The Waterfront

The Waterfront is the first chapter of the campaign The Parish of Left 4 Dead 2. A video of this campaign can be seen here. The second part is here.



Campaign
The Survivors start from a dock after being dropped off from a boat captained by Virgil, who ventures further up river to ferry more survivors. To your right you will find Tier 1 weapons, and possibly a second pistol or Guitar, Katana (rarely), Frying Pan, Machete or Tonfa. Go up the ramp which leads you in front of some burning houses. There are two paths: left and right, right being the primary path. After leaving this small place, Survivors head onto the streets. There is a way that leads inside to one of the town's houses. At the end of the street, there is a café. After getting inside of the café, there is a small door and a corridor which leads to the backyard. At this place, we can see the first "alternative path" of the new director. In one of the video of E3, the Survivors have no choices to progress on the streets again, but in this video, they are just walking in the backyard, with no possibility to keep their way on the streets, because a fence is blocking them. There, you must enter a kitchen. In here you can sometimes find a Frying Pan or 2. After you leave the kitchen, you pass onto a street, yet again. Right in front of you, there is an alarmed car, so you must pass it hastily. Finally, the safe room, a small convenience store, will be in front of you. This is the second time we can see the exit of the safe room heading to on the next level.

Versus

 * As the infected, it may be difficult the stop the Survivors in this Chapter. It is relatively short, with few good places to pop out of or to pounce from. Once a Survivor steps off the dock and onto the concrete, the most common place to spawn is atop the building to the right. This is good for for the Special Infected because, most likely, the Survivors will be dealing with the dozen or so Common Infected around the area. A well-placed Charge may even knock a Survivor into the water behind them, killing him or her instantly. Most likely, the Survivors will pass this point with little difficulty, as the only building you can spawn on at this point is relatively low, and easy to see infected on top of.
 * The next choke-point for the Survivors is the stretch of street from the small alleyway across the street from the dock to the corner-side cafe with the jukebox. This is a much better location for the Specials to spawn at. The buildings are higher, there are more common infected, and it may be hard to traverse due to the Survivors needing to go on top of the over-turned bus. The small white ramp leading up to the bus is a great place for a Charger to attack, hitting all four Survivors at once. Additionally, a Spitter attacking on the same ramp will stop the Survivors from progressing for several seconds. After the bus, the Survivors have a tendency of staying behind the makeshift barricade in the corner (usually to reload or heal up), across the street from the barricade. Once again, a well-placed Spitter attack will be effective here. As a Smoker, you could pull the last Survivor to leave this little corner, slowing down the team additionally. Overall, this most likely will be one of the more difficult areas for the Survivors to progress through for this Chapter.
 * Next up is the area between the cafe and the end of the kitchen/diner. The Survivors have just passed the cafe and are heading down the street, soon to turn right either into the backyard or alleyway, depending on what path the map decides to take. A good tactic for this little strip of street is to pull the last Survivor to turn into the alleyway. Survivors cannot get back over the ramp once they pass it. They can, however, jump and shoot over it. If you pull from the side (which will be difficult because great timing will be required so you are not spotted) it is possible that Survivors will not be able to help their strangled buddy. A Jockey in this same area will be useful. If the Survivors do not shoot you off soon enough, their teammate could get ridden quite a long way backwards. The area between the backyard and the kitchen is minuscule and not a good place for Jockeys, Hunters, and so on. A well-placed Charge could fling a Survivor back to the beginning of the backyard, slowing the Survivors down by a good 10 or more seconds. Now, the Survivors have entered the kitchen. Nothing really you can do here other than use a Spitter's attack in the doorway, slowing them down additionally.
 * Now the final stretch; the little area from the entrance of the diner to the safehouse, just feet down the street. This is final major choke-point. No matter what Special you are, try to get the Survivors to activate the car alarm. Mose useful is the Jockey due to his size and the Boomer, whose explosion causes the alarm to go off. If the alarm goes off, most likely what they Survivors will do is make a mad dash for the safehouse, only caring for themself. A good idea would be to try and stop the Survivor that is closest to the safehouse. The others will be busy keeping the Common Infected off of themselves to notice a teammate who has been ridden or pulled. Additionally, pulling or riding the Survivor furthest from the safehouse is a plausible strategy. It will slow down the group for several seconds (or more, if you incapacitate them) giving your teammates more time to respawn, along with more Common Infected to harass them. A last resort idea is to have several Special Infected spawn and then run into the saferoom (you cannot spawn inside the actual saferoom). A charger can bowl the whole team over if they don't close the door quick enough, and a Jockey could possibly run a Survivor back into a rushing crowd of Common Infected.

Trivia

 * Activating a jukebox in the café causes it to play one of the following songs: "Re: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton, "Still Alive" also by Coulton, originally featured in another Valve game, Portal, "The Saints Will Never Come" (a re-titled jazz band version of "When the Saints Go Marching In"), and two songs by the fictional in-game band, the Midnight Riders: "Midnight Ride" and "One Bad Man".
 * When it plays the song Re: Your Brains, a Panic Event will be triggered when it comes to the chorus for the first time. The event can be avoided if you switch the song before the chorus.
 * The original name for this level was "The French Quarter"
 * In the demo, there is a glitch that is right next to the safe room and gets you on top of the house to the left of the saferoom.
 * In the demo, while on the street if you take the awning up to the open window and head into the room, sometimes a Silenced Submachine Gun will be sitting completely upright on the table, a model placement error.