L4D2 Demo thoughts?

[Keero]

Go for it!

+More hectic
+Cooler weapons
+Cool melee action
+Level layout (changes too)
+Better animation/blood effects (melee gets SO juicy )
+New infected (SWAT, Charger, Spitter, Jockey) are pretty unique and interesting
+Get fatigue from push spam
+Bile Bomb/Defibrillator ^_________________^

-Some of the music is... weird :/
-Cast doesn't seem THAT interesting (well, Nick and Ellis do)
-L4D1 infected still seem rather lacking. Smoker/Hunter just need a shove to defeat. :/
-Bot AI is still weakish
-They don't say "Grabbin' PEELZ!!"

Funner than the first demo IMO. Expert + Melee Only = fun challenge.

 

[Corpfox]

Well, based on the videos, I did notice those, Disadvantages.

Some of the Voice Acting was kinda weak and annoying.

Is there a, Difficulty Setting on the Demo?

Maybe you were playing, Normal.

-L4D1 infected still seem rather lacking. Smoker/Hunter just need a shove to defeat. :/
-Bot AI is still weakish

 

[Keero]

I played on Expert and Advanced too. The second someone gets pounced or grabbed by a Smoker, you can just right click and free them.

 

[vibrokatana]

-Bot AI is still weakish

One of the problems is realism. Humans typically don't take more then a few bullets to be incapacitated. Even with body armor you get knocked down and stunned due to the kinetic force. Considering the standard infected only have melee it is pretty fair.

The special infected are there for you to pull your hair out. Usually you can go decently through a game and then a tank appears...and then you get to start over.

 

[Keero]

I was meaning friendly bot AI was weak. My character was bleeding out with 20% health left, and Coach was not even 5 feet from me. What does he do? Decide to run to the other side of the alley and try to save the other AI. Then he get's Jockeyed and blam, game over. Or AI just standing there switching weapons and getting smacked around by Jane Zom B. repeatedly. -_-

 

[Corpfox]

I was meaning friendly bot AI was weak. My character was bleeding out with 20% health left, and Coach was not even 5 feet from me. What does he do? Decide to run to the other side of the alley and try to save the other AI. Then he get's Jockeyed and blam, game over. Or AI just standing there switching weapons and getting smacked around by Jane Zom B. repeatedly. -_-

That obvious. AI are just plain idiots and hackers.

When I got caught by a Smoker, all 3 just stared at me while I was dangling in the air.

About 20 seconds, they finally freed me and started to shoot the Smoker.

In a game with Co-op, it is always better to play with friends or HUMAN players otherwise AI teammates are just plain idiots and hackers.

 

[vibrokatana]

I was meaning friendly bot AI was weak. My character was bleeding out with 20% health left, and Coach was not even 5 feet from me. What does he do? Decide to run to the other side of the alley and try to save the other AI. Then he get's Jockeyed and blam, game over. Or AI just standing there switching weapons and getting smacked around by Jane Zom B. repeatedly. -_-

AI is represented by a [fast] neural network most of the time.

Basically what you end up doing is passing in a bunch of flags and training the bot to respond when a certain sequence matches up best. Training is the hard part, as you have to basically go through trial and error. Eventually you will get something that sorta works like your average player (or even better as it is impossibly fast to respond and can calculate instead of guess). But you will always have edge cases where the bot fails miserably (as it relies most of the time on a finite state engine). The bot doesn't really have a memory and in most cases you need to keep the possible rules to a minimum (as it has to run hundreds of times per minute).

 

[Corpfox]

Did you hear the Portal song from L4D2 jukebox?

I was surprised to hear that when I played the game.

While playing the demo, I was also surprised everything is random.

When I played it a couple times, I never got the Witch and Tank, and I couldn't find the SCAR!

But so far, 2 things I got disappointed.

1st, the Deagle, its SO BIG, its like a HandCannon. I don't believe that weapon should be SO BIG on that game.

2nd, the SWAT Zombie, the fact Body Armor is almost impenetable to bullets, the Machette should of actually killed him but no, when I used it on it, it was like I was using a metal blunt object, not a GIANT BLADE.

Unless, of course SWAT Body Armor is also Stab/Slice proof. but still, its a Machette, not a Knife!

Other than that, the usual, Tank only targets "healthy" humans and still gets stuck on some walls.

 

[vibrokatana]

1st, the Deagle, its SO BIG, its like a HandCannon. I don't believe that weapon should be SO BIG on that game.

The Desert Eagle has a barrel length nearly double of the USP/Glock. It isn't something your going to casually throw into your pocket.

2nd, the SWAT Zombie, the fact Body Armor is almost impenetable to bullets, the Machette should of actually killed him but no, when I used it on it, it was like I was using a metal blunt object, not a GIANT BLADE.

Unless, of course SWAT Body Armor is also Stab/Slice proof. but still, its a Machette, not a Knife!

You can block most slashes (even by most swords) with leather. The machete is a slashing weapon primarily. The romans used a gladius which was primarily a stabbing weapon, so it could easily penetrate leather (and most chain mail).

If you were to use a Katana to pierce (not cut) a vital spot then it would be much, much more likely to penetrate. But your not going to slash through ballistics materials like hardened Kevlar, metal, etc. In fact at that range you would probably be better off with a smaller blade, like a Wakizashi or even Tanto. Unless you were in a wide open space the Katana's extra length actually becomes a hindrance.

The only bright side to this all is that an armored zombie is slower. Lets just pray they don't discover powered armor...

 

[Corpfox]

On your reply, VK, all I can say is from the TF2 Scout:

"BOOO!!!!"

Other than that, Good Luck, Have Fun, L4D2 players/gamers.