Left 4 Dead Two- Details and Rage

So unless you’re living under a rock (Hey, now that’s a perfectly good excuse), you probably know about that event called E3. You know THAT event, the one that every single ^%@^&$ website (I refuse to link to gamespot) seems to be covering. Well if you have, you probably have heard of Valve’s little surprise for us (And by little I mean absolutely hu-eg.)

Only 7 months after the release of Left 4 dead One, Left 4 dead Two has been announced for a November release (No published stated as of yet, Digital distribution will obviously be done through steam.)

So just what exactly can you expect from this new game? Well according to some people (With appropriate references backing those claims given below), it contains that which was meant for left 4 dead, mainly free content in terms of campaigns, characters, maps and etc. Obviously the community is currently in an uproar (Relevant pictures and videos attached as well) but before we get to that, below are links to relevant videos and links to bring you people up to date.

Shack News Interview: http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1138 (Relevant video’s including gameplay)
Official Preview from Valve: http://store.steampowered.com/app/5268/

From the interview, it is apparent that valve began to work almost immediately after left 4 dead one launch on the new game creating the second game in record time. It is clear that valve did not intend to fully live up to its promises (It did provide Survivor mode/Four vs Four matchmaking is inbound with an ETA of one month) and would perhaps rely on the community to create content for themselves (So far, there are no complete/fully working maps one can find at L4dmaps.com). If you have been following this blog till date, you will know that I too have written extensively on my own left4dead campaign with another detailed article in the making.

Now down to the main reasoning for this post.

The community is in an uproar.

Fans are demanding the content which they were promised but which was never delivered. Fans are enraged at the fact that left4dead two will be a fully priced sequel (USD $50). Fans are enraged that the left4dead community will be destroyed and the player base split thinly amongst the two games. Modder’s will be expected to drop left4dead one projects knowing that the game will become outdated come November and begin designing campaigns for left 4 dead two leaving the original game behind. In short, Valve, the company that was known to be one of the best when it comes to interacting with gamers and the relevant communities has disappointed all. I won’t go into any more detail for just a simple Google (Or bing, depending on your preference) will turn up more information.

I’ll now leave you folk, with fan made material and relevant quotes.

“Speaking to VideoGamer.com at Leipzig Games Convention, the Valve co-founder and managing director said the developer intended to follow a similar downloadable content policy as it has with Team Fortress 2.

Newell said that Valve’s support of the game post-launch will be essential for growing the community.

He said: “One of the things that we’re doing is we seem to be in a transition between games as a package product and games more of a service. So if you look at Team Fortress 2, one of things that’s really helped grow the community is the continuous updates, where we release new maps, new character classes, new unlockables, new weapons. And we tell the stories about the characters, like the meet the sniper, or meet the sandwich. And that ongoing delivery of content really seems to grow the community.

“So each time we’ve released one of those for Team Fortress 2 we’ve seen about a 20% increase in the number of people who are playing online. And that number is really important because it determines how many community created maps there are, how many servers are running, and so on. So we’ll do the same thing with Left 4 Dead where we’ll have the initial release and then we’ll release more movies, more characters, more weapons, unlockables, achievements, because that’s the way you continue to grow a community over time.”

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Left 4 Dead Campaign Idea Numero 1

Left 4 Dead Campaign Idea #1- SkyHigh

Description

Sky High is a campaign based on Downtown Toronto. The basic premise will be that the four survivors somehow find themselves in a stadium (The Skydome) and will attempt to climb the CN Tower to escape. As usual, a five level system will be adopted spanning across both the Rogers Dome and the CN Tower.

The Levels

1. Rogers Dome-On the grass, in the middle of the stadium. The safe room will be the actual exit of the skydome.
2. Passageway in between the Rogers Dome and the CN Tower. Though in actual the path is quite short depending on the exit used, there will be many obstacles for the Survivors to overcome. Essentially this passageway will become much longer with many high points for smokers and hunters to attack from. The obstacles stated could be destroyed busses and what not. One notable landmark required will be the ticket stalls where preferably there will be graffiti spray painted.
3. Inside the CN Tower, the survivors will attempt to work their way from the lobby towards the shopping area/The Elevators. This level will be our “Press button, and survive for X minutes” level. The basic wait will be for the elevators and from all sides zombies will attack. For added effect, it would be preferred if the inventory held by the stores could be burnt using a Molotov.
4. Once inside the elevator, the lift will stop half way to the top. Though I am not sure if the architecture of the CN tower is actually like this, what the survivors will have to do is exit the left via an exit built into the roof. There, they will have to go through a hole and make their way up the stairs. Ladders and platforms will be made to provide at least two methods of achieving their goal. Preferred option for this level is the ability to blow up stacks of rock and send them rolling downwards crushing incoming zombies. Due to the inherent difficulty assumed for this map, an abnormal amount of health packs should be provided albeit being hidden behind obstacles.
5. The final level where the rescue will happen will take place at the top of the CN tower. One difference from the actual CN tower will be that the entire floor will be made of glass further adding to fear. From this point we can see a burning Toronto (Similar to the burning city across the river in the Boathouse level) down below. Zombies at this point will come from many sides including the stairwells, the broken elevators and etc. The rescue itself will come from the spectators viewpoint where people can use binoculars to overview Toronto. The protective cage however will have been destroyed by incoming zombies and what not.

Difficulties Presented

1. The added preferred elements of game play.
2. Laziness.
3. Finding schematics for both the Rogers dome and the CN tower.
4. Plotting out the maps.

Update:

Idea #1:Another idea that came to mind was the level of detail on the map. In a usual L4D map, you will find messages from other (usually dead by the time you come) survivors that passed through the area alongside public announcements. The idea mainly for the top level is to copy the exact details from the current CN Tower i.e copy the timeline posted on the walls of the actual tower and then add several other messages from other former survivors.

For eg. Lets say the time line goes up till 2010. From there, continue the pasted timeline and using red marker add new times such as “2010- August- Keith was here” and etc etc.

Idea #2. For the load screen, the CN tower and Rogers dome will be shown in the background amongst a burning Toronto. The Tagline that comes to mind is a little silly but appropriate: “They thought the glass floor was the scariest part.”

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