Left 4 Thumbs - The Homethumbing 2

[Problem Machine]

yeeee which one should I have installed? The good one or L4D2?

[SecretAsianMan]

Considering L4D2 contains L4D1, I'd say 2

[Twig]

:thinking_face:

[miffy495]

Man, I don't think I've played L4D since about 2011. I'd be interested if it fits into my schedule. Curious to see how it would hold up...

[Gorbles]

Baby permitting, absolutely.

 

There's a hilarious Helm's Deep map knocking around the Workshop we should try at least once, too. So yeah, L4D2.

[Ben X]

37 minutes ago, Gorbles said:

Baby permitting, absolutely.

 

There's a hilarious Helm's Deep map knocking around the Workshop we should try at least once, too. So yeah, L4D2.

 

Oh man, I'd love to play co-op Helm's Deep with all the proper LOTR characters and enemies and events and stuff.

[Gorbles]

I have no idea if there's a corresponding character pack, but there are related (melee) weapons I think, and it is scripted to handle various stages of the attack. Been a while though.

[SecretAsianMan]

If the characters/weapons aren't in the map itself, they can probably be found in the workshop individually.  I have reskins for almost every character, weapon, and item in the game.

[Justin Leego]

I too would love to play L4D2, though would be a near total newcomer, if there's room for that

[TychoCelchuuu]

15 minutes ago, Justin Leego said:

I too would love to play L4D2, though would be a near total newcomer, if there's room for that

That's where I'm at too. Perhaps we could subdivide into groups based on experience. I've played it basically not at all.

[Ben X]

I've played it once ever! I did find being surrounded by veterans removed any possible frustration, but perhaps a team comprised wholly of noobs would be a different experience also worth having!

[osmosisch]

I feel like we did remove a bunch of the wonder and terror of learning the game for you, like just straight up dealing with witches, calling a bunch of surprises, and never really wiping. But there's something to be said for a guided experience, especially since I believe your tolerance for failure/tedium isn't very high Ben. A mixed bag.

 

For what it's worth, I have very fond memories of getting better at especially the first game, but that was with a fixed group of friends who had many evenings to spare. We've all aged and changed since then.

[Twig]

Yeah when I played the first game I had a group that basically only played together and always played together, and we moved up from the easiest difficulty to the hardest, slowly but surely, and dominated the game. Then L4D2 came out and we put a lot of time into that but not as much, and I never got to play it as much as I personally wanted. I'd love to repeat that experience, but no one seems to want to make tha tlong commitment to getting better. Not that I blame anyone. Time is hard. I have it easy 'cause I'm a loner and a loser.

[Korax]

If there are people who want to play on weekends, I would totally be up for that. I had a lot of fun with both L4D's and it's been quite a while since I last played.

[SecretAsianMan]

Once upon a time this forum engaged in regular games of L4D.  Maybe its time to revive that.

 

Is the interest just in co-op or is there desire for vs as well?

[Twig]

I'd play versus, but personally I would like to get really into the coop as my primary L4D2 experience.

[Gormongous]

3 hours ago, Twig said:

I'd play versus, but personally I would like to get really into the coop as my primary L4D2 experience.

 

Same.

[Joewintergreen]

I'd love to play some L4D with a preference strongly for 1 rather than 2.

 

If people wanted they could play my old unfinished (but still good iirc, 2 maps) L4D1 campaign from back when i flew Gabe Newell to australia http://www.gamemaps.com/details/2319

[TheLastBaron]

Why do people like 1 more than 2? I have a couple hundred hours in both, though it's been years since I've touched either, and I like 2 more because it fixed corner stacking and meele spam which I thought were pretty big problems in 1. I've literally only ever played versus though. 

 

Edit: Also I really like the story/characters in 2, having Cutty from the Wire is probably a big part of that. 

[Twig]

I've never understood it myself, mechanics-wise. Although level-wise I mostly prefer the original's set.

[SecretAsianMan]

L4D2 has all the maps from L4D1, including the original survivors where appropriate.  It implements all the mechanical changes instituted in 2 such as fixing the melee spam and adds the new content such as the new special infected and weapons.  They even recorded new voice lines for the callouts.  If you want to replay vanilla L4D1 without the L4D2 additions, there's a mutator that can do that.  In a way it can be preferable to do that since the levels weren't designed to accommodate the newer specials.  No Mercy in particular can be quite deadly since the Charger and Jockey can take you off the roof into certain death.

[Joewintergreen]

For me, mechanics-wise, it's kind of like TF2 at launch vs TF2 now - it feels like originally it's this tight, well-crafted, finely-honed thing that I really really enjoy, and then as they add more stuff it gets looser and looser. Mechanics individually (at first) and then emergent situations (in an ongoing way) are less able to be intuitively read. There's more weird things to keep track of, edge cases, exceptions to rules, and for me it results in consistently less of a good time. I have the same issue with XCOM 2 vs 1. 

With L4D specifically, it's also a matter of tone and atmosphere - L4D1 isn't a scary game in that you're playing with your friends so you can't really do scary that way (just try co-op System Shock 2) but it is a tense and foreboding and atmospheric one, whereas L4D2 is for the most part this happy-go-lucky crazy zombie gore and weird situations thing. It's going for something different, more Dawn of the Dead 2004 than L4D1's 28 Days Later, and I'm not into it.

 

Also, as a level designer, I basically think the level design and environment art in 2 are worse almost all the way 'round. A lot of it is the brighter, flatter lighting and textures and heavy fog - they cut themselves out of being able to use a lot of cool guidance tricks L4D1 had. Different teams though, I think?

[Twig]

UGH L4D3 WHEN

[Joewintergreen]

neverrrrr

[Twig]

Pls tho