Left 4 Dead - Worth buying without friends to play online?

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rahavsmt

Gawd
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Jul 16, 2004
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I would like to buy Left 4 Dead since it is cheap now with the Valve promotion. The problem is that I have read that its best to play online with someone you know for coordination and stuff. I dont have any other friend playing this game and would be just as fun if I play the game with stranger with or without voicecom?
 
I've only had one or two situations where the people I played a campaign game with were really retarded. The guy kept running infront of everyone while we were shooting, then yelling at us when he got incapped. For the most part it's been fun. I actually added about 5 people to my friends list after playing a few games and have had repeat games with them.

VS. may get frustrating if you are on a bad team, but if it's that bad, just join a new server.

I'd say it's totally worth it. Are you grabbing the Valve Complete Pak or whatever it is? That's worth it just for L4D and TF2, let alone the other stuff you get.
 
I just want to buy L4D not the other packs.

Im worried that the game is full of retards and the game would be wasted if I didnt have any friends to play the game with.
 
I have 5 real life friends on my Steam Friends List that play L4D. However, they often aren't playing the game when I am so I only get to play it with them occasionally.

This is not a big deal though because I have made lots of new Steam-only friends while playing the game. I even have a group I play with regularly and we are thinking of joining CAL once the L4D league rules are set up.

So my point is, you don't need friends who play if you take the time to make friends once you start playing.
 
i bought left 4 dead about a week before christmas with no friends that play and it's been very worth it. as long as you're a team player you'll accumulate steam friends quickly.
 
I have one real life friend on steam, and I have 20 friends on steam. That's my answer. All through L4D.
 
I'm incredibly sick of the game now. Won't touch it unless some1 on my friends begs me. The game finding mechanism is bad.

But the fact that I got to this point with it means it is well worth the money.
 
I haven't played the game with any real life or online friends. But I've made quite a few new online friends in L4D.

You will run into terrible teammates, and some good ones. Remember the good ones and invite them back.
 
remember, you might find some people that are good players and can add them to your friend list and play with them at some other time. I've really only had a few times where it sucked.
 
If you don't have a regular group of people to play with, something that's pretty common with good teams is you'll end up making friends and play with them in the future (thx Steam). I've picked up probably 4 or 5 new people to play with since L4D was released because we worked well as a team.
 
Yes, you will make some online L4D friends to play with. You will eventually find out that most people playing on anything other then expert or advanced are... pretty terrible :p.

Here is my account if you want to play sometime :).
 
I had predicament

actually been debating it since the game has come out

with the discount and this thread...looks like I am going to do it now

I'll add some of you guys as friends and get things going
 
None of my friends will be able to play with me until after winter break, but I am still loving the game.
You occasionally have to deal with complete idiots for teammates, but its infrequency combined with incredible fun means you do not need to worry.
 
flegg said:
The game finding mechanism is bad.
Click to expand...

Have you tried the server browser? open up the console and type:

openserverbrowser

My favorite part is the friends tab. If you have a friend in a full game you can have it auto connect to the game w/ a friend in it.
 
daphatgrant said:
Yes, you will make some online L4D friends to play with. You will eventually find out that most people playing on anything other then expert or advanced are... pretty terrible :p.
Click to expand...

That's true. I found a few random people that were alot of fun to play with so I added them for my Friends list. If you just pay attention to who you're in-game with you should be able to find some people that make L4D even more fun than it is by itself.
 
The BEST part about this game's meeting new people IMO. Some kick ass, others react w/ snail like precision. But most of all everyone has their very own personality and YOU get to pick who to shoot and who to help.
 
Meeting new people in an online game are good times.

I tend to play online games just to chat with people (in the server) and become their buddy afterward.

None of my real life buds play PC online games, as they're more into consoles and games like Gears of War (single mode) and The Sims 2.

Tribes had the effect of once you join a specific server daily, you tend to grow use to the people (same people daily) and the routine of maps. Had this happen to me and lasted a good several years.
 
rahavsmt said:
I just want to buy L4D not the other packs.

