There are currently 4 Gameplay Modes in Left 4 Dead, and 8 Gameplay Modes in Left 4 Dead 2.
Campaign[]
- Play through a co-operative campaign online.
- Available in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2
During Campaign, also known as Co-op, up to four players work together to try and reach the end of the campaign by fighting their way past large numbers of AI-controlled Infected. There are four difficulties: Easy, Normal, Advanced and Expert. Each chapter ends in a safe room, which acts as a checkpoint that is triggered when all living Survivors get inside the safe room and close the door behind them.
In Campaign mode, one or more players play as the Survivors, with the rest of the four filled in with AI-controlled "Bots". The Survivors play through each chapter, making their way from safe room to safe room. The last stage in each campaign has an expanded ending called the Finale, which usually ends with players escaping on rescue vehicles such as boats or helicopters.
If a player dies at any point before the Finale, they will respawn in a Rescue Closet after some time, calling out for help and requiring another survivor to help them; alternatively, they will also respawn in the safe room when the next map loads. If all Survivors are incapacitated or killed simultaneously, or if all human players die (even if bots are still alive), the campaign's current chapter will be restarted, with all the weapons and items they had in the safe room when loading into the map.
Single Player[]
- Play a single player offline game with computer-controlled teammates.
- Available in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 (Pre-The Last Stand Community Update and Xbox 360)
Single Player is a gameplay mode with only one player controlled character. The player assumes control of one of the Survivors, and all the other characters are AI controlled. No other player can join a Single Player game, unless locally (LAN), via the connect "host local IP" console command. Other than that, the same rules as Campaign apply, except for the finales of Dead Center and The Passing, where the amount of gas cans required are lowered, due to Survivor Bots never attempting to pick up gas cans.
Single Player is the only mode which can be played with Steam in Offline mode. Since Single Player is considered as a local server, modifications that work only on local servers will also work in this mode.
This is the only mode that allows the player to fully pause the game by default (i.e. halting the in-game time by bringing up the menu). In other modes, this can only be done when playing as host on local server with command sv_pausable set to 1.
The (now) cut or former gameplay mode's image is Ellis holding the SG 552, a weapon from the German censored version of the game, which became available for everyone as of The Last Stand Community Update.
In Single Player, if the player dies during the campaign, the chapter will restart since bots don't use Defibrillators (unless mods have been used to allow bots continue on their own). The only campaign can be completed with the player dying is The Sacrifice, as bots are not programmed to go and restart the generator, and therefore the player's death won't fail the campaign for balancing reasons.
Prior to the The Last Stand Community Update, the gameplay mode used to appear in Left 4 Dead 2 as a separate mode, however it has since been demoted to a drop-down menu option for Campaign, Realism, and Survival modes. Its former description isn't carried over to the current Campaign description.
Split Screen[]
- Play an offline splitscreen game with a friend.
- Available in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2
In Split Screen, two players on the same console take control over two Survivors, and the screen is split vertically, although it can be changed to horizontal in the options menu. The two players can also play online while using split screen.
This game mode is normally exclusive to the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, but may be accessed in the PC versions if you have a controller for the second player and modify some files or use mods. Here is a guide to how to play splitscreen on the PC. Plugging the Xbox controller in and out during the loading screen is NOT the only way to set the Xbox controller to player 2. During gameplay, you can also unplug and plug the Xbox controller back in within one second to set the controller to player 2. In fact, the second method proves to be more effective with several people. On Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, only one of the two players playing splitscreen on one Xbox 360 console while online has to have an Xbox Live account with gold membership; the other player can sign in as a "Guest".
Survival[]
- Play Survival mode and hold out for as long as you can.
- Available in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2
- Main article: Survival Mode
Survival was released in the "Survival Pack," which came out on April 21st, 2009. The objective of Survival Mode is to hold out for the longest time, with times being saved and virtual medals being awarded for surviving for certain amounts of time. Left 4 Dead features sixteen maps, fifteen of which are taken from existing campaign levels, and one new map named The Last Stand. The campaign levels have been edited to remove things such as closets and other small choke points often exploited by the Survivors in crescendo events and finales. Survival can be played in Single Player with Console commands or by starting a lobby on your own on Xbox.
In Left 4 Dead 2, Survival Mode is back, this time included with the release of the game. The objective is still the same, and most of the maps are still converted crescendo events - with some exceptions, such as "The Motel" from Dark Carnival, and "The Sugar Mill" from Hard Rain. Single-Player Survival mode (with bot allies) is easily accessible this time.
Versus Survival[]
Versus Survival image used in Left 4 Dead 2. - Can you survive against your friends?
- Available in Left 4 Dead 2
Versus Survival (also called Survival Versus) is a mixed gameplay mode between Versus and Survival where the match is started in a Survival map with the Survivors fending off against Special Infected controlled by players instead of Bots. In this mode, the Survivor team hold out in an area and fight against the Infected to obtain medals while the Infected team's job is to kill the Survivors as quickly as possible. Tanks have their health reduced to 4000 and only one tank can be active at any time. The Survivors have 90 seconds at the start of the round to set up until the infected side can spawn or they can trigger the infected to spawn earlier if they wish to do so by using the event start button. If all Survivors are dead or incapacitated, the teams swap and if one team fails to beat the opposing team's time then the match ends.
