Left 4 Dead - Infected Strategy

Left 4 Dead has launched with a limited player versus player capability - as it stands right now, only half of the available campaigns can be played in versus mode. This hasn't stopped Left 4 Dead versus from becoming one of the most popular and widely played First Person Shooters in the world, and for good reason. As a survivor, it ups the stakes, making your race to freedom fraught with danger and peril - feeling much more like a proper zombie movie than when facing even the most intelligent AI. And as one of the Infected, the game plays in the same vein as games like Natural Selection. You are given the chance to be one of the horde, trying to gobble up the survivor's brains as one of the evil monsters of contemporary culture. It is a surprisingly fun, immensely re-playable game. And to make it more re-playable, here are some tips on how to play the Infected in a way that will have the survivors shaking in their stereotypes.

This is the most basic of the special Infected, and the one you will play as the most. The hunter has two basic attacks - pounce, and swipe. In order to pounce, you simply need to crouch, and left click, and you will fly through the air toward your target. If you hit a survivor, you will knock them to the ground and start tearing out their entrails in a gory bloodfest. Don't underestimate how powerful this is - an isolated survivor hit by a hunter is as good as dead. Also, keep in mind that the farther you jump on a pounce, the more damage you will do. If you can find a rooftop or high place to leap from, you have the potential to knock a survivor down a good chunk of health, even if you are knocked off quickly by his allies. Practice your pouncing, more than anything, to become a good hunter.

The smoker is an extremely useful member of the special Infected, but is also very fragile, so be careful about stepping into view of the survivors. This weakness is mitigated by the fact that the smoker has the only effective long range attack: its tongue. To use it, simply aim and left click. You will need to practice a bit before you get it down perfectly, the tongue is prone to breaking early, but once you get the hang of it, the smoker can be deadly. A survivor that is wrapped in a smoker's tongue is immobilized and can be attacked by normal or other special Infected. Try and find a high rooftop to pull survivors toward - it will make it harder for other survivors to free their friend. Also, think about pulling survivors down as well as up. If you pull a survivor off a roof far enough, they will take falling damage. This is especially useful in the final stage of the No Mercy campaign.