Left 4 Dead Hands-on Preview - Infected Side
HUNTER CONTINUED
The pounce is much harder to pull off but is useful in many more situations and can be quite satisfying. To setup for the pounce, you must first become invisible. When invisible, your jump will arc you towards your opponent, where you will land on top of them and proceed to shred them to pieces. At this point you are fully committed to the attack and, like the Smoker, cannot stop until the Survivor is dead. Think of the pounce as trying to land a grenade directly on the head of the Survivor. Our biggest mistake with this was trying to strike the Survivor directly, rather than landing on top, so be sure to arc yourself up and onto the player, rather than smashing head first into them (pictured below). The Survivor does have a brief moment to counter your pounce with a melee attack, which will leave you vulnerable and most likely dead. If you succeed in the pounce, the remaining Survivors can either blast you or knock you off with the melee attack (if at all possible, Survivors, use your melee attack: friendly fire hurts). If teammates do not interfere, you will continue slashing the Survivor until they are dead.
When aiming to strike with the pounce, you must take into account that it's an arc and not a straight shot. Being able to judge distance and timing will be critical to playing the Hunter successfully.
Finally, the Hunter possesses the ability to regenerate lost health over time. The Hunter can survive a few hits from the Survivors and his speed and mobility means that you can launch a series of hit and run attacks, wearing the Survivors down and keeping them on edge. Regeneration allows the Hunter to heal up while waiting for the next strike. From a Survivor's perspective, this means that you cannot let a Hunter get away, or you will be faced with a fully healed zombie in the near future.
Although the Hunter sounds flawless, the very nature of his attacks leave the Hunter quite vulnerable. While the Smoker strikes at a range, tearing the player away from his group, and the Boomer is most deadly at close range, the Hunter's attacks require him to jump directly into the fray, where he is most vulnerable. Although his attack is more difficult to counter, the pounce requires the Hunter to be entirely immobile during the attack, where he is typically surrounded by Survivors. While pouncing Hunters certainly caused me to jump out of my seat a few times, very often they were just something to be bowled over with the melee attack.
The Hunter can really shine in all situations, whether you're looking to pounce a lone Survivor, harass with hit and run lunges and melee attacks, knock players from ledges, or surprise attack in close quarters. The Hunter is the most difficult of the three basic bosses to take down due to its speed and therefore can keep the Survivors distracted and frustrated for extended periods of time.
Overall, playing as the Hunter was frustration interrupted by serious satisfaction. There's certainly a lot of depth with this boss and I would assume that more time with this character will result in a lot more fun and a lot less anger, as a skilled player will be able to consistently land pounces from considerable distances. Just be aware that this one's going to have a tougher learning curve than the rest.
