Just finished my first campaign in L4D (deathtoll)

[AntiFreze]

Valve has done it again. This game rocks. There was some serious intense stuff going on. The gameplay is amazing. I don't care that this doesnt look like crysis. Valve knows fun gameplay. My heartrate was up the whole time... running for that checkpoint.... wow

Props to valve. honestly. And since I grabbed this yesterday for $25, I would say I already got my moneys worth. Can't wait to try the other 3 campaigns, then try them with friends, then on harder difficulty. I haven't even considered playing online non-campaign mode.

:thumbsup: Valve

 

[LightningRider]

The game is meant to be played multiplayer. It is way more fun with a decent human team, so if you enjoyed playing with the bots, then you'll love playing with friends, especially if you have microphones. And then after you get familiar with the game a bit you can try the VS which is hella fun as well.

 

[AntiFreze]

Originally posted by: LightningRider
The game is meant to be played multiplayer. It is way more fun with a decent human team, so if you enjoyed playing with the bots, then you'll love playing with friends, especially if you have microphones. And then after you get familiar with the game a bit you can try the VS which is hella fun as well.

Oh, I meant that I havent played in the deathmatch ones where you can be horde. I just did campaign, online, with random people. A couple of my friends got it, so we'll be shooting it up soon. 🙂

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: LightningRider
The game is meant to be played multiplayer. It is way more fun with a decent human team, so if you enjoyed playing with the bots, then you'll love playing with friends, especially if you have microphones. And then after you get familiar with the game a bit you can try the VS which is hella fun as well.

Yes and shoot the friend thats trailing behind limping towards the saferoom in the face then close the door and let the monsters have their way. Its a real team game. :thumbsup:

Defo try the versus OP, its great fun!

 

[slightlyhuman]

buying today to play sooner or later.

 

[zerocool84]

You will be hooked for a couple weeks. It's a very fun game but I'm just dissapointed in the lack of content. It got boring after a couple weeks. I didn't play it for 2 months and finally played it last night since they did that big update. It changed some thnigs around but damn, I can't wait for the extra content. This game needs it more than anything.

 

[TheVrolok]

I bought it as soon as the half price sale began, I've really enjoyed the few hours I've played but I can easily see how it get dull fairly quickly. Fun, but I don't think I've achieved the heart racing running from zombies moment yet. For 25 bucks, though, and the future content that's been promised free, I'm happy.

 

[Eeezee]

Once you've beaten all 4 campaigns, try them on expert. The game really changes on the harder difficulties.

The normal campaigns feel like a standard FPS with zombies, in expert you REALLY have to be careful and you actually start thinking about what you're doing. All of my heart racing moments have been in expert mode. Versus sometimes has them as well, but it's too easy to get a team without microphones versus a team with microphones...

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Once you've beaten all 4 campaigns, try them on expert. The game really changes on the harder difficulties.

The normal campaigns feel like a standard FPS with zombies, in expert you REALLY have to be careful and you actually start thinking about what you're doing. All of my heart racing moments have been in expert mode. Versus sometimes has them as well, but it's too easy to get a team without microphones versus a team with microphones...

What changes about expert? The usual more spawns, more damage per hit, etc.?

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Once you've beaten all 4 campaigns, try them on expert. The game really changes on the harder difficulties.

The normal campaigns feel like a standard FPS with zombies, in expert you REALLY have to be careful and you actually start thinking about what you're doing. All of my heart racing moments have been in expert mode. Versus sometimes has them as well, but it's too easy to get a team without microphones versus a team with microphones...

What changes about expert? The usual more spawns, more damage per hit, etc.?

One shot will likely KILL your teammates. Tanks 1-shot knock you down then 1 shot kill you. There are significantly more zombies which each usually 2-shot or 3-shot KILL you.

Health and ammo are practically non-existant through the whole map. There's at least 1 ammo pile ... somewhere ...

 

[Zenoth]

I like Expert difficulty, but honestly it's just crazy, it's fun ONLY if ALL your teammates not only co-operate but only if all of them and yourself are basically FPS Gods, it's fun for them, I can understand, but for someone like me I just stay away. I play on Advanced instead, and I'm so used to play on Advanced that I see Normal difficulty like a walk in the park, and Easy basically a useless setting, I don't think anyone plays on Easy unless he/she/they want to get a specific achievement the easiest way.

For me Advanced is just the right balance between good challenge and fun, especially the Tank, he's a nice tough guy on Advanced, it usually takes two or three hits before you go down, and then around three or four extra hits to kill you. The thing is that when the game was first released most difficulties were very badly adjusted, but since a few updates I clearly saw an increase in difficulty all over the board, especially on Advanced (before the last few updates the Advanced setting was simply Normal with more zombies, but it has been "fixed" since then).

 

[LeetViet]

Pro tip: Don't use your med kit until you're black/white.

I've beat the campaigns on Expert but didn't get the achievement. >>

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Once you've beaten all 4 campaigns, try them on expert. The game really changes on the harder difficulties.

