The Until-launch Demo’s up for non-preorder users, apparently. Re-start Steam to get it if you can’t see it.
And remember: Don’t Startle The Witch.
Related Stories:
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
The Witching 168 Hours: Left 4 Dead Demo
Posted by Kieron Gillen on November 11th, 2008 at 6:08 pm.
Share:« King’s Blather: Dissecting An Armoured Princess | World Of Goo(d News): Euro Release Imminent »
Read our finest words
Respond to our gibber
- Ninja : “You have quite a few grammatical errors there, Kieron. Fore-note: I played that level, they called me a coward when I didn't fight the riot ...” on Wot I Think: About That Level
- SizeGenetics : “SizeGenetics Penis Enlargement Device is a Clinically Proven, Natural Penis Enlargement Technique That Can Increase the Average Penis Size at www.AmericanExte~” on Call of Duty: World At War: Hands On And Chat-talk
- SizeGenetics : “SizeGenetics Penis Enlargement Device is a Clinically Proven, Natural Penis Enlargement Technique That Can Increase the Average Penis Size at www.AmericanExte~” on Dear Mr Microsoft and Mr Molyneux
- army of none : “"Kyle Francis is a complicated man. Sometimes he tells stories about his in-bred hillbilly family having a fearful time in Left 4 Dead 2." I ...” on The Sunday Papers
- Sunjammer : “Sort of left field this, but I thought Bioshock and Dead Space are okay comparisons if what's judged is the amount of pleasure garnered. Dead ...” on The Sunday Papers
Play indie, mods, demos
Browse the archive
Ugh, I’ve got to work tomorrow and I want to kill another Tank. Must force myself unwillingly to bed…
I startled the Witch, but only so I could try out my nifty new machine gun.
Its pretty awesome, but im not sure if its 50$ awesome yet.
Im gonna wait till the pricedrop.
Re: versus mode… I’ve only played ghetto versus mode with cheats, but it’s pretty awesome! I think that will pan out as well as people think it will. Players are much bigger jerks than AI zombies, but you can also pin them down with suppressing fire and ambush them (they don’t react as fast as the AI).
@ Nallen
I’m in Australia on Optus cable, it’ll be downloading from somewhere close by, almost certainly Internode. My cable was maxed out.
The best thing about the release time is that I grabbed the whole thing off peak, leaving my meager download cap alone for other, non-3.2 Gb things.
I actuall have better luck running and using melee when under attack by zombies. Especially during the swarms you have to stay mobile.
Awesome game, this. I’m sure to get it. Just took me half an hour to get it going. It tried to start the demo in 1600×1200@100hz on my machine, which my monitor couldn’t handle, hence a black screen. I had to fix it using compatibility mode 640×480 on my first run. I’m sure they’ll fix that on release.
demo was alright
not really feeling the awesomeness that was promised
anything other than expert = pointless
For those with bandwidth caps, the actual amount downloaded was about 1.3 GB.
I played two runs of the demo level on easy, mostly with other people (random, though I was in the RPS chatroom for the first time!) who hadn’t played it before either.
Absolutely loved it and now, damn it all, I want the full game. :(
Primary reason for grabbing this demo was to see how well my ageing AMD 3000+ could handle it. I now know it handles it admirably (geforce 7800 GS and 1GB ram) although obviously low resolution and medium settings.
Left it downloading over night and got 30 mins in before work. Ooh it’s good :)
Animation’s superb and damn it’s frantic when a horde of zombies come bolting towards you.
Just a heads up.
L4D cost 23 quid on pre order discount from play.com thats about 70% of the steam price.
Blimey it’s £19.97 on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001GIOGDW/soundsvault-21
(Incidentally this is a damn useful site:
http://www.gamestracker.com/buy-left-4-dead-compare-prices-pc.htm )
Finally installed last night on my Macbook Pro (2nd generation) Dual 2.4Ghz, 2GB with 8800M GT and boy, does it fly! Completed the available maps and have to say, I cannot wait for my retail box copy to turn up; kinda regretting not pre-ordering through Steam.
I absolutely love the ambiance, especially when a Boomer explodes on you! I was surprised at how long you can last in a fight, not sure how realistic that is but I have to say giving people unlimited pistol ammo is a good call.
