Left 4 Dead PC Gamer Video Podcast Analysis
PC Gamer has posted a 10 minute video podcast with the best look at Left 4 Dead so far! The podcast shows an entire playthrough from the perspective of four doomed survivors. It's not only a lengthy view of what playing Left 4 Dead is like but also manages to capture encounters with every boss zombie.
The first few minutes and last couple are of the four PC Gamer guys talking. Many people have been complaining about this, but they did show real good angles at all the important parts, we still have a ton of footage at a GOOD RESOLUTION (thank you PCG, <3), and we know it's necessary. If this were a single player game, sure, don't show me faces or let me hear people talking.. but while you're watching please keep in mind this is a CO-OP game - your team is the game, and talking and shouting with your teammates will be a large factor in your gameplay experience. Anyways, let's meet the dream team..
And what the dream team they turn out to be! Besides the initial trouble fitting through a doorway and confusion about not shooting other Survivors, they did a very respectable job sticking together and focusing fire on the most immediate threats. At 5:26 after being puked on, Norm instinctively crouches down to allow his teammates to shoot over him, which is the type of teamwork that Left 4 Dead is going to require for the Survivors to stay alive. Throughout the video you'll hear Chet giving them tips trying to help them survive the onslaught of Mike and the other boss zombies.
In the video they're playing the Hospital mission. The Hospital scenario starts on the roof of the apartments, down to the alley, through a big open area (featured in the 1UP video), down through the subway, office building, another long street, a pawnshop and convenience store, outside and into a warehouse, down through sewers, up into the hospital, and then to the roof for the finale. They made it to the start of the "another long street", meaning they made it almost halfway to the roof. Judging from the presence of the Witch, they were probably playing on normal difficulty.
ONTO THE GAME
We've taken still shots from the video since it's a lot easier to point things out that way.. Some of the first footage we get is something we've never seen before, a Smoker dying, the smoke spreading, and what a Molotov looks like when it's thrown.
It was nice having this video since we were able to time how long things take. WARNING: The game is still in beta and as such the UI/timing of events/achievement screens will most likely change by release.
When using the medkit, any movement at all will immediately stop any progress you've made. 5 seconds is a long time, and we hope that Turtle Rock has added voice communication that lets your teammates know you're bandaging up. You'll notice throughout the video that medkits, ammo, and even weapons on the ground glow to make them easier to find.
One of the coolest moments in the video is at 6:39 when the Tank makes a grand entrance. This is the first time we've seen the Tank on gameplay footage. With one melee hit he sends two Survivors flying across the room, knocking one to the bleeding stage. If you pay attention to the health bars at the bottom of the screen you'll see the following progression:
The Tank knocked Francis' health from 25% to nothing when he swiped him across the room. We noticed for the first time the "bleeding out" icon (Francis laying down) which is a great way for players to easily know who's in what shape. Right below the icon the red health bar shows the progress of bleeding out. The Tank pounds at the Survivors on the ground knocking Francis down quite a bit and finally killing him, which brings up the RIP tombstone icon.
At 7:06 the player gets helped up by Zoey. The player's view now rises during the animation which is a neat addition.
Hunters are VERY hard to deal with when you're alone, and in this case (at 7:30) you can see that teammates separating ends badly.
We're going to blame it on the sound in the convention, but whatever the reason the Survivors failed to hear the screams of the Witch, turn off their lights and walk slowly past her (although judging from her position it might not have been possible to sneak by anyway). At 5:11-5:12 you can see the true power of the witch: two Survivors right by her go from near full health to bleeding out in one swipe. We never knew she could hit more than one person at once. This is the first time the Witch has been seen, she has dark hair, she's pale, and is wearing ripped clothing. At 5:08 you can see her in her peaceful state. From the video we can tell that the automatic rifle holds 50 bullets in a magazine and the autoshotty holds 7.
Starting at 7:52 it takes mere seconds for the two Survivors to get ENTIRELY over-run by the Horde, which is a great contrast to the subway which showed more spread out spawns. The correct action to take would have been to run up and use the melee attack to shove away the zombies and get attention drawn to the player. As a result of hanging back, Zoey finally dies right before the player can reach her.
This was a great example of effective Boomer positioning and also of boss infected players working together.
The achievements screen still looks the same as when we were there, meaning don't be surprised if the final version doesn't look anything like this. Read more about it in part 1 of our preview. The only noticeable change is the new info box that appears to show up when you hover over a specific merit, probably giving a little more detail as to what it is.
The infected side achievements box is pretty boring compared to the Survivor side. Instead of seeing how many of each type you killed on the top you see how many times you spawned as each boss zombie. Some of the words we were able to make out: Tongue pull, Hunter Claw Hit, Explosion (by Boomer), Hit and Run, Tongue Choke, and Pounce. The loading box used to come up in the very middle of the screen which was annoying and blocked you from looking at what you wanted to, so a big thumbs up to Turtle Rock for fixing even small details!
Besides no one using the hunting rifle, there wasn't a whole lot missing from the video (from the Survivor side anyway). It's a great video and we thank the guys at PC Gamer for providing us with this high quality footage of Left 4 Dead, it should satisfy the community's hunger for a while.
TIMELINE
0:07 Join the U.S. Army
0:38 Buy Overlord
0:51 Chuck tells it like it is
1:08 Survivors in the apartments
1:10 Norm tells it like it is, Chuck explains that he plays like Chet, Greg says "i suxor"
1:50 Guy in yellow shirt seems to be pissed that Norm is talking and not playing
2:08 Gameplay commences!
2:30 Good view of blood on screen and the new teammate auras that we talked about in the Showdown LAN picture analysis
2:40 Doorway problems, shooting teammates
3:13 In the alleyway outside of the apartments, Francis almost gets choked
3:37 View from a Hunter player, cool zombies climbing over fence
3:43 Infected side achievements screen
3:48 PCG dudes talking more
4:09 Going down into the subway, Smoker misses player, player shoots Smoker, smoke deploys, player throws Molotov
4:30 Hunter misses, team goes into subway
4:56 Another Hunter bites the dust (you can hear its signature scream)
5:07 Witch encounter, two people die in one swipe
5:18 Boomer vomit hits player, team successfully defends the rush of Infected
5:40 Neat look at Boomer remains
5:48 Dark room, entire team limping, then into a room with generators
6:22 Boomer gets close
6:27 Picking up medkit and using it
6:39 TANK!!
6:54 Tank goes down
7:06 Being helped up
7:18 Flaming infected
7:30 Louis helped up from third person view
7:36 Louis gets pwnt by Hunter
7:46 Sweet gore effect
7:49 Horde rushes in
7:52 Zoey goes down, gets stomped on
8:07 Last zombie goes down, Zoey dies
8:19 Last one alive gets puked on, choked, and lunged at. Game over.
8:38 Survivor achievements screen
8:50 Norm tells it how it is
9:16 Hospital mission spawn point/menu screen
9:27 Chuck cries
9:34 Chuck regains composure
9:52 Bull riding, end
