cross the tarp a bit farther ahead and then jump to only have to climb the second ladder.
 * This seems to be patched as of the official release, as when you attempt to jump on the table, you are unable to reach the pole due to your character erratically shaking.
 * Before the Crescendo event is activated, Coach will read from one of the posters and say the following line. "Warning, Alarm will sound if door is opened before receiving clearance from tower." The poster he is reading from actually says "Warning, Alarm will sound if trailer is exited before clearance from tower."
 * It is also curious as to how the alarm turns itself on. It does not activate when survivors open the door, nor when they go outside to stand on the trailer's staircase. Only when they touch the road does the alarm go off, yet no one is there to turn the alarm on, though it may have a motion detector.
 * It also seems odd that the Military or CEDA would install an alarm that would attract infected. This could be that even after the events of Left 4 Dead and before the Survivors arrival in Left 4 Dead 2, they still do not understand much about the infection, especially due to the fact they failed to prevent the Infection from spreading quickly.
 * One explanation could be that the structure was an early attempt at quarantine measures where individuals or groups who made it to the location could be examined. If someone opens the door, a certain amount of time passes where a guard at the outpost gets confirmation from a guard on the ground (Via radio or other means, possible hand signals). This guard then presses the button to prevent the alarm from going off. In a situation where infected people who had not yet turned were able to force their way in the alarm would alert those on the “protected” side to be on their guard.
 * Sometimes a Witch will spawn behind the fence on the left side of the park, this makes easy pickings.

Videos

 * *IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Safe Room
 * IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Garden Maze
 * IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Stop the Alarm