SubJeff on 18/11/2008 at 07:44
It's great fun the way it is. On Expert it is a gas. Being the last man standing and helping revive someone whilst you know that a Smoker or Hunter will likely be the end of you is tense.
I was being revived (3 of us down) and a Hunter got my bud. I took it out with double pistols but he was down and the horde was coming...
Wonderful.
doctorfrog on 18/11/2008 at 10:55
re: ^^^^
Now, see, this is the experience I was looking for with this demo, and I didn't get it. Instead, I got nearly godlike levels of ammo, levels so small that within a few plays, nothing was a surprise any longer, and zombies the color of newspaper, when I had a moment to look at them. Ratchet up the difficulty to expert, it's not scarier, it's just kind of harder. Not much of a creeping horror, but not a bad action game. Not worth $50, though, I'm not a console gamer.
Getting assailed by a spawnswarm of zombies caused a little teeth-clenching, but wasn't as all out desperate as I was hoping for. I think that also, I just don't have a lot of friends online to play with, so I was stuck with pubbies. My playstyle is cautious and defensive, and I like to communicate a lot, so of course I was nearly always paired with either a chatty know-it-all who felt the need to order the group around, or a team that split up into pairs, one of which was always dashing ahead into the swarm without a word. Those poor guys, of course, ended up with me, who always seemed to be plodding behind and didn't get as many headshots as everyone else.
In the demo at least, you so quickly mapped out the linear levels that any suspense was gone. Hell, I shot that damned Buick to set the alarm off just to get a little rush. I hope for those who end up buying (which may actually be me, depending), there are more open-ended maps with scattered resources, 'monster party' rooms, random dead ends and the need to blaze your own path from point A to B.
Left4Dead actually does have a very good self-enforcing teamwork gameplay, so I hope the level designs merge with this to provide a sense of desperation and isolation, and really make that teamwork worth something.
SubJeff on 18/11/2008 at 13:24
The linear levels are a shame, but with the level editor this will change so no need to worry.
There is a good amount of Director led variety. Sometimes there will be nothing for ages and then a massive rush.
And playing on less than Expert and finding it too easy is your own fault.
mothra on 18/11/2008 at 15:59
i can't see anything wrong with linear levels. the whole game is based on familarity and linearity concerning levels, guns, locations. the only thing "random" is the director and I think that's sufficient.
But of course I hope for some more multi-way maps so it can happen that (by chance) you take the one road littered with super-zombies instead of easy-breezy street.
I don't know what ppl expected ?
I mean, it's VALVE (the play-it-safe VALVE).
at least they found a game/concept where all of their design choices actually
are the best ones you can have. it all asks for Valve's unimaginative, aka tried&tested approach to things.
not able to create truly openended maps and good challenge and variety ?
poor enemy AI ?
make them ZOMBIES and it's the best AI ever.
make maps in desolated parts connected by safe-rooms and you have the illusion of a city.
this game is made of win. the simpler the better. I wanna have blood in my face and chunks of flesh hanging from my gun. i don't care about suspense, dread or horror. that's for single player games. nobody can pull that off in multiplayer yet.
SubJeff on 18/11/2008 at 16:01
you are a twit
Gaph on 18/11/2008 at 16:24
I do think Valve's approach is sort of lame for singleplayer games. They're built around that first experience where you don't know what's going to happen. But after it's over you can't ever really be surprised by it again. They usually skirt this problem by releasing a singleplayer game alongside a multiplayer game.
However their approach works amazingly well with those mulitplayer games. TF2 was incredible but we've seen the gameplay before. But you've never seen a game embrace co-op as much as Left 4 Dead. It's like this untapped genre that everyone's been begging for has finally arrived. I think it's going to spawn a lot of developer interest in co-op gameplay.
Koki on 18/11/2008 at 19:15
I guess I should point out that L4D is not being made by Valve.
I still think it's a wasted idea though, especially the levels. It would be much cooler to have entire city(or part of a city), GTA-style, and random spawn point for the human team and weapons. This would create infinite replayability with essentially just one level, and much better atmosphere of being lost since you don't know where the guns/ammo are.
and no stupid running jumping zombies dammit
Angel Dust on 18/11/2008 at 23:33
Meh, it's not supposed to be a zombie-apocalypse simulator, which would be cool too, it's supposed to be a zombie-apocalypse film simulator.
And, by God, it achieved that goal. I played though my first campaign last night and I can't believe how well it comes together. Our team started off as strangers with minimal communication and coordination but by the end we were a tight knit bunch who had been to hell and back. A sampling of some of the great moments:
* Getting ambushed by a tank in tight confines and the team deciding to run back to the safe point to attack it from/get ammo. I was lagging behind slightly and ended up getting the safe door slammed in my face. My team mates couldn't open the door since the tank was on me right away. So I'm on the ground unloading my double pistols in the tanks face while my team is frantically shooting at the tank through the doors window. I just managed to survive and was greeted with apologies/laughter/pats on the back from my team.
* We were pinned down on a roof when I noticed some molotovs on an adjoining, via some ventilation pipes, roof. The majority of the zombie mass was focused on my team mates so I legged it over the pipes and grabbed and threw some of them into the fray, whacking + shooting for my life as I went. I felt like a real action hero and was making my way back to the group with the last molotov when a Hunter jumped into my path. For a second I was thinking "Shit! I could be dead!" When "BLAM!" he drop dead. My teammate on the other roof had, armed with the sniper rifle, taken him out with one shot.
* We were on top of the hospital frantically trying to hold off the final onslaught before the chopper arrives. Two members perished taking down the last tank and the chopper was starting to land. Suddenly a smoker appeared and ensnared me and my remaining teammate, who was quite far from me due to the previous tank battle, hesitated for a bit before just saying "Sorry man" and getting on the chopper just as a zombie horde descended upon me. Losing has never been so much fun or dramatic! Incidentally the lone survivor was the black guy!
Note: If you thought the demo was easy, the full game is much harder. Expert was a cakewalk in the demo but nigh on impossible for me in the full game.
Malf on 18/11/2008 at 23:56
Yup, the full version Expert mode is positively BRUTAL.
But having just spent the last 2-3 hours playing Versus, I don't think I'll be touching normal mode much; Versus is the real deal :D
