The Jockey

The Jockey is a new form of Special Infected that will appear in Left 4 Dead 2. It will jump onto the Survivors and cling to their head and upper back. From there, they can steer the Survivor while clawing them. It appears that the Jockey has been mutated by the infection to the extent that he has a hump, which is what causes him to hop around in a spider monkey-like motion. However, he can jump great distances, yet nowhere near as far as the Hunter. His lips and the skin surrounding have also deteriorated away. When on a Survivor, he claws at them with his free hand while leaning in a direction to cause the Survivors to stumble. The player can try to steer in a better direction, but can't outright resist where the Jockey drives them. When a player is incapacitated, the Jockey may leap off of the survivor.

He has large claws, used to help control the Survivors, and wears a tattered and ripped white T-shirt alongside blue boxers. His approach can be denoted by his loud, maniacal cackling. Like the Spitter, it too appears to have pupils. It was first mentioned here.

In this article, Valve said that the Jockey was made to work in tandem with the Spitter by "steering" Survivors into the Spitter's goo. Valve also said that the Jockey could steer Survivors into fire or even Witches.

One could argue that the Jockey is superior to the Hunter in pouncing isolated Survivors as it can also "steer" them away from the rest of the team at nearly the speed of the Survivors.



Trivia

 * The Jockey has some resemblance to Fritz from the 1931 film adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, "Frankenstein".
 * This is the first Infected which can leap off the Survivors, not having to kill them.
 * The Jockey seems to have a hunchback, the result of the condition known medically as Kyphosis.
 * As seen in Gameplay Videos you can resist the Jockey by walking in the opposite direction. When you do so, the Jockey becomes slower for a few seconds so that your teammates can reach you.
 * Jockey was the first Special Infected to be featured in a video with a Special Infected gameplay.
 * Gameplay footage of the Jockey shows that his "pounces" for his primary attack are much shorter and quicker than that of the Hunters', meaning players will have to have good accuracy when attacking, or go after Survivors distracted by other Infected.
 * In a first person perspective, the Jockey seems to tilt his hands downward like a mantis. His fingers also seem to twitch constantly, most likely due to his seemingly overactive nature.