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Regarding the Release date for Left 4 Dead, Pre-Ordering, and the Demo:
Left 4 Dead will be released on the 18th of November worldwide on Steam. Retail-wise, Left 4 Dead will hit US botique shelves on the 18th, mainstream stores on the 19th, with the rest of the world seeing the game on the 21st. Pre-ordering and pre-loading over Steam will be available on the 15th of October.
A Left 4 Dead demo is slated to be released either late October or early November. The demo will contain the first two levels of the Hospital campaign.
LEFT 4 DEAD
?Fight together?or die alone?
Released Information
Gameplay
Gameplay is divided into Survivor and Infected sides. Take your pick.
Survivors
To start off...
- Left 4 Dead is a First Person Shooter Co-operative Multiplayer game in which you can play as one of up to four people (called ?Survivors?), luckily immune to a virus that?s sent most of the population raving mad. You, as a survivor, are pitched against an endless horde of infected humans, turned into deranged psychopaths, as a result of the lost battle against the virus.
- There are no character classes, every player starts off on an even footing in terms of skills and weaponry, meaning success requires teamwork and quick thinking.
- At the start of each campaign of choice you and your comrades begin with a basic pistol. Next to you are tables from which you can grab your choice of SMG or shotgun, and an explosive. Then you get into the action.
- Friendly Fire is always on in all difficulty levels, and there is no way of turning it off.
- Your goal is simple...survive. Reach the rescue zone at the end of the campaign.
The 'Infected'
- Whilst players with 21st-century weapons pitted against weaponless psychopaths with no thought of tactics may seem like a no brainer, it won?t be. The infected have one very clear advantage?
...numbers. BIG numbers.
- The infected horde is gigantic, they pour out from everywhere. A lack of strength means nothing if there are a good fifty or so of them attacking at once.
- One thing that needs to be stressed is the speed of the Infected. These aren't half-dead shamblers, they are alive, mad, and their speed shows it. They are insanely fast.
- Usually you'll find infected wandering around the city aimlessly. But once they see you, they'll know you're not one of them, and their demeanour changes immediately. Their only thought is of stomping your face in and, unless you do something about it, that's exactly what they'll do.
- You cannot kill all of the infected. There is no set number of them. They attack you at the Director's discretion, and they will not stop coming. The goal is to escape, there is no way you can survive if you stay in one spot for too long.
Unfair Advantages
- As the survivors, you have access to a variety of projectile weapons and happy little explosives. Shotguns, Uzis, Molotov Cocktails, and Pipe Bombs are all at your disposal from the get-go, with more weapons becoming available as the game progresses through the separate levels of the campaign (scroll down further for a more in-depth view of the weapons).
- Equipment-wise, you have a flashlight (unlimited battery) for seeing in the dark, can see the outlines of your teammates through walls and other objects so you don't get separated, and have one med-kit each for healing yourself or a teammate.
- There is a melee attack with your weapon that does some minimal damage, but its important aspect is that it pushes the infected back. Tactical uses of this become apparant with the knowledge that pushing one into another will cause both to fall down, and domino effects are quite in play. Also, the only way to effectively combat some of the Boss-Infected without hurting your teammates is to melee them away before using the more deadly aspects of your chosen weapon.
- As a Survivor, you can close and lock doors behind you. This effectively stalls any infected pursuing you, for a while. They can and will break through wooden doors, but it takes a while, and it is also possible to blow a hole in it yourself use it to shoot at them, though that only delays the inevitable. Of course, certain Boss-Infected don't find doors very hard to open. Or walls, for that matter.
'Til death do us part...
- Death is being handled differently in Left 4 Dead, but note you will not get Infected if you die.
- Instead of dying outright when your health reaches zero, a Survivor will fall to the earth and be unable to move, only having the energy to weakly fire their pistol.
- When you hit the dirt, a 'bleed out' timer commences. Pretty much your health is replaced by temporary health (300 points), which slowly depletes (at 3 health points per second), with any extra damage from Infected (or careless teammates) depleting it faster. When it is depleted, you die.
- Here, a mate can help. You can be 'revived' by your mates if they face you and press the appropriate key, causing them to pick you up and keep you going. Of course, this takes precious time and, when you're bearing the brunt of an infected horde, sometimes it's wiser to deal with them first.
- You can only be revived three times. When you've used up all three of your revives, your view will become black and white and your health temporary. If you die again, you will immediately die rather than simply being knocked down.
- When you die, you have to spectate until your teammates find another Survivor, either barricaded in a closet or at the next checkpoint, depending on where you died on the map. When you respawn after death, you start off again with basic equipment, wherever you are.
- The speed at which you move is affected by your health. 100% and you're beating Cathy Freeman, 1% and you're slower than a two-legged turtle with heamorrhoids. It's important for healthy survivors to keep an eye on their injured comrades, as it can be all too easy to leave them behind to be easy pickings for Infected. It is in every Survivor's best interest to keep everyone at full health, as the group can only move as fast as it's slowest member.
- Each survivor will be able to carry one medkit, which can be used to patch yourself or your mates up, it can only be replaced by finding one at the next checkpoint
- There are also pills, which give you a temporary health boost that depletes back to base health over time. You have to be cautious with these.
The Director
- You will not be wading through hordes of infected from start to finish. What Valve has implemented is an AI Director that places the infected on the map in real time using no flags or checkpoints at all. It is intelligent enough to place them on it's own, needing only a map to be able to work with.
- As a result every game is relatively unique to play through, as you will never know where and how many zombies are going to be hitting you at any certain time.
- The director also works on a system of highs and lows. There will be times you are fighting for your life, and there will be times where you don't encounter an infected for a minute.
- There are a few small mini-stands scattered throughout a campaign, as well as the finale while waiting for the rescue vehicle, but apart from that, the Director is not scripted.
Communication
- In a co-op game, especially one such as this, communication is vital. Implemented into Left 4 Dead is a call system that involves pressing one of three keys (z/x/c, which correspond to Orders/Questions and Answers/Alerts and Warnings) and moving your mouse in the direction of what you need to say.
- Also, there is an implemented auto-alert system in which your character automatically says something when a certain event happens (ie 'Help!' when knocked down, or 'Boomer!' when the crosshairs are centred on a Boomer).
- There is over 1000 lines of dialogue for each character so generally there is a good variety of voice-acting available.
- On top of this is the ever present in-game chat, allowing communication between players with microphones.
Infected
Choosing the other side
- You can, if you want, decide to forgoe the weak realm of sanity and become an Infected psychopath, hellbent on killing the four survivors.
- This is entirely different from playing as a Survivor. Your goal is to terrorise and kill, to do your absolute best to hamper and harass the Survivors until they are overwhelmed.
- If you choose to be one of the infected, you?ll assume the role of a ?Boss Infected?.
It's all in your head
- As a Boss Infected, your goal is the same as that of the infected horde, kill the Survivors before they can escape.
