The insane depth of Left 4 Dead 2's versus mode 

I'm gonna make that esports thing.

He failed to mention the most important thing about hunter: Jumping off of buildings midair increased your pounce damage. This was the real MLG shit back in the day, spending 10 seconds in the air just to land and kill someone. I also distinctly remember watching an actual esports tournament in L4D2 when it was current.

And then Back 4 Blood looked at all that and said “Nah, let’s do horde mode in small arenas with a shrinking battle royale circle”

20:56 It’s a good game without all the bloat of modern games. Well designed gameplay and not to bogged down in mechanics. Also the graphics hold up surprisingly well.

L4D2 is such an amazing game that is insanely easy to pick up and play. No stats, no builds, no crazy gun attachments/optimizations. Just. Gameplay.

There actually was a competitive scene in Left 4 Dead versus. Esports wasn't as popular back then but it was something that existed. I can attest that it was some of the most intense and hype gaming that I have ever been apart of.

One thing I would have definately highlight- the Hunter distance/height damage increases. When I was BIG into L4D 1+2, that was the thing that defined a good infected player from a bad one. Being able to set up, plan, and calculate the highest point of the map to a survivors head and getting the JUICY bonus damage was huge. Think water tower to street level on No Mercy chapter 1. That stuff was a thing of beauty.

I've had L4D2 rotting away in my steam library for years now. I never touched it because I typically don't take interest in zombie stuff much. Tried it out last night and I feel like I discovered a golden treasure chest laced with cocaine (mods). It's amazing.

PSA: Please *do not* bile the Tank if you are new, he moves quicker than the commons and he’ll just gather them and they’ll all turn on you when it runs out.

I'll never forget this one VS game I got on the sacrifice. The game was in it's last moments, it was an epic struggle where both teams knew their shit. Both sides had to work hard for every point we got. It got down to the last round, my team was infected. Our opponents had gotten far enough to spawn the second tank, and yours truly got chosen by the game to play this beast. Now, if you all know this map, you know it's full of cars. So naturally the other team got behind the fences and huddled around the generator. I decided to attempt a tech I had just learned that very week: I got on top of a car, like the very edge of it, then punched downward. The physics engine rolled the dice and did what I was hoping it would do. The car shot way up in the air sailed right into the enclosure on top of 2 of them. The hunter and smoker teammates seized the opportunity and got the other 2. Close win that one... and an epic way to end it.

Seriously you are so on point here. L4D2's versus appears at first glance to be pretty brainless, with a lot of people commenting how fast they die, how little damage they do, etc. But once you wade in, playing infected is more like playing a chess match than a shooter. The minute I found out Back 4 Blood lacked a versus campaign, I cancelled that crapfest immediately.

Hunters are even crazier than what you described. You can actually Wall Jump with the Hunter pounce and chain them together. It's preferable to learn stuff like that, because the initial impact of the leap does higher damage the higher or further away you hit the survivors from.

Tank rock throw always seems pretty mediocre, but it actually has more range than any other special infected. The rock travels in an arc, so you have to aim pretty far above your target. It's difficult to pull off, but absolutely terrifying. Very useful when the survivors are just trying to wait out the tank to try and force him in to an open area

Fanboying over L4D2 is always justified. It’s a timelessly fun game. Also that L4D2 esports thing is unironically genius and I would absolutely sit and watch that.

Forgot about the extra damage from the higher pounces of Hunter, the bigger the fall of the pounce you can instant 25 damage on a survivor.

Something I wanted to mention offhandedly that makes Charger my favorite special infected to play is his scratch attack. Every SI has a scratch attack that deals different amounts of damage. Charger sits behind the Tank for the highest melee with 10 DAMAGE PER PUNCH. 1/10th of a survivors health bar is insane. Even if you don't have a good opportunity to charge the survivors, you can take advantage of your bulk to just run in and possibly down a survivor close to death. It helps encourage the toughest non-Tank SI to barge into the middle of the survivor group and fuck them up.

I played a match on coldstream about a month ago and it was great. I spawned as tank on the road where the survivors have to climb up from the stream to the road to progress. No molotov and the advantage of high ground meant I am a catapult launching rocks since they refused to climb up. During this the other three special infected distracted and took their health down. I was artillery. I was death. I was having fun.

My fav part about playing the infected was having all 4 infected spawn in at once and having to make a plan around the random specials everyone got on the fly. Where on the map are you? Whos going to instigate? Maybe someone sacrifices themselves as a distraction. Whos going to aim for who? You'd figure out the entire strategy and then have to do it all over again each time you spawned in. It really never got old. Good vid Bricky.

