The Director uses intensity to cycle through three modes: Build Up, Peak, and Relax. If you’re struggling, the director sends you fewer infected and more first aid kits. If you’re dominating, you’ll get more horde encounters and pain pills. It monitors the perceived intensity of an encounter by calculating the damage players take concerning the number of infected they’re killing. The Director is a backdoor entity constantly keeping tabs on how you’re doing. Infected players must strike at the right moment to cause maximum chaos, usually during a horde encounter.Īll this AI randomness is thanks to Left 4 Dead’s most impressive innovation, the Director. While infected players rely on the common infected to chip away at survivors and slow them down, the Boomer is based around summoning hordes of AI fodder. Because each infected has a specialized role, they won’t be able to incapacitate survivors outright. Additionally, one lucky player gets to play Tank during crescendo moments. The infected team primarily uses three class types: Smoker, Hunter, and Boomer. While special infected are really squishy, it's super satisfying to get a good pounce in. At the time, that was a huge step for asymmetrical multiplayer. Left 4 Dead's competitive mode is unique because one team is forced to rely upon randomly generated AI to win. In Versus mode, two teams of four play as survivors and special infected. Survivors aren’t the only ones who need to cooperate. Seeing other players' health bars and always knowing where they encourage players to stick together and give each other support. Third, it helps players find downed survivors, making it easier to help someone who was pulled into the dark by a smoker. This is especially important for finales, where you'll immediately know whether someone is watching the flank. Second, it informs you of your defenses at a glance.
First, it means nobody is left for dead before triggering a crescendo event. This is a small feature, but it does a lot of work. The most important decision was to make fellow survivors visible through walls. The cooperative aspect is further enhanced by a few small design choices. It’s a rare case of developers forcing selflessness as a foundational element of gameplay and players accepting it. That's the key: Keeping the group alive is the best way for players to ensure their own survival. A survivor with 80 health wouldn’t think twice about giving their only first aid kit to an ally. Special infected force survivors to cooperate and share. When you’re down to two survivors, a well-timed attack from a Smoker and Hunter can end the game outright. The Hunter, Smoker, and Witch are designed around completely incapacitating survivors, leaving them helpless, while the Boomer and Tank undermine defenses and distract would-be rescuers.Īllowing special infect to completely incapacitate players makes desperate survival moments especially tense. The special infected are designed around cooperative play once they’re in action, you cannot take them alone. More than anything, Left 4 Dead’s special infected recontextualized cooperative survival games. While the Witch has great synergy with the other special infected, especially the Smoker, she’s a pushover on her own. I used to scare my teammates when I’d charge an expert difficult Witch and put her in the dirt before she turned violent. A well-placed blast from the automatic shotgun will take the Witch out before she has a chance to be startled. While she sounds imposing, she’s ultimately a non-issue, even on expert difficulty. Irritating the Witch will cause her to freak out and incapacitate or kill the person who startled her. There’s also the Witch, a sobbing special infected who often spawns in the most inconvenient place possible.
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