One thing i notice is how the police cars have their sirens turned off but lights on, which means they were aware of noise attracting infected and that they could hopefully draw attention to other living people around.
police are supposed to shut off the sirens running if they are not in their car. not really environmental storytelling. however if you find any with sirens on then it implies the officer had to leave in a hurry.
It's kinda just standard practice to leave the emergency lights on if at a call where there's a greater need for police presence to be telegraphed to the public.
I do remember one of the chapters in No Mercy, right before you get to one of the safe rooms, I think the safe room when you leave the subway , you can actually see the helicopter stopping by the rooftop of Mercy Hospital, which I always took to mean that there were some other survivors that just got evacuated while you were still fighting your way to the hospital
There's also cut dialogue from the pilot that mentions him picking someone up just before the l4d survivors that turned out to be infected, could be we get to see him making the pick up in that level
@@zootycoonfan393you still hear it he goes something like “ I just had a ugh.. an incident I’ll be back in a little bit.” So he got bit. It’s not exactly what he says but i remember him saying something like that
@jaimevalencia6271 The pilot wasn't bit, rather he was exposed to the L4D1 survivors, who are all carriers, and as a result turned from their proximity. The fact there are 4 carriers probably sped up the infection process.
@@TheWinterfrost123 I'd like to believe maybe he was bit in regards to him saying he had "an incident" and the last line the pilot says before he picks you up is "looks like you're going to be my final run" kind of like him hinting that he isn't going to make it, but you're also right in the fact that the survivors are carriers and are unknowingly spreading the infection wherever they go
@@TheWinterfrost123hate to be that guy, but you can literally see a bit mark on the pilots hand when he's holding the helicopter remote. Doesn't change him being infected, but I think it sped up the process of both being bitten & having the L4D survivors near him.
wow i never noticed how eery the L4D ambience is. it's simultaneously loud and quiet. i think the lack of human activity makes the quiet sound that much louder
I love Ellie's HD skyline for this. It also adds police lights randomly moving down the distant streets and even car lights like there are still people further away trying to escape
@@guccihobo115The intro to Left 4 Dead 1 starts with “2 weeks after first infection.” Personally I wish it was only 1 week though, it would fit better with the feeling of being constantly right behind the evacs as they fall apart.
pretty sure theres actually way more survivors out there. i just got back into playing L4D2. but im pretty sure theres some wall writings that implies that the survivors that wrote them are still alive. and from what i heard, in some maps you can hear distant gun fire.
The people not immune wanted the immune to be killed because they were considered carriers. I think it's safe to say many carriers couldn't make it either
@@WayneTheAsianGuyListen carefully at the start of this video and you'll hear some gun shots in the distance amongst the rain. I don't think many, or any, other maps have the feature. Maybe Dead Air, but in the more rural maps you won't hear it.
Pure kino. This video fills me with nostalgia for the days of old youtube, no fake voice, no cringe jokes, or overly edited nonsense, just talking. 10/10
I'm glad you enjoyed! I was also considering uploading an extended version without my commentary if that's something else that people might be interested in.
3:03 usually an adrenaline or pills spawn on the table next to the bed, this can only mean one thing. OD. Maybe she knew she was turning? or died before the outbreak
@@xter7856 she may have OD'd before, and someone was hiding in same room as her, We can tell because of blood smeared in the apartament but she's clean. That is a theory
@@Ulcraabk I think what might've happened is that just before or during the infected beginning to breach the apartment complex, she probably became overwhelmed and realized that she had a very slim if not impossible chance of making it out alive, so she locked the door and overdosed while everyone else was busy trying to handle the situation. Eventually someone might've wondered where she went and found the door locked, taking it off the hinges to find her dead. Since there wasn't anything else to do and having to deal with the infected, they just simply left her there.
24:25 the "or pets" doesn't mean you can get infected from pets. This poster is for people who are already infected. instead, the poster is telling you to avoid contact with friends or family to avoid spreading the infection, and to avoid attacking them. I believe the implication is that somebody was already infected, then turned and attacked, killing their pet afterwards.
i dont think the infected eat people, or at the very least they dont eat a ton. i think they act more like the 28 days later zombies, they infect and brutalize you, not eating the victim afterwards . Love these vids doe man i would do anything for another l4d entry man
^ this this is also reflected in their attacks on the player character. A lot of punching, clawing and even kicking but very little if any biting. Even the specials rarely if ever bite. The witch and hunter claw you to death, the charger, tank and smoker all beat you to death, the spitter is physically incapable of biting and is only limited to her acid and claws. its all about killing you not consuming you
@@dj-chemicalz811 There is a animation however of the hunter tearing a chunk from your neck if you get injuried alot by him during a pounce. hes the only instance i think of a infected whom bites
I always interpreted the survivor's immunity making the common infected punch and claw instead of biting. The specials are designed to kill for the most part but the commons would be the main spreaders of the infection and bites are mentioned in canon, so I like to think the commons get confused by their immunity and don't bite because they can't infect them
I think Left 4 Dead starting 2 weeks into thr infection was to show that the survivors already did their hiding and holding out. By the time they decide its time to leave, its because Special infected came about and started a second panic as bases and safehouses would have been overrun
In the L4D comics Louis is arguing with a coworker about how bad the infection is and to go to work or not so this means it would be between 2 days to 6 days after the initial infection for the survivors to actually get into action and eventually meet eachother
True enough. While somebody non-immune still could be alive in the city at the beginning of the infection, by the second week and with the appearance of special, mutated zombies their days are numbered. With the infection being airborne and with special infected abilities to easily destroy any shelter it's probably why most immune groups starting to move out of the city, with our survivors literally being the last people alive in most cases throughout all of their campaigns.
I am so insanely in the target audience for this video (there are dozens of us!) and I'm begging you to make more. The environmental storytelling in L4D is woefully under-discussed and one of my favorite things about it. To me, what makes it truly special is that it's not just funny jokes written on the walls -- it's helpful hints and sad little stories being told all around you in places that make logical sense. There's an emotional range to it that you explored very well in this video. I especially like your observation that there are some random lights turned on in the windows of residential buildings, I've never noticed that before in No Mercy. For such a fast-paced game, there's so much atmosphere and horror to discuss. I always try to include some environmental storytelling like this in my own custom campaigns, but Valve and Turtle Rock were masters of their craft -- I still don't think they've been topped.
Agreed! It's beautiful work! Fingers crossed more campaigns are covered. EDIT: I forgot to check the channel, more have been covered and I am so happy rn
The inside of the apartments in chapter 1 are underrated. You can still hear the muffled thunderstorm outside, and the windows even flash with the lightning. It's super cozy once you get rid of all the zombies. I can easily imagine a large amount of people taking refuge there and making a sort of compound. Perhaps it was a safe place for a while. It still has power, and so does the Humvee that's crashed into the bottom floor. That tells me it was perhaps only a few hours between it crashing there and the survivors arriving. This means that the apartment held up for the 2 weeks after the first infection. Maybe that crash is what caused it to fall and for everyone inside to be turned. Of course, the building could've fallen before and the Humvee just happened to crash there, but that'd be kinda boring.
100% agreed and I'm very happy to see someone else mention this, it's one of the comfiest places in the game. I've also gotta give a shoutout to that one Hard Rain saferoom that you stop at on your way back to the boat (I think it's the last one). The lack of lights combined with the pounding rain outside is so cozy that sometimes I just wanna stay there for hours.
I believe the Apartment wasn't affected by zombies until the infection hit fairview since the police weren't using riot gear or machine guns in any level indicating the hordes came about suddenly overwhelming the police and military before they could organize and muster up a defense with the hordes causing the humvee to crash into the building and they eventually broke in
One of my favorite things about both Left 4 Dead games is how it feels like you're in a world in the process of falling apart. It hasn't quite collapsed yet like the Walking Dead and you're always just a few moments behind the active evacuation.
Ongoing apocalypses are my absolute favorite. Dying Light is another good one, since it's just the city you're in that's infected by zombies; everywhere else in the world is fine thanks to a successful quarantine (well, at least until the second game).
Fun fact in the No mercy campagin, you'll sometimes hear gunshots play in the background suggesting that there are other survivors fighting infected around the city, not only that in the third chapter of the campaign you can actually see the helicopter landing on the no mercy building, suggesting that it's picking up survivors in order to send them in other "safe zones" and what not.
Even more than that, there's an old version of this map left over on the retail disc of the game. The name of the model is "models/props_misc/suicide_note_01.mdl." It's a bit dark.
@@wolfcl0ckthank you for this I was waiting for someone to do something like this I even watched the walking dead fall of the CDC battlefield from a person who also tells envirmental story telling in the walking dead I subbed to you both I hope you do more on the other maps and also the custom maps like urban flight keep up the great work (:
I really appreciate that you left the ambient sounds from the game play throughout the video instead of adding music or something else. You are really letting the game show itself off here. Great work! If you decide to make more, ill definitely be watching🧟
7:39 my theory on this is that the game greatly exaggerated the actual infected strength and perception. If you listen to the ambient noises, there's a ton of evidence that there's like dozens of groups around and not that many dicks, based on the small bursts of gunshots in the distance. The lights are in theory other survivors, just trying to hide from all the noise players are making.