I know a lot of people have already said this, but playing the hunter in no mercy was the best! Jumping from wall to wall like spiderman on crack and then finishing it off with a massive amount of damage is so refrshing everytime! The first weeks of left 4 dead being released was so amazing

It's kind of amazing to look at how Versatile L4D2 is as a game. That a DECADE later, we're still talking about how good it is. And I don't know whether to be happy or sad that few games have come to match the EVERGREEN CONTENT, this game radiates for like 10 bucks over AAA games for 60 dollars that may be forgotten in a year or so. Sometimes, simplicity and a good groundwork makes all the difference.

Spitter damage does not ramp up the more time you spent on it, It's like a curve at the start of it's life span does little damage, at the middle does the also known as big damage and at the last it does the minimun damage again, so if you get inside the spitter goo at the half of it's life span you can get really low, real fast, I will never know why Valve put that tip wrong in the loading screen

14:46 also the hunter does additional impact damage the higher he leaps from (/longer was in the air for) i believe up to a maximum of 25 damage, not 100% sure on that number, but still that's a lot :)

L4D2 is probably the most extensive team game out there. You REALLY need a good team otherwise just one weak player will ruin your run. I am still addicted to this game, sadly player base is dwindling

Theres still a huge community of people who play versus competitively. As I type this message L4D2 has the RBT VI (The Really Big Tournament 6) with some of the best players in the entire world battling it out. :D

I remember back in the demo when Valve enabled versus, I heard a hunter growl and then the pounce, I turned on a split second with my shotgun ready and fired. Usually it dose not work, but that one time it did. It was one of *THE* most hype moments of my life. And that was when I still was a 13 year old kid. Man, the memories and moments I had in versus back then and even after release was just so good. Might acutally install L4d2 again and try versus out again

im glad im not the only one who see the potential for esport l4d2. im pretty sure i once search up youtube to see if there’s any professional l4d versus going on. Like i can imagine the same level of hype with crowds, commentators and all that good shit

Vanille uploads videos from tournaments where he’s a spectator camera, two casters are watching too. And the screen overlays have tons of awesome info

I’ve had an absolute blast playing dead air versus. I remember playing on ridiculous 16v16 servers and losing it at the chaos that is the plane fueling escape

No other game has left me with such love and nostalgia as playing LFD+LFD2 with my friends that no other multiplayer has come close to for me. Versus is so fun, and both sides at that. But making combos happen as an infected is so satisfying. One day, when GPU's go back down I'll be able to play games again.

There's a pretty large and dedicated competitive scene. I personally use CEDAPug for competitive versus. Most matches use Zonemod which makes things much more balanced for the infected. No medkits, tier 1 weapons only, and a tank on every map just to name a few changes. Theres even a ranking system. If you haven't already you should try it out.

something i discovered with your infected statistical rant, when you are the smoker and pull a survivor from an elevated position and the survivor is dangling in the air, it does 10 DAMAGE PER SECOND to the survivor

Even 100% vanilla aka without mods and additional fan made maps the game just have an INSANE amount of content something that most modern games totally fail upon and including mods and fan made maps this game just never gets old

i just want to point out at 17:57; as a tank, your goal is to be as much of a fucking annoyance as possible. what pros used to do when they got a tank is park up really far away from the survivors, enough to keep line of sight on them so you stay in control of the tank, and throw rocks at them. the survivors cant safely progress on the map until you're dead, so they have to kill you before they can do anything else. and this entire time, you're hiding and throwing rocks at people, trying to chip them down with rocks, which is also creating opportunities for your team to set up more and more attacks, which keep chipping at the survivor's health. then there's the unique mechanic where lighting a tank on fire will kill the tank guaranteed in.. i want to say 20 seconds, regardless of health left. so that creates an interesting dynamic where you're stalling the survivors out with rocks, they light you up, and then it very suddenly becomes a game of how much damage you can do until the tank is guaranteed to die. and i can say from personal experience, the comp L4D scene was amazing to both watch and play in. It still saddens me to this day that basically none of the vods from back then survived. watching a team go for a risky move called a killsquad, or 3 hunters and a smoker, was always hype to see. or watching one of the best tanks at the time just land rock after rock after rock, just decimating teams from rocks out of the fucking blue.

HELL YEAH MORE L4D2

You forgot a thing about Hunter. The higher/longer the leap is until you lands grants you extra damage. Combine that with the wall jump tech and you can get a 25 damage on impact. insta downing red survivors.

