Death Toll

Death Toll is the third (originally second) campaign in ''Left 4 Dead. ''

Spanning five chapters, Death Toll is set in and around a small (cf. road side population sign) town named Riverside where the Survivors believe the military may be holding out. The chapter starts after the Crash Course campaign where they headed to Riverside and their motivation for striving to reach the town center is based on no more than a vaguely expressed notion that the military may be holding out in Riverside and a shared awareness that they have no other realistic option.

On their trek to Riverside, the Survivors must find a way over a broken highway, enter a road tunnel (which Francis actively dislikes), get through a drain system, traverse a creepy old trainyard (which Zoey actively dislikes), attend a rousing evening service at the Riverside First Church, navigate their way through the overrun remains of the once-pleasant rural town containing a van (which Francis actively dislikes), commune with nature at the local picnic spot and finally catch a ride on a small fishing boat operated by a rather suspect couple named John and Amanda Slater (refer the Notes section below and The Sacrifice comic).

Of note is the fact that Valve has spoken the least of this challenging and enjoyable campaign, leading many to conclude that its original primary design objective was to accentuate the gameplay experience players first encountered in Mercy Hospital.

Below is a complete list of video walkthroughs of the 5 levels:


 * 1) The Turnpike
 * 2) The Drains
 * 3) The Church
 * 4) The Town
 * 5) Boathouse Finale

Please know that the gameplay videos are on each campaign's information page not on each map page.

Left 4 Dead 2 Version
A ported version of this campaign was released on September 16, 2011. The developers made the following changes (in addition to weapons and supplies porting): cosmetically amended maps for The Drains and The Town chapters, the removal of medkits and Tier 2 weapons from certain safe rooms, more randomised spawning of supplies (including ammo), larger horde sizes generally, the introduction of a Gauntlet Crescendo at the end of The Town chapter (on account of the continuously sounding forklift warning horn), and substituting heavy machine guns in The Town and Boathouse Finale chapters. Grenade, gas can, propane tank and pills are spawned in volumes well above those seen in the original campaign. Enemy damage graphics also appear to have been enhanced. However, Valve had updated the campaign and tweaked several things to balance the maps and retain the feel of the original version, such as bringing back the minigun, adjusting item spawns, and fixing the missing med kits in the safe room.

Scene transition and event dialog are unchanged although from time to time during different playthroughs character-defining utterances by individual characters (e.g. Zoey "I know how this movie ends" or Francis "I hate vans") will be missing from the entire campaign. An interesting feature of the port is that it comes with updated talker files for the original Survivors, making Bill routinely mutter his "not wearing a hat" line (should normally be used when in a Snow-themed campaign/area) when one of his comrades gets jumped by Jockeys and Francis calling this enemy by "little vampire". This remained for a while until Valve fixed the missing audio so survivors now speak their campaign exclusive lines normally.

Originally, the Church Guy just vanished after the Crescendo Event at the church. With the release of an update he can still turn into either a Boomer, Hunter or Smoker. It's unknown if he will be updated later and be able to turn into a Jockey with re-used/cut lines for his transformation. It is possible that he will also get a chance to become a Charger.

Official description
Shoot, shove and sprint through a nightmare suburbia consumed by the Infected horde. The Death Toll campaign has your team of survivors making their way down a turnpike littered with abandoned cars to the nearby ghost town of Riverside—the site of a failed stand-off between the last of humanity and a limitless swarm of undead. Fight through the ruins of small town America to the waterfront nearby, where a rescue party can take you upriver to safety.

Graffiti
Several safe houses throughout the campaign have writings of times of death and plans to move to other places such as Mercy Hospital and the airport.

In one safe house, someone has spray-painted the words "Exodus 9:15". This is a Biblical verse which reads "For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth." This Bible verse, taken in context, is a message to Moses from God, telling Moses that he must warn the Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The plague was sent down and everybody who didn't heed the warning was killed.

The Graffiti in the church is mostly birth and death dates. According to these writings, the game takes place in 2009, although it was made in 2008. The identities featured are understood to be those of individuals employed to work on the Left 4 Dead development project.

Achievements

 * See Main Article: Achievements

Behind the Scenes
Death Toll is the only campaign that was not featured in pre-release materials. The only graphic of any sort of the beta Death Toll is an early picture of the Boathouse Finale in the game's files.


 * In the beta version of Left 4 Dead, the five chapters of Death Toll were different:
 * 1) The Caves
 * 2) The Drainage
 * 3) The Ranchhouse
 * 4) The Main Street
 * 5) The Boathouse.