Yes!!! For years I have heard the sounds in the distance, and only when you pause from fighting in the game can you truly hear the sounds. I always stopped and listened while my friends always wanted to press on, and they could never hear them! 😊
PLEASE MAKE MORE!!! The L4D games are too hectic for me to just sit and look and think about the levels. You are literally ensuring that the artists whose work I'm unable to appreciate are being appreciated by me. Also, I have no idea how to freecam and remove the zombies, so you're taking away the work I'd've had to put in and getting some cash from YT at the same time. Everyone wins!!!
finally someone else talks about the environmental storytelling of this game, it's honestly so good to look at the map and wonder to yourself "what happened here?" as you start making your own story in your mind
At the bottom floor of the apartments by the door you exit, theres a couple of dead cops and a pile of dead infected by the door. Implying the police tried to hold off the horde before they broke through and then probably ravaged the rest of the apartment
Man this video makes it all so sad, whenever I play L4D it's always "haha shoot zombies" and fun times but this video really emphasizes how truly grim and hopeless the situation was.
The initial infection started 2 weeks ago, and begin spreading rapidly. The police line was likely erected very very recently, days ago at most, as the zombies begin to overrun this city.
Most environments you witness in L4D are moments or days before it just happened - I think Death Toll shows that most with the wall writing and stuff, has written dates etc
It is very strange that all the police dead bodies are just regular police officers. At no point are SWAT units seen using riot shields and Heavy Body Armor. This is probably because the outbreak occurred so quickly that the police forces did not have time to react.
@@lucasfan5558 We do see them in the parish, so its perhaps an oversight in l4d1. One could still argue SWAT was just deployed elsewhere in the levels, but its strange that they wouldnt be present at mercy hospital given its an evac point. Maybe by the time mercy hospital was chosen as evac, SWAT was already wiped out by special infecteds and the lowly police grunts were all they had to stall the infected.
20:16 Actually, one thing you missed is before the subway safe room there is a sign that says “Give Blood” and I imagine that how the infection spread so fast and potentially got into Mercy Hospital was because perhaps a car accident or something happened to need a blood transfusion and that turned people. The zombies became turned and after killing the zombie they had to mark the blood bag as contaminated. That’s my running theory at least.
Have you seen the mercy hospital dlc in payday 1 I think it was?? It was really cool there were a couple Easter eggs with bill being seen pre apololypse and a couple other cool things
@ yeah Ive played the heist multiple times in PD2. It is fun to imagine how Mercy Hospital looked prior/early into the Green Flu. Obviously the Payday heist of Mercy isnt canon to L4D and is more of a fun reference
@ yeah it’s by the busted out window at the corner store before the alarmed car that leads to the subway. You may see more signs around the No Mercy map. I think it shows up more than once. It’s a white background sign with a red crayon colored heart that says “Give Blood”. Seeing as the virus mutates a bunch Id imagine a bunch of people were infected from blood transfusions and by unknowingly spreading the virus by this way.
At 17:30 the figure of 53,595 infected killed is a nod to a string of achievements across zombie games where the amount of zombie kills needed to unlock it would increase by 1.
the ammo piles detail always gave me this imagine like one of the survivor carry this big bag of ammo for the group and during like the horde attack he/she just panic and threw a bunch of ammo to the ground in the middle of the firefight. the one at the elevator probably my fav ammo pile in No Mercy
It is very strange that all the police dead bodies are just regular police officers. At no point are SWAT units seen using riot shields and Heavy Body Armor. This is probably because the outbreak occurred so quickly that the "elite" police forces did not have time to react.
The virus is airborne and judging by the comics, it doesn't take long for people to start turning, so the hordes likely started forming before most people even had time to effectively respond to it (only took like two weeks for the country to fall as noted by the intro cutscene)
This video is gold. Environmental storytelling is something im an absolute sucker for. I love the gritty models used in source games like these. I always stop to read all the writing on the walls from past survivors as It makes the world feel much more alive and larger than what it is and the environmental storytelling was executed perfectly. The writing is the golden part of the environmental storytelling, all of it was unique to each safehouse that sometimes hinted towards future locations you find yourself in later on. The various messages left by people often make me wonder on how these people are doing or were doing, some of these notes left talked about fellow survivors dying.
Just to minorly adjust one of the mentions, given that L4D1 takes place two weeks after first infection, Chargers wouldn't have existed at the time when the body in the generator room is found to be torn in half, however Smokers would have been and given that in the sacrifice comic we do see that their tongue is capable of causing more harm than just snapping your neck (yes that is how a Smoker murks you in the game, that crunch sound you hear is your neck getting snapped) so it's not unreasonable that a Smoker was the cause of whoever that was demise.
@@adamfreeman9493 Not when you consider WHERE the legs are in relation to where the torso is, Hunters pounce on people so why would the torso and legs not be closer together, Tanks might produce enough force to send someone flying but again the torso and legs would have been closer together than they visibly are, same for the Witch (plus there's no exact canonical method of how the Witch murks her victims when she's disturbed, since at least within gameplay viewpoints, she runs away after she makes that murk, she wouldn't stick around and dissect someone after the fact.) The only special infecte that would be able to move someone's upper half away from their lower half on a grab, would have been the Smoker (and take into consideration that by this point the special infected would have STARTED to appear as Bill points out in the trailer for L4D1 "They're changing"). Consider the body that's found in Riverside during the fourth chapter of Death Toll, you really think a Hunter, Tank or a Witch would send someone's upper half out an entire window leaving only the lower half behind in the office interior it's found in?
@@cursedhawkins1305 Well, the Witch wildly slashes at her victims after knocking them down. So she could have slashed through them. I do agree after thinking about it with the Hunter though, as they tend to go for the chest. Tank might have grabbed the person, ripped them in half, and then tossed one or both halves away, hence the distance. But I do agree that Smoker is a possibility. Hell, it could have even been a small horde of common infected. We don’t know for certain. Also, yes. I think a Tank very easily could have sent a persons upper half out an entire window. He rips the upper half off of the lower half and then just throws it aside. In this case, out a window. Again, we have no way of knowing.
@@adamfreeman9493 Then the blood trail for the body in Death Toll wouldn't look like it was dragged, because that's exactly how it looks since there's a platter point on the roof below the window then on the street to the upper half where it appears to be dragged, not to mention the window itself doesn't have evidence to suggest they were thrown out of it as not a single piece of glass is on the roof below the window to add that kind of credibility.
@@cursedhawkins1305 I’m not saying all of the ripped in half bodies were from a Tank. I’m just saying that a Tank could also be responsible for some of them. Smokers could be responsible for others. Same with Witches and hordes of common infected.
Amazing video! L4D’s environmental storytelling is probably my favorite part of the game. Walking through an area after a cataclysmic event just happened is so beautifully sad and creepy. Valve did an amazing job making it feel like an actual zombie apocalypse
3:35 I've always wondered what exactly caused the floor to collapse. Either someone set off a grenade, or maybe a tank got inside and either destroyed it, or it collapsed under his weight. 4:42 I doubt they willingly crashed a humvee as a means of killing someone. I think a soldier may have gotten infected behind the wheel, and crashed it. 4:54 You don't need electricity to flush a toilet, if that's what you mean. It's most likely medical waste. 7:20 The apartments you start in had the lights on as well, despite being abandoned. So I don't think it's a sign that there are people still alive in there, but it's possible. 26:22 The placement of the elevator is awfully inconvenient. You would have to roll the stretcher all the way around that small building, or go underneath the ramp.
I love all the detail that went into the L4D maps, specifically the first game's atmosphere. Every map is littered with details of story, loss and speculation which makes replaying them so fun. Wonderful video, I really enjoy seeing all the angles and perspectives.
2:54 zombie in L4D aren’t like typical Zombie of reanimated corpses coming back from the dead. The infected are still living and don’t eat flesh, the virus heavily alters their brain and makes them hostile to non infected/ carriers making them see monster as seen in the comics. Special infected get their body heavily mutated and we can see with l4d 1 and 2 models drastic change to body within the 2 weeks, Smoker has more tumors, Tanks have raw and red skin from constant sun exposure, Hunter has heavily bruised flesh and blister, this goes to show they are still alive as if they were corpses they would simply be decaying, and dead bodies can’t get bruises at all since Bruses are made when blood seeps through broken blood vessels beneath the skin, But in death, the blood isn't flowing and so the bruise cannot form beside for livor mortis of blood filling up bottom area of the body, which would be legs and feets of infected, which isn’t the case as they show sign of wear and tear on their overall body
It definitely is. L4D tends to shy away from child endangerment because of ratings boards but there are horrible implications all over. Fun fact: I don't know if this was 100% confirmed but supposedly the abandoned blue church bus (seen in campaigns like Death Toll) was originally a yellow school bus, and the color was changed because the implications were too brutal. I wouldn't be surprised if that's true -- it's the exact right make and model to be a school bus.
