Left 4 Dead 2

If you pre-purchased Left 4 Dead 2 via Steam now’s the time to start pre-loading the game demo, which is due to launch for early access on Tuesday, October 27.

Early access to the L4D2 demo is available for both retail (360, PC) and Steam (PC) customers. Those who pre-ordered via participating retailers should be able to pick up their early access codes this weekend and be ready to play on Tuesday when the demo launches.

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Realism Mode, says Kim Swift (Left 4 Dead 2 level designer), is for advanced players only, a way to make the game more interesting for players who don’t feel challenged by the expert difficulty level.

Turning on Realism turns off the glow that normally haloes players and special infected creatures. “Communication becomes really important,” said Swift. “Players need to stick together.”

The game is designed such that getting separated from the three other survivors is life-threatening. The glow normally helps players find their way back to the group, or helps find team members who may be incapacitated. Swift said that when players need help in Realism Mode, they need to be able to accurately and clearly describe where they are in the game environment so that the other players can locate them.

Health and items “don’t glow until you are right on top of them,” said Swift, which means that while regular gameplay might involve dashing from one safe area to another, in Realism Mode searching and exploration are essential to survival.

Swift said that Realism Mode also affects damage, so chest shots on the infected are not as effective, and players need to make head shots. “Just like in the movies,” added Valve’s Yasser Malaika as his Left 4 Dead 2 character killed a zombie that was about to finish off my character.

There are five campaigns in Left 4 Dead 2, each with multiple levels, and Swift said that all of them can be played in Realism Mode. And it’s possible to scale down the difficulty to easy in Realism, for those players that want to see what it would really be like to be in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, but don’t want to be killed too quickly.

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We recently had the opportunity to sit down and interview Chet Faliszek, the Writer of Left 4 Dead 2. You may notice that some of these questions have already been answered, but this was because Valve was extremely busy with the $25 million marketing for the game. Thanks to the staff for helping prepare some questions.

* The Jockey was revealed at PAX and it says that you should keep moving and resist while it is on your back, what happens if you don’t?

The Jockey will steer you where he wants to take you, which will mean into fire, Spitter Goo, or off a ledge. Experienced players will learn to influence the Jockey’s control to keep you out of trouble.

* How many [more] melee weapons can we expect? There are around seven announced so far, no?

If you count the chainsaw as a melee weapon, and we do – there are 10 total. Each melee weapon has a different feel, the axe is great at taking out large number of infected surrounding you, while the crowbar is my favorite to use while hitting common infected on the run.

* Can you say anything about the two new unnanounced [now announced] campaign modes?

Dead Center is the first campaign in the game and Hard Rain, which features Director 2.0 weather effects is the fourth campaign.

* What is your opinion on the maze of cars with active alarms? Don’t you think that this almost impossible for the survivors?

I have done it myself, in Versus. So it is possible, you just really need to be on top your game.

* Seems like the predominant theme was to make the game harder, whether it be for the survivors or the infected. How much harder will it be?

We constantly have playtesters in to make sure we aren’t making the normal game too hard. We have balanced the additional elements so players comfortable in L4D1 should be comfortable in Left 4 Dead 2. For more experienced players we have also tweaked advanced and expert modes to challenge them.

* It was mentioned awhile back that the survivors can tell how much damage has been delivered to the tank, the report said that it will show signs of damage, is this still true?

We don’t have a damage model for the tank in the game. One of the scary elements of fighting a tank is you aren’t sure if this is the last bullet you need to fire or not. We wanted to keep the tension up during the battle, so the Survivors aren’t sure it is over until it is over.

* Valve has said that the new AI Director will be able to alter pathways as well as item and zombie placement, but is there anything else the AI director has up its sleeve?

Another example of the Director 2.0 changes is in Hard Rain. There the AI Director can send storms down on a Survivor team doing well. The storms cut your visibility and stir up the horde. The moment you see a lightning strike, you need to run for cover.

* Alright, you know I have to ask, can you say anything about the new multiplayer mode?

Scavenge mode challenges players to compete in round-based games of up to 8 players (Survivors vs. Infected). The Survivors must battle both the Infected and the clock as they collect gas cans to refuel a generator located in each map. Every can the Survivors pour into the generator scores their team a point and adds time to the clock.

Once time runs down, the game goes into overtime mode as long as one player is still holding a gas can. Drop the can and the round ends. Trying to run to the generator with the final can while a Jockey is hot on your tail is one of the most exciting experiences of Left 4 Dead 2.

