B.Y.A. Studios All we need is a cow...

(NOTE: I AM SERIOUSLY PISSED; I WROTE OUT A BEAUTIFUL CHUNK OF TEXT, BUT IN AN ATTEMPT TO FIND OUT HOW TO CREATE A NUMBERED LIST THE PAGE WAS CHANGED AND UPON CLICKING "BACK" MY PROUD WORK HAD GONE. SO NOW I WILL ATTEMPT TO RECREATE WHAT AMAZING COMPOSITION I HAD. FUCK. FUCK.)

The other night Ground Squirrel and I were discussing why we no longer play campaign on Expert. What it boiled down to was that it became too difficult to be enjoyable. Now, when the game first came out, Expert mode WAS the mode to play. And to our great satisfaction we were able to defeat the Director. Multiple times in fact. So why can't we again?

With our experience, the Director is now fairly predictable. We have a sense of when hordes will come, cognizant to the audible cues of prowling Special Infected, and have knowledge of where weapons and throwing items might spawn. The Director cannot evolve outside of the parameters that he has been given, and in that way, it is inferior to sentient, intelligent, and adaptable humans.

We have our reasons for not playing Expert, and coupled with the fact that we have already achieved the feat of completing all the levels, there is almost no motivation to go through the painful process again. So now we play on Advanced. It is a mode that is much more forgiving and many steps lower in terms of difficulty compared to Expert. Don't get me wrong -it is still very enjoyable but the satisfaction upon completion of a map is missing. And it will never be there, at least on Advanced. Do you remember how exciting it was to make the dash for the chopper on the rooftop finale, and how good it felt to "survive" the assault. Those are emotions sorely lacking in Advanced, because there is no sense of achievement.

The leniency of the Advanced Director allows us to function as a loose group of individuals. Some might take a liking to that because you don't have to worry so much about friendly fire, you can stay separated and take your time to save a mate from being pounced or pulled as the damage done isn't crippling. Plain zombies are just fodder to enlarge our e-penises with when the stats roll in.

In Expert however, the reliance on team mates is multiplied and that is made very, very clear by the Director. A hunter pounce, and a team mate 3 seconds late in responding can mean an incapacitated individual. Someone lagging behind can mean the entire squad is defeated because the smoker did exactly what he's supposed to do: separate the survivors. Not paying attention to the flank can mean a few plain zombies have brought your health down to critical.

So I propose we work on functioning as a tactical, cohesive UNIT, similar to a military fireteam. How can we do this? A few simple things:

Designate a leader. What does the leader do? Announce when and where the unit will move to next. The group shall not make any movement beyond melee distance unless the order has been given. This doesn't mean the unit leader gets to call all the shots however. Movement can be as simple as a non-leader communicating "There might be items in the room across the way." To which the leader could reply "Alright, let's all move, NOW." In this manner, the chances of being pulled or pounced is greatly reduced, as both those actions are nullified by a simple melee. The leader can (and probably should be) cycled throughout the course of a map to give everyone a fair shot, if fairness is mutually called for.

The buddy system. Working as a 4 man unit is ideal, but certain situations might prevent that in which case, it becomes two unit pairs, both acting like the original 4 man unit, as in quickly deciding who gets to be the leader, and moving only when an order is given, until both teams are given a chance to regroup. In this case the chances of being overwhelmed by Special Infected increases due to there being only 1 other person to rely on, but not by much.

Movement in general. When moving through the level, survivors should always be within melee distance of each other, ALWAYS. If this is strictly followed, there might never again be a successful pounce or pull. If there opens a gap between anyone, COMMUNICATE IT, so the unit can have a chance to slow down and regroup. Sure it might slow progress through the level, but ensuring that everyone has a chance at making it to the end in the first place, is priority. There doesn't need to be any set order "in line" (as in Bill is always last, Francis third... Zoey First) when moving through a level, so long as everyone moves together, but realize that whatever position your character falls into, there will be responsibilities. The last (fourth) person is at most disadvantage due to the fact that there's nobody watching their back constantly. Thus, the responsibility of that person should be to watch the one directly in front (the third). The third, in return will frequently turn around and scan the background of the fourth to prevent any Special Infected attacks. The third will also watch the second, since they are facing that way in order to follow the group anyways. The second will monitor the third in the same way, as well as the the first, who's duty is to lead the group in a line of least zombie resistance. The first will also be responsible for spotting to their best judgement, where the group will take cover in the event of a horde. It is everyone's duty to watch the sides of the designated travel path, by way of alternating sides determined by positioning. What I mean by that is exampled: first watches right, second watches left, third right, fourth left. What everything above amounts to is that everyone is moving forward, facing diagonally relative to the forward direction, while frequently checking your immediate team mates backs. If you don't understand this, watch Black Hawk Down several times, and take notes of how each squad moves.

Exploration. We all have a pretty good sense of where items will appear. Level 2 weapons require less good judgment since their spawn locations are usually in the path of where the survivors will pass normally. When it comes to throwable objects; molotovs, pipebombs, gas canisters, propane tanks, it all boils down to whether it is worth the time and risk. I can't really give any advice on this, since the spawn locations are random, yet some areas the items appear more often and in larger quantity. As long as the group is cohesive, there shouldn't be any problems, but prepare to be disappointed.

Dealing with regular zombies. When me move throughout a level, the Director places most zombies in our immediate path, of whom we will most certainly eliminate. The Director also litters the distance and background with zombies, in (what I believe) an attempt to slow down and separate those greedy enough to get the kills. The point is, those zombies who are not an immediate danger should just be left; if they can't see you, then they will not notice you, and they will not come after you. Killing them only wastes bullets, time spent reloading, time spent slowing down, and allows Special Infected to come nearer. There is also no incentive in eliminating every single zombie you see.

OK I think I've covered the most important things that Squirrel and I discussed... I might add more covering Special Infected, handling the Tank, etc. but I think mastering those few strategies will make Expert a fun and rewarding challenge. Our goal is to utterly defeat the Director, to say that yeah, Expert isn't hard at all, at which point I would feel my $50 was well spent. And then move on to Versus, and totally pwn as Survivors (maybe).

Feel free, of course, to add suggestions and such in the comments section.