Owen you just saved me six quid. Can i repay you in e-karma? The only thing i ever checked is google shopping, but i’ll book mark that one. So thats like 60% the steam price? Also on impulse? $ =£ atm, but that includes tax.
Heh, e-karma is fine Helio :) I accept all major e-karma cards.
Every time I run into a Boomer I’m like… “Right, shoot it now and accept the vomit or try to retreat and potentially let one of my team-mates get it instead?” I invariably take the hit and get a face-slashing. :(
We got to the end of the demo on Expert and found a witch sitting crying outside the safe room door. “Don’t disturb the witch” becomes rather difficult at that point.
I lobbed a can of petrol at her, and my mate shot it midair, showering her in a rain of fire. This game rocks.
@Lu-Tze:
Brilliant. I love the way that each playthrough is totally different. One time, we came out of the subway, up into that room with concrete pillars. All seemed okay, then suddenly a Tank started running towards us, punching the pillars, shattering them! He tossed two of my team-mates up in the air and pounded the life out of them before the other two of us could unload our clips into his head.
The next playthrough… At the same point, we heard a witch. We all turned our flashlights off, and crept through that room, listening to the sound of the ‘little girl’ crying, wondering where she was, and hoping we didn’t run into her.
AARRRGH why did my logmein connection choose today to fail on me!! I’ll have to wait until I finish work to start the download now. Arse!
(I guess playing Fallout 3 while I wait isn’t exactly terrible..)
Spent a long night last night downloading the demo and listening to my friend (with a much faster connection) getting it a couple of hours before me, playing it and enjoying it over Skype.
I’ve tried running it, but my old Celeron D, 512MB DDR, 256MB 6200 just doesn’t like it. I get measly FPS in the single digits on 640xwhatever it is, with no sounds playing besides zombie grunts. I tried upping the dedicated memory and lowering all the graphics options, but it’s just not having it.
Anyone else had more success trying to run it on an equally shitty rig? :(
@Ian, the trick with boomers is to listen out carefully for them, so you can get prepared and not surprised when they show up, ideally shoot them from a little far away but if they’re already up in your face just push them. Pushing boomers knocks them back quite far actually, just as long as no-one else in the team is too quick on the trigger finger you should be able to kill it without a single vomit stain.
Also I’ve noticed after watching the movie after the demo a few too many times that it says there are 10 weaons. I’m just wondering if that’s including dual pistols as a seperate weapon as well as the explosives (molotov and pipebomb) and the minigun emplacements. If not, then what are the other weapons?
Ok, so I’m getting desperate here. For some reason I can’t actually download the demo, even though it shows up on Steam fine…anyone have any suggestions for a way to fix this? (I’ve tried rebooting Steam, still nothing…I just click on the ‘download demo’ button, and nothing happens)
Suggestions for newbies:
DON’T pick the shotgun.
DON’T rambo.
If you don’t have a clean shot, use mele. Use mele to kill a hunter over a friend, then kill the hunter.
Switch off the lights wen near a witch.
DON’T pick the shotgun.
Use the health packs wiselly. Health first the most damaged member.
Learn the re-spawn system, and use it to make your team finish the map.
SHOT the tank, and run to avoid getting killed by him. The tank will get you anywhere (if not stuck), so shot him.
Be vigilant for hunters.
Be vigilant for smokers.
Be villigant for boomers.
IF you are hit by a bommer, try to move to a corner, or something, where you can use mele to save your ass.
Protect the guy on the static machine guy.
I got on okay with the shotgun, but then I’ve not got past easy yet (only two quick playthroughs.)
It looks to me that on higher levels head-shots and judicious use of melee for self-defence will be paramount to ammo management.
Hurray, the demo downloaded quickly enough in the end, so I got to play through two levels in co-op before the end. Good fun, but I think I need to play it on a more difficult setting; while it was fun and frenzied, I never felt in particular danger. I managed to survive a few situations where I was literally surrounded by zombies; rather than biting, they must have merely been nibbling hard on me. So I’ll up the ante next time.
P.
Athlon 4200 X2
1 gig RAM
7800gt
Runs great maxed at 1280 x 1020
@Tei – Why don’t you like the shotgun? I find it one-shots anything apart from a Tank or a Witch. Reloading during a Horde swarm is a bitch, sure, but that’s what your teammates are for.
