History VideoGame / Left4Dead

%% * FireForgedFriends: The Survivors again.

%% * MolotovCocktail: Lovely, lovely, molotov cocktails...

** Boomers sometimes hide behind street lights & most zombies sometimes swerve away from their target at the last second to try to break through a door that isn't in the way. They'll also run through fire to get to you.

The game also received massive critical acclaim for both its MythArc-style narrative - the parts of the story they don't tell you, as well as the interactions between the survivors - and for its EmergentNarrative, in which different aspects of gameplay combined with elements of randomness mean that every single time you play a new, funny story emerges.

* BaitAndSwitchBoss: In the Sacrifice comic, one of the soldiers who loses his mask is immediately abandoned by his group, and begins to turn, but when the survivors encounter him, he's still capable of using his gun. He appears when no zombies are attacking, just after Louis made his analogy about "If the piranhas aren't biting, it means there's a shark around". However, this sergeant is not the "shark" - Bill knocks him to the ground easily. The "shark" is the tank that knocks the guy's head off as it runs after the survivors.

* BilingualBonus: A piece of safe room graffiti in The Sacrifice is in Japanese - Louis gives the translation, but only the English half. Fluent speakers alone would be able to read aloud the characters he translates.

* CherryTapping: It's possible to kill even the Special Infected, except tanks and witches, just with the secondary melee attack. Just [[TooDumbToLive don't try it on the Boomer]] - knock him back once to get him away, then shoot from a safe distance.

* ClusterFBomb: Downplayed - nobody drops an actual F-bomb, but the survivors say "shit" a ''lot''.

* BackgroundHalo: In the poster for ''The Sacrifice'', the sun is shining from behind Bill's head. It foreshadows

Due to the number of examples, they have been divided into categories.

* BackgroundHalo: In the poster for ''The Sacrifice''.

-->[[MemeticMutation NO ZOMBIE IS SAFE FROM CHICAGO TED]]

* FetchQuest: Going through waves of infected for some gas.
* FilmPosters: One for each campaign.
* FireForgedFriends: The Survivors again.
* FlyAtTheCameraEnding: The helicopter in ''No Mercy''.* FriendlyFireProof:

* {{Griefer}}: Being a team-based game, it is extremely easy to grief other players. Even if the griefer gets kicked, they can just join a new game and do it again to others. This also results in HeelFaceTurn because you never know who will be the first to shoot you dead when it is time to escape.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Though a common trope in zombie media, it's totally subverted here. Not even the United States military can hold off the infected, let alone individual bad guys.

* KaizoTrap: The end of "The Church" in ''Death Toll.'' However, this is rarely ever a problem since [[SequenceBreaking you can fire before the infected can hope to attack.]]
** Contrary to extraordinarily persistent rumors, it is not possible for Church Guy to become a Tank or Witch. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B3pZiRvvu8 As demonstrated and explained in this video.]]
*** It is, however, ''entirely'' possible for a Tank or Witch to spawn in the safe room on ''any'' map. This is disastrous with AI Survivors, as being near a safe room triggers a behavior override that has them hustle into the safe room door. [[TooDumbToLive They have no problem at all with bumping into the Witch in the process.]]

* MadnessMantra: The Church guy; "''Better safe than sorry''."

* TheMillstone: They show up a lot more than in most online games (or maybe the focus on teamwork just makes them a lot more obvious).
* MolotovCocktail: Lovely, lovely, molotov cocktails...

* NietzscheWannabe: A lot of the graffiti is this. It gets [[DeadpanSnarker shot down]] by both the cast and other graffiti.

* NothingIsScarier: Hearing a sobbing Witch, knowing she's close and you have to be careful, or you'll startle her. She'll screech and try to rip you apart - and sometimes you just don't find her...
** Forget Witches, sometimes you hear a special infected or its musical cue long before you see it or you know it's around the corner but don't want to be the guinea pig. The worse still, is when the Tank music starts playing but takes its time finding you so players are left frantically trying to spot it whilst trying to stick together or rethink their plans.

* SelfImposedChallenge:In-Universe. Several have achievements for them. No examples, please.

* SeriousBusiness: Handfuls of people take the game very seriously and will scream at you or call a vote to get you booted if you do anything they don't like (not the TooDumbToLive type player mind you). More noticeable in VS mode where people will yell at you for not saving them from the infected quick enough and/or yell at you if you don't do enough damage to survivors or just plain outright miss your attacks. [[note]]In fact, in most Versus games, when someone becomes the Tank, all the infected players put all their hopes on the Tank player and expect him or her to to kill the Survivors in one go. What most people don't realize that the Tank alone cannot kill the Survivors unless the players are extremely stupid and the Tank needs support from the other infected. If you're the Tank and get caught on fire or die without killing at least one player, expect most people to call you a fail Tank.[[/note]]

* ShamelessSelfPromoter: Oh, Valve, you sly dog:

* SuperPowerLottery: As far as zombies go, the Tank and Witch have won this.

* TokenMinority: Louis in the first game.

* VideoGameCaringPotential: Given that you're trying to survive as a team in a zombie apocalypse, you can either always have your team's back, even making sacrifices to save all of their lives...
** VideoGameCrueltyPotential: ...or you can completely ditch them and leave them at the mercy of all the ruthless zombies, taking all the weapons and health for yourself.
** VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Of course, the Director gets pissed at uncooperative play, so he'll often spawn less items and more zombies to target the cruelty-inflicting players.