@@QuintessentialWalrus Death Toll also has some graffiti with equally grim implications. Admittedly I'm reading it off a picture on the wiki that's a bit blurry, but the church saferoom graffiti includes the text "Bailey Nelson 1/28/98 - 10/17/09", "Diana Wolpaw 2005 - 2009 We loved you with all our heart", and "Mile (not sure of the last name) Too soon.... 8/4/95 - 10/14/09".
@@QuintessentialWalrus Yep. The only zombie game to openly defy the trend of hiding children from mortality is No More Room in Hell. Left 4 Dead didn't have the guts to do it.
@@GoodOleDFT It's not necessarily an issue of "having the guts" - graphic violence against children was considered taboo in games for a long time because of concerns about receiving an AO rating (which would prevent sale in stores) plus social and/or legal backlash. NMRiH got away with it as a free mod but mainstream commercial releases like L4D weren't taking those risks. Fun fact: according to Chet Faliszek, the ESRB is the reason Francis' line "this is the most sober I've ever been in an airport" was removed from L4D1, although it's still hidden in the files of L4D2. Ratings boards had power back then, not to mention people trying to use the legal system to strongarm violent video games.
I been looking for a video like this since i first started to play left 4 dead i love how detail the map are and the small story they tell, hope you do more videos like this with each campaign
I always appreciated the environments in Left 4 Dead. I would sometimes just load up a game on easy mode just to explore and walk around. The ambience and environments is definitely one of the reasons I love Left 4 Dead so much! Great video!
Please do this for the other campaigns. This video was amazing. I love how you kept the in-game sound effects playing over the video as you talked. The game has such a hopeless and dreadful atmosphere from hearing the rain and creaking of buildings
More accurately, it's Left 4 Dead 1 referencing itself. The achievement "Zombie Genocidest" requires you to kill exactly 53,595 zombies in the first game. There's a whole history behind those achievements, with multiple game studios referencing it and one-upping each other each time.
@QuintessentialWalrus it goes even deeper than that, because there's an achievement in dead rising which has you kill that number of zombies, which i think the l4d1 achievement is a reference too
@@robdavideogamer4119 Technically, the Zombie Genocider achievement in Dead Rising has you killing 53,95*4* zombies, so L4D decided to literally one-up them
@@VaktheFox It all started with "Zombie Genocider" in Dead Rising, which was 53,594 kills -- a reference to the population of the city the game takes place in. Then L4D1 one-upped it with "Zombie Genocidest," then Dead Rising 2 one-upped again with "Z-Genocider 2: Genocide Harder" at 53,596 kills (Prototype also has an achievement with the same number of kills). Then Dead Rising 3 had "Master of Massacre" at 53,597 and Dead Rising 4 had "Z-Genocider 4: The Return" at 53,598. Finally, the Last Stand Update for L4D2 continued the long-lost tradition by adding "Z-Genocidest 2: Episode 2" for 53,599 kills. Funnily enough, DR3 and DR4 also have achievements called "Left 100,004 Dead" and "Left 100,004 Dead 2" for 100,004 kills and 200,008 kills, respectively. I looked all this up to put it to rest, it's cute that the two franchises have so much affection for each other lol
this video is great, it's genuinely crazy how much detail goes into small corners and crevices that 99% of the playerbase will never notice while they're shooting at a billion zombies a second
i love how slow and meandering this video is, how much time is spent lingering on the atmosphere with no commentary,,, its really good,,, it makes me really happy :]
I’ve been playing Left 4 Dead for over ten years and there’s a lot of neat details that I’d always end up looking over that you covered in this video. I hope you do the rest of the campaigns!
I NEED MORE. VERY well done video. Me and my sister always used to theorize and argue about the environmental storytelling, but the game is so fast paced and hectic that you miss out on so many of these details. I LOVE this kind of content. And the minimal editing is clean, sleek, and professional without being boring. You've earned my subscription! Keep up the good work!
You should talk also about the main menu songs that play on the background while you wait to play some of the gamemodes, i have read a theory of that when you get the "No mercy" menu that the lady singing in the background is singing a lullaby to her baby through a radio since she got bitten and left the baby in the hospital but they couldn't calm it down so they radio her to sing for them as she slowly became a zombie as the song becomes more unhinged as you wait longer in the menu.
Thank you for making this video, I have always been so interested in the enviroment of the maps and exploring them, but couldn't find many people who did videos on them.
Keep up the good works brotha, this some quality vid here. The fact we still talking about and still finding out details we're missing 15+ years on, is a testament how amazing L4D series game design was.
I've been wanting to make a video like this for a little over a year now and I'm equally disappointed that someone did it first and happy that now I don't have to lol. You touched on a TON of the same things that I took note of, down to the single lit windows and the subway starting room not making any sense, to the extent that it almost feels surreal to hear someone else say it out loud. Fantastic work. I only made it through the first chunk of No Mercy when I was taking notes so I would absolutely love to the rest of the campaigns covered, but in the meantime, here are some of the few things from the first chapter that I didn't hear mentioned: There are paint cans next to the SOS sign on the starting rooftop. Nothing crazy, but a nice touch. There's a distant clock tower in the skybox. Again, not really a special detail, just a cool thing I never noticed. The skylight in the apartment kitchen has been boarded up. The bottom floor windows aren't boarded up, which they probably would be if people had been staying here a while. Personally, I take that to mean that the bottom floor was overrun quickly, but the top floor held on for a lot longer thanks to the blocked-up stairway. This would also mean that the quarantine bags on the bottom floor were actually used by CEDA personnel when they first quarantined the building rather than random people reusing them later, though honestly I prefer your take on that. There's a dead cop in front of a pile of bodies just inside the backdoor of the apartment. My random guess is that this could mean there was an effort to evacuate healthy people stranded in quarantined buildings in the late stages of the outbreak, but who knows, maybe he was just running for his life and tried to hide here but accidentally brought the horde with him. I feel like the alleyways are way too narrow for any of the cars to actually enter or exit but maybe that's just me. The newspaper stands, at least in this first level, have newspapers with a zombie face on them. Interestingly, those are the only papers in stock, while the others are sold out, suggesting that maybe people thought the one with a full-blown zombie on the cover was a tabloid or exaggeration and opted for the more "realistic" report, even if it was wrong. There's a flipped car in the street that was potentially hit by a nearby semi-truck. The "discount store office" (that's what I call it in my notes but I don't remember if that's the actual name) has signs in the windows that actually fall out if you shoot them. Again, just a fun touch instead of real environmental storytelling. The street is blocked off by a collapsed building, but honestly I'm not sure how it could've collapsed. My last few notes are from later chapters: At least one of the subway tunnels in the second level ends with a pile of rubble blocking it, but the roof clearly hasn't collapsed, which is presumably just a mistake/oversight. You can sometimes see another differently colored helicopter taking off from the rooftop of Mercy Hospital as you come out of the sewers, meaning that our News Chopper 5 hero wasn't the only badass pilot still helping people a full two weeks after everything went to shit. Shoutout to whoever orchestrated that evac, I hope it went better than ours. Also after you leave the sewers, you can see that both roads leading to Mercy Hospital are blocked with (if I'm remembering rightly) semi-trucks. Could be nothing, or it could imply a concentrated effort to defend the hospital by blocking off the streets leading to it. There's also the background gunfire of course, which I took years to notice but, in hindsight, is really obvious and I can see why you didn't specifically call it out lol. Anyway, this was a fantastic video and I'd love to see more! Edit: Just a heads up in case you do end up doing the other campaigns, I'm pretty sure some of the graffiti dates in Dead Air are in a non-American format, which is a fantastic detail given that there must've been tourists and other foreigners trapped there when the quarantine started.
I would love to see you continue this series, this is really well done, and good content from someone who seems passionate about the topic, please make more!
Hey dude I love how your narration is, especially with how fascinated I am with environmental storytelling, just being able to express a story and creativity in a game. Also don’t wanna push ya but I think with bow interesting and his video was I think you could try doing other campaigns as well! :D My yappings: 11:08 cause of the developer commentary’s example with the other dead survivor being covered in a towel, I imagined that some of these corpses are mixxed in with survivors and infected, with the survivors running towards the generator room whilst being chased by infected, (hence the dead person covered in a towel not having a proper funeral) but some ultimately getting left behind, leaving the other survivors at the generator room to set up their defenses (ie the mounted machine gun next to a makeshift box barricade) and making their way to the pawnshop and making a saferoom 11:40 With this guy I imagined that for some reason he had to crawl under the table, though unfortunately suffered a horrible death with his exposed legs under the table being eaten slowly by infected, having him crawl out the table and bleeding out after the infected were killed
With the table corpse, it could be possible that he did try to crawl, but was grabbed by infected. His fellow survivors tried to pull him to safety but ended up from overwhelming zombie strength, ripped him in two.
