[Multiplatform] Left 4 STOP THROWING PIPE BOMBS AT THE TANKS

I couldn't find a thread on this game so I made one. The demo came out (yesterday) and the full game comes out next week.

Wikipedia page
Official site

There's you and 3 other people in a city where humanity has taken a turn for the zombie. Your mission is to make it from your apartment building to a helipad where you expected to be rescued from certain death, which may or may not include being barfed on. Right now the demo only allows you to play the first 2 stages of the game, but you pretty much get the jist of the game within a couple of minutes. Notably:

• You should probably try to stick with your teammates. The game sometimes encourages you to do this by ruining your shit with a Horde (a large group of zombies coming for your ass), a Smoker (who grabs you with his super-long tongue until someone shoots him), or a Boomer (whose barf tags you to the Infected).
• Ammo isn't a big deal, but pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails are.
• Keeping an eye on your teammates' health is worth it.
• Bugging the witch is not.

From playing for an hour or two, I've determined that (at least in PUGs, maybe) without patience and awareness of your teammates in closed-quarters combat, you'll end up wiping in Advanced and Expert difficulties as you'll end up shooting them (and with a shotgun, that usually knocks them down). Easy and Normal are only worth it for pistols-only fights. The shotgun is nice if you like blowing heads off, but the submachine gun is better for crowd control. There are some second tier weapons too (such as an auto-shotgun, an M16 and a sniper rifle) that you only get to play with in the second level.

It's definitely worth the time to try the demo, at least. The amount of replay value is my biggest concern with this game; despite the AI being top-notch, how many times can you run through the same 6 levels, no matter how random the experience?

Where the real fun may come from is the Versus mode, where you can actually play against a group of Survivors as Infected, including all but one of the Infected classes (the Witch). I wish they had that in the demo, but it seems like that's all that's left to hide from us for now.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Grail

While I don't share the same feelings of repetitiveness as Dope described above, this game is all about getting 3 or more of your zombie loving buddies and just having a good time.

Another thing I have noticed is that no matter how many games you play, at least ONE person will always want to fuck with the witch...Always. It's going to become the new Murphy's Law in some way.

Oh I definitely agree that this is a play-with-your-friends-for-hours-and-never-get-bored kind of game. When I was talking about repetition and the potential for the gameplay to become stale, this was after I finished a two-hour marathon, including a situation similar to Skexis' where we just kept playing the Subway run on Expert over and over. (That run was doomed when we could barely get off the roof.) I'm sure my opinion will change after doing it again tonight.

Thankfully I haven't ventured into a scenario where the Witch wiped us all. Not looking forward to it either.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

What, no M16? Isn't this Counter-Strike? Obviously, well lit maps are stupid for this. Now, doing that with Ravenholm would definitely be more entertaining.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The AI makes good use of it, so shouldn't we?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

So this was funny: last night in an Advanced PUG we were in the subway where the rails split off (just after the ammo table) and we noticed a Witch just inside the end of the car you have to go through. A couple seconds later, a Boomer and a Smoker appear on the top of the car and we dispatch them without annoying the Witch, then a Hunter shows up behind the Witch and starts attacking her. Flabbergasted, we sit around waiting to see if the Hunter will kill her for us. Just as we're figuring out we should attack her (this took a minute or two), a Horde comes from behind us, I fire on them, the others fire on the Witch thinking I'm shooting at her, fan gets introduced to shit.

Thankfully, we didn't wipe. All four of us had ASSualtKICKER Rifles and though I died and someone else fell down, I was rescued in the next area down, just in time to fight the tank in the upstairs area.

So, lesson learned: don't sit around deciding what to do, because the game may end up making the decision for you.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

I have no idea how you motherfuckers survive Expert. Dope was basically babysitting Sass & I through the demo tonight and we swept through Easy and Normal on the first tries.

We push it up another notch to Advanced and we get TPKed four times before we finally made it out (and it's amazing we survived the last run given the fetish these two have for witch-poking and alarm-tripping).

Expert? We'd probably die on the fucking roof.

Sadly, it's probably possible to die on the roof. I'm waiting for it to happen. You watch. A Boomer is gonna come from the stairs, with a Hunter from another building and a Horde comes just after the Boomer barfs on everyone.

You watch.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah I figured that trick out too.

