I bet that if you showed this article to someone in the past (circa 1998), they’d probably see it as either sacrilege or literally the coolest thing ever created. However, I don’t take stock in the activities of both past-people and errant time travelers, I only care about this custom campaign for Left 4 Dead 2: Kokiri Forest.
To a select few (the several billion people who have played Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, crossed with the significantly less who’ve played Left 4 Dead), this probably seems about as amazing as Ocarina of Time getting a legitimate re-release on something that isn’t a $250 portable. To the rest, this will probably seem unnecessarily obtuse, broken and un-fun excuse for a custom campaign. Does that seem unnecessarily harsh? Probably, but in this case, it’s entirely justified. Away!
At its heart, Kokiri Forest is a rather faithful recreation of the Forest Temple segment from Ocarina of Time. The fact that one of my group told everyone to hold on so he can bust out the Ocarina of Time walkthrough is a testament to the campaign’s homage. The first level starts with the players starting off in Link’s House, then progressing through the village to the entrance to the Forest Temple. The second map is where the campaign really hits its stride. In this level, the Forest Temple is represented in all of its key-collecting, Poe-capturing glory. Endless hours of fun await as players progress through a section, realise that they don’t actually have enough keys to keep going, back-track to the beginning, etcetera. The backdrop of a Left 4 Dead campaign really adds a sense of urgency because of the always-present Director tossing hordes at you whenever you find a locked door, or a sliding block puzzle, or when it’s bored.
In fact, the Forest Temple is so faithfully recreated, down to that damn music, that I caught myself idly wishing out loud for the creation of a Water Temple recreation. Blast you, NickNak, for wishing such suffering on myself. On the other hand, that would be hilarious with a group of Zelda-savvy people wandering about the Water Temple, raising and lowering water willy-nilly to figure out just how the hell you worked it out thirteen years ago.
However, despite the map’s quality showing through, there are a handful of issues that drag the campaign down from what it could be. My main complaint is the rather gratuitous use of color-correction. Once inside the Forest Temple, everything takes out a sort of washed-out, grey tone that really doesn’t fit the vibrant (or overly-green) feel of the first level. Second issue: the blockiness of everything. I know Ocarina of Time came out 13 years ago, but this is 2011. It doesn’t have to be blocky merely because the original was blocky. It would be loads better if there was less sharp corners on everything.
These two, coupled with various other niggling little issues like the lack of defibrillators and health packs, the overall darkness of everything and some rather bizarre artifacting (my temps were below 50C) I experienced in the third level, really bring down the overal quality of the map.
Despite these other issues, the main issue with this map could very well be the person playing it. If you’ve never played Ocarina of Time, or if you played and hated it, this very well could be an extremely frustrating experience. My advice is play the original game first, then try this. Once you know how most of the puzzles work and how the level is laid out, it becomes a significantly more enjoyable time, especially if you can snag two or three other friends to group with. If you do find other people equally as nerdy as you, Kokiri Forest is a flawed, wonderful, mysterious and maddening masterpiece of a homage to the original Ocarina of Time. If not, it falls way short of what the average gamer would consider a fun Left 4 Dead campaign.
Kokiri Forest can be downloaded off Left 4 Dead Maps, which I’ve handily linked to.
What is this I don’t even.