Left 4 Dead Hands-on Preview - Infected Side
There is only one limit to the Infected's vision: if a Survivor holds still, turns off their flashlight and is not shooting, you cannot see their red outline. This can be very, very bad for an Infected. Clever Survivors may use one man to stand at a defensive point, in order to ambush a sneaky boss Infected who is working his way behind the Survivors and yes, I found this out the hard way on several occasions - the hunting rifle can be a very bad thing...
Fortunately, as an Infected, our vision is not our only advantage. Unlike the Survivors, who are limited to a relatively linear path, the Infected play a sort of behind the scenes role. You can walk around many areas that the Survivors cannot access. Scattered strategically throughout the map, you will find ladders marked by glowing green claw icons that are only visible to the Infected. These ladders let you climb your way up to the top of buildings and other large objects to lay in wait. From my experience, the ladders all seemed to be in logical places such as drain pipes and worked very well. And for those of you who may be scared of heights, have no fear, because Infected take absolutely no falling damage. I don't quite understand how a methane filled Boomer can drop three stories into the group of Survivors without some sort of serious combustion, but it makes for fun times. A word of caution, however: if you cannot see the ground the jump may not be safe. There are some areas where falling will result in instant death. These are all very noticeable and I doubt you will try to jump down anywhere, expecting to live, and meet your death.
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU'RE NOT ENTIRELY USELESS
The Survivors aren't the only ones to get a pat on the back for a job well done. The Infected follow a merit system that is similar to the Survivors, although not quite as deep at the time of our playing. The Infected merits are achieved by successfully connecting with an attack: hit with your melee and you get a merit, explode on a Survivor and get another merit. If this seems unnecessary, it isn't. Let this be an example of how difficult it can be to play the Infected well. Also, as the Infected get far fewer kills than the Survivors do, breaking down the Infected successes like this is a great way to see just how much a player is contributing to the mayhem. Keep in mind, however, that one well timed attack can take out an entire team, which is far more important than having a lot of green merits on screen. So, while the Survivor's scorecard keeps track of merits, demerits, and achievements that focus on a player's ability to work well with the team and keep the other Survivors alive, the Infected will see a detailed break down of how much damage and chaos they and their fellow players were able to achieve.
LEEERRROOOYYYY...
Don't do it. I know what you're thinking. You're going to hop into your first game, switch to whatever zombie you want, and charge those red outlines like there's no tomorrow. And then you will die... quickly.
As an Infected, you have very little health, and any alert Survivor will be able to gun you down very quickly. Fortunately, we had Mike standing behind us to suggest some good places to try during our first few spawns, and we were saved the embarrassment of dying so quickly...
Okay, that's a lie. We still died pretty fast at first, but at least we got to jump out and give the guys on the Survivor side a little scare. Pretty soon we were getting into the general flow of things and with a little experimentation it was pretty painfully obvious that we were getting no where if we charged the group head on. Remember, this is a game of tactics, ambushes, and griefing.
It's difficult to discuss general combat for the Infected, as each boss plays out so differently. The only thing all bosses have in common is a melee attack. If you're waiting for that special attack to come back or if you just want to put out a little extra hurt before you get taken down, melee attack is your friend. Just a click of the left mouse button and you'll be bashing heads like a pro. We should note that besides the Tank, melee attacks were used rarely (it's not easy getting close to the gun-toting Survivors) and didn't seem to do too much damage, so don't expect to be relying on it as a primary weapon.
Another good general piece of advice is to only attack if you feel like the situation presents itself. If you've set yourself up for an ambush and the Survivors are running past in a close, organized group without any trouble from the Horde or other boss Infected, it may be best to pull back and relocate. You should always be looking to jump in at the worst possible time, so keep an eye out for Survivors who are being overwhelmed by hordes of zombies, battling with a Tank or Witch, or are hurt or separated. In most situations, you will only have one chance, so make it count or you'll be sitting and waiting for that respawn.