There are a few barricades with dead soldiers in Mercy hospital before the "radio shack": also of note is how clearly fortified the generator room is off the subway. I like to imagine that the guys who left the blood upstairs and opened the way through the water treatment plant might have been the garrison of the power station. Given the number of automatic weapons lying around, it implies that many soldiers and police officers simply deserted and tried to run.
A part why I think the garrison went to mercy hospital is because they might have been (discounting sewerage/utilities workers??) the only people who would know how exactly to open up the sewerage system to get to the Hospital. Also explains the hole in the floor near the burger Tank I also wonder if the hole ripped in the ceiling under the minigun in the power station was not a Tank's doing
Wowww, I never even noticed most of these. Whenever I play, I usually never examine my surroundings (except for the writings inside the safe rooms) because I'm too focused on defending myself from zombies. So much thought and effort were truly put into these maps, even up to the tiniest details. So amazing. Thank you creator, and hoping to see more environmental analysis of L4D maps ❤️
16:30 thought i had seen all there was to see in this game, but i dont remember ever really noticing these messages. Really love what you're doing with these videos, glad to see you're making it a series.
Please make more of these!!! I miss content like this on UA-cam and love L4Ds details!!! Miss just stopping in the middle of the games I played and looking for tiny details! Loved making stories for all these scenarios. Also this content is so refreshing, it gives old UA-cam that many of us here grew up with. Thankyou!
I love the world of Left for dead. And I hope you continue to analyze the other campaigns in both 1 and 2 because their is just so much story happening even when we don’t notice it
Currently making a similar video myself, found it nice we both point out the lit up windows on no mercy chapter 1. Really love those small details and how they accomplish lighting along with worldbuilding
Awesome video man I love stuff like this even this game being as old as it is, I can't help but always get lost in the lore every time I play it. That's how you know what game is really truly great when even a decade after its release you're still talking about the universe of it, and Left 4 Dead is definitely one of my favorites. The beauty of a game that uses enviroments to tell its story is that nothing is there by accident. Literally like you did in ths video, every small detail paints the picture to where anything can be heavily read into, i love it!
Really what made L4D environmental story telling work so well is the fact you have no idea what the hell happened in each location. In fact, all youe left with is imagining what went down in each location and allow your imagination to play out, which makes the world of L4D very sinister
the wall drawings had some of the funniest exchanges. During The Passing, there's this one convo were someone admitted to clogging the toilet and the other sentences were condemning him, branding him as someone worse than the zombies
i think it's possible that the dead lady in the apartment bedroom actually die from suicide as you mention there being a pill bottle that spawn next to her. also, I love the video and I'd like it if you can make commentary for each campaign too.
You should make a series out of this, also you forgot a cool easter egg, you can see a helicopter from the streets landing onto the roof of the hospital, implying there where survivors escaping before the group made it.
That is true, I suppose I didn't specify my meaning very well there. I think that I moreso meant "losing consciousness from shock/bloodless and becoming infected" rather than "dying and coming back," although there's also an argument that maybe whoever that blood all belongs to went in there to bleed out so that they *wouldn't* be able to hurt anyone if they got back up.
God the sound design is so eerie and disconcerting. It had me nervously looking around my living room. Fantastic video. I've always been thoroughly fascinated by L4Ds environment story telling. It's so thorough. I bet the level devs had a lot of fun!
A great video i hope you continue this whit the other 11 campaigns, it was pretty interesting more than the typical 10 or 20 facts that everyone already know.
Incredible video, please do more of these for different campaigns. Gives me such a liminal, nostalgic feeling. Going through the environments of this game almost feels like home since I was literally 5 when it came out
You miss the part of the x-rays that was in the hospital rooms, one having 4 fingers, and one with a elongated neck, which I'm theorizing thats the discovery of the spitter
Please please PLEASE continue this series! If possible, in map order, not just to make the line of thinking easy to follow but also because I selfishly want someone to breathe some life into Whitney County, where Crash Course takes place.
Ive seen videos where they've mentioned environmental storytelling as part of l4d but not where it's been delved into this specifically, looking forward to watching this.
Concise video, straight to the point without missing things in a hurry, pretty neat and informative. Liked and subscribed, bro! Thanks for the good entertainment!
This video is like crack to me. I’d watch an 8 hour video of this nonstop and you’d never lose my attention. Please make more with different campaigns!
I just wanna say ty for this video. First time on ya page. I love anything l4d lore based and been really into environmental storytelling so you just hit both more me woth this video. I will be back if I see literally anymore.
Very good analysis. Only critique I really have is early on (2:40), when you suggest someone dies and resurrects, when these are all still living people. Mutated, but alive.
Don't even know who tf you were until now but please make more of these vids, I like hearing your interpretations of the areas and the calm atmosphere you keep up throughout the video
One thing i notice is how the police cars have their sirens turned off but lights on, which means they were aware of noise attracting infected and that they could hopefully draw attention to other living people around.
Or that they went out after sometime
@@Carn_arZ53 The lights would go out way before the sirens, also battery would run out of this was sitting for a while
police are supposed to shut off the sirens running if they are not in their car. not really environmental storytelling. however if you find any with sirens on then it implies the officer had to leave in a hurry.
If sirens were left on, I think the infected would probably thrash the car the way they chase pipe bombs
It's kinda just standard practice to leave the emergency lights on if at a call where there's a greater need for police presence to be telegraphed to the public.
I do remember one of the chapters in No Mercy, right before you get to one of the safe rooms, I think the safe room when you leave the subway , you can actually see the helicopter stopping by the rooftop of Mercy Hospital, which I always took to mean that there were some other survivors that just got evacuated while you were still fighting your way to the hospital
There's also cut dialogue from the pilot that mentions him picking someone up just before the l4d survivors that turned out to be infected, could be we get to see him making the pick up in that level
@@zootycoonfan393you still hear it he goes something like “ I just had a ugh.. an incident I’ll be back in a little bit.” So he got bit. It’s not exactly what he says but i remember him saying something like that
@jaimevalencia6271 The pilot wasn't bit, rather he was exposed to the L4D1 survivors, who are all carriers, and as a result turned from their proximity. The fact there are 4 carriers probably sped up the infection process.
@@TheWinterfrost123 I'd like to believe maybe he was bit in regards to him saying he had "an incident" and the last line the pilot says before he picks you up is "looks like you're going to be my final run" kind of like him hinting that he isn't going to make it, but you're also right in the fact that the survivors are carriers and are unknowingly spreading the infection wherever they go
@@TheWinterfrost123hate to be that guy, but you can literally see a bit mark on the pilots hand when he's holding the helicopter remote. Doesn't change him being infected, but I think it sped up the process of both being bitten & having the L4D survivors near him.
"We're the true bad guys"
"No we're not, you dumbass! It's the dead!"
10/10 ABSOLUTE CINEMA
I like the edit where someone drew a soyjak with a speech bubble under it
"no that's the zombies"
"Dumbass"
"I hope you are dead now"
"I miss the internet"
Still my favorite grafitti
@nolaz010 best lines ever uttered in a video game 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@sludgechan the soyjak "we're the bad guys" vs the Chad "no it's the zombies"
and the other one that went:
"WE DESERVE THIS!!!"
"Maybe you did. I didn't do anything"
I do like the little touch where you hear gunshots from a distance and that means people are still out they're fighting the infected
wait really?
@@himenoed its the beginning of the apocalypse, there are definitely still survivors out there
@@icrywhenisleep2130 yeah i just recently binge watched the lore of l4d both 1 and 2. i was 15 when i played this game
Seeing the aftermath of all those people trying to either survive or escape is so depressing.
wow i never noticed how eery the L4D ambience is. it's simultaneously loud and quiet. i think the lack of human activity makes the quiet sound that much louder
and lack of music
I love Ellie's HD skyline for this. It also adds police lights randomly moving down the distant streets and even car lights like there are still people further away trying to escape
It makes sense too bc it's only been a week since the initial outbreak in Pennsylvania
I thought it was 2 weeks or was it 2 weeks since the worldwide outbreak?
@damn_dude02 no that's for l4d2 but the worldwide pandemic I'm not too sure
@@guccihobo115The intro to Left 4 Dead 1 starts with “2 weeks after first infection.” Personally I wish it was only 1 week though, it would fit better with the feeling of being constantly right behind the evacs as they fall apart.
@TheBananaBox oh right I thought it was 1 week bc it made more sense in my head
Had always suspected that the 4 main survivors weren't the only immune people. Though I imagine most of the immune were overwhelmed by zombies anyway.
pretty sure theres actually way more survivors out there. i just got back into playing L4D2. but im pretty sure theres some wall writings that implies that the survivors that wrote them are still alive. and from what i heard, in some maps you can hear distant gun fire.
Its pretty obvious other people are immune too. Hell, Zoey's dad was immune and she killed him in vain in the sacrifice comic.