* XtremeKoolLetterz: Left. 4. Dead. No explanation should be necessary.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:General Media Tropes]]

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: The only way to distract a Tank from pummeling a downed survivor to death is to melee him, which otherwise serves absolutely no purpose at all.

* DVDCommentary: Like most Valve games since ''Lost Coast'', both Left 4 Dead games have a commentary mode, where you can play a campaign that contains commentary nodes which will play audio from the developers. You're locked in Easy difficulty and zombies will ignore you. Naturally, you can't earn achievements this way.

* FlyAtTheCameraEnding: The helicopter in ''No Mercy''.

* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: Francis as Cynic (hates everything), Louis as Optimist (hopeful), Bill as Realist (experienced) and Zoey as Apathetic (zombie fan).

* TheImmune: The main reason why the survivors have survived all the shit hurled at them is that they're immune. [[spoiler:Radio dialogue in ''Left 4 Dead 2''[='=]s last campaign and then the comic for "The Sacrifice" make it clear that they're not just immune, but [[TyphoidMary asymptomatic carriers of the virus]], which means they infect anyone they come in contact with who ''isn't'' immune.]]

* ZombieApocalypse: Duh. Two weeks after the initial outbreak and the game is pretty nonchalant about it.
* ZombieGait: How individual Infected walk until they see you or hear a car alarm and then they run ''fast'', in hoards no less.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Meta (Community/Developer/Supplemental Material) Tropes]]
* AllThereInTheManual: The opening movie does a superb job explaining how to not die.
* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Specifically Architectural Engineering; some of the maps feature buildings with impractical or outright impossible layouts for normal use. The offices in Death Toll's Riverside (the ones immediately before the street crescendo event) have no interior doors in them. The players enter and exit through a balcony on either side, so how would the office workers normally enter?
* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
** The obligatory scoped weapon is named the "Hunting Rifle". In Pennsylvania, where the first game takes place, hunting with a semi-auto is illegal.
** Likely intentional in part 3 of the ''The Sacrifice'' comic, given Francis' characterization: in the flashback to his first encounter with the infected, he recounts why he's supposed to be going to prison to his bar buddies, [[AccidentalMisnaming getting his current girlfriend's name wrong]] and claiming he'll have plenty of time to learn her name during conjugal visits. One of his friends tells him that Pennsylvania doesn't do conjugal visits, to which Francis grumbles that the next time he impersonates a cop, they should remind him to do so in Ohio. Ohio also doesn't do conjugal visits.
* BagOfSpilling: The intro cinematic shows all the survivors using guns that they don't start with. But during that intro, they either drop them, run out of ammo, or are disarmed, and so when the game opens they're just toting pistols. Additionally, this happens at the opening of each campaign as well. Can't carry everything.
* BaitAndSwitchBoss: In the Sacrifice comic, one of the soldiers who loses his mask is immediately abandoned by his group, and begins to turn, but when the survivors encounter him, he's still capable of using his gun. He appears when no zombies are attacking, just after Louis made his analogy about "If the piranhas aren't biting, it means there's a shark around". However, this sergeant is not the "shark" - Bill knocks him to the ground easily. The "shark" is the tank that knocks the guy's head off as it runs after the survivors.
* CharacterFilibuster: The ''Crash Course'' campaign features a safe room with a wall covered in a '''''massive''''' PurpleProse poem... and equally-''classy'' replies to it such as "QQ" and "Cool story, bro!"
* DarkerAndEdgier: The Sacrifice comic zigzags between this and more snarks per mile than the games.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: After being downed and revived twice, you see the entire world in black and white, complete with blurry peripheral vision and red item highlights. If you're not healed, you ''will'' die if you're downed a third time. The developers included this because playtesters were frustrated when inexperienced players were repeatedly going down and delaying the group.
* DownerEnding: For one player, ''The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Sacrifice]]''. For the other three it's a BittersweetEnding.
* EasterEgg: Found among the apartments in ''No Mercy'' is [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} "The]] [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Orange]] [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 Box"]] cereal. The train station in the same campaign also has ads for "Orange Box Juice".
* EdgeGravity: If your character steps off a ledge that would result in a fatal fall, he or she will automatically dangle off the ledge, holding on with their hands for dear life for as long as they can until a teammate helps them. It's mechanically identical to getting downed normally, other than that (barring any zombies managing to hit them while they're hanging) they'll still have as much health as they had before once you help them up.
* ExplodingBarrels: In ''The Sacrifice'' campaign.
* {{Griefer}}: Being a team-based game, it is extremely easy to grief other players. Even if the griefer gets kicked, they can just join a new game and do it again to others. This also results in HeelFaceTurn because you never know who will be the first to shoot you dead when it is time to escape.
* LeeroyJenkins: Mostly applies to newbies who keep making common mistakes, such as running ahead of everyone (which usually gets them killed and are too far away to be saved in time), angering a Witch without having the right gun for it (only shotguns can kill her instantly with a well placed shot connecting all pellets, and even then, only a headshot will work on higher difficulty levels), or flinging Molotovs like a hot potato and setting other players on fire from it.
** Oh, there's more. See the trope page itself for the huge list.
* LetsPlay: Both games have one on the Website/SomethingAwful forums; the one for the first game is [[http://lparchive.org/Left-4-Dead/ here]].
* Letters2Numbers: The title.
