Hero Swap! L4D and RE4

[No brains]

I have a fun idea: what if the heroes from Left 4 Dead and Resident Evil 4 were switched out for each other?

For this experiment, a native game is the game where the swapped out hero comes from and a foreign game is the new environment they have to get through.

The heroes would fight the enemies from the foreign game using their rules from their native game. Leon would fight hordes tanks and witches in Pennsylvania and the Survivors would fight ganados and other monsters in pseudo-Spain.

Assume the heroes have their native weapon selections and means of obtaining them. Leon would have the merchant in places with multiple weapons and/or ammo piles, and the Survivors would have weapon and ammo piles where the merchant would be. Leon could also pick up ammo/money from infected he defeats. Likewise the health pickups would be the same as in the native game, but put in places where they would be found in the foreign game.

Also: Leon could struggle to escape a hunter or smoker on his own (since he was able to in RE4) but Survivors would have to shove or shoot off any ganado that grabbed a teammate. I want to use this rule for this experiment because I see Leon's ability to escape as one of his own traits and not as a vulnerability of the enemies he fights.

As for Ashley, she would need to be escorted by the L4D group in pseudo-Spain. This is because Ashley is much more of a liability than a benefit and would count more as part of the challenge of the RE4 world.

What does everyone think? How would this turn out for the heroes in their new environments? Are there any other areas I missed for gameplay clarifications.

[dgnslyr]

L4D characters would have a field day in Resident Evil because they're not limited by tank controls. On the other hand, L4D zombies don't seem quite as horrific as some of the nasties to come out of RE, so that's one mark in their favor too. Then again, Resident Evil characters always seem to move so slowly, so that's no good.

[No brains]

One thing that would balance Leon's comparatively clumsy locomotion against L4D zombies is that he can go into his inventory for an instant heal.

Also the Survivors would have to turn their field day into a field trip when Ashley comes in, as even one friendly fire incident would cause a failure for them.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Leon is in a lot of trouble: L4D2 require mobility, but the RE firing system requires standing in place. The speed of the infected (and especially the Tank, which you can't fight alone without moving) will really mess him up, as he'll constantly be getting hit by everyone and everything.

The L4D2 characters have a huge advantage in speed and in the lack of ranged immobilizing enemies in RE4. They'll have some trouble against the really big nasties that Leon fights on occasion, but I think they'd eventually manage.

[chiasaur11]

Leon is in a lot of trouble: L4D2 require mobility, but the RE firing system requires standing in place. The speed of the infected (and especially the Tank, which you can't fight alone without moving) will really mess him up, as he'll constantly be getting hit by everyone and everything.

The L4D2 characters have a huge advantage in speed and in the lack of ranged immobilizing enemies in RE4. They'll have some trouble against the really big nasties that Leon fights on occasion, but I think they'd eventually manage.

On the other hand, the L4D zombies are still alive.

And all that lives knows pain at the touch of a Leon S. Kennedy one-liner.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

And all that lives knows pain at the touch of a Leon S. Kennedy one-liner.

Alive, yes. Sentient and/or still capable of responding to human speech? Doubtful.

But you are correct...it is a valuable weapon in his arsenal. :smalltongue:

[chiasaur11]

Alive, yes. Sentient and/or still capable of responding to human speech? Doubtful.

But you are correct...it is a valuable weapon in his arsenal. :smalltongue:

You know how Ganados slow down to a snail's pace and loudly announce their attacks?

That's not them. That's the inescapable all-consuming hatred zombies have for Mr. Kennedy. They can't kill him without saying what a moron he is.

And then he suplexes them to death and backflips around some lasers.

[Worira]

It's Left 5 Dead, with Chris Redfield! (http://www.halolz.com/2011/09/26/left-5-dead/)

Same goes for Leon.

[chiasaur11]

It's Left 5 Dead, with Chris Redfield! (http://www.halolz.com/2011/09/26/left-5-dead/)

Same goes for Leon.

Nonsense.

Nothing leaves Leon in shocked silence.

He's either doing over-the-top mourning for a guy he met five minutes ago, or he's making bad action hero one liners.

No middle ground.

[No brains]

Even though I immediately caught the run or shoot reference when I saw the L4D opening movie, Leon wouldn't actually be too bad off given his play style.

Leon has eyes in the back of his head, or at least over his shoulder. He has a wider angle of view that some L4D try to replicate with console commands.

When Leon takes even a 1 damage hit, he stumbles for a second and is immune during that time. He has the potential to lose much less hp when a horde washes over him.

Even before that, corner camping with the knife would be a nice way to lure the horde into a lawnmower. The German players who get the CS2 weapons do it pretty often themselves.

There's also his ability to free himself from things pinning him. Hunters get punted after a scant few hits, and death smokes are nigh-impossible to pull off- especially considering his built-in edge gravity and his ability to safely hop stories with no problem.

There's also the questionable situation where he could get a dodge command when a tank hurls a rock at him. El Gigante threw bigger boulders faster and he could dodge those.

Even with all of his safeties Leon enjoys, what if he does take damage? He turns the tables on L4D not only by just going into the inventory for an instant first-aid spray, but he can also keep a better pace up until he falls dead in his tracks! Run or heal? Both.

[dgnslyr]

Even if he's invincible when stumbling, he still stumbles, so wouldn't he get stun-locked by a big horde of zombies? They'd all mob him and high-five away at his face, and he'd be too stun-locked to fight back.

[DaedalusMkV]

Even if he's invincible when stumbling, he still stumbles, so wouldn't he get stun-locked by a big horde of zombies? They'd all mob him and high-five away at his face, and he'd be too stun-locked to fight back.

Luckily for Leon, his invulnerability lasts about half a second after he can act again, just long enough to spam one of his trademark 1-2 Knife/Roundhouse Kick attacks, which both clears the enemy right out of his face and, often enough, damned well decapitates them. His knife is pretty fast-swinging as well, enough that if he were to just sit in a corner and spam the 1-2 combo the regular Infected would have trouble touching him; certainly the Ganados can't do it without either a ranged weapon or a polearm (Of course, in-game they always do...). The problem Leon's going to face is dealing with the Special Infected. A Charger is going to get a few hits in on him, no matter what, and the same goes for Smokers and probably Hunters too. He can escape their attack and kill them dead while they recover, but he's going to need a generous supply of healing items to survive the steady string of unavoidable hits. Also, Witch in a narrow corridor. It happens, and it's game over for Leon unless he packed a Rocket Launcher with him, or is in New Game+ mode and has one of the broken guns you get for that. I think he could hande L4D, but it's by no means a guarantee.

In the gameplay, the L4D crew utterly slaughter the Ganados from range with their nigh-infinite ammo and high maneuvrability. They're going to run into trouble with the QTEs and boss fights, though. None of them have the superhuman rediculousness that Leon does, which means that the little things like dodging laser traps and crossbow bolts after they're fired just isn't going to happen. Of course, if we're assuming that each game keeping its gameplay means that things like the QTEs and not being able to kill some enemies without certain weapons that the Survivers don' have access to don't apply, in which case their vastly superior control scheme and unconstrained ammo supply brings them back to destroying the RE4 gameplay.

[TSED]

Leon wouldn't make it.

One surprise witch and BLAMMO, it's over.

Yeah, you can hear the crying, but sometimes you're busy doing something like "running away from the tank" to move slowly and carefully, and you turn around the corner and OHNOsplat.