The normal campaigns feel like a standard FPS with zombies, in expert you REALLY have to be careful and you actually start thinking about what you're doing. All of my heart racing moments have been in expert mode. Versus sometimes has them as well, but it's too easy to get a team without microphones versus a team with microphones...

What changes about expert? The usual more spawns, more damage per hit, etc.?

And fewer items. I don't think I've ever run into a health pack outside of a safe room.

But yes, more special zombie spawns, more normal zombie spawns, much more damage per hit (5 regular zombie hits and you're down), zombies take more hits (the tank is downright impossible without smart players or a molotov) and the AI is a bit smarter. The biggest thing is the lack of items. Compared to normal difficulty, all item spawns are uncommon, health packs must be super rare or impossible. Sometimes you'll have plenty of propane tanks but no gas cans or molotovs.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: LeetViet
Pro tip: Don't use your med kit until you're black/white.

I've beat the campaigns on Expert but didn't get the achievement. >>

Yeah, I've survived No Mercy a few times but it didn't register. I still need it for my "survive all 4 on expert" achievement 🙁

But yes, save your med kit for when you're black and white. You can pop some pills if you need to move fast temporarily, but that med kit will be the only one you get until the safe room.

Some people do the trick where you shoot nearly dead team mates right as you enter the safe room, so they respawn at half health when the door is closed, but most people view that tactic as poor form. Besides, if you're playing smart you probably still have your med kit anyway and can just heal to 80 even if you're limping.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I like Expert difficulty, but honestly it's just crazy, it's fun ONLY if ALL your teammates not only co-operate but only if all of them and yourself are basically FPS Gods, it's fun for them, I can understand, but for someone like me I just stay away. I play on Advanced instead, and I'm so used to play on Advanced that I see Normal difficulty like a walk in the park, and Easy basically a useless setting, I don't think anyone plays on Easy unless he/she/they want to get a specific achievement the easiest way.

For me Advanced is just the right balance between good challenge and fun, especially the Tank, he's a nice tough guy on Advanced, it usually takes two or three hits before you go down, and then around three or four extra hits to kill you. The thing is that when the game was first released most difficulties were very badly adjusted, but since a few updates I clearly saw an increase in difficulty all over the board, especially on Advanced (before the last few updates the Advanced setting was simply Normal with more zombies, but it has been "fixed" since then).

I played on Easy with some bots in my first run through and couldn't believe how stupid it was. I saw a boomer literally walk around a corner and stand there for 5 seconds before it did anything. That's way too easy. They should at least shamble towards you when they turn the corner...

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: TheVrolok

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Once you've beaten all 4 campaigns, try them on expert. The game really changes on the harder difficulties.

The normal campaigns feel like a standard FPS with zombies, in expert you REALLY have to be careful and you actually start thinking about what you're doing. All of my heart racing moments have been in expert mode. Versus sometimes has them as well, but it's too easy to get a team without microphones versus a team with microphones...

What changes about expert? The usual more spawns, more damage per hit, etc.?

One shot will likely KILL your teammates. Tanks 1-shot knock you down then 1 shot kill you. There are significantly more zombies which each usually 2-shot or 3-shot KILL you.

Health and ammo are practically non-existant through the whole map. There's at least 1 ammo pile ... somewhere ...

Yes, each of the levels will usually have at least one ammo, and the later levels will always have a 2nd weapon drop if you know where to look; 2nd weapons count as ammo, since picking them up gives you full ammo (even picking up a weapon you already have).

Health never spawns, but you can usually find pills. Any health box will usually only have 2 pills. But pills tend to get sucked down as soon as they're picked up.

 

[TheVrolok]

Sounds like expert is a pretty good time then. I think I'd really enjoy it if I had good fellow survivors but I imagine it could be pretty frustrating with people who aren't up to snuff.

 

[octopus41092]

Online VS mode is the best part of the game. It's much more fun when you're playing together with and against friends. 🙂

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: octopus41092
Online VS mode is the best part of the game. It's much more fun when you're playing together with and against friends. 🙂

I tried it briefly and didn't get much out of it .. it seemed like being the infected was very difficult because it was so easy to be killed. Perhaps I just played with a few good Survivor teams, or had really terribly coordinated Infected teams.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok

Originally posted by: octopus41092
Online VS mode is the best part of the game. It's much more fun when you're playing together with and against friends. 🙂

I tried it briefly and didn't get much out of it .. it seemed like being the infected was very difficult because it was so easy to be killed. Perhaps I just played with a few good Survivor teams, or had really terribly coordinated Infected teams.

That's the point... Which is why you respawn. But you do need to coordinate (IE Boomer hits, then you tackle anyone not blinded, smoker can pull survivor off high ledge and then hunters grab people running back for him.)

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I like Expert difficulty, but honestly it's just crazy, it's fun ONLY if ALL your teammates not only co-operate but only if all of them and yourself are basically FPS Gods, it's fun for them, I can understand, but for someone like me I just stay away. I play on Advanced instead, and I'm so used to play on Advanced that I see Normal difficulty like a walk in the park, and Easy basically a useless setting, I don't think anyone plays on Easy unless he/she/they want to get a specific achievement the easiest way.