* LighterAndFluffier: Alexandria Neonakis' adorable cartoony designs for the Special Infected, which appear on the licensed Christmas cards, previous Valve Store site headers, and even spawned a series of plushies that make the various Infected's signature noises when squeezed. So far, they've released Boomer, Hunter, and Tank, although a prototype of a Jockey hat is floating around online somewhere.
* TheMillstone: They show up a lot more than in most online games (or maybe the focus on teamwork just makes them a lot more obvious).
* MythologyGag: Bill, during early development, shared his last name with ''VideoGame/HalfLife'''s Barney Calhoun.
* OnlySixFaces: Played straight.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Of the infected, easily-enraged sort much like in ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' and various types of {{Elite Zombie}}s. Notably, most Infected attack Survivors by rabidly pummeling them into a pulp like an angry mob, which is pretty fitting considering the Green Flu works as a HatePlague.
* PoorCommunicationKills: This will literally be your game ender online if you or the rest of your team fail to talk or at least call for help if being pinned by the infected, especially in Realism and Realism Versus modes where you can't spot each other with glows anymore. Lots of games have been lost due to people simply not speaking up.
* PunBasedTitle: You play as ''four'' survivors, who are left for dead.
* RageQuit: Consult the ''Webcomic/VGCats'' [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=278 guide]].
* SeriousBusiness: Handfuls of people take the game very seriously and will scream at you or call a vote to get you booted if you do anything they don't like (not the TooDumbToLive type player mind you). More noticeable in VS mode where people will yell at you for not saving them from the infected quick enough and/or yell at you if you don't do enough damage to survivors or just plain outright miss your attacks. [[note]]In fact, in most Versus games, when someone becomes the Tank, all the infected players put all their hopes on the Tank player and expect him or her to to kill the Survivors in one go. What most people don't realize that the Tank alone cannot kill the Survivors unless the players are extremely stupid and the Tank needs support from the other infected. If you're the Tank and get caught on fire or die without killing at least one player, expect most people to call you a fail Tank.[[/note]]
* ShaggyDogStory: As it turns out, the Survivors [[spoiler:are Carriers of the infection, not directly affected by the disease as they fight to safety, [[ZombieInfectee only to infect those around them]], rendering it {{All For Nothing}}.]]
* SlidingScaleOfContinuity: The game is level 0 (Non-Linear Installments) without DLC. Each level is completely stand alone as far as the game leads you to believe. With the release of the DLC, it jumps to level 3 (Subtle Continuity) as we find out that the survivors ended up transitioning from one area to the next. Originally, there were supposed to be story bits connecting the campaigns, but playtesters apparently found it disheartening to learn that the survivors' efforts just kept failing.
* SuperPowerLottery: As far as zombies go, the Tank and Witch have won this.
* TheVirus: If you're... unlucky enough, you turn into a constantly crying, always-guilty Witch, an exploding fatass, get Gene Simmons' tongue, become a flying Parkour expert, or turn into the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]].
* VisualPun: The boxart is a zombie's ''left'' hand holding up ''four'' fingers, with the thumb ripped off. Same thing in the game's intro.
** In the trailer for The Sacrifice, a common infected who gets hit by a car falls to the ground and only its hand is visible on the camera. Its thumb is missing, and its hand twitches so to appear to be holding up the number two briefly; making reference to the box art for the second game.
* WhamLine: For many an Infected team, seeing "You will become the Tank - Get ready to attack the survivors"[[note]]or "Someone is about to become the Tank" if you aren't chosen[[/note]] means that [[ThisIsGonnaSuck shit is about to get real]], as a Tank's actions (and the Survivors' response to it) can singlehandedly make or break a Versus round.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Zoey's dad in the supplemental comic. [[spoiler: He and Zoey loved watching zombie movies, so when he gets bitten, he's well aware of the ZombieInfectee trope and has her kill him before he turns. Turns out Zoey carried a genetic immunity to the disease, and her mom didn't, so he was actually immune and died for nothing.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Gameplay Tropes]]
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** If you don't aim wisely, you'll find yourself running out of ammo ''very'' fast even on the lower difficulties. Luckily for you, the ammunition dumps are infinite if somewhat rare, and you get up to two trusty pistols with infinite ammo that work nicely against pretty much everything except witches and tanks. Furthermore, on sub-Expert difficulties, the Director designs the drops so that you always get what you need to take down whatever he's about to throw at you, giving GenreSavvy players an advance warning for the horde that's about to come.
** During Versus mode, it is impossible for all four players on the Infected team to get 'pinning' Special Infected (Smokers and Hunters). This is so that a well-coordinated team can't instantly incapacitate every survivor at once.
** FriendlyFire will not apply if your shot also hit an Infected. This means you don't need to worry about being too precise when it comes to killing Special Infected that have a Survivor pinned, for example.
** Objects punted by a Tank will eventually despawn, so Survivors will never be blocked from progressing.
** The Survivor AI is incapable of inflicting friendly-fire on other survivors. Their bullets will go right through each other and the worst that happens is flinching.
* ArtificialBrilliance: The Special Infected are quite smart and are very wary of the presence of the players. Hunters and Boomers will always try to hide around corners or behind thick shrubs so that they can ambush the players. The two may also tag team players if a player is caught by a Smoker. Smokers will attempt to run away if their attack fails and Hunters will escape by repeatedly jumping away if they are shot at from a distance. Tanks can try to avoid fire the player makes, assuming the player sets the fire off too early. While they can be quite stupid at times, it doesn't happen too often.