The people not immune wanted the immune to be killed because they were considered carriers. I think it's safe to say many carriers couldn't make it either
They are not technically immune… they very well may be carriers.
@@WayneTheAsianGuyListen carefully at the start of this video and you'll hear some gun shots in the distance amongst the rain. I don't think many, or any, other maps have the feature. Maybe Dead Air, but in the more rural maps you won't hear it.
Pure kino. This video fills me with nostalgia for the days of old youtube, no fake voice, no cringe jokes, or overly edited nonsense, just talking. 10/10
I'm glad you enjoyed! I was also considering uploading an extended version without my commentary if that's something else that people might be interested in.
fr, all i want is someone talking about the video game without dumb jokes and memes
I'm curious, whats fake voice? Is it that overly enthusiastic and super loud voice that UA-camrs do lol.
@@tk-hf4oz that and the ai voice that most people use in the youtube shorts
@@Junweitrustnobody1403 Oh yeah, the low effort voice. It's a shame that it's even a thing in UA-cam.
3:03 usually an adrenaline or pills spawn on the table next to the bed, this can only mean one thing. OD. Maybe she knew she was turning? or died before the outbreak
I came here to comment on that. It's an insanely sad detail and way easier to miss than the aftermath of a Kurt Kobain cosplay.
ODing is rather slow, isn’t it? Kind of a weird way to try to go out while zombies are breaking down your door
@@xter7856 she may have OD'd before, and someone was hiding in same room as her, We can tell because of blood smeared in the apartament but she's clean. That is a theory
@@xter7856 another theory, is she OD'd before she turned herself, to avoid infection and being mindless
@@Ulcraabk I think what might've happened is that just before or during the infected beginning to breach the apartment complex, she probably became overwhelmed and realized that she had a very slim if not impossible chance of making it out alive, so she locked the door and overdosed while everyone else was busy trying to handle the situation. Eventually someone might've wondered where she went and found the door locked, taking it off the hinges to find her dead. Since there wasn't anything else to do and having to deal with the infected, they just simply left her there.
24:25 the "or pets" doesn't mean you can get infected from pets. This poster is for people who are already infected. instead, the poster is telling you to avoid contact with friends or family to avoid spreading the infection, and to avoid attacking them. I believe the implication is that somebody was already infected, then turned and attacked, killing their pet afterwards.
Ah, yeah! I was on such a one track mindset thinking about the Chicago Ted line that I literally hadn't even thought of that!
@@wolfcl0ck Yeah, I understand. thats just how I always understood that poster!
Either that or I like to think a big animal lover just wanted to include them under family, hopefully! Good observation, though saddening too😢
Or maybe, it’s because the virus only infects humans but just like carriers, pets can also have them and can also spread it onto humans.
i dont think the infected eat people, or at the very least they dont eat a ton. i think they act more like the 28 days later zombies, they infect and brutalize you, not eating the victim afterwards . Love these vids doe man i would do anything for another l4d entry man
^ this
this is also reflected in their attacks on the player character. A lot of punching, clawing and even kicking but very little if any biting. Even the specials rarely if ever bite. The witch and hunter claw you to death, the charger, tank and smoker all beat you to death, the spitter is physically incapable of biting and is only limited to her acid and claws.
its all about killing you not consuming you
yeah. the infecteds are more like extremely angry, primitive-mind people.
@@dj-chemicalz811 There is a animation however of the hunter tearing a chunk from your neck if you get injuried alot by him during a pounce.
hes the only instance i think of a infected whom bites
I always interpreted the survivor's immunity making the common infected punch and claw instead of biting. The specials are designed to kill for the most part but the commons would be the main spreaders of the infection and bites are mentioned in canon, so I like to think the commons get confused by their immunity and don't bite because they can't infect them
@@arkosthepanther yeah. even if they bite, it's more an instinct rather than intention.
I think Left 4 Dead starting 2 weeks into thr infection was to show that the survivors already did their hiding and holding out. By the time they decide its time to leave, its because Special infected came about and started a second panic as bases and safehouses would have been overrun
In the L4D comics Louis is arguing with a coworker about how bad the infection is and to go to work or not so this means it would be between 2 days to 6 days after the initial infection for the survivors to actually get into action and eventually meet eachother
True enough. While somebody non-immune still could be alive in the city at the beginning of the infection, by the second week and with the appearance of special, mutated zombies their days are numbered. With the infection being airborne and with special infected abilities to easily destroy any shelter it's probably why most immune groups starting to move out of the city, with our survivors literally being the last people alive in most cases throughout all of their campaigns.
I am so insanely in the target audience for this video (there are dozens of us!) and I'm begging you to make more. The environmental storytelling in L4D is woefully under-discussed and one of my favorite things about it. To me, what makes it truly special is that it's not just funny jokes written on the walls -- it's helpful hints and sad little stories being told all around you in places that make logical sense. There's an emotional range to it that you explored very well in this video.
I especially like your observation that there are some random lights turned on in the windows of residential buildings, I've never noticed that before in No Mercy. For such a fast-paced game, there's so much atmosphere and horror to discuss.
I always try to include some environmental storytelling like this in my own custom campaigns, but Valve and Turtle Rock were masters of their craft -- I still don't think they've been topped.
Agreed! I love these types of videos from old video games!!! 😊
Wait what custom campaigns do you do. I want to see them :)
@@mr.banana2370 I'm the sole creator of Time to Die and Freezing Point (both the original and director's cut) on the workshop, with more to come 😎
Topped😏😏
Agreed! It's beautiful work!
Fingers crossed more campaigns are covered.
EDIT: I forgot to check the channel, more have been covered and I am so happy rn
The inside of the apartments in chapter 1 are underrated. You can still hear the muffled thunderstorm outside, and the windows even flash with the lightning. It's super cozy once you get rid of all the zombies. I can easily imagine a large amount of people taking refuge there and making a sort of compound. Perhaps it was a safe place for a while. It still has power, and so does the Humvee that's crashed into the bottom floor. That tells me it was perhaps only a few hours between it crashing there and the survivors arriving. This means that the apartment held up for the 2 weeks after the first infection. Maybe that crash is what caused it to fall and for everyone inside to be turned. Of course, the building could've fallen before and the Humvee just happened to crash there, but that'd be kinda boring.
100% agreed and I'm very happy to see someone else mention this, it's one of the comfiest places in the game. I've also gotta give a shoutout to that one Hard Rain saferoom that you stop at on your way back to the boat (I think it's the last one). The lack of lights combined with the pounding rain outside is so cozy that sometimes I just wanna stay there for hours.
I believe the Apartment wasn't affected by zombies until the infection hit fairview since the police weren't using riot gear or machine guns in any level indicating the hordes came about suddenly overwhelming the police and military before they could organize and muster up a defense with the hordes causing the humvee to crash into the building and they eventually broke in
One of my favorite things about both Left 4 Dead games is how it feels like you're in a world in the process of falling apart. It hasn't quite collapsed yet like the Walking Dead and you're always just a few moments behind the active evacuation.
Yeah, Left 4 Dead and TLOU have some of the best "apocaliptic" enviroments I've ever seen
Damn. They really nailed the feeling of being Left for Dead xD
mm m, something I describe it mid-apocalyptic if I have a fair guess
Ongoing apocalypses are my absolute favorite. Dying Light is another good one, since it's just the city you're in that's infected by zombies; everywhere else in the world is fine thanks to a successful quarantine (well, at least until the second game).
@@TheBananaBoxOne really unorthodox one is Vintage Story. It's a "what if civilization actually succeeds ALONGSIDE the apocalypse?" scenario.
Fun fact in the No mercy campagin, you'll sometimes hear gunshots play in the background suggesting that there are other survivors fighting infected around the city, not only that in the third chapter of the campaign you can actually see the helicopter landing on the no mercy building, suggesting that it's picking up survivors in order to send them in other "safe zones" and what not.
2:08 even worse, you can see not only the pills on the table in beta footage but there was a note next to her as well
Even more than that, there's an old version of this map left over on the retail disc of the game. The name of the model is "models/props_misc/suicide_note_01.mdl." It's a bit dark.
@@wolfcl0ckthank you for this I was waiting for someone to do something like this I even watched the walking dead fall of the CDC battlefield from a person who also tells envirmental story telling in the walking dead I subbed to you both I hope you do more on the other maps and also the custom maps like urban flight keep up the great work (:
I really appreciate that you left the ambient sounds from the game play throughout the video instead of adding music or something else. You are really letting the game show itself off here.
Great work!
If you decide to make more, ill definitely be watching🧟
this combined with the way he narrates add to the overall creepiness, nicely done!
7:39 my theory on this is that the game greatly exaggerated the actual infected strength and perception. If you listen to the ambient noises, there's a ton of evidence that there's like dozens of groups around and not that many dicks, based on the small bursts of gunshots in the distance. The lights are in theory other survivors, just trying to hide from all the noise players are making.
