Having a blast with the game,
Thoughts:
1) Realism is great, but they should remove crosshairs and totally remove the glows. Love the change in feel, haven't gotten a team to finish a campaign in expert w/ realism mode yet, but I only play with pick-up groups which makes this much harder. The toughest part is the DEVASTATING friendly fire from people who were relying too much on the player glows to know when not to shoot.
2) Would like them to add a "wave hands above your head" animation too to help draw player attention to you. Saying "it's over here" doesn't mean a damn thing when your voice is just playing right in their ear. Saying "It's over by Coach" is better, but still takes other people some time to react to. You can't see other people's flashlights or else I'd flick it on and off to signal a direction.
3) Love the running alarm sequences, seems like the majority of incaps occur during these sections. Probably because most people just run pellmell towards the alarm instead of making a determined and concerted push. A real nice twist on the gameplay.
4)The fueling sequence was fun, but a little too gentle. Seen teams complete this finale without needing any teamwork at all, just 4 players running off in 4 directions. Definitely won't work this way in versus, but in co-op they should spawn special infected more regularly to force players to pair off when they go can-hunting.
5) They did a better job with the weapon distribution. They sprinkle them across the campaign instead of just putting down a big ol' pile out at once.However, I think all weapons should disappear when picked up though, like the melee items. L4D2 gives weapons more frequently, with more powerful weapons available, so having them disappear on pickup would help offset the abundance of weapons. The tweaked ammo count is better than before, and balanced well considering the increased utility of the secondary slot.
6) Hard to get a good feel for the blunt weapons. Can't tell if I only got a glancing hit or a fatal hit, so I often have to hit'em twice just to make sure. I always take the sharp weapons instead as a result since they provide more feedback.
7) There's less kill feedback in general. While it's entertaining to see visual damage on the zombies, there's actually less indication of a kill than in L4D1. In L4D1 a headshot dropped'em instantly, or sent them into an easily recognized death animation. In L4D2 I'm not sure if I've headshotted them or merely stumbled them since there's so many twist and turn animations. It's even more annoying when my screen shows a burst of blood from the zombie's head, but the zombie keeps coming anyway, despite the fact that a bullet is a 1-hit kill. Maybe it's server lag from the deluge of players at release, but I'm seeing a lot of this client/server discrepancy. It'll just take some time to get used to it I guess, it's not necessarily a bad difference, just a difference.
8) The tank could use some help. The survivors got more powerful equipment, and the infected got more versatile special infected, but the poor tank is still the same as before. Again, not a problem in versus, but in co-op he still spawns alone most of the time, and a tank without SI support gets cut to pieces very quickly.
9) Maps are a bit shorter, but much more open. You can definitely notice the lessons that the map designers learned. Far fewer corners and walls for teams to use for shelter, forcing the players to engage hordes out in the open. A lot of the pickups are placed a good distance from the main path which helps balance the benefit of the pickup against the additional time for the AID to spawn more ambushes.
Thoughts:
1) Realism is great, but they should remove crosshairs and totally remove the glows. Love the change in feel, haven't gotten a team to finish a campaign in expert w/ realism mode yet, but I only play with pick-up groups which makes this much harder. The toughest part is the DEVASTATING friendly fire from people who were relying too much on the player glows to know when not to shoot.
2) Would like them to add a "wave hands above your head" animation too to help draw player attention to you. Saying "it's over here" doesn't mean a damn thing when your voice is just playing right in their ear. Saying "It's over by Coach" is better, but still takes other people some time to react to. You can't see other people's flashlights or else I'd flick it on and off to signal a direction.
3) Love the running alarm sequences, seems like the majority of incaps occur during these sections. Probably because most people just run pellmell towards the alarm instead of making a determined and concerted push. A real nice twist on the gameplay.
4)The fueling sequence was fun, but a little too gentle. Seen teams complete this finale without needing any teamwork at all, just 4 players running off in 4 directions. Definitely won't work this way in versus, but in co-op they should spawn special infected more regularly to force players to pair off when they go can-hunting.
5) They did a better job with the weapon distribution. They sprinkle them across the campaign instead of just putting down a big ol' pile out at once.However, I think all weapons should disappear when picked up though, like the melee items. L4D2 gives weapons more frequently, with more powerful weapons available, so having them disappear on pickup would help offset the abundance of weapons. The tweaked ammo count is better than before, and balanced well considering the increased utility of the secondary slot.
6) Hard to get a good feel for the blunt weapons. Can't tell if I only got a glancing hit or a fatal hit, so I often have to hit'em twice just to make sure. I always take the sharp weapons instead as a result since they provide more feedback.
7) There's less kill feedback in general. While it's entertaining to see visual damage on the zombies, there's actually less indication of a kill than in L4D1. In L4D1 a headshot dropped'em instantly, or sent them into an easily recognized death animation. In L4D2 I'm not sure if I've headshotted them or merely stumbled them since there's so many twist and turn animations. It's even more annoying when my screen shows a burst of blood from the zombie's head, but the zombie keeps coming anyway, despite the fact that a bullet is a 1-hit kill. Maybe it's server lag from the deluge of players at release, but I'm seeing a lot of this client/server discrepancy. It'll just take some time to get used to it I guess, it's not necessarily a bad difference, just a difference.
8) The tank could use some help. The survivors got more powerful equipment, and the infected got more versatile special infected, but the poor tank is still the same as before. Again, not a problem in versus, but in co-op he still spawns alone most of the time, and a tank without SI support gets cut to pieces very quickly.
9) Maps are a bit shorter, but much more open. You can definitely notice the lessons that the map designers learned. Far fewer corners and walls for teams to use for shelter, forcing the players to engage hordes out in the open. A lot of the pickups are placed a good distance from the main path which helps balance the benefit of the pickup against the additional time for the AID to spawn more ambushes.
