Did anyone else get this game? I was a huge fan of the first one and poured about 350 hours into it. And naturally, I've picked up L4D2 and I'm having an amazing time with it. I just unlocked "The Real Deal" achievement... took me 3 days, but I can finally move on to the second campaign, cause I refuse to play it on anything else other than Realism on Expert.

I've never beaten a campaign on expert on l4d or l4d2. Came close on Dead Air, but the group I was in finally gave up after trying the finale 4 or 5 times.

I haven't got the game, probably I'll buy it when it's on sale. I'm more interested in Versus than playing against AI. It's much more fun playing Infected and making someone on Survivors ragequit.

I heard Smoker and Hunter are weaker in L4D2 while Charger and Spitter are really powerful when playing Vs.

Spitter is VERY useful in Versus. The survivors can't see the spit coming (though you usually hear one of them go "Spit incoming!". A good spit can easily incap low health survivors, or do 50+ damage to everyone, even if they react immediately to get out of it.

Charger is not very powerful. His health is low (not as low as the spitter's) and so he can be killed pretty easily. Unless you can either a) pick off a straggler or b) carry a survivor far enough away that it takes them a bit to catch up you'll die before doing any real damage.

Of course in conjunction with other attacks from other infected a Charger can prove to also be quite a distraction.

Jockeys can guide players off ledges so they have to hang and get someone to pull them up (but the Jockey immediately goes over the ledge... lame :().

Recently I was playing Versus and got to be the tank in a small area with dumpsters and cars to fling around. Good times, easy incaps.

I am not very good at Versus otherwise though. I keep trying to hunter-pounce or charge or jockey pounce survivors near a ledge to try and knock them off but I end up just running off and making them laugh.

I tried Scavenger and my team got soundly beaten. Well I assume we did, my computer BSoDed right before the survivors got their last tank of gas. It was fun though, Spitter is very useful there as well since she can explode dropped gas cans, which is especially useful on the mall level. A good tactic on that level is for the survivors to split up... the dev commentary mentions that this is sometimes a strategy they try to get you to do but it's never mandatory... and have two guys go to the third floor, drop all the cans down, and then drop down through a glass floor to the second floor and get all the cans there and drop them over the edge. Whoever is on the ground floor handles filling the tank. This is where the Spitter can come in, she can spit on the gas tank to seriously hurt any survivors hanging around it, as well as spit the dropped gas cans to explode them.

I almost managed expert on No Mercy once, but after countless attempts by numerous people we gave up on the finale.

I'm still not convinced that L4D2 is going to be worth the money, but I might grab it after my exams.

But Charger can cleanly knock people off ledges which normally Survivors grab on to before plummeting?

One of the appeals of Hunter back in the first game was that, if you timed it right off a large building, you could do 25 HP pounces. But from the videos of the game, there doesn't seem to be many large buildings.

If you play enough, expert is pretty easy breezy. Anyone can pretty much one man it until the finale.

IMO, L4D 2 is only worth the money if you play versus. Just like the first one, versus mode is almost like a whole new game. The pace, the atmosphere and just about everything is incredibly different, and it is something like no other shooter game.

And for those who don't know what realism mode is, it removes player glows, item glows, health kits (except for crescendo events), respawns, and the common infected zombies have lots HP (2-3 shots with shotgun medium range). Basically, in realism, you gotta aim for the head for everything or else you'll run out of ammo real soon.

I haven't logged very many hours in versus yet, but I've played through the campaigns. I've also played Scavenge with some friends, that was ****ing awesome.

Eh, I'm all right on Expert. I mean, it's not too bad if you have people that know what they're doing.

I tend to end up shooting the other survivors if I grab any of the shotguns, though.

That being said I am probably going to pick up L4D2. Frankly the Realism mode intrigues me. I guess I'm a glutton for punisment.

I want it so hard. No PC though.

Playing through campaign right now, loving it. melee weapons really added my playing style, i like this so much more

melee ****

I wasn't a big fan of the first one...but I never the less got the second one as well.

If anyone wants to get a game going hit me up. I'm in the massassi steam group.

I miss melee spam from L4D, before they patched it. You could keep dozens of infected out from say, a window, by spamming melee, heheh.

Man, with all the time and effort Valve put into improving the enemy AI, you'd think they could've done the same for friendly AI.

Yeah... you just gotta find enough people to play it with. I rarely play with bots. Having them on realism expert is just trouble, especially in versus.

It's fine for campaign, but it just ruins versus. Putting the cool-down for versus really made it more competitive.

+1 on the terrible survivor AI. The infected AI are top-notch, though.

Beat it all on advanced, but I didn't get an achievement because I got downed WHILE IN THE HELICOPTER.

I've found it very challenging with the modified horde system (not always defend now, it can be "go here press button")

I'm curious on 2 of the new achievments. Where is this insane sounding "House of Witches"?

I killed two witches instantly using a chainsaw. I was very surprised it worked. Has anyone else tried this?

Yeah I saw someone do this so I tried it. First one died, second one incapped me.

I think the key is to get behind them so they have to turn around befor ethey can hit you.

i heard its a very short SP campaign and its all about the MP, I never played the first one so might see if some one will get it for Christmas/Birthday. Should I start with LD1 before LD2?

After getting L4D2 over black friday and playing Versus, I have to say Hunter and Smoker have become very much overshadowed by the capabilities of Charger, Spitter and Jockey.

The whole put-survivors-in-danger of the Smoker from the previous L4D is still there somewhat, but Charger and Jockey does a much better job of throwing player off ledges and platforms. The Hunter is shafted because he's the only one of the Infected that can't separate a tightly held group. Because he can't be accompanied by another Hunter like in the first game, he becomes much too situational.

The Spitter is awesome, maybe even a bit overpowered. The recharge rate is not that long, you can attack at a good distance and the damage of the acid is insane. You could screw an entire team if you play your cards right.

IMO, Smoker should have it's special ability recharge time reduced ALOT.

Either that or increase it's tongue length.

Most of the time, you act as a minor nuisance at best to a group. Even if you get a good pull in, your rate of damage is quite low. Or course, you can work with a Spitter to pull someone onto a acid puddle, but that's about it if there is no sweet spot on the map.

L4D isnt my cup of tea, but i am anxiously awaiting HL2:E3

Did anyone else notice that it's very hard to get away from infected? If you're running AWAY from an infected, and if it's punching you, you're stuck in place. It makes no sense.

Tweaking for competitive play is fine, but don't ruin campaign mode. :/

I beat all the original L4D campaigns on expert, but I havent even tried L4D2 expert. When I'm playing with random Internet people I prefer to join Advanced games. Expert games require alot of time and patience so I only play that when I can join a group of buddies, usually the players in #jk.

Well if you're running and something hits you from behind you're going to stumble, it guess it's just the game's mechanic to show that rather than your screen taking a nosedive.

That's why you have to kill or shove them away.

Or keep some adrenaline around for an emergency, infected can't slow you down when you are affected by adrenaline (although imo it takes too long to inject it).

I think its also a measure to prevent "lone wolfs" from running ahead.

You can still lone wolf L4D 2 quite easily, you just have to be pro at navigating and shoving. In fact rushing the entire level is the easiest thing you can do when playing realism.

Ok, after a proper rundown with the demo I reckon I'll pick it up in a fortnight.