Melee is one of the greatest gameplay designs of this game

[Chronos]

I think a lot of the new players (at Quakecon specifically, as we've seen from these videos) overlook the melee. It honestly looks like the best saving grace in the game. It holds back quite a lot of zombies in one smack, it's quick, prevents damage, can be used to save teammates without hurting them, can be used to move teammates, can stop a choke, can assassinate zombies from behind and can keep a boomer back. The situation it can't help in is with a tank (and possible a witch).

But one of the newest things I've noticed is that it doesn't fully interrupt reloading like in many games. If you change the mag in your gun and then melee, in most games it would restart the whole reloading animation. In this, they don't reinsert another mag, but just finish by pumping or cocking the gun. I just thought that was really cool.

[g0dlike]

And the wait for modded melee weapons begin...



got katana?

[dontleave]

True... I forgot about the one hit kill from behind with melee, it must suck to be infected and leap by someone, miss and get smacked in the back of the head... it happened once in the videos lol

[Chronos]

True... I forgot about the one hit kill from behind with melee, it must suck to be infected and leap by someone, miss and get smacked in the back of the head... it happened once in the videos lol
I remember in one video, outside of the safehouse convenient store, a hunter pounced on bill (or francis, I forget) and the guy recording smacked him off and killed him. I wondered how one melee killed him, then remembered the assassination part to it.

[DJTricky]

I guess it gives extra incentive to being sneakier than the Infected.

[Dead Fish]

Keep in mind though that it probably won't be easy (in the beginning) to stop your finger from holding down the left mouse button at every threat. In pretty much every video there was alot of teamdamage (compared to other games). It's the same with melee. The zombie's are fucking scary. ;) Staying cool and knowing when to melee will be essential I guess.

[Asura]

IM sure that we all in L4D 411 are enough rambo to kicks zombies ass and save our teamates whit one punch :P

[The One Froh Man]

True... I forgot about the one hit kill from behind with melee, it must suck to be infected and leap by someone, miss and get smacked in the back of the head... it happened once in the videos lol


Wait a minute... If I´m not mistaken, the preview said that the melee can only kill normal infected. Hunter, Smoker and so on can´t be killed by it, right?

[Armored_Zombie_Cow]

it seemed in one of the videos, number 10, when they were in sewer, guy playing zoey ran into that tunnel backwards, and was reloading his mac when a swarm came into the tunnel.
one zombie got close, but while still FACING HIM, he meleed the zombie and he fell and died....i think they lied to us. i think melee can kill zombies. maybe it does like 3 dmg?

[dontleave]

Are you sure he didn't just trip.. they do that you know.

[Punisher 36O]

But one of the newest things I've noticed is that it doesn't fully interrupt reloading like in many games. If you change the mag in your gun and then melee, in most games it would restart the whole reloading animation. In this, they don't reinsert another mag, but just finish by pumping or cocking the gun. I just thought that was really

that sounds cool, i think once ppl get used to the game the melee will be masterd and be alot more helpfull than it seems at the moment.

HIM, he meleed the zombie and he fell and

that has been a little hope of mine, that they sometime get killed by melees, frog said in a diff thread u can kill them with a melee if u sneak up on them. . . i didnt catch that bit in the Vid your talking about could it be that kind of thing? also it would take a while going thu all the vids, could u post a link for it?

[Chronos]

Are you sure he didn't just trip.. they do that you know.
I'm sure melee does a little bit of damage to zombies. I saw it happen a few times.

[g0dlike]

I think personally it should do a bit of damage, because when I'm low on bullets I really don't want to have to waste them on a single threat, not saying it would happen often, but I would really like a way to beat a few zombies down. Though I think there should be a nifty way to crack open a zombie's skull with a well timed thrust of the gun other than having to be behind them.

[Armored_Zombie_Cow]

Though I think there should be a nifty way to crack open a zombie's skull with a well timed thrust of the gun other than having to be behind them.

agreed
could u post a link for it?
umm its in the 10th vid when they are in sewers...

[Punisher 36O]

k, thanks

[Armored_Zombie_Cow]

so has anyone else seen what im talking about? does anyone agree?

