A Letter to Valve, My L4D (Versus) Grievances

To whom it may concern,

 

Before I begin my ranting, raving, and listing of everything I dislike about Left 4 Dead versus mode let me first say that despite its myriad flaws I enjoy playing it a great deal. And the problems, while significant, are to be expected. Even the most rigorous internal testing cannot quash the efforts of tens of thousands of players doing their damnedest to exploit. So I forgive you. Now, on to the ranting:

 

Coming into the closet

Some might call this good tactics, but more than that it is tremendous anti-climax. I believe there is a reason you refer to actions like calling the elevator (and alerting the horde) "panic events".

 

 

Perhaps the greatest argument against these small spaces are the ones offered in the developer commentary. You stated the finale level for No Mercy was reworked many times so that players would be challenged by zombies coming from all sides and be greeted by the spectacle of the oncoming tide. Your intentions have clearly been circumvented by the area under the ramp which acts as a choke point to all infected similar to a closet. And that ramp area is only one of a growing number of 'safe' locations for survivors to weather what should be the most challenging portions of the game. Camping in small spaces is too easy and, frankly, too boring to continue to be a part of L4D.

 

A Designated No Smoking Game

Being able to attack from long range seems like it should be an advantage but the fact is a great deal of L4D takes place in small rooms and narrow hallways; which make smokers easy targets. On top of this (and oddly enough) smokers seem to be the least effective at the job for which they were specifically designed. Whenever players are clustered together a simple melee attack will free a survivor and failing that a single shot grazing the tongue will break its hold. If players are standing next to each other to begin with its a given that they will be able to perform one or both of these actions with ease.

 

It is hard enough for a smoker to separate a team that is on the run but against a group of players that is holed up inside a room? Forget it. Maybe this problem will be diminished as new maps are introduced but until a smoker's value isn't negated by a light tap to its Gene Simmons-esque appendage; its going to be the most situational and least useful of the special infected.

 

The bigger they are the... longer they burn?

 

The tank is wonderfully designed in versus mode. Against upgraded weapons the survivors can make short work of it but with a bit of teamwork the tank is force to be reckoned with. Or rather that is what I'd like to say. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on whose side your on) there are molotovs. More and more players are learning that once caught on fire the tank never stops burning. At face value that doesn't seem so bad since survivors still have to fight two tons of burning flesh even if it is slow roasting alive. However, a few shrewd players have put two and two together: If the tank never stops burning and it hurts really bad when it hits you... why not just run away?

 

Granted, running away isn't always entirely possible due to the tank spawning early in the map, or immediately after a section where the survivors cannot backtrack. However, the rest of the time players get to take a quick trip down memory lane; the land in which they've destroyed every last infected and have nothing left to bar their freedom run from yon pillar of sizzling brawn.

 

Sometimes the other special infected will be able to slow the survivors up if they are hightailing it back towards the starting area but infected can't plan for tank spawns and so any harassment survivors receive is predominantly haphazard and ineffective. Again, as with the closet camping, the best argument against permanently burning tanks is in the developer commentary.

 

One of the early pipe bombs could kill a tank. Kinda cool, but this idea was scrapped because it was anti-climactic. The tank is supposed to be a force to be reckoned with, not a problem a single item can solve. Maybe the molotov isn't an instant kill but it is anti-climactic for the same reason. One molotov kills a tank, no one needs to fire a shot.

 

I don't know what World War III will be fought with, but World War IV will be fought with elbows.

 

Melee attacking in L4D versus is absolutely insane. I'm very tempted to see if a group of players can beat a level or two without firing a shot. Akimbo Assasin eat your heart out. A clustered group of survivors spamming melee attack can achieve the following:

 

1) Stop nearly all hunter pounces

2) Immediately rescue smokered teammates

3) Knockback any charging boomers

4) Render basic infected almost completely useless (in many cases, completely useless)

5) Free any teammates from hunters before significant damage is dealt, if any at all.

 

Now, that may look like a short list but the only thing that leaves is the mighty tank to break up the karate action. With smokers, hunters, and boomers all getting elbows to the chin and a white-out; survivors have taken to chasing special infected down like Muay Thai champions. It is simply more effective to keep a hunter or smoker completely disabled (and soon dead) by spamming melee attack then it is to fire and risk their escape.

 

 

That video is as riveting to play as it is to watch. And don't even get me started on the fact that you can fully reload while spamming melee attack.

 

And one more thing...

---

 

Now, you may be thinking I must be some twisted survivor hating zombie supporter. But that isn't the case. The game forces me to play both sides equally and I enjoy them both. The problems I've outlined here are symptomatic of having too easy a time (as a survivor) and too difficult a time as a special infected. Its not so bad when I play with a random unorganized group of people but when one or both teams know what they're doing: the job of the special infected becomes incredibly difficult.

 

Near perfect timing and positioning is required to deal any sort of substantial damage and these situations are almost entirely dependent on the actions of the survivors. Even though the AI director changes things up a bit the problem is that the survivors can constantly refine the way they play through the levels, minimizing risk and increasing speed. This means less respawns for special infected and fewer chances to capitalize on vulnerable survivors. Essentially the infected are just along for the ride and are forced to adapt to survivor behaviour to a much greater degree than survivors have to adapt to theirs.

 

Advanced and Expert difficulty went a long way towards making things more challenging for survivors but with their forced removal I'd like to see steps taken towards buffing the special infected or nerfing the survivors.

 

The Steam L4D stats may reflect a very low rate of survivor succes but that is undoubtedly due to new players and random, unorganized teams. Please make this game exciting for players who are organized and experienced as well.

 

Sincerely,

 

Kyle P.

GameRiot Community Manager

www.gameriot.com

 

P.S. Consider an option for normalizing tank and witch spawns. Many players get very upset (and leave games) when they have to fight a tank or witch when the other team didn't. Also, it is very annoying when one team has to fight a tank before they get upgraded weapons while the other team gets to fight it with upgraded weapons. I don't know if this bothers everyone, but in my limited experience it seems to annoy quite a few people.

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