- With hundreds of Infected at your side, it may seem an easy chore, but with the infected as weak as they are (they are only human, after all), you will not survive, let alone hurt anything, by mindlessly charging in there.
- Tactics is the game here, you know when, where, and how you are going to attack. They don't. This immediately gives you an advantage, and it is up to you to use that advantage to it's fullest potential.
Boss Classes
- There are four playable types of Boss-Infected, known as the Boomer, the Hunter, the Smoker, and the Tank (scroll down for a more in-depth look at them). The first three are the most common, with the Director spawning you as them more often, while the latter is given out randomly at certain times due to it's power.
- There are limits as to how many Boss Infected there can be at once as well as limits on each Boss infected (One Boomer at any one time etc.). The Director has full control over what Boss Infected you will spawn as, though you can choose your preferred type.
- Everyone will get a chance to play as a Tank before someone gets a chance to play him for the second time.
- The Boss-Infected Respawn timer is still under constant tweaking to balance it without frustrating the players on either team. Currently Boss-Infected can respawn anything from 30-60 seconds after they die, but this is not final.
- All Boss Infected have a basic melee attack, it's not a primary weapon (exception the Tank), but it helps to dish out some pain before you lose your head. Apart from this, the Boss Infected rely heavily on their special abilities to kill the Survivors. All the bosses special abilities are geared towards different types of play, and can all be devestating if used correctly. Scroll further down for a more in-depth look at the Boss Infected themselves.
Stickin' it to 'em
- Playing as the Infected is very different from the Survivor side. Most obviously when you take your position behind a pair of bloodied hands, you can see the outline of survivors as a red, ghostly figure which can be used to see them through walls. The game also shows the likely route the survivors will take, if you are standing still, as red arrows on the floor, further enhancing the ability to stalk and strike at the most inopportune moment.
- There is an exception to this 'Survivorvision'. If a Survivor is standing completely still, without their flashlight on and aren't shooting, the red outline becomes nonexistant.
- So, Infected players can almost always see where the group of survivors are thus they always have the element of surprise, being able to position themselves on rooftops, behind doors or anywhere else that could give them a tactical advantage.
- Other advantages of being Infected is complete immunity to fall damage, night vision, and having the ability to climb parts of walls that aren't available to Survivors. Thus the infected have a great deal more of the map available to them, and are much more mobile, with the ability to attack from any angle.
The Director
- What you will first notice when the Director pops you into the map, is that you can choose exactly where you spawn, with the only limitation being that you can't spawn within a pre-determined distance of the Survivors. Generally, the director will drop you ahead of the Survivor's path.
- What essentially happens is that you are put into the map as a 'ghost', then you run around, look at the surroundings, and choose yourself a place to spawn. Then you go annoy the Survivors.
- The Director has full control over what Boss Infected you will spawn as. If you die, you are respawned after a short wait to continue toward your goal.
- By working with the Director (as in watching his deployment of the other infected) you can spin things to your advantage while attacking the Survivors, such as dropping into the middle of them from a rooftop as a Boomer when they are surrounded by infected. Or, if you are lucky enough to find the Witch before them, attack in a way as to herd them towards her.
Psychotic Tactics
- Apart from the Tank, playing as the infected tends to go towards ambushing. You want to attack when it's the worst time for the Survivors, and generally this involves you stalking, waiting around a certain corner, then WHAM! You've scared the poopers out of them and maybe even done some damage
- Generally, if you attack, don't be surprised if you die, especially if you charge head-on. Infected are weak, even the Boss', and attacking from a ambush will not guarantee you anything unless you do it right. The whole goal is not to outright kill the survivors yourself, but make enough mayhem in their ranks so they can get separated, overwhelmed, or just plain confused enough so the horde can rip them to shreds. Sure you can kill them, and you should, a skilled and lucky player can take all of the Survivors out in one go. But don't run in there expecting to notch a kill every time.
- As for the Tank, you must do the complete opposite. You can be heard for miles, and if you don't attack Survivors in a certain time, it's the worse off for you. So basically you find them, and try to kill them. Throwing cars at them is particularly effective.
- Playing Infected is for the most part very tactical, apart from the obvious (the Tank for those who can't see the obvious). You have to choose the right moment, the right place, and the right way to attack, otherwise you won't do anything worth noting.
Other
Gameplay Modes and the Campaign
- There are two gameplay modes currently planned for Left 4 Dead. A Co-op Survival mode and another mode tentatively called 'Deathmatch'. 'Survival' is Co-op only, with no Human controlled Infected at all, while 'Deathmatch' is assumed to allow Infected players as well.
- Nevertheless, in both modes, the Survivor's must escape their predicament by getting to a point where an escape vehicle can pick them up. As the Infected (if the mode allows it), you have to stop them.
- There are four campaigns, consisting of 5 maps each, which can be both played offline (with AI controlled friends and enemies) or online with up to 8 players (four Survivors and four Boss Infected). They are seperated by the aforementioned 'checkpoints' in which you restock on ammo and health, and dead teammates revive if they were killed towards the end of a map.
- At the moment it seems each campaign can take up to an hour to finish (you can leave the game anytime you want, you'll just be replaced by a bot until someone else joins), meaning each particular map takes about 10 minutes to complete.
- At each checkpoint you'll recieve merit and demerit points depending on what you did that was meritible (kills and healing mates) or downright stupid (Team Kills, especially when detonating the Boomer).
- At the end of each campaign, there will be an elaborate ?last stand? in which you and your mates must hold off wave upon wave of Infected waiting for the rescue vehicle to come and uh...rescue you. The infected will temporarily stop attacking you so you can set up your defence, then you radio the rescue vehicle, a timer pops up, and all goes to hell. This is especially hard and you will be facing many more opponents than you did on foot to the point.
Enemies
(To the survivors)
Regular Infected
Humans that have been infected with a type of rabies, these are effectively enraged psychopaths. They are grossly disfigured as a result of the disease, and attack uninfected persons on sight. It is unknown why they don't attack one another.
Male Infected
The Horde
Boomers (1 allowed at any single moment in time)
This is a form of Boss Infected who is grossly overweight, carrying a massive stomache full of bloody vomit and methane gas. He can vomit all over a player, or several if he's good, obscuring their view, and attracting all the surrounding zombies in the vicinity to attack said player(s), while also spawning some infected (there's a counter telling the Boomer how many will be spawned) to help lower their life expectancy. Vomited-on Survivors are partially blind, and have all the infected (plus the spawned infected) in the area gunning for them. They are almost completely helpless and must rely on their teammates to survive. What's even worse in this aspect (for the Survivors) is that the Boomer can 'charge' his puke, meaning the longer he charges it, the more infected appear to attack the unfortunate recipients of the deluge.