[Crzy8s]

Here are my two favorite moments of the melee being used to foil some smart zombie tactics:

In one video a rescue was made on one player who had been snagged by a smoker on the other side of an open door who used his tongue to go over the top of the door and pull the unlucky survivor up like a coat on a rack. The rescuer instead of firing his shotgun into the general area of the tongue (which was rather close to the victims head) meleed at the neck of the victim snapping the tongue and realesing the victim.

This may shed light on another tactic used by the smokers, instead of just plucking the survivors up from the top of a building and hanging them, they could just get in a corner and snag a survior from behind, pulling the survivor all the way in, so whilst the smoker chokes the victim, the other survivor will come to there fellow survivors aid, but will realize they have no clear shot (because of course the mass of their buddy is blocking a clear shot to the smoker and friendly fire is a bad thing.) so they will have to waste precious time to get to their friend and melee the smokers hold on him.

and

In another gameplay video it shows an individual survivor making his way down a flight of stairs, stops and then turns to his left to see a sneaky boomer in the doorway to his left at arms length away! Now try to imagine surpressing years of twitch shooter instinct to blast the zombie right then and there, not only did this player surpress this reflex, but meeled the boomer in the stomach and then backed away to fire his shotgun into the methane filled ghoul. For someone used to twitch FPS, this would have turned out badly.

This shows that smart infected are going to take advantage of conventional twitch shooters, so moral of the story look before you shoot or atleast melee before you shoot.

[tonjohn]

From the multiple days/hours I spent playing and watching L4D at Quakecon, I must agree that melee is both the most underused feature and the best feature.

Not only can you use it to protect yourself or your friends from infected, it can also be used to save teammates and, my personal favorite, push teammates out of your way.

Too many a time in CSS and DODS do teammates block me in doorways etc. Thanks to the "melee" button, this is not longer an issue since I can *safely* push them out of the way.

[Teknobry]

Do you cause much damage when you melee your own teammates?

[Tobold]

Do you cause much damage when you melee your own teammates?

It holds back quite a lot of zombies in one smack, it's quick, prevents damage, can be used to save teammates without hurting them

[Capo Di Tutti Capi]

meelee is often the most powerful attack in a game, look at halo, i hope not so here, but it looks like an interesting feature that im sure willl have to be mastered by all to produce maximum effectiveness in the team it shuould be noted, meelee is AWESOME

...right lost track

[tonjohn]

It isn't the most powerful attack as far as dmg goes. It is the most "powerful" attack as far as usefullness is concerned.

[hooray for zombies]

read more closely, he says that it is most often so in FPS' (such as halo) but that it is not the case here

[Deek]

Read even closer. Capo "hopes" it is not the case (in L4D), indicating that he is unsure. Tonjon's comments are justified (as he played at Quakecon), confirming Capo's intuition.

[hooray for zombies]

I'll have to get tonjohn's confirmation, but the impression I was getting felt like he thought that Capo was under the impression that meelee did damage

[Deek]

Indeed, it could be construed both ways.

[tonjohn]

Read even closer. Capo "hopes" it is not the case (in L4D), indicating that he is unsure. Tonjon's comments are justified (as he played at Quakecon), confirming Capo's intuition.
Correct.

[hooray for zombies]

ah, my apologies, I misconstrued what you were saying.

[Armored_Zombie_Cow]

lol...look even closer!
u can see that in there is a hidden message about quakecon and how it infected everyone there, and consequently will turn them all to zombies in a few days

[Ydiss]

I remember in one video, outside of the safehouse convenient store, a hunter pounced on bill (or francis, I forget) and the guy recording smacked him off and killed him. I wondered how one melee killed him, then remembered the assassination part to it.
It's possible that the very act of removing a hunter from an ally kills it instantly, whether that be melee or a single bullet. The advantage of being a hunter is in the stealth abilities and that you can completely remove one survivor from play and, unless the team is tight-knit and aware of you, kill them with ease.

It would make sense that the balancing feature of the hunter is that they're quite weak and, once you've exposed yourself and are focused entirely on killing your chosen victim, that you would be vulnerable to death from a single blow; it would also make sense that the bash action should be a viable way of removing a hunter from an ally.

It wouldn't surprise me if this kills the hunter too. As deadly as the boss infected are they all have their vulnerabilities. The hunter will need its "allies" to cover its back just as much as any survivor might.

[Hauger]

When you use the melee attack, and hit a zombie, i really like the way they get knocked off. Then they stand there for a second or two to regain their awareness. Digg it! :D