Save Yourselves!: A Left 4 Dead Multiplayer Diary
12/8/2008 6:49 PM | 6 Comments | Page 2 of 10
Campaign: Blood Harvest
Team Fischer:
Russ Fischer
Kyle Orland
Scott Alexander's friend, Greg
(My friend
Marc Bernardin, an editor at
Entertainment Weekly, joins later.)
Team Narcisse:
Scott Alexander
Scott Jones
Evan Narcisse
(Scott Alexander's friend, Jeremy, joins later.)
Chapter 1: The Woods
I start as Infected. What can I say? I'm Haitian and playing as a zombie (or
zonbi, as we say it in Kreyol) appeals to the Vodun in my DNA. There's lots of befuddled conversation as Jones tries to figure out the Infected attacks. "I'm a Hunter! What can I do?" We win as Infected, but it was chaos. My best moment came as a Hunter, killing an artificial-intelligence Francis. I didn't expect to slay a computer character, so I'm feeling pretty cocky.
Orland: Starting as the Survivors, we're a goddamned mess this round. I blame our AI teammate, Francis, who refuses to respond when I yell "Hunter!" into my headset. Then again, he has better aim than any of the humans on our team, so maybe I shouldn't be so tough on him, even though he was the only one not to make it through. I'm playing with a couple of people I've never really met, but it's still much more coordinated than playing with random strangers on Xbox Live. I feel like we're really invested in each others' success, rather than just looking for something to do.
Jones: First time as an Infected is confusing as all hell. I found myself envying the humans. They seemed to know where to go and what to do. Instead, I'm floating around as a blue ghost-like thing looking for a safe place to spawn (you have to be out of the humans' line of sight). It is, however, genuinely funny to watch one of your teammates totter around as a Boomer. I tried to send my Boomer barf in the direction of the humans. But instead of it landing in Fischer's lap, it lands on a tree. Then someone shoots me. Then I have to wait about 20 seconds to respawn. First impressions: Being the Infected sucks ass.
Fischer: Knowing now how uncoordinated Team Narcisse was, I'm doubly embarrassed that we were fargin' pwned in this round. We went down like the tower in Drunken Jenga. I blame myself for spawning continually as a Hunter, at which I suck. Playing those creatures is a lot like playing the Alien in the old Aliens versus Predator games, at which I also sucked. Kyle Orland does his best to keep us together (the team should really bear his name) but it's a failure. Screw that; since we failed, I'm keeping the team name.
Sides switch and we're the Survivors now. Our plan is to move quickly through the level, so as not to give the Infected a chance to spawn in optimal conditions. And that plan works! We win as humans, despite a bold last-minute stand by our opponents. We get pounced on and ensnared, but the Safe House's right behind us. The door closes and panic turns into elation. I wouldn't say there's a leader yet, but when you're this good, who needs one?