There's a BUNCH of other tech that I can just name off the top of my head, 1. Hunter/Jockey pouncing on Smoked targets so his CD resets faster, letting him pull other people out of position faster. 2. Hunter damage pounces based on how long he's been in a pounce animation (chaining wall hops, corridoor hops, etc, parkour with the hunter is so skillful its insane) 3. Walking backwards when Jockeying someone because your hitbox goes behind, making the survivors do friendly fire damage 4. Tank haymaker, timing left click and right click properly lets you punch a survivor WHILE picking up a rock, rock hits them while they're getting up from the punch knockdown lol 5. Boomer rocket, when in ghost mode you have INSANE movement speed, by spawning in mid air after a running start on the roof of a building or anywhere higher up you can launch yourself into the survivors at like Mach 5, good luck shoving a boomer that's flying at you like a hunter 6. Death Charge lineups with smoker, smoker grabs someone, charger lines up, hits 2 or more people and they go flying off a staircase and die (Dead Center finale has a bunch) EVEN survivors have super niche skill techs, again off the top of my head, 1. Melee smoker tongue mid animation, no smokesies for you 2. Dropping propane/gas with sick timing to stop smoker tongue 3. Melee hunter/jockey mid jump 4. Shooting and breaking tank rock mid flight (bet you didn't know you could do that huh) And yes I really like L4D2

I am so glad Bricky understands how insanely amazing versus mode is. Scavenge is overlooked mainly because it’s hard for new players to have fun in.

> Watching people plays versus > "I should try it out next time" > Get absolutely destroyed when trying to play Versus > Toxic AF players > "Ok now I remember why I only play multiplayer Campaign"

I could genuinely listen to Brick make a video that is atleast 3 hours ling on bricks. I swear this man has never made a bad video, watch all of his stuff even if it's not of my interest. Thanks Bricky for being you, you are the best part of your content and creativity. Always helps my day.

Hey Bricky, I recently watched your ME3(Mass Effect 3) video where you talked about the multi-player and it convinced me to try out the trilogy. I just finished the first game and it's already one of the best games I've ever played and I wanted to thank you for recommending it me.

A few things to add here. 1. The strats where you open with a boomer blind then have other special infected to incapacitate is called "breaker" and if you don't have a boomer then a charger will do since he can knock up multiple people with his charge. 2. Never throw rocks unless it's the only thing you can do as tank. It basically stun lock you into an animation and survivors can sneak in to do a couple of melee hits (which does 600 damage btw) 3. There's also the rushing strat where if a survivor is downed, infected team takes turn spawning in to delay the survivors as they trying to pick them up, buying as much time and burn as much resources from them as possible.

Nothing will ever strike fear in me more than when I did a random versus match, and I saw a Hunter go at Mach 40 at me from a rooftop and land dead onto me. Added the guy and have been friends with him on Steam for years, I never got over such a cool moment.

I remember playing l4d 1 versus way back when on the 360, and how fun and intense it was. I did not realize it was THIS in depth

Im still a bit sad I never got into the MP back in the day. Missed out on such a great game.

I really wish I had some peeps to play with because a majority of my multiplayer runs tend to be very meh or infuriating to play.

Your format is crazy fun to watch. Smashed the sub button and rang the bell to be sure for the next gem.

Bricky I just started getting back into playing L4D2 after almost 10 years and you upload this on my L4D2 grind, that timing is awesome.

Warms my heart to see the community behind this game doing so well after a decade later. Feels good to stream a game that I know many ppl have the same love for the game as much as I do

Never cease to make good videos Bricky

Its videos like this that really make me wanna play this again, and I think to finish up this should be trilogy Bricky needs to talk fully about the modding scene. 3 Mods I never leave my house with are Homer Simpson chainsaw noises, SpongeBob Victory screech every time the hoard is coming, and SpongeBob Sweet victory every time a chapter ends.

