Dam It

"Eyes and ears, people. Eyes and ears." This article needs attention and dedicated editors. What needs to be addressed: This needs new information, more images, possibly video walkthroughs etc..

Dam It
Tagline	"Buried by the Flood"
Creator	Turtle Rock Studios
Chapters	Orchard Campground Dam

Dam It is an unfinished campaign for Left 4 Dead that was made by the original creators of Left 4 Dead, Turtle Rock Studios.

Although it is largely uncompleted, the campaign can be played through in all modes. It consists of only three levels and was intended to bridge the gap between the campaign "Dead Air" and "Blood Harvest".

The campaign would have been released alongside two standalone Survival maps, "Coal Freighter" and "Highrise".

The campaign tells the fate of the survivors as they navigate the aftermath of the plane from Dead Air that crashed. Stranded in the remote countryside, they must once again fight their way through hordes of infected, searching for any sign of safety. Their journey leads them to a burnt forest, where abandoned buildings are still smoldering from the ground up.

As they carefully move through the dangerous terrain, the survivors realize they need to act quickly to escape the spreading fire. Eventually they come across a pile of logs obstructing their route. To continue, they must use a generator to move the logs, all while remaining alert to the ever present threat of the infected with the generator running and the log slowly shifting. Continuing their journey, the survivors finally reach a massive dam. The path forward is blocked by a series of gates that must be opened to allow safe passage. One by one they managed to open the gates, clearing the way to the other side of the dam, but this time there's no rescue vehicle waiting for them, only the long uncertain road ahead. The survivors leave the dam behind and step into the unknown as they enter what seems to be a forest. This marks the start of the Blood Harvest campaign.

Official Description

"Dam It" stitches "Dead Air" and "Blood Harvest" together. Its gray box, and some code features are missing but it's playable from beginning to end. It also includes two standalone survival maps that never shipped.

Behind the Scenes

Turtle Rock began work on Left 4 Dead in mid-2005. During the game's development Turtle Rock was acquired by the Valve Corporation, the game brought in-house and the Turtle Rock studio closed down. In 2010, Turtle Rock Studios was reestablished as an independent business.

It is unknown how or why Valve Corporation does not possess legal title to the "Dam It" prototype material and its associated intellectual properties.

For reasons as yet unknown, work on this campaign ceased during its development. Although highly detailed in some parts, many textures are missing or filled with temporary placeholders and the edge of the playable area is often visible. The released version of "Dam It" contains no campaign-specific lines of character dialog. Code changes were not included in the version released to the public. The ending credits differ visually and player scores are not recorded.

Bird's Eye View of the "Dam It" campaign

Campaign poster

An example of missing textures in the campaign

Placeholder "wall" textures

The hydro-electric dam

Notes

• The campaign poster shows four Survivors who appear very different from the current Left 4 Dead Survivors. Zoey, Louis, Bill and Francis is featured as sketched storyboard artwork on the campaign's loading screen (refer illustration above).
• While not mentioned, based on the bird's eye view map, the map is set in the Kinzua Dam, a large dam which is located on Allegheny National Park, which served as a flood control on the Allegheny River.
• Players still have complete control over their characters as the (incomplete) ending credits roll.
• There is an unusually high spawn rate of Tanks, probably due to the map size. All three campaign levels will often feature at least two Tanks.
• Originally, the plane from "Dead Air" was not destroyed, as opposed to what Francis said in The Sacrifice comic. It would have crash-landed near the starting point of this campaign.
• Tier two weapons can be found all across the maps, including within a few feet of the first starting point. They are often spawned as lone weapons, such as a single Assault Rifle.
• This is the only campaign in which the finale does not feature a vehicle or any means of transportation. The finale requires the Survivors to open a series of gates that block their path so that they can make their way to safety to the other side of the dam. Once there, the campaign ends.
  • This is also the only campaign that encourages the Survivors to split up into two groups. During an endless Crescendo Event at a logging facility, the Survivors have to power-up a generator at the top of a hill overlooked by a guard/control tower. The layout permits two players to run to the generator and start it whilst protected by covering fire from the tower. With the generator fired up, pressing a control button in the tower operates a sling-hoist which lifts and removes a barricade of logs. Hunting Rifles and a chain-gun are provided in the tower.
• The two unique Survival maps that come with the campaign cannot be found within the campaign itself.
• The campaign features numerous examples of environmental objects and artwork found nowhere else in the game. These include light airplane models, a rusting 1950's car, apple trees, mist effects and motor homes.
  • However, the campaign lacks any specific graffiti on the map, which usually serves as a story-telling mechanic. This is likely due to the unfinished nature of the campaign, or missing wall textures.
• As compared to other campaigns, character vocalizations are sparse being confined to generic tactical and situational vocalizations. There are no campaign-specific lines of dialog, since it's unfinished.
• Due to the unfinished nature of the campaign, there are a wide variety of reported glitches, as well as missing and implemented features:
  • Fire, smoke and explosions do not trigger panic events in the airplane hangars.
  • Not all zombies attack on sight in the apple orchard.
  • The farm house horde does not spawn in the far side of the woods.
  • The covered bridge does not collapse with explosions.
  • The burning forest area is missing wandering fires.
  • The burning forest section has a burn trigger that stays on too long. Entering the area too quickly inflicts burn damage on players.
  • The dam spawn room is missing health kits and weapons.
  • The elevator models have an offset origin in the dam. Players can still get on and use them, but they are invisible and wall collision is missing. Bots often fail to follow the human player into the elevators and must be "melee bumped" to enter.
  • Bots often fail to follow human players in a sprint to the far end of the flood control chamber. If this happens they are trapped and killed when the doors close, leaving human players to face the finale unassisted.
• Fan-made, mod versions of "Dam It" for Left 4 Dead 2 exists, which has most of problems of the original version (listed above) fixed.

References

This article is a stub You can help Left 4 Dead Wiki by expanding it.