Yes!!! For years I have heard the sounds in the distance, and only when you pause from fighting in the game can you truly hear the sounds. I always stopped and listened while my friends always wanted to press on, and they could never hear them! 😊
Dicks?
carriers apperently attract the fuckers by existing
PLEASE MAKE MORE!!! The L4D games are too hectic for me to just sit and look and think about the levels. You are literally ensuring that the artists whose work I'm unable to appreciate are being appreciated by me. Also, I have no idea how to freecam and remove the zombies, so you're taking away the work I'd've had to put in and getting some cash from YT at the same time. Everyone wins!!!
You can freecam with noclip command & director_stop command. It's fun to explore levels like this :)
@@Michael-gk9nh You're not supposed to tell me....
@@Michael-gk9nh [director_stop]? Well look at that, I learned something new! Thanks much ❤
@@midnght9914 Literally just suggesting helpful info if you ever were curious to do it yourself. - Chill, you're on the internet lol
Agreed!
finally someone else talks about the environmental storytelling of this game, it's honestly so good to look at the map and wonder to yourself "what happened here?"
as you start making your own story in your mind
At the bottom floor of the apartments by the door you exit, theres a couple of dead cops and a pile of dead infected by the door. Implying the police tried to hold off the horde before they broke through and then probably ravaged the rest of the apartment
Man this video makes it all so sad, whenever I play L4D it's always "haha shoot zombies" and fun times but this video really emphasizes how truly grim and hopeless the situation was.
Fascinating! You'd think the police car's sirens would give out given it's been two weeks since the outbreak.
The initial infection started 2 weeks ago, and begin spreading rapidly. The police line was likely erected very very recently, days ago at most, as the zombies begin to overrun this city.
@@EmeraldCrowz Hmn. Makes sense.
Most environments you witness in L4D are moments or days before it just happened - I think Death Toll shows that most with the wall writing and stuff, has written dates etc
It is very strange that all the police dead bodies are just regular police officers. At no point are SWAT units seen using riot shields and Heavy Body Armor. This is probably because the outbreak occurred so quickly that the police forces did not have time to react.
@@lucasfan5558 We do see them in the parish, so its perhaps an oversight in l4d1. One could still argue SWAT was just deployed elsewhere in the levels, but its strange that they wouldnt be present at mercy hospital given its an evac point. Maybe by the time mercy hospital was chosen as evac, SWAT was already wiped out by special infecteds and the lowly police grunts were all they had to stall the infected.
20:16 Actually, one thing you missed is before the subway safe room there is a sign that says “Give Blood” and I imagine that how the infection spread so fast and potentially got into Mercy Hospital was because perhaps a car accident or something happened to need a blood transfusion and that turned people. The zombies became turned and after killing the zombie they had to mark the blood bag as contaminated. That’s my running theory at least.
Have you seen the mercy hospital dlc in payday 1 I think it was?? It was really cool there were a couple Easter eggs with bill being seen pre apololypse and a couple other cool things
@ yeah Ive played the heist multiple times in PD2. It is fun to imagine how Mercy Hospital looked prior/early into the Green Flu. Obviously the Payday heist of Mercy isnt canon to L4D and is more of a fun reference
I hadn't put those two things together, good call!
@ yeah it’s by the busted out window at the corner store before the alarmed car that leads to the subway. You may see more signs around the No Mercy map. I think it shows up more than once. It’s a white background sign with a red crayon colored heart that says “Give Blood”. Seeing as the virus mutates a bunch Id imagine a bunch of people were infected from blood transfusions and by unknowingly spreading the virus by this way.
At 17:30 the figure of 53,595 infected killed is a nod to a string of achievements across zombie games where the amount of zombie kills needed to unlock it would increase by 1.
Yeah, that started because the original dead rising had an achievement for killing the entire population of Williamette
the ammo piles detail always gave me this imagine like one of the survivor carry this big bag of ammo for the group and during like the horde attack he/she just panic and threw a bunch of ammo to the ground in the middle of the firefight. the one at the elevator probably my fav ammo pile in No Mercy
The zombies must have formed a horde quickly since cops where still doing ordinary stuff like putting up the tape.
Along with lack of stuff like anti-riot or swat use that would’ve likely tried in vain to slow or stop the growing horde.
In the comics, Louis was having a normal office day, went to the restroom and when he got out the worst of the chaos had already happened
It is very strange that all the police dead bodies are just regular police officers. At no point are SWAT units seen using riot shields and Heavy Body Armor. This is probably because the outbreak occurred so quickly that the "elite" police forces did not have time to react.
@@davivanatorableLouis was knocked out by an infected inside the bathroom, he woke up maybe hours later
The virus is airborne and judging by the comics, it doesn't take long for people to start turning, so the hordes likely started forming before most people even had time to effectively respond to it (only took like two weeks for the country to fall as noted by the intro cutscene)
This video is gold. Environmental storytelling is something im an absolute sucker for. I love the gritty models used in source games like these. I always stop to read all the writing on the walls from past survivors as It makes the world feel much more alive and larger than what it is and the environmental storytelling was executed perfectly. The writing is the golden part of the environmental storytelling, all of it was unique to each safehouse that sometimes hinted towards future locations you find yourself in later on. The various messages left by people often make me wonder on how these people are doing or were doing, some of these notes left talked about fellow survivors dying.
Just to minorly adjust one of the mentions, given that L4D1 takes place two weeks after first infection, Chargers wouldn't have existed at the time when the body in the generator room is found to be torn in half, however Smokers would have been and given that in the sacrifice comic we do see that their tongue is capable of causing more harm than just snapping your neck (yes that is how a Smoker murks you in the game, that crunch sound you hear is your neck getting snapped) so it's not unreasonable that a Smoker was the cause of whoever that was demise.
Could have also easily been a Hunter, Witch, or Tank.
Hunter - Tore right through them.
Witch - Same as the Hunter.
Tank - Straight up ripped in half.
@@adamfreeman9493 Not when you consider WHERE the legs are in relation to where the torso is, Hunters pounce on people so why would the torso and legs not be closer together, Tanks might produce enough force to send someone flying but again the torso and legs would have been closer together than they visibly are, same for the Witch (plus there's no exact canonical method of how the Witch murks her victims when she's disturbed, since at least within gameplay viewpoints, she runs away after she makes that murk, she wouldn't stick around and dissect someone after the fact.) The only special infecte that would be able to move someone's upper half away from their lower half on a grab, would have been the Smoker (and take into consideration that by this point the special infected would have STARTED to appear as Bill points out in the trailer for L4D1 "They're changing"). Consider the body that's found in Riverside during the fourth chapter of Death Toll, you really think a Hunter, Tank or a Witch would send someone's upper half out an entire window leaving only the lower half behind in the office interior it's found in?
@@cursedhawkins1305 Well, the Witch wildly slashes at her victims after knocking them down. So she could have slashed through them.
I do agree after thinking about it with the Hunter though, as they tend to go for the chest.
Tank might have grabbed the person, ripped them in half, and then tossed one or both halves away, hence the distance.
But I do agree that Smoker is a possibility.
Hell, it could have even been a small horde of common infected. We don’t know for certain.
Also, yes. I think a Tank very easily could have sent a persons upper half out an entire window. He rips the upper half off of the lower half and then just throws it aside. In this case, out a window.
Again, we have no way of knowing.
@@adamfreeman9493 Then the blood trail for the body in Death Toll wouldn't look like it was dragged, because that's exactly how it looks since there's a platter point on the roof below the window then on the street to the upper half where it appears to be dragged, not to mention the window itself doesn't have evidence to suggest they were thrown out of it as not a single piece of glass is on the roof below the window to add that kind of credibility.
@@cursedhawkins1305 I’m not saying all of the ripped in half bodies were from a Tank. I’m just saying that a Tank could also be responsible for some of them. Smokers could be responsible for others. Same with Witches and hordes of common infected.
Oh dude, more of this please! Funished this vid and immediately went to see if there was any other deep dives like this from you. This is spectacular!
Amazing video! L4D’s environmental storytelling is probably my favorite part of the game. Walking through an area after a cataclysmic event just happened is so beautifully sad and creepy. Valve did an amazing job making it feel like an actual zombie apocalypse
3:35 I've always wondered what exactly caused the floor to collapse. Either someone set off a grenade, or maybe a tank got inside and either destroyed it, or it collapsed under his weight.
4:42 I doubt they willingly crashed a humvee as a means of killing someone. I think a soldier may have gotten infected behind the wheel, and crashed it.
4:54 You don't need electricity to flush a toilet, if that's what you mean. It's most likely medical waste.
7:20 The apartments you start in had the lights on as well, despite being abandoned. So I don't think it's a sign that there are people still alive in there, but it's possible.
26:22 The placement of the elevator is awfully inconvenient. You would have to roll the stretcher all the way around that small building, or go underneath the ramp.
4:54 What if they just ran outta trash bags and started using that instead?
I love all the detail that went into the L4D maps, specifically the first game's atmosphere. Every map is littered with details of story, loss and speculation which makes replaying them so fun. Wonderful video, I really enjoy seeing all the angles and perspectives.
One of the many reasons why love this game, the atmosphere in this game is so eeriee and it feels like the world is ending
2:54 zombie in L4D aren’t like typical Zombie of reanimated corpses coming back from the dead. The infected are still living and don’t eat flesh, the virus heavily alters their brain and makes them hostile to non infected/ carriers making them see monster as seen in the comics. Special infected get their body heavily mutated and we can see with l4d 1 and 2 models drastic change to body within the 2 weeks, Smoker has more tumors, Tanks have raw and red skin from constant sun exposure, Hunter has heavily bruised flesh and blister, this goes to show they are still alive as if they were corpses they would simply be decaying, and dead bodies can’t get bruises at all since Bruses are made when blood seeps through broken blood vessels beneath the skin, But in death, the blood isn't flowing and so the bruise cannot form beside for livor mortis of blood filling up bottom area of the body, which would be legs and feets of infected, which isn’t the case as they show sign of wear and tear on their overall body
Yeah, the "zombies" in L4D are just people with, as one of the lead developers described it: "super rabies"
I'm realizing from the handwriting bad spelling and grammar the note to Helen Lane from Will is from a child
It definitely is. L4D tends to shy away from child endangerment because of ratings boards but there are horrible implications all over. Fun fact: I don't know if this was 100% confirmed but supposedly the abandoned blue church bus (seen in campaigns like Death Toll) was originally a yellow school bus, and the color was changed because the implications were too brutal. I wouldn't be surprised if that's true -- it's the exact right make and model to be a school bus.
@@QuintessentialWalrus Death Toll also has some graffiti with equally grim implications. Admittedly I'm reading it off a picture on the wiki that's a bit blurry, but the church saferoom graffiti includes the text "Bailey Nelson 1/28/98 - 10/17/09", "Diana Wolpaw 2005 - 2009 We loved you with all our heart", and "Mile (not sure of the last name) Too soon.... 8/4/95 - 10/14/09".
@@QuintessentialWalrus Yep. The only zombie game to openly defy the trend of hiding children from mortality is No More Room in Hell. Left 4 Dead didn't have the guts to do it.
@@GoodOleDFT It's not necessarily an issue of "having the guts" - graphic violence against children was considered taboo in games for a long time because of concerns about receiving an AO rating (which would prevent sale in stores) plus social and/or legal backlash. NMRiH got away with it as a free mod but mainstream commercial releases like L4D weren't taking those risks.
Fun fact: according to Chet Faliszek, the ESRB is the reason Francis' line "this is the most sober I've ever been in an airport" was removed from L4D1, although it's still hidden in the files of L4D2. Ratings boards had power back then, not to mention people trying to use the legal system to strongarm violent video games.
@@GoodOleDFT Dying Light and Dead Space (1 and 2) also had kid zombies/mutants
I been looking for a video like this since i first started to play left 4 dead i love how detail the map are and the small story they tell, hope you do more videos like this with each campaign
I always appreciated the environments in Left 4 Dead. I would sometimes just load up a game on easy mode just to explore and walk around. The ambience and environments is definitely one of the reasons I love Left 4 Dead so much! Great video!
This got recommended to me. Honestly the background noise just gives this game an eerie vibe when you don't have the l4d music blasting. Good work!
Please do this for the other campaigns. This video was amazing. I love how you kept the in-game sound effects playing over the video as you talked. The game has such a hopeless and dreadful atmosphere from hearing the rain and creaking of buildings
the microphone quality and pacing reminds me of the dev commentaries themselves
great video, and something i think about all the time myself
Loved this, as someone else has said: felt very 'Classic' UA-cam. Would definitely love to watch more, good work
17:25 53,595 close to Achievement "Z-Genocidest 2: episode 2" which is to kill 53,599 infected
More accurately, it's Left 4 Dead 1 referencing itself. The achievement "Zombie Genocidest" requires you to kill exactly 53,595 zombies in the first game. There's a whole history behind those achievements, with multiple game studios referencing it and one-upping each other each time.
@QuintessentialWalrus it goes even deeper than that, because there's an achievement in dead rising which has you kill that number of zombies, which i think the l4d1 achievement is a reference too
@@robdavideogamer4119 Technically, the Zombie Genocider achievement in Dead Rising has you killing 53,95*4* zombies, so L4D decided to literally one-up them
@@VaktheFox It all started with "Zombie Genocider" in Dead Rising, which was 53,594 kills -- a reference to the population of the city the game takes place in. Then L4D1 one-upped it with "Zombie Genocidest," then Dead Rising 2 one-upped again with "Z-Genocider 2: Genocide Harder" at 53,596 kills (Prototype also has an achievement with the same number of kills). Then Dead Rising 3 had "Master of Massacre" at 53,597 and Dead Rising 4 had "Z-Genocider 4: The Return" at 53,598. Finally, the Last Stand Update for L4D2 continued the long-lost tradition by adding "Z-Genocidest 2: Episode 2" for 53,599 kills.
Funnily enough, DR3 and DR4 also have achievements called "Left 100,004 Dead" and "Left 100,004 Dead 2" for 100,004 kills and 200,008 kills, respectively. I looked all this up to put it to rest, it's cute that the two franchises have so much affection for each other lol
this video is great, it's genuinely crazy how much detail goes into small corners and crevices that 99% of the playerbase will never notice while they're shooting at a billion zombies a second
i love how slow and meandering this video is, how much time is spent lingering on the atmosphere with no commentary,,, its really good,,, it makes me really happy :]
I’ve been playing Left 4 Dead for over ten years and there’s a lot of neat details that I’d always end up looking over that you covered in this video. I hope you do the rest of the campaigns!
This is legitimately a cozy video to watch and especially listen to in bed at 2am; miss playing this game nonstop in 2012 lol :3
I NEED MORE. VERY well done video. Me and my sister always used to theorize and argue about the environmental storytelling, but the game is so fast paced and hectic that you miss out on so many of these details. I LOVE this kind of content. And the minimal editing is clean, sleek, and professional without being boring. You've earned my subscription! Keep up the good work!
This is my type of content. I wasted HOURS combing over the details in these games lmao. Subbed
Always loved valves knack for environmental storytelling. L4d being one of my favorites. Source just has an indescribable charm to it
You should talk also about the main menu songs that play on the background while you wait to play some of the gamemodes, i have read a theory of that when you get the "No mercy" menu that the lady singing in the background is singing a lullaby to her baby through a radio since she got bitten and left the baby in the hospital but they couldn't calm it down so they radio her to sing for them as she slowly became a zombie as the song becomes more unhinged as you wait longer in the menu.
Thank you for making this video, I have always been so interested in the enviroment of the maps and exploring them, but couldn't find many people who did videos on them.
Keep up the good works brotha, this some quality vid here.
The fact we still talking about and still finding out details we're missing 15+ years on, is a testament how amazing L4D series game design was.
I've been wanting to make a video like this for a little over a year now and I'm equally disappointed that someone did it first and happy that now I don't have to lol. You touched on a TON of the same things that I took note of, down to the single lit windows and the subway starting room not making any sense, to the extent that it almost feels surreal to hear someone else say it out loud. Fantastic work.
I only made it through the first chunk of No Mercy when I was taking notes so I would absolutely love to the rest of the campaigns covered, but in the meantime, here are some of the few things from the first chapter that I didn't hear mentioned:
There are paint cans next to the SOS sign on the starting rooftop. Nothing crazy, but a nice touch.
There's a distant clock tower in the skybox. Again, not really a special detail, just a cool thing I never noticed.
The skylight in the apartment kitchen has been boarded up.
The bottom floor windows aren't boarded up, which they probably would be if people had been staying here a while. Personally, I take that to mean that the bottom floor was overrun quickly, but the top floor held on for a lot longer thanks to the blocked-up stairway. This would also mean that the quarantine bags on the bottom floor were actually used by CEDA personnel when they first quarantined the building rather than random people reusing them later, though honestly I prefer your take on that.
There's a dead cop in front of a pile of bodies just inside the backdoor of the apartment. My random guess is that this could mean there was an effort to evacuate healthy people stranded in quarantined buildings in the late stages of the outbreak, but who knows, maybe he was just running for his life and tried to hide here but accidentally brought the horde with him.
I feel like the alleyways are way too narrow for any of the cars to actually enter or exit but maybe that's just me.
The newspaper stands, at least in this first level, have newspapers with a zombie face on them. Interestingly, those are the only papers in stock, while the others are sold out, suggesting that maybe people thought the one with a full-blown zombie on the cover was a tabloid or exaggeration and opted for the more "realistic" report, even if it was wrong.
There's a flipped car in the street that was potentially hit by a nearby semi-truck.
The "discount store office" (that's what I call it in my notes but I don't remember if that's the actual name) has signs in the windows that actually fall out if you shoot them. Again, just a fun touch instead of real environmental storytelling.
The street is blocked off by a collapsed building, but honestly I'm not sure how it could've collapsed.