** Hunter and Smokers will occasionally retreat if spotted, and try to get to places that the survivors can't reach easily before attacking.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** Although not too horrible, the Survivor AI has many infamous quirks. This is a great reason to play the game with actual people.
*** Their healing priorities are all out of wack; they will use pills when at under 60 health despite the pills being capable of providing 50 units of temporary health, essentially wasting 10 units of health.
*** They will treat health gained from pain pills as half as much as permanent health. This almost always results in wasted health kits.
*** Bots are hopeless with the Hunting Rifle; as soon as an enemy gets in their personal space they will immediately switch to the less powerful pistols.
** Boomers sometimes hide behind street lights & most zombies sometimes swerve away from their target at the last second to try to break through a door that isn't in the way. They'll also run through fire to get to you.
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: A first aid kit takes five seconds to apply onto a Survivor. This is pretty much about how long it'll take for someone to open up a first aid and get out what they need from it at a minimum, let alone diagnosing and actually applying the first aid. Pain pills are used almost instantly which means somehow the Survivors are able to empty into their mouth and swallow about a bottle's worth of pills in that duration.
* AuraVision: Used to find teammates as Survivors and used by Infected to find Survivors health and location.
* BackStab: Shoving an idle common from behind is a OneHitKill.
* BadBoss: The Director in Versus mode. Between showering the survivors with first aid kits and often not bothering to send a horde after a boomer attack, it clearly hates the Infected players even more than the Survivors.
* BoomHeadshot: Played straight, to YourHeadAsplode levels with common infected. Mercilessly averted with the Tank, which receives the same damage from headshots as being shot anywhere else.
* BottomlessMagazines: The players must reload them, but they have endless ammunition for their sidearms and supply caches provide infinite replenishment for your main weapons.
* CallingYourAttacks: Played straight by survivors throwing grenades, invoked with the special infected's vocalizations giving them away.
* ChandlersLaw: The Director AI pulls this quite frequently: stay in one place too long instead of advancing and you'll get a bunch of Special Infected coming at you.
** It's also more likely to send a Zombie Horde at the Survivors at any given moment the slower they're progressing through the level. This can be something of a vicious cycle when playing on Expert.
* CherryTapping: It's possible to kill even the Special Infected, except tanks and witches, just with the secondary melee attack. Just [[TooDumbToLive don't try it on the Boomer]] - knock him back once to get him away, then shoot from a safe distance.
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Actively exploited by the developers to guide the players, after they noticed playtesters' [[DarknessEqualsDeath tendency to move toward the brightly lit areas]]. As stated on the page, custom maps that ''don't'' follow this idea are known for being extremely hard and it's not just because it's hard to see; by removing a core game play aspect players (who are accustomed to having light guiding where to go) are forced to try to find out what the devs intended the hard way.
* CombatResuscitation: Players who run out of health are incapacitated, becoming immobile but still able to use a pistol to help clear away infected while their friends help them up. However, a player can only be incapacitated twice, after which their screen will [[InterfaceScrew turn black and white]], a HeartbeatSoundtrack will be heard, and if a first-aid kit is not used on them, their next incapacitation will result in their death. Dead players can later be revived by finding them trapped in a closet later on.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Unusual, in that the Director is supposed to be continuously tweaking the challenge of the game up and down based on how well the players are doing. However, on Expert, its moments of mercy are '''''extremely''''' brief.
** This goes for the survivor bots too, as they have aimbot-like accuracy, and cannot directly cause friendly fire (being able to literally shoot through others). [[JustifiedTrope It works]], as a half-decent human player is still more efficient overall (due to other factors like bots not being able to use grenades or any particular strategy beyond shooting things), yet a team isn't completely screwed if a player leaves mid-game.
** Under certain conditions, survivor bots will grab items ''through walls''. Players can't, though in "Death Toll" there is at least one stairway you can revive downed teammates through.
** Any special infected (other than witches or tanks) can slash you with their claws if you manage to shove them. No "attacking while staggering" animation or anything, blood literally just pulls itself out of your chest.
** In co-op and other modes where the special infected are AI-controlled, the specials can spawn inside the safe room at the end of the level, leading to [[{{GameOver}} fun times]]. In versus, where the specials are human-controlled, you cannot spawn in the ending safe room, but you ''can'' spawn outside of the safe room and go inside, if the door is open. Playing as a Boomer, you can buy the rest of your teammates time to respawn and make one last attempt at the Survivors.
* CreepyCemetery: The cemetery leading up to the busted-up church at the end of the third level on Death Toll.
* CriticalExistenceFailure:
