The Survivors

There are four playable human characters in the game, each with a different and unique appearance to make it easier to identify which character you are looking at when you aren't close enough to recognize the face. Each player is randomly assigned a character when they join the server and each character has the same abilities and may use the same weapons.

Francis
The tattoo-covered biker. He knew Bill before the outbreak of infection as well, which may mean they both went to Vietnam.

Zoey
The teenage daughter of a wealthy family. Zoey's face is modeled from Alesia Glidewell, the same person Chell from Valve's Portal was modeled from.

Bill
A Vietnam veteran with combat skills that have helped keep him alive, he is also the eldest of the band of survivors.

Louis
An assistant manager at a local retail electronics chain store.

"churchguy"
A man who's only evidence of existence in L4D is his voice clips in the Demo. He appears to be afraid of infection, locking himself in some sort of way that the survivors must get through. Further investigation into his clips show that he was bit, and waited an hour, so he deemed himself immune. Ultimately, he becomes an infected.

Tactics
Though there are many ways to play Left 4 Dead, some rules have to be established to avoid friendly fire, stragglers, and untimely death.


 * Shotgunners go first. No one likes getting shot in the back of head with a shotgun.
 * If you are ahead of the other Survivors, crouch. No one likes getting shot PERIOD.
 * No one is worthless. Save your allies when fallen after the threat is dead.
 * There's a time to be helpful. It's not when a horde is rushing. Save allies after everything is dead or there will be two bodies.
 * Watch your teammate's backs. If someone is helping another up, cover 'em!
 * Grenades: When and where. Molotov's don't mix well with Survivors. Pipe bombs too.
 * Don't shoot at something when someone else can. Zombie get past the defense line? Don't turn around unless you're last in line.
 * Don't shoot at something attacking an ally when s/he can handle it. Friendly fire...

If these rules seem like commonsense, you're in good shape.