This section is wrote by Weissberv. I take no credit for writing this excellent piece.

 

Part 1: The "Dead Air" campaign starts off in a greenhouse swarmed with zombies. There is four of both Molotov’s and pipe bombs on the table with the basic weapons. People tend to throw all or some of the pipe bombs at the start as there are usually a lot of zombies in the area just after spawn. To pass this first stage you have to go through several apartments and roofs of lots of apartment blocks. Smokers tend to be homey on higher ledges, trying to pull you off the edges. Hunters prefer to wait on lower roofs and wait until you show yourself on the higher ledge so they can quickly pounce you; nothing to look out for that’s much different from the Hunters behaviour. Boomers hide around the other side of doors and come out when you're in range of being puked on, watch out for these as you've got to shoot fast. A Tank can't spawn on the first level, so no worries about those! As the players come to the end of the first level, they manage to reach the ground by jumping onto a lorry and then onto cars. At this point there is an alarm car (the red one) near the entrance to the safe house so watch out for that!

 

Part 2: The second map out of five starts off at the bottom of a lot of surrounding appartment blocks and a fence blocking access over to the other side where you need to go, fortunatly there's a car that you can jump on to get over the fence. Before you do that, you'll need to clear the area of zombies, as there will be a lot of them in this area, around the same as the start of the first level. The players get in one of the apartment blocks again by the help of a ladder, I've noticed when you come out of this corridor, back outside there is sometimes a Tank, I'd say its a "most-likely" spot as I like to call it. This is kind of an annoying spot for a Tank as the apartment corridors and room are annoying to move around in and cannot dodge the tank and his rocks well. At this point there's a crane with a lever you have to press in it to lower the dumpster, which also creates noise for zombie hordes to come. Once pressed, the players go over the dumpster, they have to travel across more rooftops

 

Part 3: The third level starts off in a back alley next to some garages. Literally a minute after the players come out the safe room from here there is a construction site, but just before you poke your face round the first corner, stop and listen for a Tank, if you're playing with random players, this placement for a Tank is not a very healthy one specially as you're right next to the previous safe room (the Tank can smash through previous safe rooms so don't try to pull a ninja trick on him!). If there is a Tank, try circle him around the garages either shooting him at the same time or if you've got a molotov, set him on fire and try keep out of his site but at the same time running around the garages (this may seem impossible if not playing with friends). Anyway, back on track; clear the area of zombies in sight and get ready for zombie hordes as you have to burn down the barricade which for some reason attracts all the zombies. A lot of people tend to stand on top of the wooden construction as its higher and it gives time to shoot the climbing zombies, the bad thing is that it's VERY easy for a smoker to pull someone off the side, this often results in death of that person, or quite possibly every player if they all decide to fall down aswell to try and save the person. After the horde has been defeated, proceed in the alley way to meet a power station which won't actually kill you if you touch or go near it as it would in real life. If you head in the entrance of the power station and turn right, there should be an opening to a storage room, this usually has some molotovs and pipe bombs. Carrying on, you will eventually reach the car park for the airport. This is swarming with zombies and to top it off, theres an alarm car... Right in the middle of the path, which is really dangerous especially on higher difficulties as you are all in the open and can be attacked from any angle so its best to stay away from the car at any time possible. Enter the parking building and before you go up the ramp, turn right and there's sometimes a health kit, pills or molotovs / pipe bombs close around the corner. Once you've checked there, proceed up the ramp and carry on towards the lighted room across the other side of the building and if you're playing with friends, tell them to follow you at this point, there's *ALLWAYS* 3 molotovs and 3 pipe bombs down in the dark corner if you turn right before the area you're meant to go and hug the left wall; it isn't far. The reason why I don't recommend this if you're playing with random people on the net is because they'll be all hyped up from the zombies that they probably won't listen / hear you explain about the molotovs and pipe bombs. Once everyone is set, carry on back to the room you detoured from and you'll reach the safe room, hopefully with no problems. There isn't anything that surprising in this area except maybe a smoker trying to drag you away from going in the safe room.

 

Part 4: At the start of level four, you'll start off in the airport. You need to go through some corrdiors, search some side rooms if you want, some of these contain pills or pipe bombs / molotovs. Once you get down the end of the corridor, you'll find some esculators which are offlien so they're basically just stairs. Turn on the Van and it'll smash the fence blocking your way but also attracts the zombie horde so be prepared for that too! Once the zombies are near enough all dead, carry on through the broken fence and enter the "baggage room". There's nothing that special to mention on this part except a "most likely" spot for a Tank which is on the other end of the baggage room and can be a pain if you stay in the current area to fight it as space is tight. You should encounter some more esculators soon enough, walk up them and just down the path from here is the safe room, be aware though, even though its the last run of the level, it doesn't mean it's going to be easy; there is lots of zombies in the little rooms on your left and they'll run up behind you and hit you if you try and skip them... If one hits you, it'll slow you down and the rest will hit you too. The regular zombies aren't the only problem. Hunters can be annoying at this area too if your team splits up by a decent amount and is hidden behind a pile of luggage, the Hunter can do a fair bit of damage before you can save your teammate. Stick close.

 

Part 5: This Finale is possibly the most easiest out of all the finales in my personal opinion as you can circle the Tank around the plane if your in a team of friends. The obsticles in this map are quite annoying, though. There is a lot of corners and areas where one of your teammates could be dragged by a smoker to and possibbly do some damage before you can save him/her; this isn't the only problem with the smokers on this finale though, if someone gets pulled too far from the area you're staying at to face off the hordes, they'll most likely die, not from the smoker but from being dragged into the crowd of zombies which results in a fast death especially if a hunter decides to join in. This finale is easy to get split up from the rest of your team so try and stick close to them and don't forget to melee them if they're started to get dragged by a smoker.

 

Conclusion: Overall Dead Air has a lot of close quarter combat areas such as apartment blocks and small rooms inside random buildings but even in outside areas, its just as easy to get a distance away from your team as there is a lot of props / obsticles that will block your path from saving / shooting things.