When it was released, it was available only on the first week of its release, as an encore Mutation, Developer's Choice, and Twitter's Choice (each lasting a week). On July 24th, 2012, it became permanently available for everyone. With the release of the Last Stand Community Update, it is in the main menu carousel, replacing Single Player mode – declaring it an official gameplay mode.
Versus[]
- Play as the Survivors or the Infected in an online Versus Mode game.
- Available in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2
- Main article: Versus
Versus is the basic competitive mode for the Left 4 Dead series: two separate teams of four players take turns playing as the Survivors and the Infected, competing for the most points. In Left 4 Dead, points are only awarded to teams playing as the Survivors. Points are calculated by the amount of health left in each player and how far the team got.
In Left 4 Dead 2, points are still only awarded to the Survivors, but the amount of health that each Survivor has is no longer calculated in the score. Instead, points are awarded solely on how far each Survivor got before they died and if they made it to the safe room alive, with a 25 point bonus for every Survivor in the safe room, and a 25 point penalty for every Defibrillator used. The points possible for each chapter is the same for both teams. Should both teams score the exact same amount of points in a round (most commonly by everyone making it to the safe room without any casualties,) a tie breaker is enforced, awarding 25 bonus points to the team that did the most damage as the Infected.
Before a game starts, the lobby leader chooses a specific campaign to play, and the players can choose which team to play on by choosing whether to start as the Infected or the Survivors. For help as Infected or Survivors, review some tactics.
Versus can be played without the need of Xbox Live, but you must have 2 players to do this.
Realism Versus[]
- You can't see each other, but they can see you.
- Available in Left 4 Dead 2
- Main article: Realism Versus Mode
Realism Versus is a game mode that combines Versus and Realism. It was the first Mutation to be released for Left 4 Dead 2, but, due to positive feedback from the community, was made an official game mode as of May 21st, 2010.
Realism Versus follows the normal rules of Versus mode in terms of gameplay style and scoring, but makes things harder for the Survivors as they are bound to Realism rules, such as a lack of Survivor glows and the Witch being able to instantly kill Survivors. Though Realism Versus will appear in the main menu, you cannot play it unless you have downloaded The Passing.
Realism[]
- In a REAL apocalypse, good teamwork is all you'll have left.
- Available in Left 4 Dead 2
- Main article: Realism
Realism is a modified version of Campaign mode that can be played on any difficulty setting. Many modifications are made to make the game harder:
- Survivor outlines that are seen through walls are removed.
- Outlines for items or weapons only appear if the player is close enough to pick them up.
- Common Infected take less damage from body shots.
- Rescue closets are removed, making the Defibrillator the only way to revive dead Survivors until players reach the safe house, where they will respawn for the next round.
- Witches kill instantly on any difficulty except Easy, and no longer receive bonus damage from point-blank shotgun blasts, making crowning impossible.
- Speech bubbles over the Survivors are disabled when speaking via the microphone, although the speech bubble still appears above the character's icon.
This mode is designed to test the capabilities of the Survivors' teamwork. It is heavily recommended to communicate with your teammates and play in an organized group.
Scavenge[]
- Play as the Survivors or the Infected in a round-based competitive match.
- Available in Left 4 Dead 2
- Main article: Scavenge Mode
Scavenge is a competitive gameplay mode in Left 4 Dead 2. It is a round-based gamemode in which Survivors have a limited amount of time to find up to 21 gas cans to fuel up a generator (or car), while fighting against player-controlled Special Infected much like in a Versus game. Games can consist of one, three, or five rounds total, though not all of them may be played. After all the Survivors are incapacitated, the time runs out, or the Survivors collect all of the gas cans, the teams switch sides. Whichever team collects the most gas cans in a single round wins that round. If both teams collect the same number of gas cans, the team that collected them the fastest wins that round. When one of the teams wins either one, two, or three rounds (if there are one, three, or five rounds total, respectively), that team wins the match.
Scavenge can also be played without Xbox Live, but this requires 1 player as the Survivor and 1 player as the Infected.
Mutations[]
- Available in Left 4 Dead 2
- Main article: Mutations
Mutations are tweaks and changes to the normal game rules. They are made for a variety of game modes, and can adjust gameplay to be easier or harder - such as changing what Infected spawn, changing what weapons the Survivors carry, or restricting the use of certain healing items.
Mutations used to be introduced each week by Valve on the in-game blog. Details for the next Mutation were revealed on at the same time the Mutation is released on Friday, via the blogs. On regular intervals Valve initiates a "Favorite Mutation" survey, and winners were put back into the cycle. The first Mutation released, Realism Versus, achieved enough positive feedback from the community that it was turned into a permanent gameplay mode. On July 24th, 2012, this rotation system was retired, and all mutations were permanently made freely available to play.
To see the order of Mutations released since it was announced, please see the main article. Xbox Live is needed in order to play Mutations on Xbox 360.
Notes[]
- There was supposed to be a Campaign and a game mode based on the movie The Cabin in the Woods as part of the crossover with Left 4 Dead 2, however due to constant schedule delaying problems, it was cancelled.[1]
References[]
| Gameplay Modes | ||||||||
| Introduced in Left 4 Dead | Introduced in Left 4 Dead 2 | |||||||
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| Single Player | Campaign | Versus | Survival | Scavenge | Realism | Mutation | Realism VS | Versus Survival |