FELIPE NO

I played a little bit just now. Already unlocked 5 Achievements, but they were among the easiest (torch a witch, get 100 headshots, shove someone from behind).

I've concluded that playing offline is a waste of time. Sure it counts towards Achievements, but if you die your game starts over. I guess they assume a bunch of bots will see their fallen comrade and shoot themselves out of despair instead of trying to make it as far as possible.

Most amazing jew boots

Quote of the day: "PROPANE~" -Pang

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Skexis

This did not make up for the fact that the game threw a total of three tanks at us in the Death Toll finale. I got stomped on my way to the boat, and it made me sad.

Now, is this three tanks at a time? Or over the course of the final siege? Because that seems like the standard; you're going to get around five Hunters, Smokers and Boomers and two Tanks before your salvation arrives, then generally another Tank (but sometimes a Boomer, as Pang, Sass and I found out a couple of nights ago) during a Horde as your help shows up.

Why they don't just pop a Witch in there is beyond me.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Pang became the first human after the Zombie Apocalypse to attempt to fly, with the help of a Tank.

His courageous efforts will not be forgotten.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Well he's black so he kinda stands out in a world full of white people.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

RED TIE, HELLO

I was speaking idiomatically.

Here's an early beta video of what's expected to be the first major custom map for Left 4 Dead, the mall from Dawn of the Dead.

YouTube Video

I regret that I've never seen DotD but this map (in an early version) looks pretty promising.

It's still pretty early since the release of L4D, but there is a site up concerning mods for L4D. Based on the relatively small amount of content in L4D I'm excited to see what will be made for it, but also concerned that nothing breaks the balanced, err, slightly uneven, gameplay. Any new boss or mini-boss zombies should definitely not throw that balance any further towards the zombies.

As far as maps or campaigns go, not being a zombie-movie aficionado makes it hard for me to come up with any suggestions or ideas, outside of Shawn of the Dead. That would probably require a mod to inject a lot more funny into the game.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

This is just wrong and bad.

YouTube Video

FELIPE NO

As hard as the Dead Stop achievement sounds, all I had to do to get it was punch the Hunter a bunch of times. wtf

Most amazing jew boots

Has anyone noticed any good mods coming out yet?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

YouTube Video

That is ruthless timing for the smoker, holy shit.

How ya doing, buddy?

At least we got through the subway on Expert!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

Last night, Pang went right back to the safe room and hid in a bathroom within. The tank never came to get him out. I don't recall if he was on fire before Pang went into the safe room, though.

That was on No Mercy, but I really have no idea how he jumped down, then got back up.

I'm a little stunned that running through the subway in No Mercy on Expert full sprint actually works as well as it does. Most times we can get to the generator room, and if you haven't come across a Tank by then but your buddies are dead, you have plenty of time to sit around and wait for them to respawn. Sure they end up at 50 health (which is not a lot on Expert) but the other tactic is sit by the gate and crawl under as soon as you can. A couple times we had one person (oddly, each time it was Dark Nation) get through, and then you can wait again for the respawn.

That's how we ended up getting two people out on...what was it, our tenth try? Eleventh? We gave up at the sewer.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Garr

You think that's bad? Try getting shot and incapacitated by the person you're trying to revive and you're the only one still standing.

You think that's bad? Remember the time I was given a salmon-helmet by the prophet Mohammed?

</southpark>

Anyway, the increasingly-popular "Run-Through-The-Subway-As-Fast-As-You-Can-On-Expert" strategy, my mates all being incapacitate, and me shoving a Molotov in a Tank's face got me the Man Vs. Tank achievement. I realize that's not exciting to most people, but when it takes three hours to fail something, you have to see the silver lining somehwere.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I was pretty happy when I discovered that you could hide on top of the boilers, but, yeah, those brick walls must actually be made out of styrofoam.

I'm curious to know if people have tried the base floor of the lighthouse itself at all.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I had a blast last night. Apparently someone here doesn't like my impersonation of you. No sense of humor.

Trying to find the most bizarre places to hide has trumped actually surviving for me.

FELIPE NO

I was also made aware of a more elaborate stats page, mine can be seen here. 100% accuracy with the assault rifle surprises me.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I know there's a lot of cool mods/campaigns coming out in the future, but this has to be one of the more lulziest:

YouTube Video

(Watch to the end for some laughs.)

How ya doing, buddy?