** Averted by the survivors, who have ''multiple'' states of impairment depending on their HitPoints.
*** When at or above 40 HP, your character performs normally.
*** When at 39 HP or lower, your character has a movement speed and jump-height reduction.
*** If you are reduced to 0 HP, your character is "down" -- lying on the ground, defending themselves with a pistol -- and requires a CombatResuscitation (see above). A newly-incapacitated character has 300 HP and loses them at a rate of 3 per second.
*** Once "picked up" from a downed state, the character is granted a temporary buffer of 30 HP that drains over time, until the character is a OneHitPointWonder, at which point movement speed is reduced further, the same as a healthy Survivor's walk speed.
*** If a character has been picked up ''twice'', the screen goes black-and-white with a HeartbeatSoundtrack, as covered above, and if they go down again without using a health kit, then they're dead.
** Justified by the Infected, who obviously no longer have a self-preservation instinct and are extremely aggressive, causing them to come at you with all they've got no matter what happens to them, until one of you is dead.
* DamageSpongeBoss: They're called Tanks for a reason. Four Survivors starting a level have a group total of 400 HP. On Normal difficulty, the Tank has ''4,000''. It goes up to 8k in expert.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Dying does not mean you are forever gone from the game. You will just respawn in a closet or come back in the next map. Versus mode prevents you from coming back until the next map and dying during a finale on any mode gets you KilledOffForReal.
* DeathIsCheap: You can be rescued from a closet in campaign mode or just simply respawn in the saferoom in the next chapter. Averted if you die during a finale, where there are no respawns unless everyone dies and you're forced to restart it.
* DeathOrGloryAttack: [=Cr0wning=] the Witch, which generally consists of going up to the Witch and [[NoRangeLikePointBlankRange shooting her at point-blank range with a shotgun]]. Succeed, and it's a OneHitKill, removing a major threat from your path; fail, and you've put yourself [[InstantDeathRadius at point-blank range of a pissed-off Witch]].
* EquipmentUpgrade: The pistol, which everyone starts with, can be "upgraded" to GunsAkimbo by picking up a second one.
* EveryoneChasingYou: The horde.
* ExplodingBarrels: Gas cans, propane tanks, oxygen tanks, and actual barrels in ''the Sacrifice'' campaign.
* FallingIntoTheCockpit: Versus mode, infected team. While a player can run through the campaign mode to build up their survivor skills before going in, infected players have to learn it all on the fly for their randomly assigned characters.
* FetchQuest: Going through waves of infected for some gas.
* FriendlyFireProof:
** Downplayed with the survivors on the easier difficulties. They ''can'' get shot, how ever it barely hurts them. You can fire a sub-machine gun at them and still have to reload a few times before they're incapacitated.
** Played straight as an AntiFrustrationFeature when a survivor has been grabbed by a special infected, meaning that the zombies can't use you as a human shield.
** In Versus Mode, the special infected can hurt each other, and can instantly kill the common infected. The Tank can do enough damage to kill even the special infected in one hit, so his habit of accidentally killing teammates can be quite frustrating if he's AI-controlled.
** Very much averted on [[HarderThanHard Expert]] mode, where one shotgun blast can [[OneHitKill down a survivor in one hit]], and the other weapons aren't much safer to be around. The [[StuffBlowingUp grenade launcher]], in particular, can cause an instant [[TotalPartyKill team wipe]] in the hands of an inexperienced player or {{Griefer}}.
* GameLobby: The game has lobbies players can set up. While the Quick Match option lets players join in at any game, lobbies give people more controlled settings such as what campaign to play in, difficulty, and server type. However, despite the game's popularity, most people will leave a lobby if they see only one or two people inside, because only the lobby leader can start the game and if they are away from the keyboard, it can't start.
* GangUpOnTheHuman: When playing solo, the special infected seem to favor targeting you over the other survivors.
* GenreSavvy: Zoey spent her time in college watching zombie horror movies, so she knew how to survive.
** Ironically, ties into Zoey's background: [[spoiler:she watched zombie movies with her dad a lot. When he was bit, he had her kill him, as per zombie movie tropes. Turns out... he was immune.]]
** Zigzagged with the military in the Comic. The guards outside Louis and Francis do not fall for Francis' attempt at making them come to the cell and get overpowered. They ''do'' however make the mistake of thinking one man with a gun is capable of controlling [[ActionGirl Zoey]] and Bill.
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Averted:
-->'''Guard''': You're trying to get me angry so we'll come in there, and you can over power us and escape, aren't you?\\
'''Francis''': What? ''No.'' Okay, fine, ''yes''.
* GoombaStomp: Jumping on a common infected's head is instantly fatal. Doesn't apply to special infected.
** Physically being on top of a zombie counts as a stomp, thus an instant kill, which leads to a hilarious moment where you can literally walk over a zombie lying on the ground and kill it from just stepping on it.
** If you're on a raised position and zombies are climbing up to you, you can drop down and string two or three Goomba Stomps in a row.
** Standing on top of a ladder which zombies are trying to get up will cause them to get stuck at the top. Jumping will then instantly kill all of them.
* GravityBarrier: keeps you away from a zombie breeding ground and to keep you moving along to your safe house.
* {{Griefer}}: Per [[ForumSpeak G.I.F.T]], you're guaranteed to come across them in public matches.
** Playing as the infected is basically griefing the survivors ''[[RuleOfFun as the goal of the game.]]'' The griefers are getting their kicks from the game itself most of the time!
* GuideDangIt: Medkits restore 80% of the damage you've taken--if you're at 90 HitPoints it will give you 8, and if you're at 1 it will give you 80. As such, there are times when using them is seriously inefficient. The place this is spelled out in the game is nowhere.
* HarderThanHard: Expert mode is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Only experts can expect to survive.
* HandsFreeHandlamp: Zig-zagged. The guns have flashlights attached to them, but that doesn't stop you from still having a light, perfectly centered on the screen at that, when wielding non-gun items like medkits and grenades.
* HellIsThatNoise: Every single type of Infected has their own distinct sound/musical cues to warn you of their arrival, including a few who will switch from low growls to all-out screams or roars as soon as it has one of the Survivors in its line of sight.