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Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to question Chet Faliszek, writer on Left 4 Dead 2? Paying tribute to zombie attacks featured in the game, we bashed down his door and then proceeded to puke and spit all over the furniture. Bafflingly, he wasn’t amused.

CG = CriticalGamer
CF = Chet Falizsek from Valve

CG: Why did you decide to include melee weapons this time around? Do they differ significantly from melee attacks in the original Left 4 Dead?

CF: We wanted to give players more options. Often players will be surrounded by common infected, shooting them all can get tiresome so we needed to help these players out. And after all, whacking zombies in the head with a frying pan, bat, or katana is a staple of zombie movies.

CG: Was it difficult coming up with new enemies that fit in with the zombie theme, while not being too similar to existing monsters?

CF: We look at the new Special Infected in the context of problems we need to solve. For example we saw players who were so tight with their teamwork, even a solid Infected team had no options to counter them. The Charger was created specifically to break that group up and scatter them and allow the other specials to attack.

CG: Mobile witches are a new addition, is that you guys just deliberately trying to scare the crap out of us all for giggles?

CF: Really good players have learned to handle a Witch, but other players still struggle with the Witch, so we didn’t just want to make The Witch tougher. While she wanders around, you can wait her out, she might get out of your way. Of course, she also might move even more in your way or a smoker might come by and help you get a closer look at her.

CG: With the new special infected joining the fray in versus, we’d imagine it opens up a set of new possibilities for tactical play for infected players. Are there any particular combinations that work well?

CF: The new Special Infected are created to work well with others, so there are many options available. Puking on someone who is being jockeyed is a combo that not only helps bring down the Survivors but is always good for a laugh. Another favorite is to Smoker pull someone into a long hallway or past an open window and have the Charger take them for a ride. And the Spitter? She just loves to spit goo on a pounced survivor.

CG: The use of the global stats pages in Left 4 Dead must have provided you with unprecedented levels of detail on how people were playing the game; has anything you’ve learned through the stats affected design choices for Left 4 Dead 2?

CF: One of the biggest pieces of data we have seen is the confirmation that people love to play co-op campaigns. Once you have played L4D for a stretch, you don’t automatically move to Versus. Many players continue to play Campaign Mode where the game becomes more of a social event than a game. We have many emails and stories of husbands getting their wives to play Co-op, friends from college getting together once a week to play or the weekly work game.

CG: Why is there still no single player story mode?

CF: We didn’t want players to have to play a different mode to get the story. We always wanted you to be able to get the story in the campaign mode that you could play alone or with your friends.

CG: When expansions make an appearance, can we expect new items and game modes rather than just new maps?

CF: Right now we are working to get everything we can into the game. We will start looking at DLC and what that will be after we ship.

CG: Do you think that the AI Director could be successfully implemented into a single player game – not necessarily a Left 4 Dead one? Is this something you have considered?

CF: We have definitely thought along those lines. Replayability is just as important in single player games as it is in multiplayer games. The AI Director helps us bring that to our games so you should be looking out for variations on it in the future.

CG: Will we end up seeing Left 4 Dead 2 on the PS3? And if not, why not?

CF: Right now we think the 360 and PC offer the best community features for Left 4 Dead 2. Through Xbox Live or Steam gamers can easily connect and play, and playing with your friends is what Left 4 Dead 2 is all about.

CG: Valve are of course notorious for long breaks between sequels, with the admirable mantra ‘It’ll be released when it’s ready’. Bearing this in mind, why is the second Left 4 Dead game going to be in the shops just a year after the first?

CF: Sometimes the iterative process hits all its marks. Numerous times during the process we evaluated the game and were ready to pull the plug on this year’s release if it wasn’t ready. Internally we are very tough on our own games and were ready to hold back Left 4 Dead 2 if it wasn’t something we were proud of, but during development we just kept hitting our goals. I think that is a testament to how well the team understands the world of Left 4 Dead and how we were all of a shared vision for what Left 4 Dead 2 should be.

CG: There was the notorious threatened boycott, which was ended after you spoke to the leaders of the campaign personally. Why did you do this? Did you see the boycott as a real and serious threat to sales?

CF: It was less about the threat to sales and more about our community talking with us over what their concerns. We regularly invite people from the community or outside into our offices to discuss our games and how we are doing as a company, this visitation was just a little more public than normal.