My last few notes are from later chapters:
At least one of the subway tunnels in the second level ends with a pile of rubble blocking it, but the roof clearly hasn't collapsed, which is presumably just a mistake/oversight.
You can sometimes see another differently colored helicopter taking off from the rooftop of Mercy Hospital as you come out of the sewers, meaning that our News Chopper 5 hero wasn't the only badass pilot still helping people a full two weeks after everything went to shit. Shoutout to whoever orchestrated that evac, I hope it went better than ours.
Also after you leave the sewers, you can see that both roads leading to Mercy Hospital are blocked with (if I'm remembering rightly) semi-trucks. Could be nothing, or it could imply a concentrated effort to defend the hospital by blocking off the streets leading to it.
There's also the background gunfire of course, which I took years to notice but, in hindsight, is really obvious and I can see why you didn't specifically call it out lol. Anyway, this was a fantastic video and I'd love to see more!
Edit: Just a heads up in case you do end up doing the other campaigns, I'm pretty sure some of the graffiti dates in Dead Air are in a non-American format, which is a fantastic detail given that there must've been tourists and other foreigners trapped there when the quarantine started.
I rarely write comments, but I read yours with pleasure.
I would love to see you continue this series, this is really well done, and good content from someone who seems passionate about the topic, please make more!
I do hope you'll be covering all the maps as well as maybe L4D2 maps, and the Sacrifice.
Oh yes please. Rayford is super duper rich in environmental storytelling, what with housing two campaigns that explore one side of the city each.
You can't just hit us with a "Finally, a weapon to suppass metal gear." 🔥🖋️
Hey dude I love how your narration is, especially with how fascinated I am with environmental storytelling, just being able to express a story and creativity in a game. Also don’t wanna push ya but I think with bow interesting and his video was I think you could try doing other campaigns as well! :D
My yappings:
11:08
cause of the developer commentary’s example with the other dead survivor being covered in a towel, I imagined that some of these corpses are mixxed in with survivors and infected, with the survivors running towards the generator room whilst being chased by infected, (hence the dead person covered in a towel not having a proper funeral) but some ultimately getting left behind, leaving the other survivors at the generator room to set up their defenses (ie the mounted machine gun next to a makeshift box barricade) and making their way to the pawnshop and making a saferoom
11:40
With this guy I imagined that for some reason he had to crawl under the table, though unfortunately suffered a horrible death with his exposed legs under the table being eaten slowly by infected, having him crawl out the table and bleeding out after the infected were killed
With the table corpse, it could be possible that he did try to crawl, but was grabbed by infected. His fellow survivors tried to pull him to safety but ended up from overwhelming zombie strength, ripped him in two.
There are a few barricades with dead soldiers in Mercy hospital before the "radio shack": also of note is how clearly fortified the generator room is off the subway. I like to imagine that the guys who left the blood upstairs and opened the way through the water treatment plant might have been the garrison of the power station. Given the number of automatic weapons lying around, it implies that many soldiers and police officers simply deserted and tried to run.
A part why I think the garrison went to mercy hospital is because they might have been (discounting sewerage/utilities workers??) the only people who would know how exactly to open up the sewerage system to get to the Hospital. Also explains the hole in the floor near the burger Tank
I also wonder if the hole ripped in the ceiling under the minigun in the power station was not a Tank's doing
Please, please, PLEASE make more of these! This is right up my alley, the sound mixing is on-point, and you havs a wonderful voice.
Wowww, I never even noticed most of these. Whenever I play, I usually never examine my surroundings (except for the writings inside the safe rooms) because I'm too focused on defending myself from zombies. So much thought and effort were truly put into these maps, even up to the tiniest details. So amazing.
Thank you creator, and hoping to see more environmental analysis of L4D maps ❤️
I'd love it if you did this for the other campaigns! Looks like you've done Crash Course. Can't wait to watch that and see Death Toll after.
16:30 thought i had seen all there was to see in this game, but i dont remember ever really noticing these messages. Really love what you're doing with these videos, glad to see you're making it a series.
Thank you so much for making this I've been wanting someone to talk about this topic in Left 4 Dead for so long.
Please make more of these!!! I miss content like this on UA-cam and love L4Ds details!!! Miss just stopping in the middle of the games I played and looking for tiny details! Loved making stories for all these scenarios.
Also this content is so refreshing, it gives old UA-cam that many of us here grew up with. Thankyou!
If you decided to upload more, the commentary is awesome and is actually much appreciated! Love the content
I love the world of Left for dead. And I hope you continue to analyze the other campaigns in both 1 and 2 because their is just so much story happening even when we don’t notice it
Currently making a similar video myself, found it nice we both point out the lit up windows on no mercy chapter 1. Really love those small details and how they accomplish lighting along with worldbuilding
PLEASE MORE! Your videos are really cool!
Also you missed the detail of the graffiti saying: "They talk" 😮
Yes 👀👀
scary shit I wish valve added talking zombies it would make the game more creepy
I wonder if that was referencing Carriers?
Awesome video man I love stuff like this even this game being as old as it is, I can't help but always get lost in the lore every time I play it. That's how you know what game is really truly great when even a decade after its release you're still talking about the universe of it, and Left 4 Dead is definitely one of my favorites. The beauty of a game that uses enviroments to tell its story is that nothing is there by accident. Literally like you did in ths video, every small detail paints the picture to where anything can be heavily read into, i love it!
Really what made L4D environmental story telling work so well is the fact you have no idea what the hell happened in each location. In fact, all youe left with is imagining what went down in each location and allow your imagination to play out, which makes the world of L4D very sinister
You are the only other person ive seen view games like this 4 fun ! Pls keep it up dude ! 🙏
I like this, keep up the good stuff:)
the wall drawings had some of the funniest exchanges. During The Passing, there's this one convo were someone admitted to clogging the toilet and the other sentences were condemning him, branding him as someone worse than the zombies
You missed the possible patient zero in the 4th chapter.
i think it's possible that the dead lady in the apartment bedroom actually die from suicide as you mention there being a pill bottle that spawn next to her.
also, I love the video and I'd like it if you can make commentary for each campaign too.
You should make a series out of this, also you forgot a cool easter egg, you can see a helicopter from the streets landing onto the roof of the hospital, implying there where survivors escaping before the group made it.
2:48 I don't think they become zombies after dying. They're either dead, infected or uninfected I think. But I don't know.
That is true, I suppose I didn't specify my meaning very well there. I think that I moreso meant "losing consciousness from shock/bloodless and becoming infected" rather than "dying and coming back," although there's also an argument that maybe whoever that blood all belongs to went in there to bleed out so that they *wouldn't* be able to hurt anyone if they got back up.
@@wolfcl0ck Ok.
Awesome video I feel like environmental story telling goes unnoticed by most if it’s not in an audio log. Please keep making this videos.
God the sound design is so eerie and disconcerting. It had me nervously looking around my living room.
Fantastic video. I've always been thoroughly fascinated by L4Ds environment story telling. It's so thorough.
I bet the level devs had a lot of fun!
Exactly the kind of video I wanted to see, love the little details in Valve's environments.
This is 100% what ive been looking for. Keep it up
A great video i hope you continue this whit the other 11 campaigns, it was pretty interesting more than the typical 10 or 20 facts that everyone already know.
Incredible video, please do more of these for different campaigns. Gives me such a liminal, nostalgic feeling. Going through the environments of this game almost feels like home since I was literally 5 when it came out
You miss the part of the x-rays that was in the hospital rooms, one having 4 fingers, and one with a elongated neck, which I'm theorizing thats the discovery of the spitter
Man, the algorithm brought me a gem today. Instant sub! I'd love to see more L4D videos from you.
Please please PLEASE continue this series! If possible, in map order, not just to make the line of thinking easy to follow but also because I selfishly want someone to breathe some life into Whitney County, where Crash Course takes place.
Ive seen videos where they've mentioned environmental storytelling as part of l4d but not where it's been delved into this specifically, looking forward to watching this.
You should do more of these, this is great!
Concise video, straight to the point without missing things in a hurry, pretty neat and informative. Liked and subscribed, bro! Thanks for the good entertainment!
I really like the pacing and soothing narration of these videos! More please!
Would love to see more videos like this in the future!
This video is like crack to me. I’d watch an 8 hour video of this nonstop and you’d never lose my attention. Please make more with different campaigns!
I just wanna say ty for this video. First time on ya page. I love anything l4d lore based and been really into environmental storytelling so you just hit both more me woth this video. I will be back if I see literally anymore.
Very good analysis. Only critique I really have is early on (2:40), when you suggest someone dies and resurrects, when these are all still living people. Mutated, but alive.
Don't even know who tf you were until now but please make more of these vids, I like hearing your interpretations of the areas and the calm atmosphere you keep up throughout the video
Videos like this are the best. It’s like a lore video but the consumer makes their own lore with that the developers provide.
Great video! I love when people shine a light on the often underappreciated aspects of game development like this. I'd love to see more!