Left 4 Dead 2 versus Left 4 Dead?

[PingSpike]

I bought L4D way back when it came out...but didn't really get to play it since I didn't have broadband at the time. Now I do and I've played a few campaigns and its been fun for the most part. I haven't tried versus yet...I wish there was an AI option to play as the infected so I could get a feel for how they work before I jump in and stink the place up.

Should I just buy 2 though? I'm not sure how much overlap there is or if L4D is even really considered worth playing at this point. I haven't been paying attention since L4D came out.

 

[Red Storm]

Valve basically jumped ship to #2. They are in the process of re-releasing the original maps for #2 (one is already done, another to be released later this month).

I really prefer the characters, music and feel of the first game over the 2nd, but you're best is to get L4D2 if you really want to spend time playing it. If your friends only have L4D1 however, then stick with that and enjoy playing with them!

 

[Lifixs]

I play L4D2 more than L4D. There are more people to play with and plenty of great custom maps. There is some crossover with the first group of survivors if that matters at all to you. They even added the No Mercy campaign for free and soon their going to add in Dead Air.

Yes imo you should get it.

 

[Texashiker]

Should I just buy 2 though? I'm not sure how much overlap there is or if L4D is even really considered worth playing at this point.

Just buy left 4 dead 2, valve is in the process of releasing the original maps in l4d2.

Releated thread - dead air release date announced

Dead air for l4d2 is supposed to be released on or before july 22.

I seriously doubt that the original l4d is going to get too many more updates.

To me, it appears that valve pushed the original out the door just in time for the christmas rush. When the original was released, there were so many bugs, valve was releasing updates almost weekly. I remember the orignal getting almost weekly patches all the way out to April, a whole 5 months after release.

With l4d2, valve has a well rounded game, but it has not been updated as much as it should. There are glitches in the game that have been there from day 1. The glitches are not game killers, but they cause problems, like the charger hitting a survivor, going around the the survivor, and not grabbing them. The finale in dark carnival is one sided, and has been that way since day 1.

In the near future the l4d developers have promised some serious updates.

If you dont know about it, here is the l4d developers twitter account - https://twitter.com/#!/l4ddev They post updates on a regular basis.

 

[PingSpike]

I just noticed my amusing Left 3 Dead typo. Not sure what happened there.

Yeah, I was just going to play Left 4 Dead 1 for awhile because I liked the campaign and characters and just jump on 2 if a super deal came along. But then I started seeing some stuff saying the L4D1 campaigns were becoming available in L4D2 so I was wondering there was any point. I think I'll just snag 2 tonight. Are they going to move all the 1 campaigns over eventually?

 

[Fallen Kell]

The finale in dark carnival is one sided, and has been that way since day 1.

One sided in what way? Bear in mind I don't play vs multiplayer, just campaign mode.

 

[Texashiker]

One sided in what way? Bear in mind I don't play vs multiplayer, just campaign mode.

Looking from the stage, right hand side, up towards the top of the bleachers, survivors can camp at a booth. The only way infected can attack is from a corner where the common spawn, or from a room. Survivors working in teams of 2 can keep the common and special infected at a distance.

The tank has nothing he can hit at the survivors while they are in the bleachers. Once you catch the tank on fire, its pretty much over.

Finales:

Dead center - tank can move around the upper decks.
Parish - tank has cars on the bridge.
Swamp - tank has survivors in a small area
Dark carnival - tank is usually dead real quick
Heavy rain - survivors have limited view, and tank has a building he can work around, cars to hit,,,.

Infected need a way to get on top of the overhang, or behind the survivors and go over the fence.

The one thing that helps the infected, is that the survivors run out of ammo and have to make a couple of ammo runs.

Its been posted on the official left 4d dead blog, l4d.com, that the dark carnival finale is getting a make over.

 

[QuantumPion]

I always felt that L4D1 was the conceptual experiment and L4D2 was the polished commercial product.

 

[Modeps]

L4D2 is a great game. If you haven't tried versus yet you're doing it wrong. Get 8 people together, and go nuts. So much fun.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

l4d2 surpasses the original is just about every way. once the sequel was released I think I only went back to the first one once? to play dead air...

they need to bring the remaining campaigns over, but that should be there this year (one coming this month)

plus, its cheap.

