The crescendo section of the first chapter is particularly fun. The "switch" is a howitzer, which must be fired to clear rubble away from the entrance to a bridge. The cannon is behind an open bed truck, with an attached machine gun. We set up propane tanks and fuel cans around each side of the truck, and fired the howitzer. A satisfying boom, followed by the chilling scream of the incoming zombies, filled the air. I lined up my shot and fired at a gas can as a dozen or so zombies ran over it. Miss, miss, miss... yup, I'm rusty. Finally, it went off, but not after a few zombies got into the truck with me. I meleed them away, trying to keep my son clear as he (or rather, Zoey) mowed down what he could. All of a sudden, we hear the dreaded screech, and the following message comes across the screen... "Djinniboy has startled the witch"!
She couldn't have come at a worse time. By the time I finally killed her, Bill and Louis were, sadly, departed. We ran into another witch later on. I'm not sure if it was a bug, or Crash Course allows for more than one witch per chapter. We didn't last too much longer without a full group, but the second time around, it all went much more smoothly. One particularly cool moment was launching a molotov into an open box car that served as a choke point. The whole interior burst into flames, and the zombies died easily at our feet.
The real treat of the night, however, was the finale. These adrenaline fueled experiences are the most memorable parts of Left 4 Dead, and Crash Course is no exception. I hesitate to even talk about it; so great was the thrill I hate to spoil it for anyone. But there were so many awesome moments that I'm going to go ahead and discuss it. The finale involves starting a generator to lower a vehicle down from a lift. The generator is quite a ways from a building with a good spot to hole up in. Ammo is right outside the structure, which has two entrances, though one is fenced in. A convenient stack of boxes (more jumping!) lets you perch on top of what must be a small office of sorts in the building. We found no less than four propane tanks, plus a handful of pipe bombs scattered about. We collected them all on our hiding spot, where they'd be handy for us to use.
Once we had everything arranged to our satisfaction, I ran out to start up the generator. Immediately, the lights came on, and the zombie horde came a runnin'. Everything went quite smoothly for a bit, as the lights made it quite easy to see everything clearly. We coordinated our ammo runs, and everything went well. That's when the zombies climbed over the back wall to get to us. Totally surprised, I fired frantically. Remember those propane tanks I mentioned earlier? Well, they made a nice chain reaction, which did kill a lot of undead, but also gravely injured us as well. We fought them off, quickly healed up, and had just gotten back on our feet when the Tank music began to play. We groaned, and then, the unthinkable happened.