* HesJustHiding: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]]. Whenever one of the survivors die, they're found later trapped in locked closets (or respawn in the next saferoom). It was meant to reflect how survivors get rescued in zombie films.
** Averted in the final chapter of each campaign after the rescue vehicle has been summoned. Dying means you get KilledOffForReal.
* HitAndRunTactics: This is usually the best way to deal with the Tank, by [[KillItWithFire setting it on fire with a molotov]] and/or pumping it full of lead while evading it. Just make sure that you're healthy enough that you can run fast, and that there's room to run.
* HitboxDissonance: Hitboxes for hunters move in front of them when they pounce, which makes them extraordinarily difficult to knock out of the air with even the slightest bit of lag.
* HoldTheLine: Occurs in all crescendos and finales as well as survival mode.
* HyperAwareness: Meta example. The best ''players'' exhibit this, being aware of all the directions from which infected could attack and keeping their eyes (and ears) open for incoming specials. Players that turn on subtitles can get alerts for specials before they actually see or hear them. In comparison, the AI bots (as mentioned above) are LazyBackup with a horrific case of SelectiveObliviousness.
* InterfaceScrew: Your vision becomes [[DeliberatelyMonochrome monochrome]] with red outlines for items if you're incapped twice without using a medkit.
** Getting hit with Boomer bile turns your screen green and blurry. Not a good thing when that same bile acts as zombie bait.
* InvisibleWall: Only the Infected in Versus mode will run into them, and if you get close enough they stop being invisible... instead they become labeled "wrong way!"
* ItCanThink: The Director is actually a rather well working AI system. Depending on the difficulty, it will decide when to place more zombies to hinder your efforts. On Expert difficulty, it just wants you dead and doesn't pull any punches.
* KaizoTrap: The end of "The Church" in ''Death Toll.'' However, this is rarely ever a problem since [[SequenceBreaking you can fire before the infected can hope to attack.]]
** Contrary to extraordinarily persistent rumors, it is not possible for Church Guy to become a Tank or Witch. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B3pZiRvvu8 As demonstrated and explained in this video.]]
*** It is, however, ''entirely'' possible for a Tank or Witch to spawn in the safe room on ''any'' map. This is disastrous with AI Survivors, as being near a safe room triggers a behavior override that has them hustle into the safe room door. [[TooDumbToLive They have no problem at all with bumping into the Witch in the process.]]
* KillerGameMaster: The AI director. Particularly on Expert mode, when he stops even ''pretending'' he doesn't hate your guts.
* LimitedLoadout: You can carry one primary weapon from a selection of five, a handgun with unlimited ammo that can be [[GunsAkimbo paired up]], one thrown explosive (either a pipe bomb or a Molotov,) one bottle of pills, and one medkit at a time.
* LuckBasedMission: Depending on where enemies spawn and what types they are, along with what items you find, you can either have a smooth sailing game or a nightmare of just trying to survive.
* MetronomicManMashing: The Tank does this to some zombies in the intro movie.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: The Witch is a small girl with relatively thin limbs (apart from the vicious claws)... limbs with which she can knock you down/kill you outright faster than any other Infected. Including the muscle-mountain Tank. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], at least in part, by those claws and perhaps by what could be argued as an overactive metabolism - she's clawed most of her own clothes off, can't stand the light of day, and is drawn to the smell of sugar. The Tank's bulk is more weight that his muscles have to overcome (though you don't want to get in the way of his fist once it's moving, and even less in the path of a car he's just flung at you - that can incap the ''entire team'' in one swipe), whereas the Witch's constant supercharge and lack of excess weight means she can swing those claws with deceptive range and ''vicious'' speed.
* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: AI-controlled Survivors occasionally get stuck in the environment, so they simply ''teleport'' to the nearest survivors position. AI-controlled infected can spawn anywhere, melee while stumbling, climb things player-controlled infected cannot, and AI-controlled hunters even have a lunge move players cannot perform.
* NeverSplitTheParty: The game is '''built''' on this trope. Get separated or lose track of your teammates and YouAreAlreadyDead.
** Occasionally averted in Expert and Versus matches when one survivor staying in the safe room with the door closed can be the difference between success or failure.
** There are also a few jarring situations in which you have passed a PointOfNoReturn and ''cannot'' go back and help your teammates. This just reinforces the original lesson, since you are forced to soldier on short-handed.
* {{Nerf}}: The shove motion has been nerfed in a patch with the addition of fatigue: do it too many times and there starts being a delay before you can do it again. This punishes the fact that you can get completely surrounded and need to shove your way out.
** The reason for the nerf was that players used to pick a corner or doorway, have a couple teammates in front who would spam the shove, and two behind them that would open fire. If a Smoker tried to pull a Survivor out of the formation, the Survivor would be quickly shoved, keeping them from getting too far. A Hunter would have no way of attacking without quickly getting shoved and shot. A Boomer would have the best chance of causing some damage, but if the Survivors picked the right spot, the Boomer wouldn't be able to get close. This type of tactic motivated Valve to both nerf the shove and create Special Infected that would break up highly coordinated Survivors in the sequel, namely, the Spitter and the Charger.
* NietzscheWannabe: A lot of the graffiti is this. It gets [[DeadpanSnarker shot down]] by both the cast and other graffiti.
* NoFEMAResponse: Though [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed CEDA]] tries to respond to the "Green Flu" in the sequel, there's no hint of them, much less their response, in the first game.