On top of this, this guy will explode with tremendous force when shot due to the methane, so keep your distance. The explosion, while not doing any health damage, will throw the aforementioned vomit on any unsuspecting Survivor who is too close to the Boomer when it goes off, as well as staggering any Survivors in the immediate vicinity. This renders them unable to do anything for a short time, giving the Infected precious time to close in and do some damage. It is quite possible to spell certain doom for the group by shooting this bloke at the wrong time.
Suicidal Boomers can even jump off buildings and explode on impact, generally becoming a guided bomb in the right hands. Of the three most common bosses, the Boomer is the only one really equipped for tackling more than one survivor well. Of course, this is offsetted by his slow waddle, and the fact that you'd have to be blind, drunk, and facing in the opposite direction to miss the massive bugger.
The Boomer
Smokers (1 allowed at any single moment in time)
Another form of Boss Infected, the Smoker's basic specialty is his 50-foot tongue, which he uses to grab players from a great distance (50 feet ). The tongue can be used to pull them into a mob of infected, or off a ledge to hang them, or just let them fall. He can effectively hang people if he grabs them from an above ledge, or even from a level playing field and snagging them over a lamp post, and just hold them there. Also, the longer he has a Survivor in his tongue's grasp, even if he isn't hanging them, more and more of their health will turn into temporary health, up until 100%.
Like Boomers, this bloke explodes when killed, but instead of force this guy expels smoke when in his death throes. Very thick smoke, you can't see in this stuff. Even the green outlines are hidden by this smoke, and Survivors start choking and can't use voice communication. The smoker can drop some of this smoke willingly, making him very dangerous in the right hands.
The Smoker
Hunters (2 allowed at any single moment in time)
The last selectable Boss Infected, Hunters are the assassins of the infected. They have two types of attacks.
'Lunging' is fairly basic and simple, the Hunter jumps at the Survivor and knocks them back a fair distance (hopefully off a ledge or into a mob of infected), doing damage and disorientating them for a short time. It can be used to quickly move around the map, and is a sure way to escape if you find yourself in a situation you'd rather someone else to be in. Just take note that the Hunter lets out a very loud howl whenever he lunges (that kind of strain on the muscles must hurt), so it's not the most subtle way to get around.
'Pouncing' is accomplished when a Hunter lunges after being crouched for a period of time, which sees it jump in an arc (rather than a straight line) and land on a Survivor, pinning them down and shredding them to pieces unless dealt with by his mates. The pounce can only be accomplished after it 'charges', which is done while the Hunter is crouched. When the pounce is fully charged however, the Hunter lets out a low growl, which can easily alert the Survivors if too close, so you must use it as soon as they're in range if you want the element of surprise.
Hunters are hands-down the most mobile infected of the lot, which is accentuated by their amazing jump distances and attacks based on those jumps. Hunters can also regenerate health over time, giving them the ability to do several hit-and-run attacks. This is offsetted by the fact that the Hunter's attacks are limited to only one target at a time, and require it to really get into the fray in the middle of a group of survivors, which isn't a good way to survive in the first place.
Hunter
Tanks (1 allowed at any single moment in time, except for the final stand)
The biggest Boss Infected, this bloke's name is self explanatory. This bloke is a rock, a gigantic lump of muscle and sinew, insanely strong and fast enough to run any survivor down, but no stealthy options available to him at all. The footsteps of this mother can be heard from miles away, so don't expect to catch anyone by surprise.
Because the Tank is so powerful, it isn't possible to choose to be him when playing as Infected. Instead, a random player will be informed that he can be respawned as a Tank at the Director's discretion. A Tank's role is pure and simple, destroy with no thought of self-preservation and with one object in mind, the death of the Survivors. Locked doors and even certain parts of walls will not stop your rampant destruction, so Survivors can't simply lock themselves in a room and wait you out.
To stop Tank players camping for surprise attacks there's a frustration meter that fills when you're out of sight of the Survivors. When this fills, you lose all control of the Tank.
Nevertheless, this bloke can wipe out the Survivors if they aren't skilled and use teamplay.
Tank
Witches (1 per campaign, only appears on difficulties above normal)
These are computer controlled Boss-Infected, and aren't available to choose for an Infected player. That is because these are potentially the most dangerous enemies in the game, and only appear once in a campaign.
A Witch spends her time writhing on the floor in agony. She won't even take any notice of you unless you do something silly, such as walk too close to her, shoot near her, shoot her, or shine the flashlight at her. This lets you pass by her if you're quiet, which is the safer option.
If you do accidentally annoy her, or decide to risk attacking her, she'll attack you. She is fast, she is strong, she kills with each hit. Try to avoid her if you can.
The Witch
The Reputation System
Reputation is a system that Turtle Rock have incorporated into Left 4 Dead to help prevent certain people from ruining the games for others and to allow people of the same general skill level to play with each other. Basically, almost everything you do in-game apart from walking will show up on your permanent record as a merit or a demerit. This system differs between the Infected players and the Survivor players. There are three kinds of reputation for the Survivors:
Achievements - These are difficult goals to achieve, and show your skill/luck while playing.
Awards - Good things you do that help the team and show your dedication to the core game mechanics.
Demerits/Faults - Mistakes, stupidity, bad things. Generally anything that can be counted as bad is stuck here. Do not hurt your mates.
Survivor
As the survivor, teamwork is key, and the reputation system works around that. Examples of what will show up on your permanent record as a survivor are shown below.
Achievements
- Surviving a map without bleeding out.
- A decent amount of headshots in one map.
- Killing a Tank without any damage done by it to anyone on the team.
- Completing a campaign without using the flashlight at all.
- Finishing a map where no members of your team got a demerit.
Awards
- Reviving a teammate.
- Giving your health kit away to a mate in need.
- Stopping a Boomer from vomiting with a melee attack.
- Saving someone from being attacked by an Infected from behind.
Demerits/Faults
- Friendly Fire.
- Jumping in front of someone's line of fire ('Reckless').
- Blocking a teammates escape, which results in them taking damage.
- Angering the Witch.
- Leaving a teammate to die without helping them.
- Blowing up the Boomer near teammates/yourself.
- Letting infected into a checkpoint
- Having a medkit, but forgetting to use it ('Forgetful').
Infected
Infected gameplay is completely different to that of the Survivors, and their reputation system mirrors this. As an infected, killing is not so much your goal as much as harassment and confusion, thus the system works along the lines of how much damage and mayhem you cause amongst the survivors. It is broken down very much into base achievements because the infected are a difficult side to play. Below is some examples of what you can get merits for:
- Vomiting on several Survivors.
- Taking out the entire team with a Boomer explosion (and subsequent horde of Infected).
- A successful pounce-kill.
- Strangling a Survivor
- Killing a Survivor with a car as the Tank.
- Doing a large amount of damage to multiple Survivors.
- Hitting a Survivor with a lunge, and then escaping without taking any damage.
- Use a smoke cloud to harass/escape from the Survivors while surviving yourself.
