Eurogamer Expo ’09: Chet Faliszek Discusses Left 4 Dead 2

As well as letting us get our grubby mitts on upcoming titles, Eurogamer Expo ’09 was packed with developers telling the stories behind their games. Here’s the next in a series of posts about what they had to say.

It’s safe to say that last year’s Left 4 Dead was a total hit, with millions of gamers banding together to survive the zombie apocalypse. When Valve announced an uncharacteristically quick sequel, many gamers were upset. Is it too soon for Left 4 Dead 2?

Judging from the queue for the game’s developer session, Valve don’t have too much to worry. The Negative Gamer crew showed up an hour before it was due to start, and we weren’t the only ones. By the time Valve’s Chet Faliszek stepped up to begin, the conference hall was packed with hundreds of Left 4 Dead fans eager to learn more about the new game. He showed us Hard Rain, one of the four new campaigns. Unfortunately it was screenshots only, but Faliszek had a lot to talk about.

Hard Rain takes players through levels featuring a sugar cane plant and a city, then makes them go back the way they came. On the way out it’s daylight, but the return takes place during a heavy storm at night.

During the campaign (which was the focus of Chet’s talk) players begin with just a pistol, and must pick up weapons and ammo as they go. The twist is that anything you take on the way out will be gone when you come back – a lesson playtesters quickly learn.

Getting in your way are new enemies, along with some modified old ones. The “uncommon common”, as Faliszek calls them, are regular infected with a special ability. For example; former construction workers still wear their ear muffs so aren’t attracted by the sound of a pipe-bomb.

That’s not the only change. It seems that witches are attracted to sugar cane, and will wander around during the daytime – and not just one. Players have to contended with four or five in a single level; Faliszek says he kept getting bug reports that the game was spawning too many witches.

On the way back through the city, rain and darkness will severely reduce visibility. To help players out lights show the way to safety. Originally they had players manually switch on their lights as they travelled out, but that wasn’t very fun so they made it automatic. If players make it to the end of the campaign they have to light up a Burger Tank sign in the usual dramatic finale. Questions?

Does the AI director have any new tools?

Yes indeed. The dastardly director can now control the weather, throwing storms at players who are doing too well. The game will also reconfigure parts of the map, such as crypts in a graveyard, to make players navigate a longer course through the level. “Distance equals difficulty,” says Faliszek, but if you’re really bad the director takes pity on you with a straight-line path. The three new special infected, the Charger, Spitter and Jockey, also add to the AI director’s arsenal.

Are there any plans to bring back the original survivors?

“They’re not dead, so we’ll see what happens!” says Faliszek. “They’re not undead either!”

Can user-created maps from Left 4 Dead be imported in to the sequel?

There will be a patch with certain art assets from the first game, so importing maps is possible. With a bit of effort they can also be redesigned to take advantage of the new AI director features in Left 4 Dead 2 – Valve will be releasing the tools at launch.

Will you be able to practice being the infected offline?

“We do it internally against bots,” says Faliszek, but they can’t promise releasing anything to the public.

How did you come up with ideas for the new special infected?

“We looked at problems,” answers Faliszek, like teams that stick together and are hard to break up. The new Charger will go in and send them flying, then pound one unfortunate survivor in to the ground. The Spitter has a ranged attack that deals exponential damage, which is great for getting at groups hiding in corners, while the Jockey is for people lagging behind or running ahead. “It’s also just fun to run people off buildings.”

Why can’t you play as a common infected while waiting to spawn?

They considered it, but by the time you’ve reorientated yourself in the game as a common infected, it’s time to spawn as a special. It would break up the flow of the game, and make it harder for teams to work together.

What about letting players be the AI director?

“Kind of like Dungeon Master?” Faliszek asks. They’ve looked at it, but it’s way down the line, if it happens at all.

What is realism mode?

“It’s not just making Expert mode harder,” says Faliszek. It’s actually a modifier for any difficulty level, designed for people who play together regularly and want an extra challenge. Events like witches become more important, with one-hit-kills, and the mode switches off respawn closets and the glowing outlines of your team mates. If a smoker grabs you, you need to be able to tell you team where you are.

Are people on lower end PCs going to be able to run the game?

It’s actually the lower end PCs that Valve make changes for, not the 360. Their Steam surveys show them exactly how many players they would lose by increasing minimum specs, so they’ve made sure that if you could play Left 4 Dead, you can play the sequel. Conversely, if you have a high end machine, the game will look much better.

How do you test the game?

Valve uses an internal tool called Viper that records both a player’s face and the on-screen action. They can then watch the recordings back to analyse how players react to certain events.

Any thoughts on the Australian ban of Left 4 Dead 2?

“Every country has the right to protect their own culture,” says Faliszek, but the Australian rating system caught Valve off guard. With countries like Germany they know exactly what they have to do to meet rating requirements, but the Australian rules aren’t clear enough.

Were any scenario ideas dropped during development?

“That doesn’t really happen,” answers Faliszek, because Valve work so iteratively. If something doesn’t work, they build on it until it does. For example, the Dark Carnival campaign was a little flat so they added a bunch of minigames.

What are the plans for DLC?

Valve will continue to support both Left 4 Dead games, but they are no announced plans yet. DLC names mentioned in the demo code were just test examples for Microsoft certification.

Have the old special infected been modified at all?

There have been a few changes to the character models, including the addition of a female Boomer. “Not only guys are fat,” jokes Faliszek. Their behaviour has also been modified to work with the new specials, like a Smoker pulling someone through Spitter goo.

Will Survival mode be any easier?

“It’s always going to be weird,” says Faliszek. People play until they get the gold medal, then don’t play it any more. It doesn’t have the staying power of the other modes, so they will be including just the best 10 maps for Survival in Left 4 Dead 2.

And that’s the lot. Before the Expo I hadn’t been particularly interested in Left 4 Dead 2 for some reason, but a couple of rounds on the demo station warmed me to the game. Listening to Chet Faliszek talk about the huge amount of effort Valve have put in to tweaking their already successful formula got me even more excited. Let’s face it – Valve haven’t made a bad game yet. Look out for the Negative Gamer review of Left 4 Dead 2 when it’s released next month.