Expert Left 4 Dead

Difficulty in games is a bit of an odd one.

One of my big problems with single player games is- enemy AI will never, ever be as good as a human. It can be better - so much better. You can program an AI opponent to, as soon as you see it, instantly target your head and release the precise number of shots to kill you. This wouldn't be any fun, though.

Sadly, to prevent this, most developers do two things:

1) Have the AI only notice you under certain conditions - which is fair.
2) Have the AI aim for your body, not your head.

This second one is a problem as, in games like the original FEAR - you can get so good at the game that you will get hit, but because the AI goes for body shots and you go for head shots, they cease to be challenging after a while.


Left 4 Dead doesn't have this problem as zombies are melee attack only. Duh. Consequently, the difficulty is influenced by different things.

These are:

1) How much damage the zombies do
2) How many zombies there are
3) How many special infected spawn, and how clever they are
4) What kit you get
5) How much friendly fire damage you take

I'm writing this because I've been playing the Left 4 Dead 2 demo on expert... it's really interesting.

I had a great run with three human allies. We got right to the crescendo event with no deaths. I think we would have made it to the end had the server spazed out during the event and thrown us all out.

Gr.

But anyway. What I noticed was this: When your team is *really* good, nothing can touch you. We all knew what we were doing - when to crouch, when to stand, when to attack and when to retreat - when to bunch up and when to spread out... It was an absolute joy to be in that team. I always like being in teams when everyone else is almost exactly at your skill level.

Anyway, it was during this when I got a real insight into what makes Expert so fantastic to play on - and, really, why it's a fairly realistic depiction of a zombie holocaust.

We played through the first map- we all barely took any damage. We got half way through the second map with no incapacitates. Then something happened.

I had been feeling slightly jittery for most of the second map. You have to *really* concentrate on expert. Shooting your friend, especially with a Tier 2 weapon like the assault rifle is usually an instant take down so you *can't* friendly fire. To this end, when I get jittery, I keep my finger off the left mouse button until I have actively made the decision to fire. I find this works.

Anyway, I had noticed my movements getting sharper, less precise etc. My team mates started getting the same thing. There were several friendly fire incidents and I shot a boomer out of instinct when I could have just pushed him away.

This all pointed to one thing: We were doing far more damage to each other than the infected were doing.

I think this is exactly what would happen in a real life scenario. You and three friends have assault rifles, you get fairly far but... say you hear a footfall behind you that you weren't expecting, or a noise startles you. You whirl around and pull the trigger with your gun pointing at the only thing in your field of view that's moving - your mate.

So yeah. I thought that was interesting.

I am determined to play more rounds on expert. It's really damn fun, if very frustrating. I think the Left 4 Dead 2 maps may have been designed with the higher difficulties in mind... but yes. I should be in bed. Work tomorrow.

And Borderlands! Borderlands is out tomorrow! Hopefully it won't be shit!