I also seem to run out of ammo every single time I pick the Uzi, which is something I am not ok with.
I ran out of ammo a couple of times with the assault rifle too, which is a shame because it’s awesome. But that could be due to my uselessness rather than it being a downside of the weapon. :p
Only spent a few hours on it (auf Englisch, thank God),
If puked upon, run to the other side of your group. If you’re lucky, they’ll think it’s just another zombie rush, and not realize it’s your fault.
You don’t need to point the shotgun directly at something to hit it. So blast the hunters off folks by aiming above them.
It probably helps if you establish firing arcs, like Bill (on point, keep low), Zoe — to the left of Bill, Francis to the right, Lewis to the rear.
Learn to us the melee attack, largely because it’s sweet.
A couple times I’ve been on maps where people run back to the safe room for more ammunition. And I wonder: is that wise? If this is an infinite-respawn game, shouldn’t one keep moving?
@Smee: Friendly fire with the shotgun is a team killer. With the uzi the problem is limited. But a single shotgun shot may kill a already damaged teammate. Newbies with shotguns are terrrible, absolute terrible players.
@NeonWraith
I was confused for a while, but clicking the download demo link of the page in the store does not actually kick off the download. For me it just added it to the “Not installed” section of the “My Games” list. I then needed to right click the game in the “My Games” list and choose “Install Game”
I don’t know if that’s the same problem you are having.
Loving the demo, can’t wait for moar.
Lived up to three years of high expectations.
PS; Hunting Rifle freakin rocks. Think of it as a semi-auto scoped railgun and you’ll never go back.
@Tei, on expert the shotgun is a massive tker yes, but on easier settings the damage is still pretty low towards teammates. It’s certainly the weapon of choice if you’re leading the group and crouching, if anyone runs in front of you whilst you’re doing that then they’re not doing it right.
Similarly, never walk in front of the guy using the mounted minigun. The guys I was playing with last night must have been vision impaired and deaf, they would have otherwise surely heard the minigun warming up moments before they decided to step in front of the hot stream of lead. If you thought the shotgun was bad, at least I have learnt that the minigun knocks them down VERY fast. At least if I see someone using it I’ll always be behind them, saving their butt from zombie chewing.
@Dinger: I only run back for ammo at the start of the second map. Empty a couple Uzi clips into the zombies near the door, then refill.
As of 24 hours ago I had Left 4 Dead filed away as a game that sounded like a lot of fun that I would never play because I frighten extremely easily when playing games on the PC (Doesn’t occur with consoles. Not sure why.)
Then I listened to the podcast and learned that Mike Patton had provided the sounds of the common zombies. I figured that I should at least get the demo and give the single player campaign a quick go to hear that, since I’m a huge Patton fan. (This is the same reason I checked out his album Adult Themes for Voice, which consisted entirely of things he recorded in hotel rooms on a 4-track while on tour, utilizing only his voice. It’s amazingly excellent and very odd, and I wanted to see what he would do for games.) Besides, maybe, just maybe, this would be a horror game that wouldn’t end up with me rapidly exiting while screaming “OH SHIT! OH SHIT!”.
Turns out the art style of Left 4 Dead is stylized enough that I’m left feeling very tense but never frightened out of my mind the way every other horror game does.
It also turns out that my laptop is incredibly sluggish just playing single player, to the point where the game is almost unplayable. Multiplayer would probably be a nightmare. I’m so depressed now.
Cheers heliocentric, awesome news :)
Great fun! Matchmaking is nice in principle, ropey in practice. I seem to need ‘mat_queue_0′ to prevent crashes ( Intel Q9450, Vista64, Radeon 4850HD )
I think I’m sold though, despite being broke.
I think my favourite bit so far is when I decided to ditch the rest of my team and leg it for the exit. I was doing pretty well, gunning down the odd zombie and dodging the others.
Then the screaming horde attacked, and in my last few seconds of life I thought: “Oh. I’m the guy in the zombie movie who tries to save his own skin and gets horribly mutilated for it.”
