With Chet Faliszek at Eurogamer Expo 2009

Hectic Glenn · Nov 1, 2009

This winter Valve made the trip to chilly London to show off Left 4 Dead 2 and Scavenge
mode at this year's Eurogamer Exhibition at London bridge. Chet said he would be
there so I dropped in to play Scavenge mode which won't be available till the game
is released and to speak with Chet.[br]
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Interview<hr size="3" noshade color="#ED761C"></strong>[br]
Hectic Glenn: Hi Chet, glad to finally meet with you, thanks
for taking the time to answer some of my questions.[br]
[br]
Chet Faliszek: No problem.[br]
[br]
Glenn: What is your favourite infected from the new and old?[br]
[br]
Chet: My favourite is the jockey right now, mainly because you
can be so evil with it. I mean I still love being the hunter and doing the long
range pounces, especially in Crash Course. In Left 4 Dead 2 there are a ton of great
spots for that.[br]
[br]
Glenn: How do you think the stuff that people learned from L4D1
is going to affect their playstyle of L4D2?[br]
[br]
Chet: So we had corner camping from L4D1, but the spitter will
totally take care of that. We see teams which play together really tight, which
is good...but it's really frustrating for people in versus. So the creation of the
charger will really break that up. I think the good thing is making sure that the
best way to play it is the most fun way to play it. Also making sure that the survivors
and their tools work for them and how the infected work & the director work, so
there are a lot of things to tackle.[br]
[br]
Glenn: What is your favourite new feature in the L4D2?[br]
[br]
Chet: Scavenger mode is one of my favourite things, it's a lot
of fun.[br]
[br]
[br]

[br]
Glenn: Where did the idea come from for Scavenge mode?[br]
[br]
Chet: We actually had like a year before Left 4 Dead release a
kind of broken scavenge mode in Left 4 Dead 1. It just didn't work well and didn't
have what we wanted. We stopped working on it and while working on one of the finales
and other things we could do, we decided scavenge mode would be a full mode again.
We added the time base, the introduction of that with quicker rounds...something
we learnt from Left 4 Dead 1.[br]
[br]
Glenn: Is Scavenger mode the answer to those long and difficult
to finish versus games?[br]
[br]
Chet: Well we've actually changed versus as well, there is a difference
in scoring and also it's harder for survivors now. We've made it easier for the
infected, they are a little more powerful, especially with the maps being so much
bigger. Actually with the demo, they are the two shortest maps in the game. Weird
choice for the demo but there is a meaning for that includes the mini-crescendo
event and we wanted to include that.[br]
[br]
Glenn: Today while playing, I've seen the spitter being able
to interact with the gas cans in Scavenge mode, how does that work?[br]
[br]
Chet: There is Ellis now running with a gas can (Chet points to
L4D2 screens in booth) if he drops that can... (player drops can at that second...Chet
shouts out ?PICK IT UP, it's going to time out, what are you doing!??)[br]
[br]
It's hard to get the new aspects of the mode over! Anyway...so when the can is dropped
it turns orange, so once cans have been 'affected' by players they can be set on
fire by the spitter. The spitter cannot affect cans which are untouched by players.
There are great combos, for example a smoker can pull someone and the can falls
to the ground and the spitter can run in and set it on fire.[br]
[br]

[br]
Glenn: There are some new items including the defibrillator.
How does the defibrillator work? Do we still have closets?[br]
[br]
Chet: So if someone dies (not just incapacitated) you can bring
them back to life, closets are still in. In a campaign like Hard Rain there are
a lot of witches and it's really dangerous, and if you're playing realism mode a
witch just kills you, so defib becomes more powerful than a health kit. Since it
brings people all the way back to life.[br]
[br]
Glenn: Tell us more about Realism mode, it's not just expert
mode is it?[br]
[br]
Chet: No, not at all! You can even play realism mode on easy. We
know some people always play with the same friends and they're really good as a
team so we want to challenge them as a team instead of their individual skill. It's
easy to say make the infected harder to kill, make your health less. But we wanted
to plan it a different way so we removed the survivor glows, the witch kills you
in one hit, we removed the respawn closets. All these different things it becomes
really about teamwork, making you work really tightly.[br]
[br]
Glenn: How are L4D1 and L4D2 connected story wise?[br]
[br]
Chet: We're not talking about that yet. Same world, same infection.
Bill's not dead, he's still alive. (points to Bill).[br]
[br]

[br]