The sponsorship transition is the funniest i have yet to see, the delivery is so good

Man that intro was so great, i didn't even know it was a sponsor. *But now i want more than just one VPN.*

Unless I'm miss remembering it, doesn't the Hunter also do more damage the higher it is when it jumps on someone? Love these games

Great video talking about one of the best pvp modes ever. And I also share the same feeling of the game being esports worthy, if only it didn't have hitbox sync problems. But man, l4d2 goes even further beyond in mechanics than what you think, that makes skill gap very evident when facing someone that knows these tricks: Survivor: - You can "crown" a witch by shooting her with a shotgun and hitting every pellet. - You can stun witch while she is crying (not becoming angry) with an explosive or a sniper headshot, and then proceeding to shove her resets the stun (like a common infected) - The witch dies in 4 melee hits. - You can "skeet" a hunter by shooting him with a shotgun mid-air and hitting most pellets, or headshotting him with a sniper. - You can right click bash to stop jockeys and hunters from pouncing you with correct timing. - You can melee headshot a charger when he charges at you, insta killing him, very hard thing to do. - You can headshot any zombie besides the tank for much more damage. - You can cut the smoker's tongue with a bladed melee while it is reaching you. - You can shoot a tank's rock with high caliber weapons. - You can rotate your camera 360 degrees mid melee weapon swing to get a much wider attack angle. - YOU CAN BUNNYHOP (courtesy of source engine). Infected: - You can "rocket spawn" by reaching top speed in ghost mode, jumping, and spawning while in the momentum (this is mostly used for chargers, jockeys and boomers) - You can punch and throw a rock at the same time as a tank by pressing both buttons at the same time. - Tanks usually go on top of a building and pressure coordinated teams with rocks, staling the game. - Hunters can wall/ceiling jump and have really complex jumping movement tech, and also deal up to 25DMG on pounce depending on their jump time and distance. - Players can scratch a witch while survivors are nearby, to put her in her final angry stage before becoming startled (any step closer to her will startle her). - Jumping while spitting increases the spit pool radius And there's so much more, and map specifics too. I hope your video brings some more people to revive l4d2, I really want the game to have a larger player base.

having a full group also lets you play custom maps versus which opens up the door so much more for the amount of content available, just keep in mind alot of people don't plan for their map to be used in versus so there's definitely some cheeky things you can do on some custom maps

i love the videos about older games like left 4 dead and the mass effect multiplayer video a while back, scratches an itch i didnt know i had

One thing you forgot to mention about the hunter- The Hunter's initial pounce does more damage the further you've leapt. Combined with his ability to wall jump, and the fact that there are roofs on even the tallest towers of this series, A Hunter can zip around the skyline pouncing from building to building and plummet down onto a survivor to *instantly* incapacitate them. The Hunter has some crazy skill expression

Love the videos, Bricky. If you or anyone wanna get more into versus, CEDAPug is a good resource for most skill levels. And if you're interested in the lore of old L4D2 competitive community, some good names to start are Killatoy, wetz0r, QuarantineChris, ProdigySim, NBUChuck and dxvisceral. Happy hunting.

Jockeying people back into the safe house is op tactics and how you win versus. If the other team is not on point with communication they are immediately down to 3 players. Especially if there's a spitter on your team.

Discovered your channel 3 days ago, chef's kiss!

L4D2 has been one of my favorite multiplayer games to play and then B4B came out, sucked nuts, and drove more people to the game, which is badass. The only issue I have with it is there are no leave penalties, so people dodge all the time when they lose the first level for some reason.

Since you mentioned a "competitive" side to L4D2 I feel the need to inform everyone who might read this what the real scene of competitive L4D2 looks like. Once again I'm struck by the deep chasm of skill and knowledge between stratas of the playerbase, especially when it comes to those on YT, where most ppl dont play the game on a regular basis and has no intention of being competitive in versus,. First off, the level of skill shown here is not reprentative of what competitive versus looks like, only at the level of "hey this guy knows the basics and he has teammates whose willing to communicate, so he has it better off than average" First off, competitive L4D2 doesnt happen in vanilla versus, bacause it's very badly balanced in favor of survivors. T2 wepaons, especially autoshotties and snipers, grenades of all kinds that represent absolute answers to tough situations, medkits to effectively reset your health,.... There have been mods to rebalance versus since very early on, the universally used is zonemod. The mod removes t2 weapons, nades, kits, rebalances infected mechanics and maps. Overall it provides a more reliable and balanced gameplay experience. This mod can be hosted on community servers to provide players access. The mod also allows for spectators and casters in a game server. Secondly, this mode of competitive is very popular in every reigion, there are in-house games everyday hosted between circles of veterans, there's also a pug service called CEDAPUG that serves as a matchmaking system for zonemod players. Thirdly, while L4D2 has no official esports sponsorship, community tourneys are regularly hosted, with big ones happening bi-annual/annually. There are no shortage of players dedicated to the game on the level of esports professionals, rocking upwards of 5k to 11k hours of gameplay. The sharp and intense gameplay of L4D2 makes matches very exciting to watch. Overall, the competitive config of L4D2 offers a more balanced, tight experience and emphasizes mechanical skills and coordination, while eliminating the common issues that plague vanilla versus (game imbalance, player skill imbalance, toxic votekicking,...). If you want to stick with L4D2 versus long term and improve your skill, I recommend playing zonemod.