 

[Red Storm]

I need to find a mod that replaces the sequel's music/sounds with the original's.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I just noticed my amusing Left 3 Dead typo. Not sure what happened there.

Yeah, I was just going to play Left 4 Dead 1 for awhile because I liked the campaign and characters and just jump on 2 if a super deal came along. But then I started seeing some stuff saying the L4D1 campaigns were becoming available in L4D2 so I was wondering there was any point. I think I'll just snag 2 tonight. Are they going to move all the 1 campaigns over eventually?

You can edit your title you know?

 

[BudAshes]

hah, i thought left 4 dead 3 was out and i had somehow totally missed hearing about it.

 

[gorobei]

l4d was a half assed product. tons of glitches and 50 gameplay tweeks later and it still wasnt right. so naturally they jumped to l4d2 barely 1 year after the first one released.

2 is still borked as far as vs is concerned. too many exploits, too many ledge hanging spots 1 foot of the ground, idiotic limits on spawn distance, not enough infected ladders, etc. in other words all the stuff they didnt fix in 1 is still there. The new SI classes are great, but until you can control what class you spawn it is way too predictable.

i play on a 10v10 server with buy menu, class select, and super jump. it is the most fun you can have and way less linear/predictable than default 4v4. It is the way l4d should have stayed (if you ever saw the early early beta video, class select was there long before valve acquired them).

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

Should have gotten on it during the Steam summer sale.

 

[OCGuy]

Really can't wait for the next one.

 

[PingSpike]

So I played a little last night. Pretty annoyed I missed that summer sale but I would have spent that much on a sandwich or something so no big deal.

Some one said versus is great. I've heard the community is awful and they expect you to be awesome at it. I ask how the hell I'm suppose to be awesome when I don't even know the mechanics of the infected. I played survivor campaign single player so I know that...but AFAIK there's no way to play the infected single player so they only way I can learn the basics is to join a server and let my team down repeatedly by sucking it up. It'd be nice if they had a single player mode for that so I could at least learn the controls and game mode.

I only played L4D1 last weekend quick match and while I played with a few teams that stank I only had one whiner who later apologized. I played with a few teams that were really good too.

I haven't really played 2 enough yet but most of the people I did play with kind of stank...which doesn't really matter to me in and of itself. But they also had kind of bad attitudes. I also encountered a player who ran 1000 yards ahead and was killed while we held off a rush and then complained over the mic everyone else didn't know the maps. He even had a stereotypical nerd voice.

I probably just got lucky with L4D and unlucky in L4D2.

Not sure what my thoughts are on the new weapons...they seem kind of redundant. I see they nerfed the ammo capacity for shotguns...which I think is good because in L4D1 it felt like picking the SMG or the assault rifle was stupid since the shotguns almost never ran out of ammo in comparison. I don't know if I like the melee weapons or not so far.

Regarding both games: Is there a way to control the quick match selection? Because it sort of sucks. About 50% of the time it connects me to a server where I have a ping of 200+ which is unplayable and a complete waste of my time. One time the players were clearly all from South America and only spoke spanish. I don't want to play those games. If that was all that was available I'd prefer it report "no games available" rather than connecting.

 

[Texashiker]

I ask how the hell I'm suppose to be awesome when I don't even know the mechanics of the infected.

Get with some friends and play some private games. Have them go over the ambush spots and good combinations with you.

And go watch some youtube videos. There are lots videos on youtube that give good tips on how to improve your gameplay.

 

[Red Storm]

Texas is right, you need to play with friends. Having said that, it would be really nice to have an option to play a 4 player co-op game where you and your friends can play as the infected only.

 

[cyphilis]

L4D2 would be perfect, if you could play as the L4D characters in every map in versus. I just can't "feel" for the characters in 2, although they are still pretty good and very funny at times. I agree with others, just buy 2 since all of 1 will be in there soon enough.

