Dam It

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

"Make your way across the dam and escape to safety."

Dam It is an unfinished campaign for Left 4 Dead that was made by the original creators of Left 4 Dead, Turtle Rock Studios. It was later released on the website, augerresources.com, on November 7th, 2016 and is available for free exclusively on the PC version of Left 4 Dead.

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 was released alongside two standalone Survival maps, Coal Freighter and Highrise.

Official Description

Dam It stitches Dead Air and Blood Harvest together. It’s 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 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. Ending credits differ visually, fail to record player-scores and feature a backing track of combat sounds.

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 feature as sketched storyboard artwork on the campaign's loading screen. .
• As the credits are rolling, players still have complete control over their characters.
• There is an unusually high spawn rate of Tanks. All three campaign levels will often have at least two Tanks.
• 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 flood 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 chain-gun are provided in the tower.
• The two unique Survival maps that come with the campaign cannot be found within the campaign itself.
• Due to the unfinished nature of the campaign, there are a wide variety of reported glitches:
  • 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 the human players to face the finale unassisted.

References

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