Im worried that the game is full of retards and the game would be wasted if I didnt have any friends to play the game with.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about that, the retards get killed off when no one helps them.
 
i was worried about the same thing, but since my problem with not being able to join servers got fixed, ive had tons of fun playing it and i have no friends that play it either
 
i used to play a lot with ppl. i friend'ed through steam. but then i got back into WOW and i stopped playing.

none of my friends play L4D.... u get a lot of shitty games, but occasionally you find the awesome players, that you talk over voice com with and frag others in VS mode

at one point the 4 of us got soo good, that ppl. would quit playing against us in VS mode
 
Doesn't that suck? I wish there was some sort of XBOX Live rating system for this game. I've sure played with some poopers lately.
 
I really only like playing with friends, because every time I don't I get paired up with retards. VERY rarely do I get teamed up with people that:

A) Know how to play the game
B) Stick together (survivors)
C) USE THE DAMN MICROPHONE

And even with these problems, the game is still amazing. :)
 
yeah man i dont even really play it online that often. i enjoy it enough througb single player just ecause theres so many achievements and things to accomplish.
 
Everett1 said:
Tribes had the effect of once you join a specific server daily, you tend to grow use to the people (same people daily) and the routine of maps. Had this happen to me and lasted a good several years.
Click to expand...

Wow - i havent heard this articulated in a long time. Tribes was probably the best community-building FPS I've ever played. Became pretty good friends with all the people I would regularly play with on one or two pub servers.
 
Never played Tribes, but I've been a counter strike addict since 1.3 beta. I always thought that the whole "clan" idea was lame. Then one day I was gaming on a server and had a great time... hung around for a few weeks and got to know the guys well and grew with the community. I soon found out I'm not the only "old guy" who games there and clicked with many in my age group (30-35). Soon i was asked if I'd like to join up.... after rolling my eyes, I thought, lame, but what the hell.. that was about 5 or 6 years ago and I've had some of the best gaming experiences since. Here in the midwest, I didn't know anyone who gamed, so it's cool to be able to "friend" people who I would never have a chance to meet and share the interest in gaming. ... So I'd say the best community-building FPS I've ever played was Counter Strike, and more over, Counter Strike Source.

To get back on topic...

Steam Friends is one of the best things about Steam. Get to know a few guys... invite them to friend ya and if they are a clan, try to hang out in their community. You'll have a much better chance building up your friends list if you hang and participate in a select groups of servers, clans, and people.

I too have really enjoyed playing L4D in single player mode. So I'd say GO FOR IT! My advice, don't cheap yourself and choose normal easy settings... go straight for Advance or expert. (expert is a bit much though). Once you get through all the campaigns playing Advance, you will be more adjusted to the action, and have a better time online in vs or coop. You'll be use to the chaos.
 
I have a group of friends that I play with. I find that most of the randoms like to play on easy/normal and wander off alone a lot.

I like playing on advanced/expert, sticking together, and conserving ammo (IE NOT ALERTING THE HORDE UNLESS NECESSARY)
 
It's okay, but I really think it won't shine until some DLC is available. There aren't that many levels and there just isn't enough variety when it comes down to the number or enemies or weapons. There are just so many times you can kill the same 4-5 enemies without wishing there were unique bosses or more weapons.
It shines in VS mode when you can play an infected, but even then it feels like a bit of a novelty.
If you're bored it's a fun ride, but it lacks long term replay value right now, IMO.
 
Yes.
Only problem with it now are the network issues (connecting to a full server, not connecting, droping connection, connecting to a private server/same thing in server browser) and a few map "issues". (boathouse finale, hospital finale, room camping)

Patches are coming. Levels are coming. Great fun, once you get around the little junk.
 
And don't get me started w/ the number of spectator exploiters and rage quitters. Although I did play w/ 2 guys that used the word, "BRO" every sentence. Highly annoying, but funny because they played the game very differently. They would use the spec exploit to hide about 10 boss infected in and around the safe room and avoid attacking until then. When their survivor turn came, they would "race" to the end and see who gets their first. I'm sure I pissed off a few folks, but that was too much fun and I had to join in for a few rounds.

After that go, I had another where no one used closets and we even used the lift on No Mercy. It proved to be a much better experience. Here's to hoping we get some network fixes and balancing issues sorted quickly.

Alternatively, I'd like to see a rating and stat system that told you things like avg completion of campaign per lobby start. I guess the only problem w/ that's some people, including myself will quit if the server's laggin' too much or your teammates bother you.
 
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