Mayhem and damage is the infected way, and thus that is what the merits revolve around.
Another feature is, while you're playing, if you earn yourself a merit/demerit, it pops up next to your name on the UI. Meaning that everyone knows who to thank/blame for whoever saved/shot them.
At the end of each map, during the checkpoint load time, a list of the survivors and what merits/demerits they have received so far show up on a scoreboard-type table on the screen. You can also switch between that scoreboard for each particular person and that of their permanent record.
The way this works is that, if you get those occasional players that just join to annoy and ruin the game for everyone, you can do something about it. Every time they do it, it shows on their record. So you always have the option of (vote)kicking the pesky bugger with 30 team kills and nothing else next to his name before the game starts, and thus before he can cause any trouble.
Setting and Characters
- Left 4 Dead is set in contemporary America gone wrong. The aim of the design is to remind people (ie. Yanks ) of home while giving the impression that it has been completely and utterly changed in light of the infection.
- There are both rural and urban areas in the four campaigns. They take place in the following:
A Hospital
A Forest ending in a Cornfield
Murky Countryside
An Airport
As for characters, there are four (perhaps obviously):
Bill ? A Vietnam vet who?s combat skills have allowed him to survive thus far.
Louis ? An assistant manager at a local electronics store.
Zoey ? A daughter of a wealthy family.
Francis ? Crude, rude and unrefined...but a good bloke who?s always got your back.
Weapons
Generally, Valve have decided to go along the realistic road in regard to weapons, generally giving you equipment you?d scavenge in such a crisis. But there are plans to add weapons to the game over time post-release. Your inventory in-game will rise over time.
This is a list of what weapons have been confirmed so far:
- Sub-Machine Guns
- M16's
- Pump-action Shotguns
- Automatic Shotguns
- Pistols (dual-wielding possible)
- Hunting Rifles
- Molotov Cocktails
- Pipe Bombs
Click here for a detailed overview of each weapon.
- There will be no melee weapons apart from using the butt of your chosen projectile killing machine, which will stagger them away for an easy kill with the said weapon.
- If you do happen to melee attack an infected that hasn't seen you, it will be instantly killed.
- So no chainsaws, sledge-hammers, or rusty pipes on release, but you can hope for them to be added with later updates.
Difficulty Levels
- There are four difficulty levels in Left 4 Dead:
Normal
Hard
Expert
Insane (not confirmed)
- There is no change in the number of infected between difficulties, nor is there any change to their health. What does change between difficulty levels is the amount of damage inflicted when the infected hit the Survivors, and that the Witch only appears on difficulties above Normal.
- This means the difficulty levels only effectively describe the Survivor experience. Infected players will have a somewhat easier time of it the higher the difficulty level is.
Graphical Enhancements
TRS are now part of Valve, and every new graphical enhancement available for the Orange Box will be implemented in Left 4 Dead, plus a few extras:
- Support for multi-core processors.
- Hair that will move realistically.
- Physics based animation (ie to make the Boomer's massive gut wobble).
- Cloth Physics.
- Enhanced Particle effects.
Console & Other Misc. Information
- Left 4 Dead will be available on both X-Box 360 and PC platforms. Valve is developing both the PC and X-box 360 versions in-house. However, they will have some assistance on the X-Box version from Certain Affinity.
- A PS3 version is unconfirmed as of now, but unlikely.
- Two-way splitscreen is confirmed for X-Box 360, so two players can use the same console, but extra players will require more consoles or LIVE.
- A Left 4 Dead specific update will be released to the Source SDK when Left 4 Dead hits stores. Mapping looks to be a bit easier here, since the Director handles all infected spawns itself, without any input from the mapper apart from making the map itself.
- There is an IRC channel for Left 4 Dead open at Gamesurge. You can find it here:
irc://irc.gamesurge.net/l4d
- The reccommended specs for Left 4 Dead are as follows:
OS: Windows Vista, XP or 2000
CPU: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 or AMD64X2 (or higher)
RAM: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
DISC DRIVE: DVD-ROM Drive
HARD DRIVE: At least 7.5 GB of free space
VIDEO: Direct X 9 compatible video card (Video card must be 256 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for pixel shader 2.0)
SOUND: Direct X9.0c compatible sound card
Links
Here you'll find links to the websites that have done previews or interviews regarding Left 4 Dead as well as fansites having information regarding Left 4 Dead in any way. They are in a very rough chronological order (ie the order in which I read them):
First stops for information on the game
Left 4 Dead Homepage
Left 4 Dead 411 (primary fansite)
Written Previews
Left 4 Dead 411 Hands On Preview (Survivors)
Left 4 Dead 411 Hands On Preview (Infected)
Left4Dead411 Showdown LAN report
ShrubberyJSC's Hands-on (with footage)
1UP Preview
1UP Hands On Footage
CS Nation L4D Preview Part 1
CS Nation L4D Preview Part 2
Eurogamer Preview
Eurogamer Preview No. 2
Gamespot Hand-On Update
Gamespy Preview
IGN Hands On Preview
IGN Hands on Preview 2
IGN Boss-Infected Hands On
PCZone Preview
PC Gamer Preview
Shacknews Preview
Shacknews Preview (17/01/2008)
GamesRadar's 'Left 4 Dead's 7 Scariest Moments'
?Left 4 Dead? Is The Online Zombie Game That ?Resident Evil: Outbreak? Wanted To Be
1UP Left 4 Dead PC Preview
Left 4 Dead Hands On Impressions (Kotaku)
GameTap Left 4 Dead Preview
Shacknew's Date with the Witch
Videos
E3 2008 Videos
Left 4 Dead Teaser
Left 4 Dead GT Gameplay Trailer
G4 TV E3 07 Hands-On
G4 TV Hands-On 16/01/08 (Youtube)
PC Gamer Podcast
IGN Video Previews, Movies, and Trailers
IGN Progress Report
GameTrailer's list of Left 4 Dead related videos
GameTrailer L4D Footage
GameTrailers HD Videos 1 2
GameSpot Gameplay Videos 1 2 3 4
GameVideo's Interview with Chet Falizek
85 minute Gameplay Video (NSF56K)
GameTrailers 'Last Stand'
GameTrailers 'Revive'
GameTrailers 'Explosion'
Interviews
Gamespot Interview
Eurogamer Interview with Valve concerning L4D
Eurogamer Interview with Chet
FiringSquad Interview
Shacknews Interview
GamePro Interview
bit-tech's Interview with Chet Faliszeck
IGN Interview with Chet
play.tm's Interview with Doug Lombardi
CVG Interview with Doug
TVG's Left 4 Dead Q&A
MAXIMUMPC E3 2008: Left4Dead Interview. New Graphics, Weapons, and Steam Achievement Details.