Been digging the synthwave background lately

I played this for the first time in a few years last night and was really struggling to make any meaningful plays. This video coming out today is so helpful and I learned so much that i didn't know about the game, I'm honestly more excited try and play it better now.

I’m so glad I stumbled upon your channel while looking for warhammer lore

dude i was literally watching your other l4d2 video and i went to your channel and you upload this nice

I played so much of L4D2 Versus mode. Realism Versus was so much fun when you played on Mic

Bro, I'm not gonna lie, that was my favorite transition to a sponsor ever.

Man I just love it when Bricky uploads

I legitimately moaned when I got that taco bell nacho fries are back ad

Still playing it to this day on my steam deck. Just downloaded a bunch I f mods and it never gets old.

That was a amazing sponsor transition

probably the best take i've seen from a casual, nicely made. don't ever bile a tank though lmao, that's how you get wiped when the bile wears off and the common go for you instead. hope to see you in cedapug some time

Hunter can also do damage depending on his downwards velocity via gravity. One tip is to look straight forward when you pounce an enemy while jumping off a high place to rack up that velocity because the pounce speed doesn't count. He can also jump off walls so you can do some instant pounces if you're near one by pressing Jump and Attack.

My personal favourite map from OG L4D1 is Dead Air. With all that build up of ending world, the most devastating thing you can see, is how a passenger airplane crushes right in front of you. And soon after you can already hear howling and screams from the entire city. Literally make me cry when I saw that first time. It was almost like a was there by myself.

That was a great ad at the beginning there 😆

Me and my friends still play versus maybe once a month all these years later.

Don't forget, Hunter from high heights would increase the damage on the pounce. You could completely down a hurt survivor with one hail Mary pounce.

YEAA I loved your left for dead video so glad you made another one

I respect how you went right into the ad. It was funny, get your money my man

dont forget the hunters initial pounce damage, you can get up to like 50 damage if its a big enough pounce

Brick dont forget the height of the hunters pounce increases the damage to a max of 25 hp

A few years ago a big group of polish youtubers got together and they played the whole of L4D2 in versus with perspectives from their respective teams. It went on for like 3 seasons i think with new teams being created. Kinda wacky and i just remembered it

I think my favorite thing about versus for me is how the chargers in my game scream 'CHOCOLATE' from spongebob

I love how this video about the depth in L4D2 versus does not even really scratch the surface. I'm a bit late to the discussion but I hope you have found the competitive versus community in L4D2 by now. I think there was a tournament running in January when this video came out. I hope you have discovered the joys of bunnyhopping tanks, curving tank rocks, and surprise haymakers. I think every L4D fan can appreciate a love letter to the unparalleled satisfaction of landing a 4 cap in versus mode: those moments where everything goes right.

I once did a lfd2 versus tourney at my college. crowd was small but everybody was happy

I'd love to see these left 4 dead 2 matches as vids

I'm not big into zombie games anymore, but I'm happy that you are happy. Good video m8.

Opened my LAN center in 2009 with a L4D Versus tournament. Was a ton of fun. Winning team won copies of L4D2 and The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks for each player.

My favorite RU-vidr doing an episode on my favorite mode of my favorite game. YES

I love the Parish as well, so many memories

Versus lobby Hunter pros were my personal nightmare back in the day. Walking down that one alley only to hear this screaming streak of black fly between the tight walls into your face.

Love the Joel Haver audio clip. *Chef's kiss*

Bricky you bring me joy

God, now i would actually binge watch L4D2 esports. I would follow that anyday.

This is like the 4D-Chess of Rock Paper Scissors

The game me and my friend still play to this day

My favorite thing as a Smoker or Jockey was to pull or lead people to an alarmed car or a Witch. As for my best moment: on one occasion in Dead Center, one of the survivors somehow was hanging off a window. One of the others was helping them up and the other two bunched up on them. I spawned as a Charger, and I was able to successfully charge and push the other 3 out of the window and it was an instant wipe. I hate that the 360 didn't have a recording option because my team lost their shit and it felt fucking incredible.

I have never played versus mode and just watching this is making me want to try it out thou I don't have friends to play with.

I read some pro play infected strategies back in the day, when unable to charge with the charger he does a lot of melee damage so you can punch a bit for some extra damage and same with the hunter, you can run in with a swarm and smack someone a little before running away