Chet and Jesus H Christ...it's Bill

[br]
Glenn: Have you emphasised the approach to story this time since
fans on the forums pieced together the story from Left 4 Dead 1? It seemed like
players wanted more from it?[br]
[br]
Chet: We always had the plan to not do a traditional story and
leak it out the way we did. The way the story turned out in Left 4 Dead 1 was that
you were thrown into the zombie apocalypse, and you'd have no idea what is going
on. So now in Left 4 Dead 2 we weren't sure how we'd be able to run with the next
big talk about the story with 4 new characters and a fresh perspective. We've always
had different plans for the world and the story telling in it. I think it's working
pretty well, some people in the demo are already starting to raise questions to
try and figure some stuff out. [br]
[br]
Glenn: Do you have any further plans for L4D1 DLC?[br]
[br]
Chet: We have an update which is coming out really soon, not exactly
sure when. It will be out for the PC and the 360. I've been out the office a lot
so I can't say exactly when.[br]
[br]
Glenn: Was Crash Course sort of experimental for you? Trying
out techniques in L4D1 to improve L4D2? Things like alternative routes from A to
B / moving crescendos (generator in finale)?[br]
[br]
Chet: We looked at it more as an experiment in the Left 4 Dead
world, we don't really break it up like that. Originally it was going to be something
really different, but we were working on the best player experience, with it being
a bit of a shorter campaign. There are a lot of different ways you can go and you'll
see lots more of that in Left 4 Dead 2.[br]
[br]

Glenn: Do you think we will see the original L4D maps
appear in L4D2 to make use of the weapons and game modes?[br]
[br]
Chet: Well the weapons are here to see (on the build at Eurogamer
expo, I did see them!). But...we'll see, that's something on the road we're looking
at.[br]
[br]
Glenn: Will interest continue for L4D1, or do you think L4D2
is the only one people will play?[br]
[br]
Chet: Well people still play Counter Strike 1.6[br]
[br]
Glenn: Any more Left 4 Dead 2 announcements on the way before
release?[br]
[br]
Chet: Well we have some blog updates and some other stuff, we have
3 weeks yet. Loads of time![br]
[br]
Glenn: So what else is going on / in the pipeline?[br]
[br]
Chet: I've been on the road! I have no idea what anyone is working
on! [br]
[br]
Glenn: Well they can't just be sitting there doing nothing!
Come on, they're working...[br]
[br]
Chet: They're getting massages. Well no...there is plenty of TF
stuff going on, it takes like 30 people to make a hat![br]
[br]
Glenn: A HEV helmet / hat?[br]
[br]
Chet checks his iPhone ignoring me[br]
[br]
[br]

[br]
[br]
Glenn: OK...what is Kim working on?[br]
[br]
Chet: She's working on Left 4 Dead! She's one of the level artists
and she out recently at the Tokyo gameshow. That's a good example of how at Valve
we all get to work on what we want and jump around you know?[br]
[br]
Glenn: Is Doug here? (Doug Lombardi)[br]
[br]
Chet: No.[br]
[br]
Glenn: How comes?[br]
[br]
Chet: Because he's a lazy bastard and hates to travel! I miss travelling
with Doug, I don't know...we split some stuff up and I took this. He's taking care
of *a lot* of stuff at home.[br]
[br]
Glenn: You enjoy travelling or are you sick of this now?[br]
[br]
Chet: Not at all, I love doing this. Just watching people play
for the first time and see the excitement, you know. I like England, I like London...coming
back out. I was in London earlier this year at some press event, but that was just
to tease![br]
[br]
Glenn: So are you visiting Halflife2.net these days?[br]
[br]
Chet: So here is what I do, google alerts. Find that, see who is
talking about what. I mean I check the forums there and other places. I know for
sure I have an account with you guys, but it's not under Chet...it's underneath
a different name. I actually tried to go back now to Chet so no one thinks I'm trying
to be sneaky. Often now on the forums you hate to interrupt conversation even when
they're wrong, like they get some fact wrong but it's still important to let the
community sort it out. Especially in Left 4 Dead, where they create their own lore
which is cool to let that hang out there.[br]
[br]
[br]