CG: How do you plan to support L4D1 going forward? The sequel is almost sure to make the first game obsolete, and yet you’ve claimed that L4D2 wouldn’t spell the end of the original. Is the Crash Course DLC the last we’ll see or is there more planned for the original?

CF: We are working on updates for L4D1 as I type this. So we aren’t done yet.

CG: What’s your response to many people calling Crash Course a hack job? People have pointed out and/or claimed 100% reused geometry, glitches, glitched achievements with odd grammatical errors in the text, questionable level design, too short a length, and nothing to differentiate it from other modes. Can we expect marked improvement in future L4D1 add ons?

CF: On the opening night we had a server issue that caused some issues with being able to walk through objects etc, we patched it the next day. Past that Crash Course has been very well received. We wanted to experiment and focus on Versus and we are very happy with the results.

CG: Where do you see Left 4 Dead going in the future?

CF: We plan on continuing to expand the world and push forward co-op gaming.

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YOURemgn reports:

Bad news for Australian Left 4 Dead 2 fans. The Australian Classification Review Board consisting of 3 members has not changed their minds on the RC (Refused Classification) on the game. This has been said to be the board’s final decision. The game will be released, but without all the violence. The game will not contain – depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment.

The Board’s official statement:

“A three-member panel of the Classification Review Board (the Review Board) has unanimously determined that the computer game “Left 4 Dead 2? is classified RC (Refused Classification).
In the Review Board’s opinion, “Left 4 Dead 2? could not be accommodated within the MA 15+ classification. The computer game contains a level of violence which is high in impact, prolonged, repeated frequently and realistic within the context of the game.
In addition, it was the Review Board’s opinion that there was insufficient delineation between the depiction of general zombie figures and the human figures, as opposed to the clearly fictional ‘infected’ characters. This was a major consideration of the Review Board in determining the impact of this game on minors.”

Any changes to this decision sounds highly unlikely, this will really take the fun out of Left 4 Dead 2. YourEMGN will keep you updated if any changes persist.

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You might have already found out about the bile bomb via the Left 4 Dead 2 achievements list, but if you haven’t, here’s information about it.

Bile Bomb Related Achievements
ROBBED ZOMBIE:
Collect 10 vials of Boomer vomit from infected CEDA agents you have killed.

SEPTIC TANK:
Use a bile bomb on a Tank.

What We Know
Currently, we cannot confirm what it is or what it is, as that information has not been revealed by Valve yet. However, we do know that CEDA collects vials of Boomer bile, and after they were infected/killed, these vials were left in various pockets of their clothes.

Some Ideas on What it Could Be
And here are the thoughts of some players who might have an idea of what it is and what it does. Please note that the below ideas suggest only what it could be and do, and are not actually confirmed.

-The Survivors pick them up, and use them as a bomb- similar to the pipe bomb. The Boomer bile is said in the first game to somehow draw the horde to where it is, so using deductive reasoning, the bile bomb acts as a distraction for the horde much like the pipe bomb with the exception that it doesn’t blow up, and you have to kill them infected yourselves.

-There is an achievement for throwing the bile bomb at a Tank, therefore by logic means the zombies will all attack the tank, but of course just slow him down a bit, a punch can throw half of them flying.

-Throwing the bile bomb at a Tank will blind him temporarily, just like how bile blinds Survivors.

Screenshot was taken from the below video:

So Left 4 Dead 2 is at the top of this week’s Steam top 10 best selling game list. Not a shock. Not a shock at all, considering that the zombie co-op shooter sequel from Valve won’t be showing up on any other downloadable game services. With the demo (for pre-orders) being released next week on Steam you can bet that sales will continue to pick up . . . oh you get it.

Borderlands continues to do well in its pre-orders, showing up in the number two position. Codemasters’ military shooter Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is also still selling well and is in the number three position this week.

1. Left 4 Dead 2 – Valve
2. Borderlands – Gearbox Software/2K Games
3. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising – Codemasters
4. Civilization IV: The Complete Edition – Firaxis/2K Games
5. Aion Standard Edition – NCSoft
6. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II – Relic/THQ
7. Saints Row 2 – Volition/THQ
8. Cities XL Limited Edition – Monte Cristo Games
9. Left 4 Dead – Valve
10. Counter-Strike: Source – Valve

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Here’s just some stuff for you to chew on.

Another screenshot of the new Hunter:

SCAR gun fires in 3 bullet-bursts, as seen in this video: