I think the gunfire early on in this campaign is supposed to be the church holding out and slowly failing. Mainly based off the fact the church bus is still on fire and that the church guy is still alive. It’s pretty chilling to imagine that the survivors are fighting to reach the evac all while hearing it slowly fall to the infection without realizing
Also I do wonder if Riverside fell because of the infection finding or hearing the people surviving inside or was it because the church guy finally snapped and after a heated argument with people wanting inside started to ring the bell sealing the towns fate
@@ethanwilde4716i would assume the former. church guy said he already let a group (maybe just one guy) in and he got bit because of it. its the entire reason he turns, and refuses to let anyone else in. (“better safe than sorry! better safe than sorry!”) maybe the first group fell because someone got infected and turned everyone else before the church guy, maybe the group left or fell to the infected.
my favorite genre of youtube video is genuinely "man talks steadily over in-game stills of source game environments" and I'm not quite sure why other video game fandoms don't have this delivery method.
People are fascinated with zombie/apocalyptic settings, and also because it's not easy to do subtle environmental story telling. Most games opt to use notes and radio recordings (Bioshock, Dishonored, System shock, and Dead Space, Alien: Isolation, just to name a few). So if other fandom does it it will just be the narrator reading someone's note for 15 mins.
Because it's a breath of fresh air from all the hyper kinetic, 50 edits a second-type of vid with a guy speaking the usual loud disingenuous, try hard "funny" voice
I think the fact that there's still lots of lights on means that our survivors will often reach areas mere hours after other survivors did too. Car batteries haven't had time to drain fully and the power stations are still running despite nobody showing to keep them up, so it really gives in to the idea that this infection truly did spring up over night and came out of nowhere for everybody
It's funny how lighthearted the game can be when the characters are the focus, when the actual world you're playing in is horrifying. A zombie apocalypse would already be a shitty way to end life as we know it, but especially one as insane as the Green Flu.
@@9000Dogs When you remember the fact the doctor in the comic said the virus mutates daily, sometimes airborne, sometimes through contact, etc. It really hammers home the fact it is EVOLVING. Covid doesn't mutates this fast and it already shook the world, imagine if it mutates daily like this. By the time you make a cure, it has already evolved into something else. So he was serious when he said "There is no cure. I'm just pretending to find a cure so the people can have hope"
IIRC that was the developers' explicit intent -- rather than a typical post-apocalypse they wanted to give players the feeling that the apocalypse just happened an hour ago in Left 4 Dead.
Car headlights wouldn't last more than 6 hours, i once accidentally left my car headlights on for few hours and the battery dies. It is likely that the left 4 dead 1 survivor was few hours late. Though I might be wrong since if the car had engine turned on the headlights would stay on until the fuels ran out
As someone who operates Heavy Equipment the way the Debris wall looks makes me think it's more of the result of Equipment like Bulldozers rather than an Explosion. The road on the side you approach it from is ripped upwards while on the otherside of the wall you have a gentle slope that you walk down to reach the road on the other side. Equipment probably pushed material from the side the Safehouse is on to build up a defensive wall to help keep the infected out as they evacuated Civilians in Riverside Also with the placement of the Barbwire and flat debris wall compared to the gun and sandbag placement leads me to think that what happened was the Military was trying to block the way you come initially and the Forklift was used to keep that section of the roof up to prevent it from being used as a ramp. Then later into the Outbreak the Military realize the infected are approaching the town mainly from the other direction and start to move Equipment and defensive positions to the other side of the baracade and the generator on top of the wall says they were still in the middle of this change when they had to flee.
I am addicted to these Left 4 Dead environmental story tellings! And yes, we'd love to see the unfinished "Dam It" campaign environmental storytellings! As well as the other unfished and community campaigns. And hopefully the Siamese Cat was able to escape the abandoned house!
People often forget about how "Dam It" bridges the gap between Dead Air and Blood Harvest. The problem is, I think there are two finished versions of it on the L4D2 workshop, with slight differences in artpasses, and slightly different finales and crescendo events.
26:15 As shown by The Sacrifice comics. John & Amanda Slaters robbed the L4D1 survivors of their weapons, then left them off on Dead Air's city. This may explain why they explicitly stated that they're looking for survivors armed with firepower, adding your statement that they're selfless adds the impression to them.
"I apologize for the third video taking so long" Bro I was expecting to wait weeks between each video, not days. Take all the time you need! 2:12 - I'm really glad you call this in-universe misinformation rather than a retcon. I've seen a lot of people go with the latter explanation, but even if it is actually a retcon (which it probably is), it makes perfect sense that people were just struggling to get the whole picture and started making assumptions. 3:59 - Not sure there's any evidence for it, but my guess was always that either bombers or military engineers in Riverside blew the bridge to keep Riversafe safe for just a little bit longer, and the vehicles were just caught in the blast.
Whether it was planned that way or not, I think it works brilliantly as in-universe misinformation. Communication issues happen in every big disaster, and there's plenty of graffiti on the walls of multiple campaigns showing that people already disagree about almost every aspect of the infection.
I do believe that you missed the missing person posters in the church. Im fairly certain the implication is that some people were killed by the infected early on in the outbreak and their families thought they were missing. A similar thing is shown in the movie "28 days later"
20:17 hey, i have been envolved in some and saw some disaster reports and volunteer work to help the survivors. In a recent flood, there was a high volume of abandoned dogs and other house pets, either by: 1 the owners don't have time to take them - like the water running so high so fast that they either got trapped with the dogs or had to leave them to escape themselves 2 no space in their hands/no allowed to transport them - people escaping the flood sometimes had just their legs as means of transportation, sometimes the vehicles for evac did not allowed for pets 3 no acess to the house - some buildings with energy powered locks and acess got locked down, doors/windows being closed by debrits and other obstacles, the house itself being damaged and etc, this could also happen when the road/bridge and street to the house got blocked, been destroyed and etc 4 no way to going back to take them because they are not here anymore - it's one of the sadder one, people either got taken by the flood, got into a accident, got injuried in a explosion or any other problem related to it 5 being trapped inside - the really sadder one, people got trapped in their houses or apartment and succumbed to either hunger, disease, injuries or decided to end it all and the pet got left in the house I know about the behind the scenes prototypes and concepts but i believe this would help give you a more concrete and realistic response
12:15 It's also possible that whoever was in the shack got dragged through the window by an infected that spotted them inside. There would likely have been a struggle, which could explain the amount of blood as well as the tipped over chair inside the shack.
I always thought it was interesting how the church tower guy always becomes a special infected. I had always wondered if special infected evolved from common infected or if some people have unique genes that automatically turn them into certain specials . . . I also wonder if that guy got into the church tower before or after the military abandoned it. Maybe he locked the door on the last soldiers, leaving them to die
Wow Such Gaming suggests that certain lifestyles affect which special they’d turn into. (Ex: Tank, probably a bodybuilder who abused steroids or some type of drugs). But I think the guy in the church was just a developer choice since he has no canon special infected design (if that makes sense)
I never actually noticed that myself until you mentioned it. Maybe it's just bad luck, but for me the church guy was always a Boomer. Not sure what all that suggests, but it's strange.
I suspect in all likelihood that he took up residence inside the church after the military had deemed it lost. We know that the lady who bit him did so just an hour before our survivors made it there.
I’d like to mention how you can encounter a tank near the cabin in the woods, So it’s possible that the family/Survivors died recently, Or that the tank didn’t wander very far depending on you luck with the tank encounter.
8:41 Although not as heavily implied as in L4D2 (Probably due to hardware limitations of the time) I believe the various collapses shown throughout Death Toll are the result of military bombing, something that the military or CEDA are already doing by the time of Death Toll as shown at 25:14 with Newburg already being heavily bombed without the player hearing fighter jets or other aircraft. Its likely that they are using the long range communications to coordinate strikes on large numbers of carriers rather than solely focusing on evac, this would also explain why the military hold outs are often such small buildings as they are glorified comms stations not processing centers for fleeing refugees. By this point the survivors should be entering into the 3rd week of the infection so it is not ridiculous to assume that the military had already started using scorched earth tactics in a attempt to save themselves or curb the infection. But lmk what you guys think. Great video as all ways keep it up!
SO one thing you mentioned at 20:10 about using the generator propped up against a door, it's actually the BEST place to use it as we know that loud noises attract the infected, and those generators can be LOUD, and while we don't really notice the noise whenever we see them turned on due to the hustle and bustle of city life, in a place where there are nothing that could drown out the noise using that would be a death sentence so it's far safer to just rely on its weight than to ever dare to turn it on, plus you can siphon the fuel in it for molly's
you ask if we want more content of “dam it” or other maps. i just want more content from you thats like this. not many youtubers sit and analyze the story of the little things. things that devs put hard work into just for the majority of players to not notice (i feel its often intentional for this to occur). just so much story, behind the scenes or in-game, to explore and you do a fantastic job of making the storytelling not feel repetitive. i have over 2.5k hours in this game, and there is still notes or aspects from your interpretation of this game that, i totally didn’t, and wouldn’t have realized. love this content, keep it up! also maybe if you struggle to not feel repetitive (not that its feeling this way at all) or want something neat, maybe you could put in some developer commentaries. i know a few of them talk about the storytelling aspect, like why we see certain weapons or sceneries.
My personal headcanon is that the initial outbreak happened slowly and was confined to Fairfield for about a week. Then gradually the infection seeped through the cracks and began to spread outward, likely through airborne transmission or the infected overwhelming the army. Places like Riverside were chosen as stops to evacuate refugees from Fairfield and were heavily defended by the military. As carriers escaped with other infected, they also began infecting healthy people, and by the end of week 2, when our group left the city, the army decided to retreat and begin bombing heavily populated areas like the Newburg airport.
Yeah given that viruses often can spread exponentially it'd make sense that the initial outbreaks were slow going for a while until there was enough of a critical mass of infected that everything sort of fell apart relatively quickly, and then the collapse of the quarantine around Fairfield/Philadelphia plus all the carriers caused everything to fall apart much more quickly outside of the original infection area.
Some other interesting thing is the main entrance to Riverside, it's totally blocked by the military, near the cemetery; and of course you can see the signal of the population with a yellow graffity meaning what everybody is dead. And yes i always think what the background noises are other survivors or remnants from the US Military.
in the final chapter, after you leave the house turned outpost, the survivors could either go forward and follow the path to the boat house or they can take a right and to a truck and a path that leads to the last stand campaign and at the start of the last stand campaign, you can see the same truck and a gate that leads to riverside.
I also like that detail, although it's only in L4D2 of course. Even back when it was just a L4D1 survival map, The Last Stand was pitched as "what if the survivors took a wrong turn in Death Toll." L4D2's Last Stand Update made this even more explicit now that it's an actual campaign, which I think is a great touch.
players: this must be some deeper meaning, no way they would just put this like that in here valve map designers: some sleeping bags... few suitcases... what else... few blood splatters why not, ok done not there yet but slater's boat can be seen wrecked in sacrifice
Re-used assets. The boathouse in the finale is very similar to the csgo map "Lake", the horde event in the first map of Swamp Fever is also very similar to a csgo map called " St. Marc" and the Sugar Mill from Hard Rain is also very similar to a csgo map can "sugar cane" or something. Last but not least, the burger Tank in Hard Rain was also re-used for the csgo map "Bank". Valve just loves to re-use assets, but they do it well
You say that - and it certainly could be true in many of the instances that I talk about - but I can tell you from close to a decade of experience designing levels that populating greyboxes with props is actually one of the most important parts to get right when designing a level. Crash Course has a lot of examples of what NOT to do: Most if not all of the respawn rooms are completely empty. For the game that got me my master's degree, Grimstone Valley (free on steam btw,) I spent much of the last few weeks of development designing little vistas to reward players that take the time to look around and explore.
20:22 It's actually theorized at one point that there was also going to be an infected dog, whilst no concept art exists for it and it's more speculation and rumors, people believe there was evidence in the form of the hunter's lines, they suspected the growls and snarls from the dog infected were reused for the hunter. There was also the soundfile that was used for the hunter attacking objects that was labeled "zombiedog_attack", which almost seems to solidify that there was probably at least a little bit of progress with the animals outside of concept art before they decided to keep it as a human only disease.
I think the generator against the door was something done last minute. While the infected were attacking. A group of survivors could have ran through the door while they were being chased by infected and pried themselves against the door while one of them grabbed the nearest thing they could use to block the door in a hurry. The nearest thing being the generator. Or the generator was broken beyond repair and they just found another use for it.
15:56 The woman's body looks like she was shot and fell backwards,giving to armed body's position, maybe the guy with the gun shot her after she crashed the vehicle into the tree and acted strange leading him to think she was infected.But in that case, i don't know what's with the other body maybe he was in the car too. 18:11 If I'm not mistaken Church Guy says ''I never shouldn't let him in,I cant believe he bit me.'' so he got infected by a man, the dead woman in the room doesn't make sense imo.
Church guy *does* refer to the person who bit him as a man, but I think this is just an error in the voice lines, since as far as I can recall, the corpse inside the room is always a woman's corpse. It's also possible that they maybe updated the map with a female model when the Crash Course DLC released to line up with the graffiti that I mentioned in the last video? I would need to find a copy of the map from before the update to confirm or deny this, though.
It’s interesting how the use of developer names & photos can have polar opposite effects in places. For instance, I’ve always found the memorial wall in the church to be one of the most outwardly sad or melancholic bits of environmental storytelling in this game. Most of the graffiti is kind of snarky and comedic and inspired by ‘forum culture’ (so to say) but then you just have a wall in a church where past survivors pay the respects to their fallen loved ones. But I never stopped to actually read the names, and in hindsight it’s hilarious seeing Valve staff write fictional death dates for themselves and their family members. On the opposite end of the coin, there’s the ‘never forget my angels’ graffiti. I think zombie games tend to imply child death off screen, if they do even bother acknowledging it, but it’s sort of an abstract thing. A natural implication of the setting that they don’t linger on long because it’ll wreck the vibe of making a game where you’re just shooting zombies nonstop in a somewhat cartoonish exaggeration of reality with your friends. Meanwhile, you have what looks like scanned in real photos of kids with their parents or grandparents, and while I know they’re likely just childhood photos of the developers, it really does make that graffiti feel even sadder. I’ve never even noticed that being there but the photos are what made it shocking to me. I know Valve loves to flirt with melancholia through environmental storytelling but the world of L4D really is way sadder than the gameplay lets on.
For the rural house outside of Riverside, i had always imagined that the dead lady was not part of the family but rather an infected because she appears to have been shot from the position of the body. Maybe the one against the wall was being attacked, and the one with the gun had shot her, but it was too late, then the following horde got to them.
Small detail not shown in the actual game, the Slater couple that come to rescue the survivors actually abandon them in the city Dead Air takes place in as referenced to in the comics. It's implied that the Slaters stole the guns from the survivors once they got aboard and then tossed them at the nearest open dock to at least give the l4d1 survivors a fighting chance. Literally the second time the l4d1 cast meet alive survivors and they betray them, tough luck
Given that the first graffiti message states that Jeff killed 12 infected on the Oct 2nd, it is likely that was the first contact that the residents of riverside had with the infected . Which means that the town had last about 2 weeks before everything went down, with the church possibly being the last survivor prior to the group making it there
A thing about the trains in the game. They appear to be shortline locomotives, mainly due to the fact that they aren't widecabs and are bulling boxcars, tankers, etc. If it were a class 1 (CSX in this area) would be pulling well cars. Plus, in crash course, the train wreck would most likely be much larger irl due to the fact that it'd be quite hard for the locomotive to stop right in that position it's found in.
Not exaggerating when I say I could watch these videos about every official campaign and a hundred custom ones without getting bored, you're so good at this 👌
13:31 After watching this video I noticed something I haven't really noticed before in these games. I had a very recent death toll run where the woman's body was missing but not only that there was a witch spawn right behind the table in the kitchen tucked in the corner. Makes me wonder how many times they dynamically used the storytelling for gameplay mechanics as well. I hope if someone hasn't noticed this before it may peak their interest.
Hope this gets pinned because it’s something I recently found out - in the Boathouse Finale, after the house at the beginning of the chapter with the military convoy outside, and in the parking lot before the park sign, if you turn to the right where the area is fenced off, you see a road with a white pickup truck that the survivors use to get to the what-if campaign, “The Last Stand”. It’s almost like an alternative imaginative route
I like to imagine that the L4D crew had their own hard rain incident, got pissed at the slaters with bill pitching a fit and they ended up at the behest of Amanda getting kicked off the boat as a result, leading bill to think that gas powered boats are pointless now
22:14 This could also be purposeful. The army could have used an engineering vehicle to attempt to create a dirt berm to cut off or fortify a section of the town.
What I think could’ve happened to the bridge at 4:00 is that the military or some other survivors blew it up to prevent or at least slow down the infection from spreading any further. And the pile of rubble at 22:12 could’ve been from the military using a bulldozer to excavate the ground to form a barricade as their last line of defence.
My guess is that survivors haven't ditched the van, at least right away. You can clearly see the bridge is destroyed, no way they could've pass that segment with anything except their own feet. I believe police lights attracted survivors's attention and they decided to scout what lies ahead (and maybe have a resupply from the police car, which we basically see happened), and when they approached the bridge...well, it's not hard to understand why they ditched the van in the end, although none of them mentioned this or even tried to rant about ditching the van because of the bridge
I was literally playing this tonight in preparation for this vid!! I think one reason why multiple sewer tunnels are blown is because of the military blowing them up in a hasty retreat after Riverside was abandoned. We know the military had a presence there which can be seen in the circular sewer room with the water before the bridge holdout due to the military weapons and likely meds or throwables being present along with military boxes. Also, at the start of the mission immediately after the church, Zoey mentions how Riverside must have eventually fallen since they did hold out for a long time. Im guessing the road being blown that you questioned was possibly the military blowing up a major road (which could have been the main street due to the layout and types of buildings present) to slow the advance of infected somewhat and to give their troops time to pull back/out. It’s likely any survivors were evaced by boat to the military outpost the Slaters were going to after stealing the main crew’s guns
at the 22:33 mark that area with the forklift in the left 4 dead 1 version is different once you lower the forklift it will trigger a horde event and the after that you can resume going to safehouse normally however in the left 4 dead 2 version after lowering the forklift there will be an endless horde it only stop once you reach the safe room.
7:53 I could be very much wrong, but I feel like the top paper, in the centre, is maybe a top angled view of the finale at the farmhouse (death toll)? from the bottom of that sketch i see the cornfield leading up to the house, the house in the centre, the barn above it, and im not sure what the building on the left might be. i can maybe also make out the sketch under it, on the same paper, is the interior of the first floor. theres a kitchen
I think a possible reason for the bridge being destroyed is due to a military bombing since they were trying to contain the infection. And I think it's possible cause later in the map you can see there are signs of the military occupying riverside before they were ordered to retreat.
These videos are really good. Yourself and @Conz are both excellent at examining the environments of the Left 4 Dead games and providing a commentary. For me the two highlights have been the apartment building in the No Mercy video and the cottage in this video. So much attention to detail! Eagerly awaiting the next video but no rush!
I have never heard of the dam it campaign before this video, and I have seen a good amount of "cut" content from this game. I think it would be great for you to expand on the topic. Also, you are doing a great job on these storytelling videos so keep it up!
At 18:46 I think what’s far more likely is since we know the survivors are immune but carries of the Green flu that then being near the church guy is what infected him, similar to what could’ve happened to the No Mercy Helicopterpilot.
He rambles about being bitten and angrily answers with "You said that last time" and "I trusted you last time" when the survivors say they're immune or aren't infected. He also delusionally rambles to himself about how he must be immune since it's been an hour since the attack so it's likely he got bit. He even outright says he got bitten by the last person he let in
That being said, you're not entirely wrong on your theory. It's not actually shown in game, but in the official comic book Valve had made to go alongside The Sacrifice campaign. In Part 2, Page 61, the team are met by a military doctor after being rescued by the army during the penultimate campaign, Blood Harvest. It's here that after running some tests, we learn that Francis, Zoey, Louis, and Bill are all, in fact, carriers as you thought. "You're carriers, both of you. You don't show any symptoms of the virus. But you're still infected. I'm afraid you've been transmitting it all over Philadelphia." We also learn from the doctor that, while they have yet to find a cure, they have learned that the carrier gene that grants the survivors their "immunity" is passed down on the father's side, after the doctor mistakes Bill for being Zoey's dad. On page 75, we also see Louis going through a bit of mental anguish, blaming himself and the others as he openly states "We've been causing the crashes..." before Francis chimes in to cheer him up by reminding him the first pilot from No Mercy had already been bitten. In other words, while the No Mercy campagin crash wasn't their fault (outside of Zoey shooting the pilot after he turned), the rest of them very well could have been.
20:23 Fun fact: Turtle Rock wanted to include a zombie dog special infected, however Valve shot the idea down due to wanting L4D to differentiate itself from other zombie games at the time (notably COD zombies), so the zombie dog's growls and snarls were re-used for the Hunter
Hey man I saw the Crash Course vid last week. I was happy to see this in my recommendations! Excellent job on this series so far, I appreciate that you even make addendums to anything you miss in a previous segment. The visual editing is simple yet clean and the audio mixing is well balanced. Keep up the great work! And I wish you an easy recovery from your dental procedures.
11:38 That bus looks just like a typical American school bus painted green. Could Valve perhaps have intended it to be so, then modified it after deciding against it? 25:43 In an interview, the VAs explained that they, indeed, recorded improv lines of them fighting. The developers removed them because it was too distracting (this comes from an interview they did on the VOC Podcast)
@@davvvvo I'm not surprised they changed it honestly, violence against children was and still kind of is a big no-no with the major ratings boards. Even the implication might be too much.
If im so interested in these small environmental storytelling, I definitely want to see the Dam It map be covered! These vidoes hit the spot of chill and informative. Keep up the good work!
I love these videos that you're making, whenever I play left 4 dead, I always treat it like a goofy hero game, but now that you're taking a deep dive into these neat designing details, it just paints a picture of grim and depressed zombie outbreak that's the green flu where people are struggling and fighting for their lives, suffering deeply in this disaster, honestly just makes the game and the settings that even more fasinating to me.
If the Graffiti in both safehouses (Church and Riverside) is dated to the 15th of October at the latest, that means they were both being used in the same period of time, and riverside itself was unsafe by such time. I think the city was evacuated or overrun a day or two beforehand, and that these safehouse/evacuation points are being used the same way as our cast of survivors is. The city was probably mostly vacated a few days beforehand, or otherwise nobody escaped, and the graffiti is being left by people passing through the dead city.
I also think it's telling that at this point the soldiers are probably only National Guard, and mostly there for emergency relief: the major escalation in violence is Dead air. Even in Blood Harvest there is a noticeable step up in military preparedness with dedicated outposts with shoot on sight orders: I think what this means is that all of these cities are probably being destroyed within a week or a few days of each other .
I love your calm demeanor and relaxed video style. It’s grating when UA-camrs give us hyped up videos, I need something soothing. When you’re finished with L4D I hope you venture into other Valve games like Half Life 2’s environmental story telling or other franchises.
I doubt that the guy split in half inside the office was tanked... there's way too little destruction around him... Probably pulled by a smoker from a window he broke to try and escape, commons began to pull him back while biting down on him... His body gave way and got split in half. Commons kept the legs, smoker dragged the living torso into the streets, the 2 impacts probably finished him off and the smoker lost interest after his prey was killed before he could get to eat him somehow... Or it was shot by the ones who escaped the overrun building.
10:16 I would like to believe that the blood mark with missing bodies are one of the common infected you fight with along the way. Making it more tragic that all that effort of killing other infected was useless in the end. Since they became one with the infected.
19:54 I feel like a dumpster isn’t a bad choice as chair and tables can easily be bypassed once the door is broken down, sure the infected would climb over the dumpster but it would buy you a few seconds. Though I agree that the generator is wasteful unless it broken and isn’t going to be seeing much use.
11:56 i just want to point out that it's entirely possible that the body on the ground, aside from potentially being the driver, might also be the pastor for the church. i know that in at least a couple churches near me (i actually live in the same general area that l4d1 takes place in) that have buses, the pastors are usually the ones that drive them
4:53 The same Riverside road sign (seen before entering the tunnel) was included in the CS:GO version of cs_assault. Despite the fact that it’s not much of element of enviromental storytelling but a fun Easter egg I always liked to theorize that cs_assault is taking place in the immediate proximity of Riverside, PA, thus connecting the lore of two different Valve games
Man I cannot wait for the L4D2 exploration. ALSO, I would love if you would check out some custom campaigns. There are a few really good maps that lots of details you can dissect
13:37 how i see it, i think somebody locked themselves in the room, but then a zombie outside the window saw him and broke in before beating the survivor to death and dragging him out the window, the dent on the door probably suggests that the survivor started banging on the door or maybe got slammed into the door by the zombie.
20:08 it makes sense actually. The generator has wheels making it easier to move towards the door and the dumpster can be emptied and then re filled with heavier things once in place 22:25 and this makes me think that the military used an excavator or something to create this wall of debris but im unsure if theres anything nearby to solidify that idea
21:38 Or Chargered? Tanks don't leave bodies alone, as seen in the sacrifice. They're too rage induced to just leave it as just in half. IT would've slammed it everywhere, unlike a charger who would drag someone, just like how the blood shows. You also forgot to mention that the dogs that are still barking were likely left behind in a panic.
My opinion, the reason why John and Amanda were specifically looking for groups that had guns and ammo is tied to this line from John "I don't want our first act of kindness to be our last" hinting that these two people weren't good hearted people and given that Dead Air starts you off in a warehouse on top of a rooftop, it might not be too far of a reach that John and Amanda after the L4D1 crew was board were disarmed of their weapons and thrown overboard once they were a good distance away from Riverside as the city in the background of Death Toll's finale is the city Dead Air takes place in.
16:14 i think you forgot to mention, the dining room has 4 chairs, but only 3 bodies, the back and front door being open, as well as the back windows being broken kind of suggests that the last surviving family member made a break for it, or possibly died in the truck crash. My theory is that the family were holding out in the front yard, when suddenly the infected broke the back of the house, then the sister or cousin or grandpa or whoever made a break for it out the porch and ran to the house with the broken window near the bus, before locking themselves inside, probably sitting up against the door, before some more infected broke the window and turned them or killed them while up against the door, before moving on.
I had considered that, and I definitely wanted to make the claim initially that a fourth member had run out the back door due to it being open, but I realized when looking at the rooms that there are only two beds, with one of them being a single person bed.
@@wolfcl0ck maybe it isn't a family but 2 couples? or, better idea, 2 families who were close or friends after the infection started they decided to hold up in the same house and just slept on the couch or in the truck? also could have just been strangers, like the main cast
I love this series and it reminds me so much of the 2012 youtubers style of videos. Maybe because of the game or maybe it’s because of your style itself? I think its both.
The house in the woods seems really sad to me. The fire in the hearth tells me that the inhabitants were still alive mere hours, possibly only minutes before our team comes upon them.
Love the video, gave me a whole new perspective, idk y but i always felt like the survivors u play as were very far behind in a world añready fallen apart but u chanced my mind. Love the content especially this series 🫶🏻
4:20 The Dam It. Is after on the Dead Air. Between Dead air and Blood Harvest. Not on Death Toll. I could be wrong tho but based the fact that the Survivors escape Via Airplane it's unlikely that Death Toll is not related to why the river bed dried up. Since it's been 2 weeks. It's possible that the bridge collapse earlier. And enough for the river to dried up before the survivors reach the location.
4:36 it might be a watershed instead of a river river as they’re near the Appalachian mountains meaning it only holds water during snow melt and heavy rain but is dry otherwise
Much love, another amazing video! I love this series and I just can't wait for your take on L4D2. Please keep the longform and laid-back style, it's such a welcome break from the usual attentionseeking! I like to think that the bags of dogfood were for the pets of survivors instead of desperation, since it's only been a few weeks of the apocalypse. I'd never leave my pets behind for anything.
I honestly can’t blame the Slaters for wanting to take people with firepower. We have to keep in mind that special infected are a very recent mutation, and if I saw a hunter or smoker for the first time, I can bet you I’d be spooked out of my mind and asking the same. It’s not really selfishness in my mind, just a reaction to the realization that this virus is getting way out of hand, and packing heat is now a necessity to stay alive. Plus it’s hard to help people if you yourself are dead. I do go with the theory that the Slaters are carriers as it’s mentioned in The Sacrifice comic that they didn’t turn by proximity to the l4d1 crew.
About the map at the beginning it could very well be inaccurate because of the breakdown of communication. Stephen King's book "Cell" shows how inaccurate info gets shared, when Clay, Tom and Alice approache the border between New Hampshire and Massachussets they get reports from other survivors that people are getting shot at when they try to cross the border except that once they get there there's nothing happening and people in New Hampshire says the same about crossing the border the other way around. It's likely the same thing with these maps: they may have been initially accurate but the breakdown of comms and hearsay just devolved it into nonsense, hence the discrepancy between the two games.
I think the gunfire early on in this campaign is supposed to be the church holding out and slowly failing. Mainly based off the fact the church bus is still on fire and that the church guy is still alive. It’s pretty chilling to imagine that the survivors are fighting to reach the evac all while hearing it slowly fall to the infection without realizing
Also I do wonder if Riverside fell because of the infection finding or hearing the people surviving inside or was it because the church guy finally snapped and after a heated argument with people wanting inside started to ring the bell sealing the towns fate
@@ethanwilde4716i would assume the former. church guy said he already let a group (maybe just one guy) in and he got bit because of it. its the entire reason he turns, and refuses to let anyone else in.
(“better safe than sorry! better safe than sorry!”)
maybe the first group fell because someone got infected and turned everyone else before the church guy, maybe the group left or fell to the infected.
Please don't apologize for taking less than a week to get these videos out lol
my favorite genre of youtube video is genuinely "man talks steadily over in-game stills of source game environments" and I'm not quite sure why other video game fandoms don't have this delivery method.
We need some videos of Silent Hill in this fashion
I think I know why these videos feel so right. They remind me of developer commentary nodes Valve always puts in their games.
People are fascinated with zombie/apocalyptic settings, and also because it's not easy to do subtle environmental story telling. Most games opt to use notes and radio recordings (Bioshock, Dishonored, System shock, and Dead Space, Alien: Isolation, just to name a few). So if other fandom does it it will just be the narrator reading someone's note for 15 mins.
I like the guy who does the “Ready or Not” videos too
Because it's a breath of fresh air from all the hyper kinetic, 50 edits a second-type of vid with a guy speaking the usual loud disingenuous, try hard "funny" voice
I think the fact that there's still lots of lights on means that our survivors will often reach areas mere hours after other survivors did too. Car batteries haven't had time to drain fully and the power stations are still running despite nobody showing to keep them up, so it really gives in to the idea that this infection truly did spring up over night and came out of nowhere for everybody
It's funny how lighthearted the game can be when the characters are the focus, when the actual world you're playing in is horrifying.
A zombie apocalypse would already be a shitty way to end life as we know it, but especially one as insane as the Green Flu.
@@9000Dogs When you remember the fact the doctor in the comic said the virus mutates daily, sometimes airborne, sometimes through contact, etc. It really hammers home the fact it is EVOLVING. Covid doesn't mutates this fast and it already shook the world, imagine if it mutates daily like this. By the time you make a cure, it has already evolved into something else.
So he was serious when he said "There is no cure. I'm just pretending to find a cure so the people can have hope"
IIRC that was the developers' explicit intent -- rather than a typical post-apocalypse they wanted to give players the feeling that the apocalypse just happened an hour ago in Left 4 Dead.
Also explains the amount of “fallen survivors”
I get the feeling our survivors are maybe 24 to 72 hrs behind the main evac and are just unlucky enough to keep "just missing the bus" so to speak.
I'd say they're about an hour or less behind Riverside's fall. Tragic.
@commieblock1917 yea that would fit with the storyline.
Car headlights wouldn't last more than 6 hours, i once accidentally left my car headlights on for few hours and the battery dies. It is likely that the left 4 dead 1 survivor was few hours late. Though I might be wrong since if the car had engine turned on the headlights would stay on until the fuels ran out
@@dauzlee2827 depends on the model mostly because I've left my headlights on over night and it started right up.
@@zambekiller it also depends on how much charge your battery has left
As someone who operates Heavy Equipment the way the Debris wall looks makes me think it's more of the result of Equipment like Bulldozers rather than an Explosion. The road on the side you approach it from is ripped upwards while on the otherside of the wall you have a gentle slope that you walk down to reach the road on the other side. Equipment probably pushed material from the side the Safehouse is on to build up a defensive wall to help keep the infected out as they evacuated Civilians in Riverside
Also with the placement of the Barbwire and flat debris wall compared to the gun and sandbag placement leads me to think that what happened was the Military was trying to block the way you come initially and the Forklift was used to keep that section of the roof up to prevent it from being used as a ramp. Then later into the Outbreak the Military realize the infected are approaching the town mainly from the other direction and start to move Equipment and defensive positions to the other side of the baracade and the generator on top of the wall says they were still in the middle of this change when they had to flee.
Furry works in Heavy equipment :p
@@quiet8690 D-OwO-zer
I am addicted to these Left 4 Dead environmental story tellings! And yes, we'd love to see the unfinished "Dam It" campaign environmental storytellings! As well as the other unfished and community campaigns.
And hopefully the Siamese Cat was able to escape the abandoned house!
People often forget about how "Dam It" bridges the gap between Dead Air and Blood Harvest. The problem is, I think there are two finished versions of it on the L4D2 workshop, with slight differences in artpasses, and slightly different finales and crescendo events.
26:15 As shown by The Sacrifice comics. John & Amanda Slaters robbed the L4D1 survivors of their weapons, then left them off on Dead Air's city. This may explain why they explicitly stated that they're looking for survivors armed with firepower, adding your statement that they're selfless adds the impression to them.
"I apologize for the third video taking so long" Bro I was expecting to wait weeks between each video, not days. Take all the time you need!
2:12 - I'm really glad you call this in-universe misinformation rather than a retcon. I've seen a lot of people go with the latter explanation, but even if it is actually a retcon (which it probably is), it makes perfect sense that people were just struggling to get the whole picture and started making assumptions.
3:59 - Not sure there's any evidence for it, but my guess was always that either bombers or military engineers in Riverside blew the bridge to keep Riversafe safe for just a little bit longer, and the vehicles were just caught in the blast.
Dude you literally say everything i was going to comment.
Whether it was planned that way or not, I think it works brilliantly as in-universe misinformation. Communication issues happen in every big disaster, and there's plenty of graffiti on the walls of multiple campaigns showing that people already disagree about almost every aspect of the infection.
These are such great videos. No fluff, honest observations of the storytelling, so relaxing to watch. 10/10 series. Can’t wait for more.
I love it when people analyze my favourite games, this channel deserves way more love
I do believe that you missed the missing person posters in the church. Im fairly certain the implication is that some people were killed by the infected early on in the outbreak and their families thought they were missing. A similar thing is shown in the movie "28 days later"
20:17 hey, i have been envolved in some and saw some disaster reports and volunteer work to help the survivors. In a recent flood, there was a high volume of abandoned dogs and other house pets, either by:
1 the owners don't have time to take them - like the water running so high so fast that they either got trapped with the dogs or had to leave them to escape themselves
2 no space in their hands/no allowed to transport them - people escaping the flood sometimes had just their legs as means of transportation, sometimes the vehicles for evac did not allowed for pets
3 no acess to the house - some buildings with energy powered locks and acess got locked down, doors/windows being closed by debrits and other obstacles, the house itself being damaged and etc, this could also happen when the road/bridge and street to the house got blocked, been destroyed and etc
4 no way to going back to take them because they are not here anymore - it's one of the sadder one, people either got taken by the flood, got into a accident, got injuried in a explosion or any other problem related to it
5 being trapped inside - the really sadder one, people got trapped in their houses or apartment and succumbed to either hunger, disease, injuries or decided to end it all and the pet got left in the house
I know about the behind the scenes prototypes and concepts but i believe this would help give you a more concrete and realistic response
12:15
It's also possible that whoever was in the shack got dragged through the window by an infected that spotted them inside. There would likely have been a struggle, which could explain the amount of blood as well as the tipped over chair inside the shack.
Shouldn't the glass shards be scattered inside the shack then?
Yeah but that doesn't fit with the door bump heading outside
Sounds like the work of a smoker actually!
I always thought it was interesting how the church tower guy always becomes a special infected.
I had always wondered if special infected evolved from common infected or if some people have unique genes that automatically turn them into certain specials . . .
I also wonder if that guy got into the church tower before or after the military abandoned it. Maybe he locked the door on the last soldiers, leaving them to die
Wow Such Gaming suggests that certain lifestyles affect which special they’d turn into. (Ex: Tank, probably a bodybuilder who abused steroids or some type of drugs).
But I think the guy in the church was just a developer choice since he has no canon special infected design (if that makes sense)
I never actually noticed that myself until you mentioned it. Maybe it's just bad luck, but for me the church guy was always a Boomer. Not sure what all that suggests, but it's strange.
I suspect in all likelihood that he took up residence inside the church after the military had deemed it lost. We know that the lady who bit him did so just an hour before our survivors made it there.
Roanoke Gaming did a series of videos on this. He does biological breakdowns of stuff in video games and movies, and they are pretty good.
@@sakuamvsog There's also a theory that there are actually multiple, unique strains of the Green Flu - one for each Infected variant.
I’d like to mention how you can encounter a tank near the cabin in the woods, So it’s possible that the family/Survivors died recently, Or that the tank didn’t wander very far depending on you luck with the tank encounter.
Omg I hadn't even considered the fact that the actual videogame tank spawns may have informed the storytelling of the levels.
I remember having a harrowing tank showdown in that house. It was not a fun time to try hold him off inside it as a team lol
8:41 Although not as heavily implied as in L4D2 (Probably due to hardware limitations of the time) I believe the various collapses shown throughout Death Toll are the result of military bombing, something that the military or CEDA are already doing by the time of Death Toll as shown at 25:14 with Newburg already being heavily bombed without the player hearing fighter jets or other aircraft. Its likely that they are using the long range communications to coordinate strikes on large numbers of carriers rather than solely focusing on evac, this would also explain why the military hold outs are often such small buildings as they are glorified comms stations not processing centers for fleeing refugees. By this point the survivors should be entering into the 3rd week of the infection so it is not ridiculous to assume that the military had already started using scorched earth tactics in a attempt to save themselves or curb the infection. But lmk what you guys think. Great video as all ways keep it up!
Zoey has a voiceline where the news station where she says "I've been here before. I always liked this main street."
4:43 yes please.
SO one thing you mentioned at 20:10 about using the generator propped up against a door, it's actually the BEST place to use it as we know that loud noises attract the infected, and those generators can be LOUD, and while we don't really notice the noise whenever we see them turned on due to the hustle and bustle of city life, in a place where there are nothing that could drown out the noise using that would be a death sentence so it's far safer to just rely on its weight than to ever dare to turn it on, plus you can siphon the fuel in it for molly's
you ask if we want more content of “dam it” or other maps. i just want more content from you thats like this. not many youtubers sit and analyze the story of the little things. things that devs put hard work into just for the majority of players to not notice (i feel its often intentional for this to occur).
just so much story, behind the scenes or in-game, to explore and you do a fantastic job of making the storytelling not feel repetitive.
i have over 2.5k hours in this game, and there is still notes or aspects from your interpretation of this game that, i totally didn’t, and wouldn’t have realized.
love this content, keep it up! also maybe if you struggle to not feel repetitive (not that its feeling this way at all) or want something neat, maybe you could put in some developer commentaries. i know a few of them talk about the storytelling aspect, like why we see certain weapons or sceneries.
My personal headcanon is that the initial outbreak happened slowly and was confined to Fairfield for about a week. Then gradually the infection seeped through the cracks and began to spread outward, likely through airborne transmission or the infected overwhelming the army. Places like Riverside were chosen as stops to evacuate refugees from Fairfield and were heavily defended by the military. As carriers escaped with other infected, they also began infecting healthy people, and by the end of week 2, when our group left the city, the army decided to retreat and begin bombing heavily populated areas like the Newburg airport.
Yeah given that viruses often can spread exponentially it'd make sense that the initial outbreaks were slow going for a while until there was enough of a critical mass of infected that everything sort of fell apart relatively quickly, and then the collapse of the quarantine around Fairfield/Philadelphia plus all the carriers caused everything to fall apart much more quickly outside of the original infection area.
10:10 In the tf2 comics, Claude Huggins is the mayor of 2fort, who survived a bear attack by hiding under his wife’s body!
Some other interesting thing is the main entrance to Riverside, it's totally blocked by the military, near the cemetery; and of course you can see the signal of the population with a yellow graffity meaning what everybody is dead. And yes i always think what the background noises are other survivors or remnants from the US Military.
in the final chapter, after you leave the house turned outpost, the survivors could either go forward and follow the path to the boat house or they can take a right and to a truck and a path that leads to the last stand campaign and at the start of the last stand campaign, you can see the same truck and a gate that leads to riverside.
I never even noticed this..
I also like that detail, although it's only in L4D2 of course. Even back when it was just a L4D1 survival map, The Last Stand was pitched as "what if the survivors took a wrong turn in Death Toll." L4D2's Last Stand Update made this even more explicit now that it's an actual campaign, which I think is a great touch.
Oh shit, ill better check it out.
players: this must be some deeper meaning, no way they would just put this like that in here
valve map designers: some sleeping bags... few suitcases... what else... few blood splatters why not, ok done
not there yet but slater's boat can be seen wrecked in sacrifice
Re-used assets. The boathouse in the finale is very similar to the csgo map "Lake", the horde event in the first map of Swamp Fever is also very similar to a csgo map called " St. Marc" and the Sugar Mill from Hard Rain is also very similar to a csgo map can "sugar cane" or something. Last but not least, the burger Tank in Hard Rain was also re-used for the csgo map "Bank". Valve just loves to re-use assets, but they do it well
You say that - and it certainly could be true in many of the instances that I talk about - but I can tell you from close to a decade of experience designing levels that populating greyboxes with props is actually one of the most important parts to get right when designing a level. Crash Course has a lot of examples of what NOT to do: Most if not all of the respawn rooms are completely empty. For the game that got me my master's degree, Grimstone Valley (free on steam btw,) I spent much of the last few weeks of development designing little vistas to reward players that take the time to look around and explore.
"As we can see Zoey is insane" absolute cinema
I missed it. When was that said lol
20:22 It's actually theorized at one point that there was also going to be an infected dog, whilst no concept art exists for it and it's more speculation and rumors, people believe there was evidence in the form of the hunter's lines, they suspected the growls and snarls from the dog infected were reused for the hunter. There was also the soundfile that was used for the hunter attacking objects that was labeled "zombiedog_attack", which almost seems to solidify that there was probably at least a little bit of progress with the animals outside of concept art before they decided to keep it as a human only disease.
I would have gushed if L4D2 had zamblambee alligators. Or just normal gators.
@@TannuWannuzombie gators, ah hell no
@@JoseHernandez-xv2bt i'm from flo-rida gator combat is in my blood, zombie or otherwise
@@TannuWannu I’m not, I’d probably died from shock
I think the generator against the door was something done last minute. While the infected were attacking. A group of survivors could have ran through the door while they were being chased by infected and pried themselves against the door while one of them grabbed the nearest thing they could use to block the door in a hurry. The nearest thing being the generator. Or the generator was broken beyond repair and they just found another use for it.
15:56 The woman's body looks like she was shot and fell backwards,giving to armed body's position, maybe the guy with the gun shot her after she crashed the vehicle into the tree and acted strange leading him to think she was infected.But in that case, i don't know what's with the other body maybe he was in the car too.
18:11 If I'm not mistaken Church Guy says ''I never shouldn't let him in,I cant believe he bit me.'' so he got infected by a man, the dead woman in the room doesn't make sense imo.
Church guy *does* refer to the person who bit him as a man, but I think this is just an error in the voice lines, since as far as I can recall, the corpse inside the room is always a woman's corpse. It's also possible that they maybe updated the map with a female model when the Crash Course DLC released to line up with the graffiti that I mentioned in the last video? I would need to find a copy of the map from before the update to confirm or deny this, though.
Thanks for the mention in the video! I've been absolutely loving these videos and am very glad you came up in my recommendeds.
It’s interesting how the use of developer names & photos can have polar opposite effects in places.
For instance, I’ve always found the memorial wall in the church to be one of the most outwardly sad or melancholic bits of environmental storytelling in this game. Most of the graffiti is kind of snarky and comedic and inspired by ‘forum culture’ (so to say) but then you just have a wall in a church where past survivors pay the respects to their fallen loved ones. But I never stopped to actually read the names, and in hindsight it’s hilarious seeing Valve staff write fictional death dates for themselves and their family members.
On the opposite end of the coin, there’s the ‘never forget my angels’ graffiti. I think zombie games tend to imply child death off screen, if they do even bother acknowledging it, but it’s sort of an abstract thing. A natural implication of the setting that they don’t linger on long because it’ll wreck the vibe of making a game where you’re just shooting zombies nonstop in a somewhat cartoonish exaggeration of reality with your friends. Meanwhile, you have what looks like scanned in real photos of kids with their parents or grandparents, and while I know they’re likely just childhood photos of the developers, it really does make that graffiti feel even sadder. I’ve never even noticed that being there but the photos are what made it shocking to me. I know Valve loves to flirt with melancholia through environmental storytelling but the world of L4D really is way sadder than the gameplay lets on.
For the rural house outside of Riverside, i had always imagined that the dead lady was not part of the family but rather an infected because she appears to have been shot from the position of the body. Maybe the one against the wall was being attacked, and the one with the gun had shot her, but it was too late, then the following horde got to them.
Small detail not shown in the actual game, the Slater couple that come to rescue the survivors actually abandon them in the city Dead Air takes place in as referenced to in the comics.
It's implied that the Slaters stole the guns from the survivors once they got aboard and then tossed them at the nearest open dock to at least give the l4d1 survivors a fighting chance.
Literally the second time the l4d1 cast meet alive survivors and they betray them, tough luck
Given that the first graffiti message states that Jeff killed 12 infected on the Oct 2nd, it is likely that was the first contact that the residents of riverside had with the infected . Which means that the town had last about 2 weeks before everything went down, with the church possibly being the last survivor prior to the group making it there
A thing about the trains in the game. They appear to be shortline locomotives, mainly due to the fact that they aren't widecabs and are bulling boxcars, tankers, etc. If it were a class 1 (CSX in this area) would be pulling well cars. Plus, in crash course, the train wreck would most likely be much larger irl due to the fact that it'd be quite hard for the locomotive to stop right in that position it's found in.
Not exaggerating when I say I could watch these videos about every official campaign and a hundred custom ones without getting bored, you're so good at this 👌
13:31 After watching this video I noticed something I haven't really noticed before in these games. I had a very recent death toll run where the woman's body was missing but not only that there was a witch spawn right behind the table in the kitchen tucked in the corner. Makes me wonder how many times they dynamically used the storytelling for gameplay mechanics as well. I hope if someone hasn't noticed this before it may peak their interest.
Could have taken all the time you needed, can always wait for a great video.
Hope all is well either way.
Hope this gets pinned because it’s something I recently found out - in the Boathouse Finale, after the house at the beginning of the chapter with the military convoy outside, and in the parking lot before the park sign, if you turn to the right where the area is fenced off, you see a road with a white pickup truck that the survivors use to get to the what-if campaign, “The Last Stand”. It’s almost like an alternative imaginative route
I like to imagine that the L4D crew had their own hard rain incident, got pissed at the slaters with bill pitching a fit and they ended up at the behest of Amanda getting kicked off the boat as a result, leading bill to think that gas powered boats are pointless now
Maybe Johnny finally turned and telling the friendly fire story was another way of saying, “We had to put Johnny down.”
22:14 This could also be purposeful.
The army could have used an engineering vehicle to attempt to create a dirt berm to cut off or fortify a section of the town.
What I think could’ve happened to the bridge at 4:00 is that the military or some other survivors blew it up to prevent or at least slow down the infection from spreading any further.
And the pile of rubble at 22:12 could’ve been from the military using a bulldozer to excavate the ground to form a barricade as their last line of defence.
My guess is that survivors haven't ditched the van, at least right away. You can clearly see the bridge is destroyed, no way they could've pass that segment with anything except their own feet. I believe police lights attracted survivors's attention and they decided to scout what lies ahead (and maybe have a resupply from the police car, which we basically see happened), and when they approached the bridge...well, it's not hard to understand why they ditched the van in the end, although none of them mentioned this or even tried to rant about ditching the van because of the bridge
4:37 YES please do that. I use your videos as the "youtube video you use to eat" kind.
and if you dont mind i would also like to see the finished community made map and the official unfinished one. 😁👍
I was literally playing this tonight in preparation for this vid!! I think one reason why multiple sewer tunnels are blown is because of the military blowing them up in a hasty retreat after Riverside was abandoned. We know the military had a presence there which can be seen in the circular sewer room with the water before the bridge holdout due to the military weapons and likely meds or throwables being present along with military boxes. Also, at the start of the mission immediately after the church, Zoey mentions how Riverside must have eventually fallen since they did hold out for a long time.
Im guessing the road being blown that you questioned was possibly the military blowing up a major road (which could have been the main street due to the layout and types of buildings present) to slow the advance of infected somewhat and to give their troops time to pull back/out. It’s likely any survivors were evaced by boat to the military outpost the Slaters were going to after stealing the main crew’s guns
at the 22:33 mark that area with the forklift in the left 4 dead 1 version is different once you lower the forklift it will trigger a horde event and the after that you can resume going to safehouse normally however in the left 4 dead 2 version after lowering the forklift there will be an endless horde it only stop once you reach the safe room.
7:53 I could be very much wrong, but I feel like the top paper, in the centre, is maybe a top angled view of the finale at the farmhouse (death toll)? from the bottom of that sketch i see the cornfield leading up to the house, the house in the centre, the barn above it, and im not sure what the building on the left might be.
i can maybe also make out the sketch under it, on the same paper, is the interior of the first floor. theres a kitchen
I think a possible reason for the bridge being destroyed is due to a military bombing since they were trying to contain the infection. And I think it's possible cause later in the map you can see there are signs of the military occupying riverside before they were ordered to retreat.
I'm loving this series. Learned lots of story details on the maps. Thanks for this! :D
These videos are really good. Yourself and @Conz are both excellent at examining the environments of the Left 4 Dead games and providing a commentary.
For me the two highlights have been the apartment building in the No Mercy video and the cottage in this video. So much attention to detail! Eagerly awaiting the next video but no rush!
I have never heard of the dam it campaign before this video, and I have seen a good amount of "cut" content from this game. I think it would be great for you to expand on the topic. Also, you are doing a great job on these storytelling videos so keep it up!
16:48 yep, I can definitely relate on this one.
"better safe than blaaauuurgh" - boomer
i respect and appreciate these videos please keep making them 🙏
Id love to hear even about the unfinished dam it map, they may not be 100% but I feel like they are still worth talking about.
At 18:46 I think what’s far more likely is since we know the survivors are immune but carries of the Green flu that then being near the church guy is what infected him, similar to what could’ve happened to the No Mercy Helicopterpilot.
He rambles about being bitten and angrily answers with "You said that last time" and "I trusted you last time" when the survivors say they're immune or aren't infected. He also delusionally rambles to himself about how he must be immune since it's been an hour since the attack so it's likely he got bit. He even outright says he got bitten by the last person he let in
@ ahhh I see your probably right my freind, if always assumed since that dialogue is not always what he says
That being said, you're not entirely wrong on your theory. It's not actually shown in game, but in the official comic book Valve had made to go alongside The Sacrifice campaign. In Part 2, Page 61, the team are met by a military doctor after being rescued by the army during the penultimate campaign, Blood Harvest. It's here that after running some tests, we learn that Francis, Zoey, Louis, and Bill are all, in fact, carriers as you thought. "You're carriers, both of you. You don't show any symptoms of the virus. But you're still infected. I'm afraid you've been transmitting it all over Philadelphia." We also learn from the doctor that, while they have yet to find a cure, they have learned that the carrier gene that grants the survivors their "immunity" is passed down on the father's side, after the doctor mistakes Bill for being Zoey's dad. On page 75, we also see Louis going through a bit of mental anguish, blaming himself and the others as he openly states "We've been causing the crashes..." before Francis chimes in to cheer him up by reminding him the first pilot from No Mercy had already been bitten. In other words, while the No Mercy campagin crash wasn't their fault (outside of Zoey shooting the pilot after he turned), the rest of them very well could have been.
These videos are really amazing. I like that it's only the map ambience that plays. It's almost soothing to listen to.
20:23 Fun fact: Turtle Rock wanted to include a zombie dog special infected, however Valve shot the idea down due to wanting L4D to differentiate itself from other zombie games at the time (notably COD zombies), so the zombie dog's growls and snarls were re-used for the Hunter
Hey man I saw the Crash Course vid last week. I was happy to see this in my recommendations!
Excellent job on this series so far, I appreciate that you even make addendums to anything you miss in a previous segment. The visual editing is simple yet clean and the audio mixing is well balanced.
Keep up the great work! And I wish you an easy recovery from your dental procedures.
11:38 That bus looks just like a typical American school bus painted green. Could Valve perhaps have intended it to be so, then modified it after deciding against it?
25:43 In an interview, the VAs explained that they, indeed, recorded improv lines of them fighting. The developers removed them because it was too distracting (this comes from an interview they did on the VOC Podcast)
Yes the church bus was intended to be a school bus (on the fandom wikia page for the Church there is a old map overview where the bus is yellow)
@@davvvvo I'm not surprised they changed it honestly, violence against children was and still kind of is a big no-no with the major ratings boards. Even the implication might be too much.
@@QuintessentialWalrus Meanwhile Dead Space that came out same year: "FOOTBALL THESE ZOMBIE KIDS. EVEN MORE OF THEM IN A SEQUEL!!"
If im so interested in these small environmental storytelling, I definitely want to see the Dam It map be covered! These vidoes hit the spot of chill and informative. Keep up the good work!
I love these videos that you're making, whenever I play left 4 dead, I always treat it like a goofy hero game, but now that you're taking a deep dive into these neat designing details, it just paints a picture of grim and depressed zombie outbreak that's the green flu where people are struggling and fighting for their lives, suffering deeply in this disaster, honestly just makes the game and the settings that even more fasinating to me.
If the Graffiti in both safehouses (Church and Riverside) is dated to the 15th of October at the latest, that means they were both being used in the same period of time, and riverside itself was unsafe by such time. I think the city was evacuated or overrun a day or two beforehand, and that these safehouse/evacuation points are being used the same way as our cast of survivors is. The city was probably mostly vacated a few days beforehand, or otherwise nobody escaped, and the graffiti is being left by people passing through the dead city.
