Left 4 Dead Hands-on Preview - Infected Side
Let's get this out of the way right now. Forget everything that you read in the first part, because this is a whole different ball game. Playing as the Infected is a brand new experience that proves to be very fun. While playing as a survivor encourages cooperative gameplay in a familiar, yet unique style, the Infected team offers players a chance to terrorize the other team in so many entertaining ways that it is hard to keep from smiling the first time you sit down behind a pair of twisted zombie hands.
The goal of the Infected is simple: destroy the Survivors before they have a chance to escape. This may sound like an easy task, considering the hundreds of zombies on your side, but I can assure you that it isn't. The three primary boss Infected are all quite fragile and will die from only a few shots from the Survivors. As such, you must rely on cunning and guile to ambush your prey. Playing as an Infected is all about finding the right moment to strike in order to cause the most chaos and destruction. This results in a system of griefing hit and runs and suicide ambushes that is truly fresh and entertaining.
I'LL TAKE MINE EXTRA CRISPY
At any time, an Infected player may bring up a screen to choose their preferred Infected: The Boomer, Smoker, and Hunter (or random). I say preferred Infected because you will not be guaranteed to spawn as that Infected. The game only allows one Boomer, one Smoker, and two Hunters to be alive at any one time. I was pretty disappointed that I could not choose to play as one boss the entire time, but obvious balance issues demand this and the preferred selection prevents one player from playing as the boss that I may want the entire game. Trust me, more often than not you will be playing as your preferred Infected, especially if no other player is competing for that spot.
Becoming the Tank Infected works a little differently. As the Tank is so strong, the AI director will only spawn it a few times throughout the scenario, including two at the same time during the finale. Mike told us that every player will have had a chance to play the Tank before anyone can spawn as the Tank a second time. When the AI director decides to spawn a Tank, a player will be notified by an on-screen alert and allowed a chance to accept the role. The player will have a few seconds to accept and will then immediately respawn as the Tank. Survivors take notice: a boss infected suddenly dying for no apparent reason usually means you're about to have a fun time.
MY X-RAYS ARE BETTER THAN YOUR X-RAYS
The first thing that I noticed when I first started looking around as an Infected was that darkness was no problem. Where rooms were once pitch black as a Survivor, I could now see just fine (although in a stylish, red super nightvision sort of way). This is perfect for sneaking around or hiding in a dark corner waiting to pounce.
Much like the Survivors, the Infected have the ability to see outlines through walls. Unlike the Survivors, these outlines are red and they are outlines of the Survivors (zombies cannot actually see fellow zombies in this way). Not only can the Infected see the locations of all Survivors with these outlines, but when an Infected holds still, they will be able to see the path most likely taken by the Survivors. As player zombies will always spawn in front of the Survivors, they will be able to see where the Survivors will be coming from and set up a proper ambush. Again, this is something that we really expected to hate. Like the Survivors, this outline adds so much to keep the gameplay focused, I can't imagine playing without it. It is even more essential for the Infected, who have much more map access that the Survivors.