Can’t say I’m that knocked out by this to be honest, and the demo has merely met my expectations, which is to say it’s an OK fun game but has short legs in the longevity stakes. All you do is spray endless waves of zombies with machine gun fire, and I can’t honestly see that keeping my interest beyond maybe 3-4 play throughs. Which ultimately means that the full game probably isn’t going to get my money. The co-op is fun, and the game does make you want to stick together and help each other out quite well, which is nice, but I think there are other games that provide better more in-depth co-op experiences than this. Good short term fun, but I don’t think the game’s worth all the hype its being given.
“All you do is spray endless waves of zombies with machine gun fire, and I can’t honestly see that keeping my interest beyond maybe 3-4 play throughs”#
Chaz, I’m guessing that it possibly to get through a level on easy settings doing this, but on harder settings you really need to strategize and work hard.
At least, I hope that’s what it’s like.
P.
The day the internet went slow due to Left4Dead on 12/11/2008.
@ sum0: It would make me warm inside if there was evidence that The Director caters for that sort of behaviour.
Still, added to the already cinematic influences, I bet. :D
@ Graham_S – I just checked my Not Installed list, and, funnily enough…there it is, so thanks for helping me out :)
Seems like an odd way of doing it, still.
“All you do is spray endless waves of zombies with machine gun fire, and I can’t honestly see that keeping my interest beyond maybe 3-4 play throughs”
Me and some friends played the demo last week (pre-order). We replayed the levels (well, the 1.5 levels) for 5 and something hours. Advanced and expert modes. There’s so much replay value in this game! LANing this thing with 4 friends is a recepie for tons of fun.
Oh, and there’s nothing as fun as 4 shotgun firing squad :)
OK, I’ve had a good bash about, and to be honest, whilst I enjoyed it, I don’t feel it’s quite worth a) the gushing praise it’s receiving, nor b) the price.
It’s good quick popcorn gaming, which is really what it’s trying to be, but I cant help but feel it’s missing that little something.
Random brain dump of ideas:
- With a moderately decent team, it’s not hard enough even on Expert, except for Tanks which can molest most teams easily out of the blue. It pays to be prepared for them, this is good thing, you should be tense occasionally, it’s tongue in cheek, but it’s not a family trip to Disneyland. Witches aren’t the horror everyone makes them out to be when introduced to 21 century munitions.
- The pistol(s) shouldn’t have unlimited ammo, at least not on harder difficulty levels. They’re quite powerful and it’s possible to run through with just dual pistols if you’re sensible. I’d like to see higher spec pistols that are spawned by the Director to reward good play (but with added challenges afterwards to compensate).
- I’ll get caned for this, but it’s not graphically impressive enough. Gameplay > Graphics everyday of the week, but a fast food gaming experience like this really should look a bit sharper. The art direction and effects a top rate, but some of the models could be a bit more detailed, and more environmental detail is desperately needed. Why Valve refuse to have a ‘insane’ graphics setting for those who can manage it I’ll never know. Their games look good, but it’s no Crysis visually.
-Healing (either self healing or assisted) looks absolutely terrible. Whilst the animation of the characters is typically excellent… why cant I see any bandaging or at least something? There’s blood and gore on the models, but healing makes no difference other than to the health gauge.
Pointless score based on small fraction of unfinished game: 7/10. I like it, but it absolutely wasn’t worth the hype as such. I’ll still buy it, but no way known I’m spending that kind of cash on a casual 20 minute blaster.
Oh, one last bullet point for above.
Valve should have invested in procedurally generated levels, rather than just static levels with random/directed encounters. I don’t care what they say, it feels like the same thing over and over again, albeit entertaining as a rubber dick.
The problem with procedurally generated levels is that they end up looking shit and lacking in anything of note – take Hellgate’s procedurally generated dungeons and streets.
A truely great multiplayer game relies on a well designed and paced level that allows you to learn & exploit choke points and devise a strategy, with (in L4Ds case) the AI mixing things up to keep you on your toes.
Could you imagine how potentially awful a procedural generated TF2 level could be?
But Hellgate did everything wrong.
I don’t understand all the whine about low replayability… I’ve played the demo for 34.4 hours, and it’s only 1.5 levels of the full game! I reckon the expert difficulty will get more challenging with 5 levels and the finale. So far I feel the expert setting is perfect for me.