Download: Trial By Fear (DARK)

Absolute glory, or eternal regret. How did you get here? Dragged to the edge of a cliff, armed with only a pistol, and surrounded by certain soft-death on three sides. Six minuets from now you will either return to your family as a champion, or remain in this place for forever, driven by your eternal spite to cut down all who pass.

This is a linear infection map. My goal was to make the journey as long and arduous as possible, while also maintaining a constant, and steady level of fear. I wanted the scenario to be ever changing. What seems like a strong new defensive holdout one moment, will turn into an absolute death trap the next.

It became evident early on in development that the best way to accomplish my goal was to concentrate on the zombie transportation system. It needed to be central, elevated, inaccessible to humans, and set on an inside track. (Think that terrible Matt Damon movie, or the Kansas City airport.) I also wanted to find the very best section of Forge World geographically. It had to both save me resources by creating a natural path, while also providing stimulating aesthetic variation.

The result is what you see here. Even though every single Zombie re-spawn point is located on just one platform, a zombie can reach any accessible point on the map within 8 seconds of re-spawning. Meanwhile, the fastest possible travel time across the map for his Human counterpart is just under 4 minuets. The Zombies altered movement settings are only 120% speed, 125% jump, and the Evade ability. The system is surprisingly intuitive for the zombies, especially considering how complex this description is going to be for me to write...

TBF has exactly the atmosphere I was looking for. There can be a real false sense of security. No matter how remote, tucked away, or wide open and clear your position may seem; The Zombies can always see you, they can always find you, and there is always a good chance that they are right behind you.

I couldn't decide on which effect I liked better for this map; Next Gen (apocalyptic dusk), or Purple (night), so I am going to upload both a regular (NexGen), and "Dark" (Purple) version. Obviously I suggest you try them both. Each will give you a slightly different game experience.

Anyways, this is how it works...

This is an overview of the map progression. (yes I know zone 3's GRID isn't beautiful, and that the bunkers are pre-set buildings, but just trust me. They make the map better, and as you will see, they are very, very worth having!)

This is the Zombie re-spawn platform.

On the left side there is a Ramp that drops the zombies down onto the ramparts above Zone 1. There is also a man cannon that will shoot the zombie back atop the Ominous Crescent.

On the right side of the platform is a ramp that will drop the Zombies down into Zone 2. (The humans will not have access to Zone 2 for the first 75 seconds of the round, but it is very easy for the zombie to run back through the cave into Zone 1.) There is also a teleporter. This teleporter will not activate until 180 seconds into each round. When it does, it will connect the Zombies to the second Zombie platform.

I will now get us caught up to 180 seconds from the Human perspective.

The Humans start here along the edge of this cliff.

The Zombie will start on either end of the ominous crescent overhead.

The Humans must climb down the cliff face into Zone 1 of the gauntlet.

Now the Humans have moved to a slightly safer position on the ground in Zone 1.

The Humans must hold up in Zone 1 until at least 75 seconds into the round. Zone 1 has no good stronghold locations. It is very cluttered, and the zombies are always coming down from above. Either down from the cliff face, or off of the ramparts. The man cannon on the ramparts will shoot zombies up to the original cliff-top starting position of the humans. After the 75 second waiting period, the gates to the first cave tunnel will blow, and the humans are able to move on into Zone 2.

Once the humans enter zone 2 they will be presented with a very serviceable base/holdout, armed with a lot more weapons.

This base will remain a decent stronghold until the 180 second mark is reached. At 180 seconds the gate to the 2nd cave will blow to allow the humans to move into Zone 3.The humans might think that they want to stay on the base, but the teleporter between zombie platforms one and two also activates at 180 seconds, and that will effectively mean the end of the zone 2 base...

Back to the Zombie progression now...

The teleporter to Zombie platform 2 has now been activated.

On the left side of Zombie platform 2 you will find the 2-way teleporter back to zombie platform 1, and you will also find the ramp down into the human's zone 2 base. On the right side you will find a long ramp down to the 2nd cave's exit/the narrow end of zone 3. Also on the right side, you will find what is my personal favorite part of the map.

It is a visually intuitive, 1/5 scale teleporter system. When standing on the platform above, and looking out over zone 3 through the grid, the tele sender-nodes will line up perfectly with their receiver nodes on top of each bunker. Due to the height of the grid, and the perspective of the zombie, the nodes have only about 1/5 the distance between them as compared to the bunkers.

This allows the zombie to see exactly where everyone is, and what is going on, before jumping straight into the action from the position of his choosing.

And finally, back to the Humans...

The humans must now move through the 2nd cave and into zone 3.

Once in zone 3 the remaining humans should have two goals in mind; reaching the far ridge, and then having one of them activate the custom power-up. There is a warthog, and a mongoose parked in front of the first bunker on the left. There are also weapons inside each of the bunkers.

The custom 90 second power-up will give that human 200% speed, 150% jump, and he can now survive one hit from a zombie when his shields are charged.

In order to keep out zombies, the power up holding chamber requires a gun to open without killing yourself. Once open, it must be picked up within 10 seconds before a land mine re-apears below it.

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