GameSetWatch In-Depth: How Valve Makes Art To Enhance Gameplay
Miscellaneous
Left 4 Dead Wallpapers
(srry if links not worken if you want to see links go to http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=535896 )
Regarding the Release date for Left 4 Dead, Pre-Ordering, and the Demo:
Left 4 Dead will be released on the 18th of November worldwide on Steam. Retail-wise, Left 4 Dead will hit US botique shelves on the 18th, mainstream stores on the 19th, with the rest of the world seeing the game on the 21st. Pre-ordering and pre-loading over Steam will be available on the 15th of October.
A Left 4 Dead demo is slated to be released either late October or early November. The demo will contain the first two levels of the Hospital campaign.
LEFT 4 DEAD
?Fight together?or die alone?
Released Information
Gameplay
Gameplay is divided into Survivor and Infected sides. Take your pick.
Survivors
To start off...
- Left 4 Dead is a First Person Shooter Co-operative Multiplayer game in which you can play as one of up to four people (called ?Survivors?), luckily immune to a virus that?s sent most of the population raving mad. You, as a survivor, are pitched against an endless horde of infected humans, turned into deranged psychopaths, as a result of the lost battle against the virus.
- There are no character classes, every player starts off on an even footing in terms of skills and weaponry, meaning success requires teamwork and quick thinking.
- At the start of each campaign of choice you and your comrades begin with a basic pistol. Next to you are tables from which you can grab your choice of SMG or shotgun, and an explosive. Then you get into the action.
- Friendly Fire is always on in all difficulty levels, and there is no way of turning it off.
- Your goal is simple...survive. Reach the rescue zone at the end of the campaign.
The 'Infected'
- Whilst players with 21st-century weapons pitted against weaponless psychopaths with no thought of tactics may seem like a no brainer, it won?t be. The infected have one very clear advantage?
...numbers. BIG numbers.
- The infected horde is gigantic, they pour out from everywhere. A lack of strength means nothing if there are a good fifty or so of them attacking at once.
- One thing that needs to be stressed is the speed of the Infected. These aren't half-dead shamblers, they are alive, mad, and their speed shows it. They are insanely fast.
- Usually you'll find infected wandering around the city aimlessly. But once they see you, they'll know you're not one of them, and their demeanour changes immediately. Their only thought is of stomping your face in and, unless you do something about it, that's exactly what they'll do.
- You cannot kill all of the infected. There is no set number of them. They attack you at the Director's discretion, and they will not stop coming. The goal is to escape, there is no way you can survive if you stay in one spot for too long.
Unfair Advantages
- As the survivors, you have access to a variety of projectile weapons and happy little explosives. Shotguns, Uzis, Molotov Cocktails, and Pipe Bombs are all at your disposal from the get-go, with more weapons becoming available as the game progresses through the separate levels of the campaign (scroll down further for a more in-depth view of the weapons).
- Equipment-wise, you have a flashlight (unlimited battery) for seeing in the dark, can see the outlines of your teammates through walls and other objects so you don't get separated, and have one med-kit each for healing yourself or a teammate.
- There is a melee attack with your weapon that does some minimal damage, but its important aspect is that it pushes the infected back. Tactical uses of this become apparant with the knowledge that pushing one into another will cause both to fall down, and domino effects are quite in play. Also, the only way to effectively combat some of the Boss-Infected without hurting your teammates is to melee them away before using the more deadly aspects of your chosen weapon.
- As a Survivor, you can close and lock doors behind you. This effectively stalls any infected pursuing you, for a while. They can and will break through wooden doors, but it takes a while, and it is also possible to blow a hole in it yourself use it to shoot at them, though that only delays the inevitable. Of course, certain Boss-Infected don't find doors very hard to open. Or walls, for that matter.
'Til death do us part...
- Death is being handled differently in Left 4 Dead, but note you will not get Infected if you die.
- Instead of dying outright when your health reaches zero, a Survivor will fall to the earth and be unable to move, only having the energy to weakly fire their pistol.
- When you hit the dirt, a 'bleed out' timer commences. Pretty much your health is replaced by temporary health (300 points), which slowly depletes (at 3 health points per second), with any extra damage from Infected (or careless teammates) depleting it faster. When it is depleted, you die.
- Here, a mate can help. You can be 'revived' by your mates if they face you and press the appropriate key, causing them to pick you up and keep you going. Of course, this takes precious time and, when you're bearing the brunt of an infected horde, sometimes it's wiser to deal with them first.
- You can only be revived three times. When you've used up all three of your revives, your view will become black and white and your health temporary. If you die again, you will immediately die rather than simply being knocked down.
- When you die, you have to spectate until your teammates find another Survivor, either barricaded in a closet or at the next checkpoint, depending on where you died on the map. When you respawn after death, you start off again with basic equipment, wherever you are.
- The speed at which you move is affected by your health. 100% and you're beating Cathy Freeman, 1% and you're slower than a two-legged turtle with heamorrhoids. It's important for healthy survivors to keep an eye on their injured comrades, as it can be all too easy to leave them behind to be easy pickings for Infected. It is in every Survivor's best interest to keep everyone at full health, as the group can only move as fast as it's slowest member.
- Each survivor will be able to carry one medkit, which can be used to patch yourself or your mates up, it can only be replaced by finding one at the next checkpoint
- There are also pills, which give you a temporary health boost that depletes back to base health over time. You have to be cautious with these.
The Director
- You will not be wading through hordes of infected from start to finish. What Valve has implemented is an AI Director that places the infected on the map in real time using no flags or checkpoints at all. It is intelligent enough to place them on it's own, needing only a map to be able to work with.
- As a result every game is relatively unique to play through, as you will never know where and how many zombies are going to be hitting you at any certain time.
- The director also works on a system of highs and lows. There will be times you are fighting for your life, and there will be times where you don't encounter an infected for a minute.
- There are a few small mini-stands scattered throughout a campaign, as well as the finale while waiting for the rescue vehicle, but apart from that, the Director is not scripted.
Communication
- In a co-op game, especially one such as this, communication is vital. Implemented into Left 4 Dead is a call system that involves pressing one of three keys (z/x/c, which correspond to Orders/Questions and Answers/Alerts and Warnings) and moving your mouse in the direction of what you need to say.
- Also, there is an implemented auto-alert system in which your character automatically says something when a certain event happens (ie 'Help!' when knocked down, or 'Boomer!' when the crosshairs are centred on a Boomer).
- There is over 1000 lines of dialogue for each character so generally there is a good variety of voice-acting available.
- On top of this is the ever present in-game chat, allowing communication between players with microphones.
Infected
Choosing the other side
- You can, if you want, decide to forgoe the weak realm of sanity and become an Infected psychopath, hellbent on killing the four survivors.
- This is entirely different from playing as a Survivor. Your goal is to terrorise and kill, to do your absolute best to hamper and harass the Survivors until they are overwhelmed.
- If you choose to be one of the infected, you?ll assume the role of a ?Boss Infected?.
It's all in your head
- As a Boss Infected, your goal is the same as that of the infected horde, kill the Survivors before they can escape.
