Memorial Bridge

Memorial Bridge is the third chapter in the customised Cold Stream campaign which was subsequently beta-released as a DLC in March 2011.

Teams leave the safe room and climb a series of stairs knocking off a small handful of passive Common Infected found along the way. An aluminium ladder leads up to the open air and gives access to the roof of a concrete service structure located in a small park next to the Memorial Bridge. The park is densely populated with Common Infected who will respond aggressively to the sight of a human player. A Tank can also sometimes spawn in this area. In any event, the fighting is fast and furious but not too difficult if the team stays up on the structure and allows enemies to follow their pre-scripted attack lines to climb its walls and bring them into close range vulnerability. A follow-up horde of Common Infected may also materialize once the park's original inhabitants have been culled (note that when playing single player, it is essential to step away from the head of the ladder since it is not unusual for AI Bots to hang back down inside the structure if the human player stands on the roof at the top of the ladder).

Once the park is clear, the team heads up the side of the bridge using a zigzag flight of concrete stairs. Care must be taken as a Spitter or Charger may be waiting in ambush.

At the head of the stairway, a few Common Infected will be seen in the gap, and if he has not appeared previously, a cautious peep around the corner to the right may reveal a partially visible Tank flapping his arms up and down.

Action from this point will be intense all the way to the end of the chapter, so teams need to get their game faces on and not relax for a moment.

A proven strategy is to exit the stairway onto the bridge and engage immediately visible targets on an as-is, where-is basis. If the Tank is present, and he often will be, he should obviously be dealt with as a first priority. Thereafter, a good idea is to go left from the stairway exit, mop up there and restock on ammo from the pile found in that area. Once ready, teams head over the bridge, which they will find to be a tangle of vehicles, barricades and gaping holes down to the river below. Tactics are necessarily opportunistic, but good fire discipline is necessary since ammo is limited and enemies are many. One notable feature is the large number of Special Infected Riot Police who must be melee shoved and then quickly shot as they stumble over.

About a third of the way over the bridge is a fuel tanker. If the ladder on its rear is used, players can get up on top and enjoy the benefits of longer sight ranges and protection from enemies at ground level. However, a glitch means that if a human player climbs up onto this fuel tanker and is incapped by a Hunter, the AI Bots will stand around on the ground as though nothing has happened to their ostensible teammate.

About halfway across the bridge is a second fuel tanker which blocks the way and which must be climbed. On top will usually be found a Grenade Launcher. At the front end of the fuel tanker is a bus whose roof must be accessed by teams in order to proceed. At this point, a horde will spawn followed by a spontaneous explosion which blasts a semitrailer rig out of the way and clears the route ahead. After restocking on ammo from the rear of a white-painted container, the team crosses a gap in the bridge road surface using a steel girder (only the right-hand one gives a secure footing). Once over the gap, teams look to the right and see two arrows pointing out onto a plywood and scaffolding structure hanging off the side of the bridge.

Once on this structure, by looking down through the cracks between the plywood sheets, a Special Infected will usually be seen moving around on the lower level. After dispatching this threat by firing down through the gap, teams move to the left side of the stucture and carefully drop down to the lower level. Thereafter, they move back to the opposite side and by looking down they will see a long flight hand and foot holds set into the side of the bridge pylon leading down to a second plywood platform containing weapons and supplies. Note that when playing with AI Bots, it is common for at least one of them to slip off this ladder and to require resuscitation and healing; in the worst-case scenario, one will fall and die, taking them (and their firepower) out of the game for the rest of the chapter. (Note that there are no "rescue closets" in this campaign and so a dead Survivor is off the board until the start of the next chapter.)

The current structure is well supplied with resources including an M60 machine gun, Laser sights, ammo and throwables (chiefly Molotovs and Bile Jars). Once there, a follow-up horde will usually try to attack the team by climbing down from the structure above, but since they use the bridge ladder to do so, they are easy target practice.

Looking around, teams will notice a sailboat down below with its mast conveniently lodged next to the structure they are standing on. Enemies populate the river area down below and will respond aggressively to the team's presence by swarming onto the boat and climbing up the mast. Again, this is a matter of simple target practice until things quieten down sufficiently to entice the team to make an attempt to descend the mast.

The next part is one of the most frustrating aspects of the chapter when playing with AI Bots. To move on, it is necessary to shinny down the sailboat's mast to the river below. However, almost inevitably, at least one or more of the AI Bots will slip and fall off the mast and either be incapped or killed outright. Since there is no way any dead Bot can be resurrected and an injured Bot will be in the health red zone, the outlook from this point on is very grim to say the least. Thus, it is a good strategy to descend the mast slowly to prevent the AI Bots from rushing down the mast, slipping and consequently falling.

Once down into the river, teams fight off random but continous attacks as they move towards a riverside structure and a gently sloping river bank on its right-hand side. By climbing a ladder, teams come up onto a deck over looking the river which contains resources such as Tier 2 weaponry, ammo, throwables and perhaps a Health kit. A small "hurry up" horde will spawn if a team is taking too long in this area. A good idea is to stock up on (or hold in reserve) Pipe Bombs and Bile Jars as they will be invaluable in the next stage of this chapter.

Leaving the building, teams climb back down the ladder into the river and head up the river bank to shore. The area at the top is thickly populated with Common Infected, but they are usually easy to dispatch with well-aimed shots. Teams also need to watch out for another "hurry up" horde which may spawn to reinforce the initial complement of enemies outside the building.

Teams next approach the entrance of what looks to be a junkyard filled with vehicles. As they do so, a military aircraft will be heard to fly over and drop a bomb on the freeway above. In one of the most curious scenes in any chapter, movement segue will stall into an exaggerated slow-motion sequence. Player movement is still possible during this phase but only to an almost imperceptable degree. At the conclusion of this sequence, movement returns to normal, but it is immediately apparent that the bombing has set off an alarmed car and a horde is on its way. A good idea at this point is to move the team quickly to the right-hand side and wait a moment to allow the horde to hove into view, whereupon a Pipe Bomb or Bile Jar is thrown to deflect them and neutralize the threat. Thereafter, the team hugs the right-hand wall, mopping up as they go (the M60 with a Laser Sight firing one and two-shot bursts makes this a piece of cake).

The route follows a walled zigzag into a second junkyard space, which again contains a modest number of relatively passive Common Infected, although a Witch may also be seen and heard nearby. At this point, the safe room is in view and the AI Bots will instantly start to press ahead (as they tend to do under such circumstances).

Overall, this is relatively challenging chapter featuring almost nonstop combat that is marred only by the inexplicable tendency of AI Bots to loose their footing when negotiating a simple ladder and when sliding down a sailboat mast.