I also think it's telling that at this point the soldiers are probably only National Guard, and mostly there for emergency relief: the major escalation in violence is Dead air. Even in Blood Harvest there is a noticeable step up in military preparedness with dedicated outposts with shoot on sight orders: I think what this means is that all of these cities are probably being destroyed within a week or a few days of each other .
I love your calm demeanor and relaxed video style. It’s grating when UA-camrs give us hyped up videos, I need something soothing. When you’re finished with L4D I hope you venture into other Valve games like Half Life 2’s environmental story telling or other franchises.
I doubt that the guy split in half inside the office was tanked... there's way too little destruction around him...
Probably pulled by a smoker from a window he broke to try and escape, commons began to pull him back while biting down on him... His body gave way and got split in half. Commons kept the legs, smoker dragged the living torso into the streets, the 2 impacts probably finished him off and the smoker lost interest after his prey was killed before he could get to eat him somehow... Or it was shot by the ones who escaped the overrun building.
Had a bad night and this really brightened it, keep it up mang
Wanna talk about it dude? Life is like a rollercoaster; ups and downs.
The opening where you could see the survivors car was added later. Before the survivors was just there for no reason.
10:16 I would like to believe that the blood mark with missing bodies are one of the common infected you fight with along the way. Making it more tragic that all that effort of killing other infected was useless in the end. Since they became one with the infected.
19:54 I feel like a dumpster isn’t a bad choice as chair and tables can easily be bypassed once the door is broken down, sure the infected would climb over the dumpster but it would buy you a few seconds. Though I agree that the generator is wasteful unless it broken and isn’t going to be seeing much use.
ive never heard of a cut "dam it" campaign, so i'd love to see a video on it!
11:56 i just want to point out that it's entirely possible that the body on the ground, aside from potentially being the driver, might also be the pastor for the church. i know that in at least a couple churches near me (i actually live in the same general area that l4d1 takes place in) that have buses, the pastors are usually the ones that drive them
4:53 The same Riverside road sign (seen before entering the tunnel) was included in the CS:GO version of cs_assault. Despite the fact that it’s not much of element of enviromental storytelling but a fun Easter egg I always liked to theorize that cs_assault is taking place in the immediate proximity of Riverside, PA, thus connecting the lore of two different Valve games
Man I cannot wait for the L4D2 exploration. ALSO, I would love if you would check out some custom campaigns. There are a few really good maps that lots of details you can dissect
This is such a cool series, I’m genuinely enjoying it so much.
Also, I’m sorry to hear about the dental work, I hope it heals up soon for you.
Absolutely loving this series so far. Keep it up!
13:37 how i see it, i think somebody locked themselves in the room, but then a zombie outside the window saw him and broke in before beating the survivor to death and dragging him out the window, the dent on the door probably suggests that the survivor started banging on the door or maybe got slammed into the door by the zombie.
20:08 it makes sense actually. The generator has wheels making it easier to move towards the door and the dumpster can be emptied and then re filled with heavier things once in place
22:25 and this makes me think that the military used an excavator or something to create this wall of debris but im unsure if theres anything nearby to solidify that idea
21:38 Or Chargered? Tanks don't leave bodies alone, as seen in the sacrifice. They're too rage induced to just leave it as just in half. IT would've slammed it everywhere, unlike a charger who would drag someone, just like how the blood shows.
You also forgot to mention that the dogs that are still barking were likely left behind in a panic.
My opinion, the reason why John and Amanda were specifically looking for groups that had guns and ammo is tied to this line from John "I don't want our first act of kindness to be our last" hinting that these two people weren't good hearted people and given that Dead Air starts you off in a warehouse on top of a rooftop, it might not be too far of a reach that John and Amanda after the L4D1 crew was board were disarmed of their weapons and thrown overboard once they were a good distance away from Riverside as the city in the background of Death Toll's finale is the city Dead Air takes place in.
16:14 i think you forgot to mention, the dining room has 4 chairs, but only 3 bodies, the back and front door being open, as well as the back windows being broken kind of suggests that the last surviving family member made a break for it, or possibly died in the truck crash.
My theory is that the family were holding out in the front yard, when suddenly the infected broke the back of the house, then the sister or cousin or grandpa or whoever made a break for it out the porch and ran to the house with the broken window near the bus, before locking themselves inside, probably sitting up against the door, before some more infected broke the window and turned them or killed them while up against the door, before moving on.
I had considered that, and I definitely wanted to make the claim initially that a fourth member had run out the back door due to it being open, but I realized when looking at the rooms that there are only two beds, with one of them being a single person bed.
@@wolfcl0ck maybe it isn't a family but 2 couples?
or, better idea, 2 families who were close or friends
after the infection started they decided to hold up in the same house and just slept on the couch or in the truck?
also could have just been strangers, like the main cast
Most typical dining sets are 4. I was in a family of 3 but we had a 4th chair simply because that's what the sets came with and if we had company over
Absolutely love it every video is getting better and better
I love this series and it reminds me so much of the 2012 youtubers style of videos. Maybe because of the game or maybe it’s because of your style itself? I think its both.
Always happy to see your new vid about l4d storytelling. And at the same time it makes me sad, because eventually you'll run out of campaigns😭
The house in the woods seems really sad to me. The fire in the hearth tells me that the inhabitants were still alive mere hours, possibly only minutes before our team comes upon them.
10:05 You may already know this but a Claude's name shows up again in a graffiti mentioning kids but I can't remember which map it is on.
I would love to see all/most of the cut content in one video after this series is over it would wrap everything up nicely great vid man
I would 100% LOVE to see unfinished content on this channel.
Love the video, gave me a whole new perspective, idk y but i always felt like the survivors u play as were very far behind in a world añready fallen apart but u chanced my mind. Love the content especially this series 🫶🏻
4:20 The Dam It. Is after on the Dead Air. Between Dead air and Blood Harvest. Not on Death Toll. I could be wrong tho but based the fact that the Survivors escape Via Airplane it's unlikely that Death Toll is not related to why the river bed dried up. Since it's been 2 weeks. It's possible that the bridge collapse earlier. And enough for the river to dried up before the survivors reach the location.
4:36 it might be a watershed instead of a river river as they’re near the Appalachian mountains meaning it only holds water during snow melt and heavy rain but is dry otherwise
didn’t know there were cut campaigns but i probably should’ve thought of that considering it makes sense. would love a video ab that story tho
Best explanation of the L4D chapters I've seen yet!
these quickly became some of my favorite videos on youtube reminds me of the old thenathapple fallout videos which i have loved for years
Cute dog.
Much love, another amazing video! I love this series and I just can't wait for your take on L4D2. Please keep the longform and laid-back style, it's such a welcome break from the usual attentionseeking!
I like to think that the bags of dogfood were for the pets of survivors instead of desperation, since it's only been a few weeks of the apocalypse. I'd never leave my pets behind for anything.
I honestly can’t blame the Slaters for wanting to take people with firepower. We have to keep in mind that special infected are a very recent mutation, and if I saw a hunter or smoker for the first time, I can bet you I’d be spooked out of my mind and asking the same. It’s not really selfishness in my mind, just a reaction to the realization that this virus is getting way out of hand, and packing heat is now a necessity to stay alive. Plus it’s hard to help people if you yourself are dead. I do go with the theory that the Slaters are carriers as it’s mentioned in The Sacrifice comic that they didn’t turn by proximity to the l4d1 crew.
About the map at the beginning it could very well be inaccurate because of the breakdown of communication. Stephen King's book "Cell" shows how inaccurate info gets shared, when Clay, Tom and Alice approache the border between New Hampshire and Massachussets they get reports from other survivors that people are getting shot at when they try to cross the border except that once they get there there's nothing happening and people in New Hampshire says the same about crossing the border the other way around. It's likely the same thing with these maps: they may have been initially accurate but the breakdown of comms and hearsay just devolved it into nonsense, hence the discrepancy between the two games.
Can't wait to see Dead Air, being able to see Newburg from the finale is quite depressing.
So glad you’re back with another episode! Love this series
Ayo, i love this series, keep it up
LOVE THESE! Can’t wait for the next campaign!