- With hundreds of Infected at your side, it may seem an easy chore, but with the infected as weak as they are (they are only human, after all), you will not survive, let alone hurt anything, by mindlessly charging in there.
- Tactics is the game here, you know when, where, and how you are going to attack. They don't. This immediately gives you an advantage, and it is up to you to use that advantage to it's fullest potential.
Boss Classes
- There are four playable types of Boss-Infected, known as the Boomer, the Hunter, the Smoker, and the Tank (scroll down for a more in-depth look at them). The first three are the most common, with the Director spawning you as them more often, while the latter is given out randomly at certain times due to it's power.
- There are limits as to how many Boss Infected there can be at once as well as limits on each Boss infected (One Boomer at any one time etc.). The Director has full control over what Boss Infected you will spawn as, though you can choose your preferred type.
- Everyone will get a chance to play as a Tank before someone gets a chance to play him for the second time.
- The Boss-Infected Respawn timer is still under constant tweaking to balance it without frustrating the players on either team. Currently Boss-Infected can respawn anything from 30-60 seconds after they die, but this is not final.
- All Boss Infected have a basic melee attack, it's not a primary weapon (exception the Tank), but it helps to dish out some pain before you lose your head. Apart from this, the Boss Infected rely heavily on their special abilities to kill the Survivors. All the bosses special abilities are geared towards different types of play, and can all be devestating if used correctly. Scroll further down for a more in-depth look at the Boss Infected themselves.
Stickin' it to 'em
- Playing as the Infected is very different from the Survivor side. Most obviously when you take your position behind a pair of bloodied hands, you can see the outline of survivors as a red, ghostly figure which can be used to see them through walls. The game also shows the likely route the survivors will take, if you are standing still, as red arrows on the floor, further enhancing the ability to stalk and strike at the most inopportune moment.
- There is an exception to this 'Survivorvision'. If a Survivor is standing completely still, without their flashlight on and aren't shooting, the red outline becomes nonexistant.
- So, Infected players can almost always see where the group of survivors are thus they always have the element of surprise, being able to position themselves on rooftops, behind doors or anywhere else that could give them a tactical advantage.
- Other advantages of being Infected is complete immunity to fall damage, night vision, and having the ability to climb parts of walls that aren't available to Survivors. Thus the infected have a great deal more of the map available to them, and are much more mobile, with the ability to attack from any angle.
The Director
- What you will first notice when the Director pops you into the map, is that you can choose exactly where you spawn, with the only limitation being that you can't spawn within a pre-determined distance of the Survivors. Generally, the director will drop you ahead of the Survivor's path.
- What essentially happens is that you are put into the map as a 'ghost', then you run around, look at the surroundings, and choose yourself a place to spawn. Then you go annoy the Survivors.
- The Director has full control over what Boss Infected you will spawn as. If you die, you are respawned after a short wait to continue toward your goal.
- By working with the Director (as in watching his deployment of the other infected) you can spin things to your advantage while attacking the Survivors, such as dropping into the middle of them from a rooftop as a Boomer when they are surrounded by infected. Or, if you are lucky enough to find the Witch before them, attack in a way as to herd them towards her.
Psychotic Tactics
- Apart from the Tank, playing as the infected tends to go towards ambushing. You want to attack when it's the worst time for the Survivors, and generally this involves you stalking, waiting around a certain corner, then WHAM! You've scared the poopers out of them and maybe even done some damage
- Generally, if you attack, don't be surprised if you die, especially if you charge head-on. Infected are weak, even the Boss', and attacking from a ambush will not guarantee you anything unless you do it right. The whole goal is not to outright kill the survivors yourself, but make enough mayhem in their ranks so they can get separated, overwhelmed, or just plain confused enough so the horde can rip them to shreds. Sure you can kill them, and you should, a skilled and lucky player can take all of the Survivors out in one go. But don't run in there expecting to notch a kill every time.
- As for the Tank, you must do the complete opposite. You can be heard for miles, and if you don't attack Survivors in a certain time, it's the worse off for you. So basically you find them, and try to kill them. Throwing cars at them is particularly effective.
- Playing Infected is for the most part very tactical, apart from the obvious (the Tank for those who can't see the obvious). You have to choose the right moment, the right place, and the right way to attack, otherwise you won't do anything worth noting.
Other
Gameplay Modes and the Campaign
- There are two gameplay modes currently planned for Left 4 Dead. A Co-op Survival mode and another mode tentatively called 'Deathmatch'. 'Survival' is Co-op only, with no Human controlled Infected at all, while 'Deathmatch' is assumed to allow Infected players as well.
- Nevertheless, in both modes, the Survivor's must escape their predicament by getting to a point where an escape vehicle can pick them up. As the Infected (if the mode allows it), you have to stop them.
- There are four campaigns, consisting of 5 maps each, which can be both played offline (with AI controlled friends and enemies) or online with up to 8 players (four Survivors and four Boss Infected). They are seperated by the aforementioned 'checkpoints' in which you restock on ammo and health, and dead teammates revive if they were killed towards the end of a map.
- At the moment it seems each campaign can take up to an hour to finish (you can leave the game anytime you want, you'll just be replaced by a bot until someone else joins), meaning each particular map takes about 10 minutes to complete.
- At each checkpoint you'll recieve merit and demerit points depending on what you did that was meritible (kills and healing mates) or downright stupid (Team Kills, especially when detonating the Boomer).
- At the end of each campaign, there will be an elaborate ?last stand? in which you and your mates must hold off wave upon wave of Infected waiting for the rescue vehicle to come and uh...rescue you. The infected will temporarily stop attacking you so you can set up your defence, then you radio the rescue vehicle, a timer pops up, and all goes to hell. This is especially hard and you will be facing many more opponents than you did on foot to the point.
Enemies
(To the survivors)
Regular Infected
Humans that have been infected with a type of rabies, these are effectively enraged psychopaths. They are grossly disfigured as a result of the disease, and attack uninfected persons on sight. It is unknown why they don't attack one another.
Male Infected
The Horde
Boomers (1 allowed at any single moment in time)
This is a form of Boss Infected who is grossly overweight, carrying a massive stomache full of bloody vomit and methane gas. He can vomit all over a player, or several if he's good, obscuring their view, and attracting all the surrounding zombies in the vicinity to attack said player(s), while also spawning some infected (there's a counter telling the Boomer how many will be spawned) to help lower their life expectancy. Vomited-on Survivors are partially blind, and have all the infected (plus the spawned infected) in the area gunning for them. They are almost completely helpless and must rely on their teammates to survive. What's even worse in this aspect (for the Survivors) is that the Boomer can 'charge' his puke, meaning the longer he charges it, the more infected appear to attack the unfortunate recipients of the deluge.