* NonStandardGameOver: As ''The Sacrifice'' requires somebody to sacrifice themselves to restart the generator at the end, if you reach that point with only one Survivor left (or the other Survivors die before managing to turn the generator back on), the game will inform you that it is impossible to win and restart the level.
* NothingIsScarier: Hearing a sobbing Witch, knowing she's close and you have to be careful, or you'll startle her. She'll screech and try to rip you apart - and sometimes you just don't find her...
** Forget Witches, sometimes you hear a special infected or its musical cue long before you see it or you know it's around the corner but don't want to be the guinea pig. The worse still, is when the Tank music starts playing but takes its time finding you so players are left frantically trying to spot it whilst trying to stick together or rethink their plans.
* NoticeThis: Witches inexplicably cast a red light in darker areas where you would otherwise have a hard time noticing them.
* PlayAsABoss: The Versus mode allows the players to play as the Special Infected. If one player is lucky enough, they can spawn in as the powerful, fast, and durable Tank to wreak havoc on the survivors.
* PlayerElimination: Players who die are no longer able to participate in the game and must instead spectate their teammates playing. Players can respawn at rescue closets in Campaign mode, and all players respawn after a level ends in Campaign and Versus mode, but in Survival mode, no mechanism exists for a player to respawn, so if you die, you're out until the next game.
* PressXToDie: The developers left in a suicide command for players who had gotten themselves stuck. The problem was, when players were Boomers, that command caused them to explode instantly, preventing the Survivors from stun-locking them with the melee shove. This was quickly patched out.
** You can intentionally trip car alarms to call a swarm of Infected upon yourself.
** It is still possible to trigger suicide as an Infected. However, now this is only possible if the Survivors are really, really far away. It's mainly done so you can catch up.
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Headshots on witches remain effective but lack the gruesome aftermath, even if you OneHitKill her with a shotgun. Same goes for every Special Infected, and Commons if you're using the pistols or the Uzi.
* ProceduralGeneration: The Director determines on the fly spawns for zombies and items, as well as [[VariableMix changing the music to fit the situation and mood]].
* RegeneratingHealth: Inverted. Pills and getting picked up from incapacitation add or give you a temporary buffer of health to your HP (you get 30 when picked up and using pills adds 50 to your current health), which disappears as time goes on.
* RespawningEnemies: You can surely expect to see all infected more than once.
* ScriptedEvent: Generally subverted, but there are a few played straight such as an airliner crash.
* SelfImposedChallenge:In-Universe. Several have achievements for them. No examples, please.
* SequelDifficultySpike: In-Universe.''The Sacrifice'' is '''much''' harder than other campaigns in spite of being shorter.
* SocializationBonus: The AI bots don't have the necessary perception to leave a partner untreated when temporary health is a better option, they can't use any kind of grenades, and they frequently interrupt your shooting by giving you pills or adrenaline at the most inopportune times. They aren't ''completely'' [[ArtificialStupidity incompetent]], being able to shoot very accurately and very rarely getting lost, but they're vastly inferior even to somewhat inexperienced human players. Some [[GameMod custom maps]] aren't even designed to be bot friendly, meaning you ''need'' to have a friend or two to have a shot at completing them.
* SoundCodedForYourConvenience: Major gameplay-changing events (horde attacks and tanks or witches being startled) change the music. Special infected spawning are accompanied by their unique theme (except in Versus) and their vocalizations give them away.
* StandardFPSGuns: [[BottomlessMagazines Pistols]], shotguns, assault rifles, mounted machine guns, sniper rifles, and some improvised "grenades."
* TakeUpMySword: If a survivor dies, another can take their weapons and items.
* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: The Special Infected warning sounds.
* TotalPartyKill:
** Tanks can cause this singlehandedly, especially if the Survivors are clumped together and he swats a car at them. Also can happen when a good ambush is pulled off in Versus.
** Averted with the Witch, who is programmed specifically to only be aggressive towards one Survivor. She was originally intended to be a threat to all survivors, running after every one of them and incapping all, but the developers figured out she was too hard to deal with like this. Not that things don't go off the rails every now and then...
* VideoGameCaringPotential: Given that you're trying to survive as a team in a zombie apocalypse, you can either always have your team's back, even making sacrifices to save all of their lives...
** VideoGameCrueltyPotential: ...or you can completely ditch them and leave them at the mercy of all the ruthless zombies, taking all the weapons and health for yourself.
** VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Of course, the Director gets pissed at uncooperative play, so he'll often spawn less items and more zombies to target the cruelty-inflicting players.
* VideogameSetpiece: Most prominently in the last stage of Dead Air, when the survivors leave the saferoom to see a plane on approach go out of control, impact the ground, and slide in on fire before ''exploding''.
* ViolationOfCommonSense:
