Jul 24 2009
New Left 4 Dead 2 Zombie Types
I think Left 4 Dead 2 is getting a little out of control with their zombie enemy types. I really think that they’re stretching the concept a little bit too far with the ridiculous scenarios that are being revealed. Yesterday it was announced that L4D2 would have a section that took place in a swamp type area, located in the south, which would feature what Valve call “mud men”. Apparently mud men are swamp zombies that crawl on all fours, very quickly, through the swamp to the point you can only spot them when they’re already upon you.
I was okay with that, as that sounded like an interesting new enemy type, then Valve announced the “spitters” which are zombies that have ranged attacks in which they spit mucus mortars that inflict damage around the area that they land. That just sounds completely lame to me.
And now, Valve has announced that you’ll have to deal with zombies wearing full riot gear. Apparently quite a few S.W.A.T. teams were caught out in the zombie apocalypse, and you’ll have to carefully dispatch them, working around the fact that they have bullet proof armor and bullet proof helmets on. The bulletproof zombies are made all the more difficult by the fact that they can only be dispatched by shooting them in the back, so you’ll have to find a way to make it behind them, without being killed.
I like ramped up difficulty, but not ramped up because of enemies that are much more unfair. Gears of War had it perfect and is the example of how to change difficulty settings the right way. Your enemies aren’t physically stronger, but rather act more intelligently, and aim better forcing you to act more intelligently. Why not that sort of an option, instead of just making enemies that either require more damage to take down, or put unfair restrictions on how you can kill them?
You must not have read or seen to many zombie movies! But why would you ever make zombies more intelligent! They are suppose to be mindless creatures that just kill every thing in sight! I think valve’s only real options are either sending mass waves of zombies at you or making the zombies harder to kill!