One thing that is very noticeable when playing Left 4 Dead is friendly fire. It’s on. All the time. You can’t turn it off. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is a controversial decision, especially given Team Fortress 2’s notable lack of it.
Many of you will welcome this aspect of the game as a move to a more realistic and frightening experience. Others moan about it being unfair and that at least there should be an option to turn it off.
To Friendly Fire or not to Friendly Fire
Should games include friendly fire? It all boils down to the sort of game you are playing. A gritty, realistic war simulator would be absurd if you could unload a clip of 9mm ammunition into your friend without him at least turning round to complain. On the other hand, realism for realism’s sake is worthless. I can think of few games in which friendly fire actually adds anything to the game, save for the chance for some utter idiots to do some griefing by teamkilling. Take Halo 3. While care must of course be taken when using explosive devices, is it really of any value to the game that a quick tap on the back of the head with your rifle butt is similarly deadly to friend or foe?
Bill and Zoey have it all wrong. Look at them pointing their guns at each other! Careless!
I am a great supporter of TF2’s lack of friendly fire. Why bother including this small aspect of reality to a game which otherwise completely shuns accuracy to real life? In a game where critical hits, Übercharges, invisibility and health-giving comestibles exist, why should there be friendly fire? I have played mods where it is enabled and one word sums it up: chaos. Friendly Pyros and Demomen become seriously hazardous to your health.
What then, I hear you cry, does it add to Left 4 Dead? Well, in a game which uses as its very base the importance of teamwork and survival, it encourages you to check your aim. If your pal is being mauled by gaggle of bloodthirsty zombies, do you unload an Uzi clip into the throng? No, because there’s a high chance your friend will be among the Swiss-cheese-esque corpses. If you have been blinded by a Boomer, do you blast indiscriminately with your boomstick? No, because when you regain your vision you will find that you all your friends are dead.
So what can I do?
Press the right mouse button. Go on, do it. That’s your melee attack. Sure, it may take a few bashes to down a zombie, but you will notice that it does no damage at all to your fellow survivors. Especially in Expert difficulty, where your bullets harm your comrades as much as they do the Infected, this becomes vital.
Notice how the guns are pointed at the zombies, as opposed to each other
Elsewhere, check your aim. From what I can ascertain from the demo, ammunition isn’t a huge issue in Left 4 Dead- there’s usually a couple of stashes to be found, depending on how kind the Director feels, and you can always fall back to your pistols in times of scarcity. But firing your guns willy-nilly is a great way to get shouted at by your team. If your friend is being ripped to shreds, first knock the zombie away from them, then go for their tender brain with the shotgun. Survivors can be freed from Hunters and Smokers’ tongues with a single shove, and will certainly not thank you if you fire your assault rifle at them to ‘help’.
At the end of the day
L4D is a survival game. While by no means an entirely accurate simulation of a zombie uprising, it is very unforgiving- the Director has no qualms about setting a Hunter on your last man standing as he comes to the aid of his fallen friends. Friendly fire is an integral part of the game, whether you like it or not, and it’s here to stay, so we had better adapt.
In the case of Valve releasing an update that does indeed allow you to turn FF off, please cheerily disregard the above post.
