Valve Speaks out on Left 4 Dead 2 with OXCGN-pt 2

“C’mon, c’mon, trust us on this one!”

by Aaron Bertinetti – News Editor ©2009.

In Part 1 of my interview with Chet “Mr. Awesome” Faliszek, Writer on Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, we discussed why Valve was so keen on a quick sequel along with the smorgasbord of new features coming this November including weapons, items, enemies, maps, weather, characters, and of course the vastly enhanced AI Director 2.0. You can read all about it right here.

In Part 2, we explore what Valve thinks that people like the boycotters should be doing and why Valve’s confident they can convince them to change their minds. I also probe for hints about Left 4 Dead 2’s beginning, the characters, the storytelling, marketing, and why Valve are so confident about releasing a week after Modern Warfare 2!

There’s also some talk about beers, bets and keeping secret projects, well, secret!

• E3 Left 4 Dead 2 Official Trailer

Part 2 – “C’mon, c’mon, trust us on this one!”

OXCGN: Can you give any back story about the characters?

Chet Faliszek: Well we start off in Savannah, and it’s a world not touched by the zombie infection yet. It actually hits while you’re there, while you’re just starting the game.

OXCGN: So do you start with guns in your hand?

Chet Faliszek: Well [pause] we’re not going to give away all of that yet. But you start early on and the four characters all meet up together and you go from there. And the world’s changing as well as you’re doing this. Right, so Left 4 Dead 1, the cities are almost interchangeable, one’s on fire, one’s not, but they’re at the same state.

OXCGN: Do these characters know one another prior?

Chet Faliszek: No. They meet right there. We kind of have that arc and the characters actually have an arc they go through while you’re playing. And the world has an arc that it goes through as you’re playing as well and you get to see the change that happens.

OXCGN: So I assume you’re taking the same approach as the first one and also Portal, in regards to the storytelling as you’re playing?

Chet Faliszek: Yeah storytelling as you’re playing. It’s not all just graffiti, graffiti plays into it and everything else but also we’ve worked on how some of the characters interact, enhancing the talking and dialogue. I’m excited about it.

OXCGN: So am I!

[Laughs]

OXCGN: But that said the first game was surprisingly commercially successful, and I think it deserved that success, but considering it came out I think it was five days after Gears of War 2.

Chet Faliszek: Yeah.

OXCGN: Given that, I think Doug (Lombardi) gave an interview with EDGE the other day in which he was talking about the marketing campaign. Can you give any insight about that and how you’re going to get noticed a week after Modern Warfare 2?

Chet Faliszek: So one of the things is I think the marketing campaign had a good deal of help and it got people to come out. But also we just took it out everywhere and we let people play it and we’re doing that now right, we’re at E3 and we’re already playing it.

OXCGN: Five, six months out.

Chet Faliszek: Yeah and I look at the forums and it’s depending on which forum. If you’re looking at a 360 forum it’s 90% positive, 10% negative. If you’re looking at a PC forum, it depends on which one you’re looking at…

[Laughs]

Chet Faliszek: If you look at our Steam powered forums, yeah it’s a little rougher. But it’s like those people man, we’re going to take it around to some this year, so play the game and then come talk to me. So it’s kinda like when we had the update in Left 4 Dead 1 where we changed the melee and the fatigue, where people were writing in that they wanted their money back because it “was the worst change ever and we ruined the game for them”.

So Gabe (Newell) forwards me those emails and I respond “well here’s my Steam account, here’s my Live account, lets play. Lets play and lets talk about it.” Until one is like “Oh you know what, I reacted without really playing it, now that I’ve played it I don’t even notice it anymore. You’re right it’s not really a big change unless you’re kind of spamming away.” And I’m like “yeah we actually…”

OXCGN: We playtest this!

[Laughs]

Chet Faliszek: Yeah, we playtest the hell out of it. So it’s almost like I just want to yell “C’mon, c’mon trust us on this one!”

OXCGN: That’s right.

Chet Faliszek: Check it out, learn about it, play it if you get a chance to play it, and then come back to me and see if you’re still willing to say those things and lets talk about it. Because as a customer I think if someone just says “hey Left 4 Dead 2”, I’m going to have some reactions that are similar to them.

Right, I’m a fan of games, when games come out I’m critical and looking for changes as well so I can understand that, but equally I’m swayed and won over again and again, so they should check it out (first).

OXCGN: Final question. Can you give us any news or any hints about  anything else that might be coming from Valve?

Chet Faliszek: Ah sorry.

OXCGN: Sorry?

[Laughs]

Chet Faliszek: We kept the secret of Left 4 Dead 2 pretty held tight.

OXCGN: Yeah I thought you kept it pretty good.

Chet Faliszek: Yeah.

OXCGN: Although I actually won a bet when it turned up at the conference.

Chet Faliszek: Oh you did?

OXCGN: Yeah so I’ve got a case of beer waiting for me when I get home.

Chet Faliszek: So do you owe me beers? Do you owe me a beer? I think you owe me a beer!

OXCGN: Well if you want to have a beer, tell me where and when and I’ll go…

[Laughs]

OXCGN: As long as I get to play more of that [pointing to Left 4 Dead 2].

Chet Faliszek: Yeah okay, well we’ve kept a good secret and so we’re just keeping quiet on everything else. Sorry.

OXCGN: Fantastic. Thanks very much.

Chet Faliszek: Thank you sir!

Fin.

That’s the end of our Left 4 Dead 2 Interview. You can revisit the feature rich Part 1 here or keep an eye out for our Hands On Preview in the coming week. Special thanks to Chet Faliszek, Doug Lombardi and Katie Engel at Valve for their generous time during a crazy E3 2009.

© 2009 Aaron Bertinetti -News Editor

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