On top of this, this guy will explode with tremendous force when shot due to the methane, so keep your distance. The explosion, while not doing any health damage, will throw the aforementioned vomit on any unsuspecting Survivor who is too close to the Boomer when it goes off, as well as staggering any Survivors in the immediate vicinity. This renders them unable to do anything for a short time, giving the Infected precious time to close in and do some damage. It is quite possible to spell certain doom for the group by shooting this bloke at the wrong time.
Suicidal Boomers can even jump off buildings and explode on impact, generally becoming a guided bomb in the right hands. Of the three most common bosses, the Boomer is the only one really equipped for tackling more than one survivor well. Of course, this is offsetted by his slow waddle, and the fact that you'd have to be blind, drunk, and facing in the opposite direction to miss the massive bugger.
The Boomer
Smokers (1 allowed at any single moment in time)
Another form of Boss Infected, the Smoker's basic specialty is his 50-foot tongue, which he uses to grab players from a great distance (50 feet ). The tongue can be used to pull them into a mob of infected, or off a ledge to hang them, or just let them fall. He can effectively hang people if he grabs them from an above ledge, or even from a level playing field and snagging them over a lamp post, and just hold them there. Also, the longer he has a Survivor in his tongue's grasp, even if he isn't hanging them, more and more of their health will turn into temporary health, up until 100%.
Like Boomers, this bloke explodes when killed, but instead of force this guy expels smoke when in his death throes. Very thick smoke, you can't see in this stuff. Even the green outlines are hidden by this smoke, and Survivors start choking and can't use voice communication. The smoker can drop some of this smoke willingly, making him very dangerous in the right hands.
The Smoker
Hunters (2 allowed at any single moment in time)
The last selectable Boss Infected, Hunters are the assassins of the infected. They have two types of attacks.
'Lunging' is fairly basic and simple, the Hunter jumps at the Survivor and knocks them back a fair distance (hopefully off a ledge or into a mob of infected), doing damage and disorientating them for a short time. It can be used to quickly move around the map, and is a sure way to escape if you find yourself in a situation you'd rather someone else to be in. Just take note that the Hunter lets out a very loud howl whenever he lunges (that kind of strain on the muscles must hurt), so it's not the most subtle way to get around.
'Pouncing' is accomplished when a Hunter lunges after being crouched for a period of time, which sees it jump in an arc (rather than a straight line) and land on a Survivor, pinning them down and shredding them to pieces unless dealt with by his mates. The pounce can only be accomplished after it 'charges', which is done while the Hunter is crouched. When the pounce is fully charged however, the Hunter lets out a low growl, which can easily alert the Survivors if too close, so you must use it as soon as they're in range if you want the element of surprise.
Hunters are hands-down the most mobile infected of the lot, which is accentuated by their amazing jump distances and attacks based on those jumps. Hunters can also regenerate health over time, giving them the ability to do several hit-and-run attacks. This is offsetted by the fact that the Hunter's attacks are limited to only one target at a time, and require it to really get into the fray in the middle of a group of survivors, which isn't a good way to survive in the first place.
Hunter
Tanks (1 allowed at any single moment in time, except for the final stand)
The biggest Boss Infected, this bloke's name is self explanatory. This bloke is a rock, a gigantic lump of muscle and sinew, insanely strong and fast enough to run any survivor down, but no stealthy options available to him at all. The footsteps of this mother can be heard from miles away, so don't expect to catch anyone by surprise.
Because the Tank is so powerful, it isn't possible to choose to be him when playing as Infected. Instead, a random player will be informed that he can be respawned as a Tank at the Director's discretion. A Tank's role is pure and simple, destroy with no thought of self-preservation and with one object in mind, the death of the Survivors. Locked doors and even certain parts of walls will not stop your rampant destruction, so Survivors can't simply lock themselves in a room and wait you out.
To stop Tank players camping for surprise attacks there's a frustration meter that fills when you're out of sight of the Survivors. When this fills, you lose all control of the Tank.
Nevertheless, this bloke can wipe out the Survivors if they aren't skilled and use teamplay.
Tank
Witches (1 per campaign, only appears on difficulties above normal)
These are computer controlled Boss-Infected, and aren't available to choose for an Infected player. That is because these are potentially the most dangerous enemies in the game, and only appear once in a campaign.
A Witch spends her time writhing on the floor in agony. She won't even take any notice of you unless you do something silly, such as walk too close to her, shoot near her, shoot her, or shine the flashlight at her. This lets you pass by her if you're quiet, which is the safer option.
If you do accidentally annoy her, or decide to risk attacking her, she'll attack you. She is fast, she is strong, she kills with each hit. Try to avoid her if you can.
The Witch
The Reputation System
Reputation is a system that Turtle Rock have incorporated into Left 4 Dead to help prevent certain people from ruining the games for others and to allow people of the same general skill level to play with each other. Basically, almost everything you do in-game apart from walking will show up on your permanent record as a merit or a demerit. This system differs between the Infected players and the Survivor players. There are three kinds of reputation for the Survivors:
Achievements - These are difficult goals to achieve, and show your skill/luck while playing.
Awards - Good things you do that help the team and show your dedication to the core game mechanics.
Demerits/Faults - Mistakes, stupidity, bad things. Generally anything that can be counted as bad is stuck here. Do not hurt your mates.
Survivor
As the survivor, teamwork is key, and the reputation system works around that. Examples of what will show up on your permanent record as a survivor are shown below.
Achievements
- Surviving a map without bleeding out.
- A decent amount of headshots in one map.
- Killing a Tank without any damage done by it to anyone on the team.
- Completing a campaign without using the flashlight at all.
- Finishing a map where no members of your team got a demerit.
Awards
- Reviving a teammate.
- Giving your health kit away to a mate in need.
- Stopping a Boomer from vomiting with a melee attack.
- Saving someone from being attacked by an Infected from behind.
Demerits/Faults
- Friendly Fire.
- Jumping in front of someone's line of fire ('Reckless').
- Blocking a teammates escape, which results in them taking damage.
- Angering the Witch.
- Leaving a teammate to die without helping them.
- Blowing up the Boomer near teammates/yourself.
- Letting infected into a checkpoint
- Having a medkit, but forgetting to use it ('Forgetful').
Infected
Infected gameplay is completely different to that of the Survivors, and their reputation system mirrors this. As an infected, killing is not so much your goal as much as harassment and confusion, thus the system works along the lines of how much damage and mayhem you cause amongst the survivors. It is broken down very much into base achievements because the infected are a difficult side to play. Below is some examples of what you can get merits for:
- Vomiting on several Survivors.
- Taking out the entire team with a Boomer explosion (and subsequent horde of Infected).
- A successful pounce-kill.
- Strangling a Survivor
- Killing a Survivor with a car as the Tank.
- Doing a large amount of damage to multiple Survivors.
- Hitting a Survivor with a lunge, and then escaping without taking any damage.
- Use a smoke cloud to harass/escape from the Survivors while surviving yourself.
