Comments on: Left4Dead: Shakeycam Bonanza

By: np

np — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:53:54 +0000

I literally will be playing the fuck out of this game, no doubt.

By: Malagate

Malagate — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:50:26 +0000

Tak…”Day of the Dead”? I preferred the original Dawn of the Dead, that poor guy…

@Chaz, I wouldn’t necessarily consider that this game would get stale so quickly, especially if the scenarios are different enough from each other to have a significantly different experience and that apparantly no two play throughs would be the same thanks to the “Director” A.I.

Zombies rushing at you may not be so interesting after a while, but the interest comes from where and how those zombies are rushing at you, in the same way that CS is engaging not because someone is trying to shoot you in the head but that they did something unexpected to better shoot you in the head. If Left 4 Dead can keep on giving out surprises each play through then I think it can remain engaging for more than a couple of weeks, especially if Valve keep on supporting it like they’ve done with TF2. Imagine future updates with different maps, survivors, weapons, bosses…well, let’s not get too optimistic, I accept that you could be right, also I’d look forward to some sweet mods regardless.

By: MeestaNob!

MeestaNob! — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:22:01 +0000

This looks FUCKING ACE.

By: Chaz

Chaz — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:16:05 +0000

@Don

Yes, CS is just 2 teams with similar sets of weapons trying to headshot each other. But it’s two teams of human opponents. Unlike L4D which is humans vs. an AI who’s only tactic seems to be limited to just charging suicidal headlong at the players to beat the crap out of them.

Yes you can play as the infected but from what I’ve read, it’s just one or two players controlling some boss type characters and only at certain parts in the levels. I’ve yet to see any gameplay footage of some one playing from the infected point of view, and thus far that part of the game strikes me as being more of a bonus feature, rather than something that’s integral to the game.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to playing L4D, but I’ve yet to see any evidence that it will still be keeping people entertained after its initial few weeks of release. One for the modders to work on me thinks.

By: Tak

Tak — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:15:54 +0000

Slow Zombies = target practice….

until you realize there are more of them than bullets.

“You don’t have enough ammunition for that, Captain. To ‘blow the piss out of them’…” (best zombie movie evar, internet cool-points for IDing the quote)

By: Malagate

Malagate — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:05:23 +0000

@Don:
Yes I also thought that was the Witch in the 2nd video, one of the more enigmatic and apparently unplayable boss zombies. I remember reading about her before, that you weren’t supposed to fight her but to turn off your lights and sneak past or get wrecked. Seems that she can at least wreck one person, but judging by how quickly they took her down she doesn’t seem so tough as I imagined.

Looking good though, I’d like to see more tank.

By: Al3xand3r

Al3xand3r — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:52:22 +0000

People will probably soon up the limits (and unbalance the game unless they also offer bigger maps and more enemies and lag, ha). Either way, Alien Swarm worked out fine with its 8 player max (though all 8 were on the same team) and it didn’t get tediously repetitive even though enemy placement and objectives were not randomised as they are in L4D. The player limit here is sufficient really, you’ll be more likely to find fun servers I think. How many times you think a TF2 or CSS server with good ping has too few players and so look for another one? L4D is probably playable enough with just 2 or 3 or 4 people (all in the human side) so you won’t have that problem (so long as you filter out empty servers).

By: Don

Don — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:11:02 +0000

Chaz worried about it being repetitive:

>Mindlessly hosing down endless waves of zombies with machine gun
I’m not sure this ever gets old, though I prefer the classic pistol+shotgun combo myself. And CS is just 2 teams with similar sets of weapons trying to headshot each other but it seems to have kept its popularity. Maybe because we haven’t seen any opposing force vids people haven’t really registered that this is a two sider, if bored with shooting infected then become one and kick survivor ass. And as the two sides have different weapons and map access it will be a meaningful change.

But if the game does live up to its potential how easy will it be to get a game? Assuming 4 players can take the infected side each server is going to host 8 people, far fewer than most CS/TF2 and similar servers.

By: Jahkaivah

Jahkaivah — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:27:32 +0000

Slow Zombies = #1 way to ruin this game

First video- Zombies cannot get through doors

Second video- Zombie at the star just stands there as you shoot him right and proper.

Video the third- Zombies run straight past you to get team mates way way over there. Also endless bloody pessimistic griping from a woman.

Alot of minor nitpicks there, for every bugged zombie, there are a hundred others working perfectly well who need to be shot dead as soon as possible.

As for the zombie running towards teammates, we have learnt that the zombies focus on the weakest members (low on health / low on ammo / covered in vomit).

By: Chaz

Chaz — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:04:24 +0000

It looks really good fun, but I can’t help feeling that after a couple of play throughs it will soon loose its sparkle. Mindlessly hosing down endless waves of zombies with machine gun fire will soon get very repetitive, and there just doesn’t seem to be enough variety to give it any long term appeal.

Is this going to be a full price game or something more in the budget range like the HL2 Eps and Portal

By: phuzz

phuzz — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:37:41 +0000

@Captain Bland: I vaguely remember hearing that the friendly fire is moderated somewhat, ie, if your team mate is pinned down, you won’t be penalised for blasting away at the undead and accidentally clipping your mate.

I’m just wondering if I’ll be able to play this game, or if I’ll be too scared of the zombies :(

By: James T

James T — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:41:49 +0000

Slow zombies = target practice.

Minor point: when the zombies have you pinned down, it pulls back into third person view. First, this is probably the first time a 3rd-person cam has been used in a Valve game.

TF2 taunts (and I forget, do you actually see yourself die in killcam? You’d think I’d remember, considering how often I die in it…) And you could perhaps include situations in Portal, although that’s more ‘third-and-first-person-at-once’.

This is looking a lot shmick-er than it did around trailer time; some dreadful voice-acting (“That definitely sounds like a [Boomer]!”), but hopefully that won’t be too big a deal.