For me Advanced is just the right balance between good challenge and fun, especially the Tank, he's a nice tough guy on Advanced, it usually takes two or three hits before you go down, and then around three or four extra hits to kill you. The thing is that when the game was first released most difficulties were very badly adjusted, but since a few updates I clearly saw an increase in difficulty all over the board, especially on Advanced (before the last few updates the Advanced setting was simply Normal with more zombies, but it has been "fixed" since then).

I'm not sure if difficulty overall has increased, but the smoker is a lot tougher after the last update. Until that update I hadn't really noticed that the smoker had become just an annoyance that slowed me down. After the update he could actually do some damage.

Advanced is now better then it was before with regards to difficulty, but I still feel like I need an "Advanced Plus" difficulty for when I play single player. I have relatively little difficulty outside of the finale on Advanced but Expert is just insane! I'm lucky if I get most of the way through level 3 and its tense the whole time. I remember one time I barely defeated the tank after he completely killed the 3 AI. When everyone else is dead, smokers are pretty fucking scary!

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I like Expert difficulty, but honestly it's just crazy, it's fun ONLY if ALL your teammates not only co-operate but only if all of them and yourself are basically FPS Gods, it's fun for them, I can understand, but for someone like me I just stay away. I play on Advanced instead, and I'm so used to play on Advanced that I see Normal difficulty like a walk in the park, and Easy basically a useless setting, I don't think anyone plays on Easy unless he/she/they want to get a specific achievement the easiest way.

For me Advanced is just the right balance between good challenge and fun, especially the Tank, he's a nice tough guy on Advanced, it usually takes two or three hits before you go down, and then around three or four extra hits to kill you. The thing is that when the game was first released most difficulties were very badly adjusted, but since a few updates I clearly saw an increase in difficulty all over the board, especially on Advanced (before the last few updates the Advanced setting was simply Normal with more zombies, but it has been "fixed" since then).

I'm not sure if difficulty overall has increased, but the smoker is a lot tougher after the last update. Until that update I hadn't really noticed that the smoker had become just an annoyance that slowed me down. After the update he could actually do some damage.

Advanced is now better then it was before with regards to difficulty, but I still feel like I need an "Advanced Plus" difficulty for when I play single player. I have relatively little difficulty outside of the finale on Advanced but Expert is just insane! I'm lucky if I get most of the way through level 3 and its tense the whole time. I remember one time I barely defeated the tank after he completely killed the 3 AI. When everyone else is dead, smokers are pretty fucking scary!

Update to the smoker doesn't affect the campaign mode difficulties, only the Vs. mode. And he was wrong about Advanced not being different from Normal before the update, Advanced has always introduced a higher tier of infected damage across the board relative to Normal, and it has been this way since the game's release.

Originally posted by: TheVrolok

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Once you've beaten all 4 campaigns, try them on expert. The game really changes on the harder difficulties.

The normal campaigns feel like a standard FPS with zombies, in expert you REALLY have to be careful and you actually start thinking about what you're doing. All of my heart racing moments have been in expert mode. Versus sometimes has them as well, but it's too easy to get a team without microphones versus a team with microphones...

What changes about expert? The usual more spawns, more damage per hit, etc.?

Witches are tougher and will kill you in one blow. Tanks will kill you in just a few hits and incap you with just one. Special infected can incap you in seconds (hunter slash can do 40 damage). Regular common infected can do 20 damage... you basically can't afford to take many hits at all. Also, team damage is deadly, you cannot afford to hit your teammates whereas in other difficulties you can get lazy - one shotgun blast can incapacitate a teammate, and when you're getting zerg rushed by infected with boomer vomit disrupting your vision, you can easily lose track of teammates...

Also, the AI director isn't going to be kind with supplies.

So basically you can't afford to be hit and thus you'll want to make sure you cannot be flanked, however it isn't always possible to keep a perfectly defensible position as you have to traverse several areas that make you vulnerable. It really does force your squad to buckle down and execute tactical perfection.

 

[ViviTheMage]

pfft, I went strait to online play on expert...kicked ass, didn't even have to do solo campaigns! I will eventually though ^_^.

It's intense, you have to go slow...unlike the easier modes, where I could just run and jump and shoot and everything would just flop over, haha.

fun game though, gotta get some zombie killing practice in!

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok

Originally posted by: octopus41092
Online VS mode is the best part of the game. It's much more fun when you're playing together with and against friends. 🙂

I tried it briefly and didn't get much out of it .. it seemed like being the infected was very difficult because it was so easy to be killed. Perhaps I just played with a few good Survivor teams, or had really terribly coordinated Infected teams.

Versus as an infected is all about strategy, moving ahead to a location where you can organize with the rest of your group and all go in at once. The most fun is having the boomer hit 2-4 of the survivors, then have the smoker pull one, and the hunter come in and pounce while at least half the team is incapacitated or covered in goo.

When you get a good idea of how to play a couple of the infected, it's tough to go back to regular coop. Also, playing versus with a good group really adds to the experience in general. Teams on both sides benefit from close communications and sticking together for defense or attacking.