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Monday 19 September 2011

Left 4 Dead 2 : Defeating Expert Realism Mode.

I didn't play scavenger last night, I committed to doing that on a Friday, and I won't be able to next Friday because I will be out for the evening.

Instead last night I have another concerted attempt at tackling Expert Realism. It was an interesting night actually - I didn't get particularly far, but that's not the point - I did pick up enough information to make what can seem impossible difficulty do-able.

I think counter-intuitively all of the Left 4 Dead 2 campaigns start with a very challenging section. Large open areas, lots of infected and little useful cover. In the normal play-mode it works well, becuse they hit the survivors hard, and it makes the little skirmishes that occur later on more effective because the survivors are in a weakened state. If it started easy and built up - it'd probably be too easy.

Last night I focused on 'Dark Carnival' now I've seen numerous teams not even make it off the road - falling to the hoard of zombies before they've even climbed over the cars. I've seen better teams limping along, wounded and missing a member by the time they get to the under-pass just before the hotel.

The point here is that although before I said you need good 4 way comms and 4 good players, there's something else you need too! That is solid tactics. The infected on Expert Realism will take an immense amount of firepower to drop them unless you hit the head - when a hoard is charging you from every angle, it's impossible to snipe with an analog stick and head-shot them. On Expert Realism, this initial high-challenge works a bit differently, rather than weakening the survivors - it wipes them out.

On Normal and Easy - especially non-realism, it's pretty easy to get complacent - a few shoves, a few well placed shots and you can get through these sections with very little effort - only the specials offering any serious threat. When you up the difficulty and go realism - you need to start looking for better tactics.

Here's some ideas on how through the Dark Carnival Motel with your health kits intact and your health in the green/amber.

1. At the start, after the talk about Jimmy Gibbs Junior's car - grab your weapons and health kits, and I strongly suggest choosing the sub-machine gun. You'll need to be able to shoot accurately and you'll be in close quarters to your team mates so the shotgun is dangerous and not as effective - you'll mainly be trying to keeop the infected at range.

2. Once you're tooled up, the entire team should run and jump past the infected until the road is blocked, at that point there is an open Luton Van or Lorry to the left of the road - pile in quick, then turn to face the entrance, front two crouch the back two stand - keep killing until the infected stop coming. The risk here is that a Spitter will gob into the van - if that happens, and you're at the middle, try moving back - the spit might not have made it to the back wall. If not you're going to have to get out. If someone feels like playing 'fall guy' he can stay out of the van, let the team in the van cover him and specifically try to take out the special infected, particularly Spitters. You need someone good to do this job - they might get hunters, smokers, chargers and jockeys coming at them and quick reflexes will help them not lose so much damage. If a boomer barfs on the team - everyone get in the van, maintain formation and keep shooting.

3. Once you're through the first encounter where you hole up in the first van, make your way around the blocked road, instead of heading down the slip-road to the hummer stay on the road, there should be a thrown weapon and another weapon at the campsite. Still, don't go down to the slip-road, to the left is an over-turned lorry and some bushes, it's possible to jump on the bushes and then onto the over-turned lorry cab, avoiding going under the under-pass. If it's very busy when you go around the corner from the first van there is another van you can use the same tactic in - usually you can move straight through though and climb over.

4. Once over the lorry, you are on top of the under-pass that you normally go under. There's another van that tends to have pills or similar in it -if it gets busy you can hole up in that van as before.

5. You should now have a clear run to the sign above the Motel, which you often climb over to get on top of the Motel roof. Once there try to pick up the sniper rifle. Then jump onto the Motel roof from the sign.

6. Once on the Motel roof make your way on top of the roof to the top floor of motel rooms. At some point you'll trigger a hoard attack and a tank can come. Don't be tempted to hole up in a room - that should be the last resort. A better bet is to stay on the balcony near the centre of the line of rooms that leads from the Motel to the swimming pool and the way out. Two face forwards, two face back, at this point - a Tank often appears. Try to keep your distance, use the sniper rifles on it as much as possible, molatov it if possible - if you're not going to take it down and it's charging you - try to get around it and make a run for the exit, or try to back up to where you've got more room to manouver - staying on the balcony is a bad idea at this point.

7. Once you're through the Motel and sludging through the river at the bottom of the hill, look out for a little wooden shack. I don't think it's big enough for four, but if two go in, one can crouch and one stand, and they can cover the backs of the two exposed survivors - at that point, you can just try adn run the gauntlet and get to the safe room - but that's an alternative tactic that can work well.

Conclusion, if you're playing any campaign and having trouble, try going back to easy mode, kill everything - and spend a long time looking for choke points and places you can hole up.

I hope this helps!

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