Mayhem and damage is the infected way, and thus that is what the merits revolve around.
Another feature is, while you're playing, if you earn yourself a merit/demerit, it pops up next to your name on the UI. Meaning that everyone knows who to thank/blame for whoever saved/shot them.
At the end of each map, during the checkpoint load time, a list of the survivors and what merits/demerits they have received so far show up on a scoreboard-type table on the screen. You can also switch between that scoreboard for each particular person and that of their permanent record.
The way this works is that, if you get those occasional players that just join to annoy and ruin the game for everyone, you can do something about it. Every time they do it, it shows on their record. So you always have the option of (vote)kicking the pesky bugger with 30 team kills and nothing else next to his name before the game starts, and thus before he can cause any trouble.
Setting and Characters
- Left 4 Dead is set in contemporary America gone wrong. The aim of the design is to remind people (ie. Yanks ) of home while giving the impression that it has been completely and utterly changed in light of the infection.
- There are both rural and urban areas in the four campaigns. They take place in the following:
A Hospital
A Forest ending in a Cornfield
Murky Countryside
An Airport
As for characters, there are four (perhaps obviously):
Bill ? A Vietnam vet who?s combat skills have allowed him to survive thus far.
Louis ? An assistant manager at a local electronics store.
Zoey ? A daughter of a wealthy family.
Francis ? Crude, rude and unrefined...but a good bloke who?s always got your back.
Weapons
Generally, Valve have decided to go along the realistic road in regard to weapons, generally giving you equipment you?d scavenge in such a crisis. But there are plans to add weapons to the game over time post-release. Your inventory in-game will rise over time.
This is a list of what weapons have been confirmed so far:
- Sub-Machine Guns
- M16's
- Pump-action Shotguns
- Automatic Shotguns
- Pistols (dual-wielding possible)
- Hunting Rifles
- Molotov Cocktails
- Pipe Bombs
Click here for a detailed overview of each weapon.
- There will be no melee weapons apart from using the butt of your chosen projectile killing machine, which will stagger them away for an easy kill with the said weapon.
- If you do happen to melee attack an infected that hasn't seen you, it will be instantly killed.
- So no chainsaws, sledge-hammers, or rusty pipes on release, but you can hope for them to be added with later updates.
Difficulty Levels
- There are four difficulty levels in Left 4 Dead:
Normal
Hard
Expert
Insane (not confirmed)
- There is no change in the number of infected between difficulties, nor is there any change to their health. What does change between difficulty levels is the amount of damage inflicted when the infected hit the Survivors, and that the Witch only appears on difficulties above Normal.
- This means the difficulty levels only effectively describe the Survivor experience. Infected players will have a somewhat easier time of it the higher the difficulty level is.
Graphical Enhancements
TRS are now part of Valve, and every new graphical enhancement available for the Orange Box will be implemented in Left 4 Dead, plus a few extras:
- Support for multi-core processors.
- Hair that will move realistically.
- Physics based animation (ie to make the Boomer's massive gut wobble).
- Cloth Physics.
- Enhanced Particle effects.
Console & Other Misc. Information
- Left 4 Dead will be available on both X-Box 360 and PC platforms. Valve is developing both the PC and X-box 360 versions in-house. However, they will have some assistance on the X-Box version from Certain Affinity.
- A PS3 version is unconfirmed as of now, but unlikely.
- Two-way splitscreen is confirmed for X-Box 360, so two players can use the same console, but extra players will require more consoles or LIVE.
- A Left 4 Dead specific update will be released to the Source SDK when Left 4 Dead hits stores. Mapping looks to be a bit easier here, since the Director handles all infected spawns itself, without any input from the mapper apart from making the map itself.
- There is an IRC channel for Left 4 Dead open at Gamesurge. You can find it here:
irc://irc.gamesurge.net/l4d
- The reccommended specs for Left 4 Dead are as follows:
OS: Windows Vista, XP or 2000
CPU: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 or AMD64X2 (or higher)
RAM: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
DISC DRIVE: DVD-ROM Drive
HARD DRIVE: At least 7.5 GB of free space
VIDEO: Direct X 9 compatible video card (Video card must be 256 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for pixel shader 2.0)
SOUND: Direct X9.0c compatible sound card
Links
Here you'll find links to the websites that have done previews or interviews regarding Left 4 Dead as well as fansites having information regarding Left 4 Dead in any way. They are in a very rough chronological order (ie the order in which I read them):
First stops for information on the game
Left 4 Dead Homepage
Left 4 Dead 411 (primary fansite)
Written Previews
Left 4 Dead 411 Hands On Preview (Survivors)
Left 4 Dead 411 Hands On Preview (Infected)
Left4Dead411 Showdown LAN report
ShrubberyJSC's Hands-on (with footage)
1UP Preview
1UP Hands On Footage
CS Nation L4D Preview Part 1
CS Nation L4D Preview Part 2
Eurogamer Preview
Eurogamer Preview No. 2
Gamespot Hand-On Update
Gamespy Preview
IGN Hands On Preview
IGN Hands on Preview 2
IGN Boss-Infected Hands On
PCZone Preview
PC Gamer Preview
Shacknews Preview
Shacknews Preview (17/01/2008)
GamesRadar's 'Left 4 Dead's 7 Scariest Moments'
?Left 4 Dead? Is The Online Zombie Game That ?Resident Evil: Outbreak? Wanted To Be
1UP Left 4 Dead PC Preview
Left 4 Dead Hands On Impressions (Kotaku)
GameTap Left 4 Dead Preview
Shacknew's Date with the Witch
Videos
E3 2008 Videos
Left 4 Dead Teaser
Left 4 Dead GT Gameplay Trailer
G4 TV E3 07 Hands-On
G4 TV Hands-On 16/01/08 (Youtube)
PC Gamer Podcast
IGN Video Previews, Movies, and Trailers
IGN Progress Report
GameTrailer's list of Left 4 Dead related videos
GameTrailer L4D Footage
GameTrailers HD Videos 1 2
GameSpot Gameplay Videos 1 2 3 4
GameVideo's Interview with Chet Falizek
85 minute Gameplay Video (NSF56K)
GameTrailers 'Last Stand'
GameTrailers 'Revive'
GameTrailers 'Explosion'
Interviews
Gamespot Interview
Eurogamer Interview with Valve concerning L4D
Eurogamer Interview with Chet
FiringSquad Interview
Shacknews Interview
GamePro Interview
bit-tech's Interview with Chet Faliszeck
IGN Interview with Chet
play.tm's Interview with Doug Lombardi
CVG Interview with Doug
TVG's Left 4 Dead Q&A
MAXIMUMPC E3 2008: Left4Dead Interview. New Graphics, Weapons, and Steam Achievement Details.
GameSetWatch In-Depth: How Valve Makes Art To Enhance Gameplay
Miscellaneous
Left 4 Dead Wallpapers