 

[PingSpike]

I'll be honest...if play with friends is the only way to practice maps as infected and familiarize yourself with their control mechanics then its no surprise a lot of people experience ragequits and unskilled teams in versus in this game. The infected seem to have a far worse learning curve than the survivors since there are 6 different classes. Seems to be a lot of rage over it in the steam forums, but you know...steam forums.

 

[gorcorps]

So I played a little last night. Pretty annoyed I missed that summer sale but I would have spent that much on a sandwich or something so no big deal.

Some one said versus is great. I've heard the community is awful and they expect you to be awesome at it. I ask how the hell I'm suppose to be awesome when I don't even know the mechanics of the infected. I played survivor campaign single player so I know that...but AFAIK there's no way to play the infected single player so they only way I can learn the basics is to join a server and let my team down repeatedly by sucking it up. It'd be nice if they had a single player mode for that so I could at least learn the controls and game mode.

I only played L4D1 last weekend quick match and while I played with a few teams that stank I only had one whiner who later apologized. I played with a few teams that were really good too.

I haven't really played 2 enough yet but most of the people I did play with kind of stank...which doesn't really matter to me in and of itself. But they also had kind of bad attitudes. I also encountered a player who ran 1000 yards ahead and was killed while we held off a rush and then complained over the mic everyone else didn't know the maps. He even had a stereotypical nerd voice.

I probably just got lucky with L4D and unlucky in L4D2.

Not sure what my thoughts are on the new weapons...they seem kind of redundant. I see they nerfed the ammo capacity for shotguns...which I think is good because in L4D1 it felt like picking the SMG or the assault rifle was stupid since the shotguns almost never ran out of ammo in comparison. I don't know if I like the melee weapons or not so far.

Regarding both games: Is there a way to control the quick match selection? Because it sort of sucks. About 50% of the time it connects me to a server where I have a ping of 200+ which is unplayable and a complete waste of my time. One time the players were clearly all from South America and only spoke spanish. I don't want to play those games. If that was all that was available I'd prefer it report "no games available" rather than connecting.

Meh, I'm new to it as well. If people don't like it they can just suck it up and deal with it. Everybody was new at some point and the fun part is discovering on your own how to utilize the different characters. Each zombie is very different and has to be used in different ways.

 

[Red Storm]

It would be fun if we could play as a regular infected zombie while waiting to respawn as a special infected. Though I know, it's more important to see what's going on so you know when and where to go. But it would be fun!

 

[Texashiker]

Meh, I'm new to it as well. If people don't like it they can just suck it up and deal with it.

You will probably get vote kicked before they "deal with it".

Everybody was new at some point

There is a difference between someone that tries, and someone that does not try.

 

[jordanecmusic]

Left4Dead is much more gritty, scary, and dark. The characters respond in a very smart manner when they are either reloading, picking up a weapon, locating something, etc. Levels are very claustrophobic causing you to panic when you are being chased down a dark hallway when a witch on fire is chasing you (or a zombie or twenty). You got your Boomer, Smoker, Tank, Witch, and Hunter. Left4Dead is how a real zombie apocalypse is supposed to play in a video game. This iteration of the game does not have the stutter bug that comes with Left 4 Dead 2.

Left4Dead 2 is comical but more gory. The pink mist you get in L4D1 with the pipebomb. Now you get body parts flying everywhere. The genious of the AI on your team has been significantly reduced. They no longer respond with "pills here" but with "I found a thingy here and i's gonna eat it cause im stoopid". The levels have more open areas which leads to a lesser chance of being cornered and much less scares in the game. You got the same 5 special infected plus the Spitter, Jockey (no reason for this if there's a hunter), and Charger (no reason for this if there's a tank). Witches can now move around now, which makes them much less dangerous. MUCH less dangerous. Left4Dead2 seems to be a satire of the original game. Left 4 Dead 2 also comes with an annoying bug that causes the "Multicore Rendering" feature to stutter and potentially crash your game. Valve really needs to fix this.


I have both games. I can tell you Left4Dead1 is much better than Left4Dead2. If you want more skilled players to play with, L4D1 is your game. If you want more people to play with, L4D2 is your game. If you want to panic because the zombies got you, play Left4Dead1. If you want to panic because the special infected got you, play Left4Dead2.


Sorry for the bump but this explicitly needed to be clarified.