[br]
[br]
Glenn: Do you ever grow tired of the trolls?[br]
[br]
Chet: I mean no, a lot of the times they're not able to play the
game and you get a different reaction. I remember when we released the update for
the melee fatigue, people were outraged! 'It won't work, we can't play it', oh the
angry emails. I was like 'hey are you online, my name's Chet, lets play'. And I
start playing with them and they'd say "oh yeah it's barely noticeable". It's good
to stay in touch with the community, I mean last year we had a major issue with
connections from Norway. Looking in everything looked fine, but coming out there
were some server problems. So that kind of relationship with customers really helps
us to improve our service.[br]
[br]
Glenn: Lastly, congratulations on getting the demo out a few
days ago. A few hiccups along the way, but from the reaction I've seen so far it's
been positive. What was the reason for the delay?[br]
[br]
Chet: Well we held it back for a short period to fix some issues
so that when we launched the demo there would be less issues for customers once
it was out there. It was essential stuff, and the update after was a part of the
file decryption process so that it all went smoothly after release.[br]
[br]
Glenn: Thanks for your time Chet, well you've taken up a lot
of my time coming to see you today, in fact I'm missing the Team Fortress 2 Halloween
update and those new hats. Could you email Robin for me and get him to send them
over?[br]
[br]
Chet: No. No hats for you.[br]
[br]
My Thoughts on Scavenge & and Playing With the New Infected<hr size="3" noshade color="#ED761C">
</strong>[br]
A massive thanks to Chet for taking the time and his EA sidekick for letting me
chat with him too. I really enjoyed playing Scavenge mode at Eurogamer. It feels
like the perfect length game where you can drop in and get to slaughter a lot of
infected with the whole array of weapons, and also get to play a variety of special
infected in a fairly enclosed environment.[br]
[br]
In versus for Left 4 Dead 1, you would get one opportunity to get that smoker pull
or hunter pounce right at a particular point of a map. In scavenge the special infected
have several opportunities as the survivors must go to collect fuel cans and return
to the same spot each time to fill the generator.[br]
[br]

[br]
[br]
From the videos you can see the length of the rounds is fairly short, but this is
a massive improvement. I'm sure there are plenty of people eager to play with the
spitter, charger and jockey and scavenge mode will give you that instant fun of
torturing the survivors every 2 minutes or so.[br]
[br]
Charger[br]
[br]
Playing with the charger was the most fun for me. In the left corner of the map
there are 2 fuel cans in a small bedroom with a small hallway leading to them. Keeping
the charger at the end of this hallway is particularly fun as I was able to charge
survivors right off the top of the building. Extremely satisfying. The charger takes
quite a few bullets to drop and you can't push him back with a shove attack.[br]
[br]
Spitter[br]
[br]
The spitter is really effective in scavenge due to its ability to blow up gas cans
once 'affected' by survivors. There are lots of small rooms in the map we played
and you can trap survivors in bathrooms by pinning them in with noxious acid. The
spitter has a really precise glob of acid which it shoots out, so there is actually
a high degree of precision required in order to make sure where it lands does maximum
damage. Getting a 45 degree angle to aim down really helps.[br]
[br]
Jockey[br]
[br]
Lastly the jockey is extremely fun. Firstly he makes the most hilarious noise (see
videos), and he's also very small and tricky to hit. In discussion at the expo people
were really happy that once you had attacked with the jockey you had control over
what happened next. All the other infected attack and they stay there till they
die (smoker / hunter / charger), but the jockey is able to move survivors away from
the others and into more danger. Players using the jockey got the hang of it quickly,
grabbing poor survivors and as help arrived started dragging them up stairs, through
houses, out back doors...and back up the stairs again in a circle! Chasing the jockey
around is time consuming and he does a lot of damage in that 'chasing period' which
is the key to his success.[br]
[br]
Playing as the infected it was obvious they had a lot more strength than they did
in L4D1. Even a fairly average team could kill 1 or 2 survivors in a round. I played
a gruelling 1 sided match, where our team destroyed the other team with fully co-operative
team work. The delight on our faces as we pounced, vomited, charged, spat & rode
around on the survivors heads was obvious and I'll take that experience away with
me. For a good survivor team you will inevitably take considerable damage from the
special infected but it's dealing with the panic situations well which will be the
difference.[br]
[br]
The one map I played was from the Dark Carnival campaign, so it wasn't created just
for scavenge mode, it had been converted from a campaign map (like most of the survival
maps were). The central area provides lots of cover and potential from nearby rooftops
for all sorts of attacks.[br]
[br]
Although Chet has said that versus has been improved, the nature of the longer games
and highly opportunistic nature of success with the special infected I think will
mean it will have to play second fiddle behind scavenge mode. This mode means that
you and 7 of your friends can drop in for a short 15 minute game and get condensed
Left 4 Dead 2 carnage instantly. Excellent.

Operational · Nov 1, 2009

Nice work Glenn, that was a good read.

With Chet Faliszek at Eurogamer Expo 2009

Hectic Glenn

Site Director

Operational

Newbie

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