Tell me some other doper gamers are loving this game as much as I.
The setting: zombie apocalypse. (Okay, “infected,” but come on.) The mission: survive getting to a rescue location, and actually get rescued. The problem: limited health, moderately limited ammo, limited teams, and a helluva lotta zombies. So awesome!
Let me get my complaints out of the way.
First, no offline versus against the AI. It would really be nice to play a quick match or learn to control the boss infected without going through the pains of irritating online folks who already have gone through the effort. I’d say it is a rite of passage but from my TF2 experiences not everyone is so patient with people who are new to the game.
Second, not quite limited enough ammo. While you cannot indescriminately blast your way through the infected masses, if you are persistent in your search you rarely run out of primary ammunition, especially since the pistol is very good for picking off strays and has unlimited ammo.
Third, AI is weirdly unbalanced. It sometimes stands there clueless for a painful second and a half while a hunter is tearing you to shreds, but is a crack shot and can see infected through trees or haze that a human player absolutely could not. (I understand the physics of this is probably impossible with current hardware. Still, a little frustrating in online versus matches with unbalanced teams.)
IMO, that’s it.
What is awesome:
The Director (TD): Valve’s solution to spawning baddies. Instead of there being one or a few fixed fields of play, the quantity and location of the baddies are determined procedurally from the get-go. TD uses real-time information to figure whether you’re having too hard or too easy of a time, and to respond accordingly. Having played the game nonstop since release I can confirm that very few areas play similarly. TD not only determines baddie quantity and location spawns, but item and weapon spaws. Improved weapons like the auto shotgun do have a few fixed locations they will appear in, but I’ve started finding grenade-style weapons (pipe bombs and molotov cocktails) and health pickups in a dizzying array of locations. TD also has control over the music each player hears, which means a consistently movie-like experience for each player based on what’s happening to them. Brilliant.
Friendly Fire: I know I will regret liking this feature so much with public games, but damn do I like this feature so much. It’s a trivial annoyance on Normal. It’s worth getting a little vocal about on Advanced. On Expert it’s time to get nasty and boot people. Friendly fire has two amazing impacts on play. First is that it’s important not to panic, which makes it that much easier to panic. Second is that it encourages cooperation in a game that really does require cooperation.
Cooperation: simply put, the enemies are good enough to take down a lone survivor. In mass, the infected can take a guy down in the open, or even against a flat wall. (On Expert, even jamming into a doorway can be questionable.) But even without the horde there are the boss infected whose main attack is incapacitating (the Hunter and the Smoker). On your own, you will die. Heroics here are not single-handedly taking down a horde, but covering your downed friend while another friend helps him back up. With moderate cooperation, Advanced is just difficult… it can be done, but you will die many times trying. With moderate cooperation, Expert is a deathwish.
Panic: I’m sorry but when I’m on rear guard without a health pack and the music amps up indicating we’re about to get stormed by the horde, I panic a little. Are they coming from the front? The rear? “Guys, they’re coming…” If they’re coming from the front, are a few strays coming from the back? Is it split? Do I turn around and help? When I’m on front guard and the horde starts plowing your number one idea is to stand and weave and fight the horde like you’re playing Doom. Except, gee whiz, you’re going to take a few shotgun shells to the back. No, instead you crouch down and pray your teammates behind you have got your back while the masses storm you.
Overall, an awesome game. Any XBoxers out there are free to look me up under my SDMB username to play this.