** Downing a whole pack of pain pills at once would be fatal in real life, but somehow is a good idea if you're low on health.
** In the zombie apocalypse, you don't need to remove the cap to swallow a ''whole bottle'' of pills.
** First-aid kits, which visibly just have bandages in them. Got shot? Use bandages. Got torn apart by zombies? Use bandages. Fell off a building? Use bandages. Got hit by ''a car'' sent flying at you by a Tank? Use bandages. Infections, blood loss, rest, fractures? Just slap some bandages on and you're good as new!
** If you get mobbed by common infected, setting yourself on fire with molotovs will usually clear your space a lot faster than trying to shove them away. You'll suffer self inflicted friendly fire damage, but that will be small compared to trying to clear out zombies invading your space without said methods.
** There are some cases where team killing is actually justified. If someone is about to die and there's nothing to heal with, players will usually kill the wounded survivor and then let them respawn in a closet: it brings the Survivor back with 50 points of full health, rather than the 30 points of temporary health you get from reviving them. If no one speaks of this and do the deed, they could be mistaken for a {{Griefer}}.
* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: If there are any bots on the team, you'll have to start the level over again if all the human players are dead, regardless of if there is a bot player alive. It becomes mind-boggling when playing against a team of bot Survivors in versus mode and they are capable of moving through the level on their own without the guidance of a human player.
** It gets even better when you jump off the roof of No Mercy before starting the finale with only bot allies. Game over starts playing, bots start the finale, you respawn in the closet due to finale starting, bots free you, then the game restarts the chapter anyway.
* WhatTheHellPlayer: Shoot one of your fellow survivors, and they'll call you out for it with scripted response.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Special Infected which are stuck or otherwise unable to catch up to the Survivors will occasionally be killed off by the Director, with the death noise often being faintly audible to human players, particularly in the case of Boomers and Smokers.
** Tanks will fall victim to this unless they can attack the players within a given amount of time. It's rare but it does happen occasionally.
** Infected players can manually trigger this when they are at a certain distance behind the survivors, allowing them to skip the respawn time that would happen if they jumped off a cliff instead.
* YourHeadAsplode: Shots to the head of regular zombies with more powerful weapons leave only their neck and a PinkMist.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: During the finale to ''The Sacrifice'', it seems the survivors are about to escape to the keys, when the generator cuts out and needs to be restarted. Someone has to get down to the generator and start it back up...[[HeroicSacrifice and it's gonna be a one-way trip for them.]]
* YouALLLookFamiliar: The basic infected actually have [[OnlySixFaces a small number of basic models]] but are made to look different with various filters, like clothing and blood spatter.
* ZergRush: The AI director will send these at you when a boomer vomits on you, in pre-programmed Crescendo Events where you're forced to make a ton of noise to continue moving, or if you accidentally set off a car alarm, [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation or whenever he's bored, which is]] ''[[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation all the time]]''. The normal infected also like to rush pipe bombs because of the smoke detector alarms rigged to them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Weapons Tropes]]
* AbilityDepletionPenalty:
** If the minigun {{overheat|ing}}s completely, it becomes inoperable for a long cooldown period.
** The autoshotgun can be reloaded one shell at a time, but completely emptying the magazine means you have to "prime" the weapon again after reloading.
* AKA47: Done subtly: although most of the guns are not named, zooming in on the gun models reveal they are made by fictional companies (example, the pistols in this game are made by "Finleyville Armory").
* AwesomeButImpractical: The HMG and Gatling, which can shred oncoming hordes like no other, do not provide sufficient cover and with the limited heat capacity, can often be a liability than assistance,
* BottomlessMagazines: Pistols have infinite ammunition. This is for gameplay reasons; they don't do as much damage as regular guns, and they're the only weapons you can use while incapacitated. The creators also didn't want to ever leave you totally defenseless if you run out of ammo, either.
* CigarFuseLighting: Bill can be seen doing this with a molotov cocktail in the trailer for "The Sacrifice".
* GatlingGood: You get the odd mounted minigun here and there. It's set up so that the gunner will have to be covered by the other Survivors, though, and it's pretty effective at pulling tanks away. Unfortunately this HMG overheats, so be careful of what you wish for.
* GunsAkimbo: All characters can find and dual wield a second pistol for extra ammunition in the magazines.
* IncrediblyObviousBomb: The pipe bomb is one, [[JustifiedTrope but with good reason]] - its red light and high-pitched beeping [[SchmuckBait make the standard infected flock to it]], making it less a question of where to throw them and more a question of ''when''.
* KillItWithFire: Molotov cocktails and gas cans. Very effective against all kinds of Infected; Common Infected die instantly when set on fire, while Special Infected - including Tanks and Witches - will eventually burn to death. Note, however, that being on fire doesn't stop Specials from attacking, and the Hunter [[InfernalRetaliation will in fact deal more damage while on fire]], while the tank will move faster. Of course, the tank will have a hard time getting the fire off itself.
* MolotovCocktail: Lovely, lovely, molotov cocktails...
* OneBulletClips: Applies to every weapon. Around release, however, there was a common misconception that this was averted by mag-fed weapons (read: everything but the shotguns) losing any ammo left in the current magazine when they were reloaded.[[note]]The gist of it is that, when you begin reloading a magazine-fed weapon, the ammo count in that mag is immediately dropped to zero, so then once a player starts reloading they ''have'' to take the time to let the animation play out before they can start shooting again. What players initially failed to notice is that the remaining ammo was re-added to their reserves.[[/note]]
* PinkMist: Pipe bombs produce this effect in the original game, rather than gibs. This was due to the performance issues of having 20 or so commons turn to gibs at once.
* RangedEmergencyWeapon: Pistols.
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted. The shotguns are a viable weapon choice, even in open areas.
* SticksToTheBack: Every primary weapon, melee weapon and medkit slot item, but not pistols (they get holsters), pill slot items, and grenades.
[[/folder]]

!!Left 4 Dead provides examples of: