Left 4 Dead Hands-on Preview - Infected Side
BOOMER - IS THAT YOU, SANTA?
If you were with us since the beginning, you'll remember our fondness for the loveable Boomer. He's just so jolly; and when he laughs, his belly jiggles like a bowl full of... well... blood, guts, and methane gas. Words can't express just how fat, ugly, and disgusting the Boomer actually is.
Despite his unfortunate ugliness (or perhaps because of), I really loved the Boomer and he was probably my favorite of the three normal bosses (it's not fair to compare the Tank here). While the Smoker and Hunter mainly focus on taking out one Survivor at a time, the Boomer can cause mass destruction of the whole team, and just overall chaos and confusion. That being said, he is definitely the most immediately accessible of the Infected side.
The Boomer attacks primarily by spewing blood on the Survivors (yummy). The vomit is relatively short ranged, but with the right move may be used to cover all four Survivors. Doing this will be pretty tough to pull off, as the record at Valve seemed to be three in one puking. When a Survivor is hit by the puke, they are temporarily blinded by blood covering the player's screen. If this isn't bad enough, the vomit apparently possesses some sort of zombie pheromone because zombies from all over will be drawn to the unfortunate victim. Not only pre-existing zombies are attracted, but also the Director will spawn more zombies to chase down the Survivor. Since the Survivor is effectively blinded, it is the rest of the team's responsibility to tackle the situation. With cool heads, the surplus zombies may be tackled like any other swarm. If the team panics (which happens more often in tight quarters) this may do some serious damage to the whole team. The Boomer has a long while to wait before he can vomit again, so make your first shot count.
As a Boomer you will have almost no health whatsoever. In fact, one blast and you are as good as dead and, as it turns out, this is a blessing. As the Boomer's name implies, he certainly goes out with a boom; the Boomer explodes upon death, not only creating a sweet visual but also doing serious damage to zombie and survivor alike. Therefore, the Survivors are forced to destroy the Boomer at a distance. Again, a cool headed Survivor may smash the Boomer back with his melee attack before falling back to a safe distance to take you out but if you catch someone on edge, instincts might kick in and suddenly half their team is caught in the blast.
These abilities, plus his surprisingly low health and slow speed, mean the Boomer is typically going to be playing as a suicide bomber or a slightly mobile landmine. The obvious tactic is to set yourself outside a door or around a corner, waiting for the Survivors to rush through. Quickly release your blood and hope someone is stupid enough to blast you. Panic ensues and you get a good laugh as the Survivors are destroyed. It should be noted here that all kills from any zombies as a result of your puke is credited to you.
Unfortunately, the Boomer's options are fairly limited after this. In most cases, you will not be able to stroll right up to the Survivors and expect to get within puking range. A favorite tactic of mine was to jump down into the middle of the Survivors from some hidden vantage point to catch them unaware (remember no falling damage for Infected).
Even in a good ambush spot, it's not all daisies. The Boomer has a tendency to emit a very distinct, laborious groan every so often (you would too if you were in his condition). Survivors will learn to recognize this and be on the alert, often shooting through walls and doors. Unfortunately, due to his large model, I did notice a few clipping incidents where a shoulder or belly roll briefly poked through a wall, revealing my position. These things are to be expected in development but we definitely would like to see this ironed out before release.
As I said before, the Boomer is both fun and accessible right out of the box. A smart ambush can result in game over for the whole team. This is going to be the boss to really look out for if you have a bad player on your team, and catching your teammates in the Boomer's blast is going to be more embarrassing than a badly thrown grenade. If you're looking to cause full-team grief or to make one guy look really bad, this is the boss for you.
