In the time of chimpanzees...

impossibletardis:

Common Infected: They deserve our pity (maybe)

When not attacking, Common Infected are very vulnerable, usually sitting down, leaning on walls, or simply standing. If an idle Common Infected receives a non-fatal gunshot wound from a distance they will writhe in pain and clutch the wound with their hand. They are often seen engaging in bizarre activities such as vomiting, attacking inanimate objects, and fighting each other. In rare cases, one can be seen facing a wall and making mumbling noises, as if talking to itself.

The Infected appear to lack a sense of self preservation, as they will actively charge into flames, explosions, jump off from high buildings, and against superior forces of the Survivors and their weapons, even if they have encountered these things before. Due to loss of higher brain functions, they seem to ignore pain and damage even when their limbs are blown off.

They seem to have some grasp of their current situation, or at least how they feel; generally, idle Infected act physically ill, holding their heads and vomiting as they shuffle around slowly. Occasionally, one of the Infected who is holding their head may begin to writhe in pain, or they may simply lie down and sometimes die without being shot or punched. Common Infected are shown to have a primitive but working communication system with others, generally through grunts and screams. They are also shown to see the Survivors as something inhuman, or something of the sort, which may explain why they attack them- it may even be that symptoms of the Infection include immense hallucinations followed by adverse paranoia which leads them to attack nearly anything they see moving, including their own kind on various occasions. Anatomy breakdown is shown in the case that if a Survivor would step on a sleeping zombie, they will immediately die.

Now I feel kinda bad about the Infected

The valve-team did an amazing job with the infected and the whole environment in my opinion. While the infected are a menacing threat and are clearly identified as the the enemies, they are victims as well, just as much as the four survivors in each game. And as the original poster pointed out, their human traits haven’t been stripped away. They feel their pain, they are clearly sick, they are vomiting, lying down, trying to support themselves on walls, stumbling around without direction, fighting amongst themselves. Mumbling, trying to articulate themselves, but not able to.Not anymore. And lets not forget the special infected: They must have undergone terrible mutations to reach the forms for which we know them, and apparently all the infected keep mutating after their infection. The zombies in L4D2 are clearly more mutated than their L4D-counterparts, experiencing even greater agony and pain. And seeing the advanced mutations of the special infected you really begin feeling sorry for them. Nobody should have to endure the pain and mutations those former people had to go through. There are quite a few good theories on how the virus affects different people with different backgrounds on the L4D-wikia if you want to read more about it. But it is really depressing. :(

Also I admire how much atmosphere is in the two L4D games, how many stories each level has to tell, if you stop once in a while to look around and search for it. Survivors who died and had been covered by their now long gone friends, barricades that have been overturned and destroyed, dead cows that have been tested on rabies, people who desperately tried to barricade themselves somewhere but eventually died. CEDA flyers lying around, the graffitis of fellow survivors, bloodsmears of poor souls who have been overrun by the infected, houses that have been left in a hurry, where coffeemugs are left on tables, TVs are turned on, teddybears are still lying in childrens’ cribs… people who died in their homes, maybe too weak for the infection, maybe by committing suicide so they wouldn’t be consumed by the virus. Cars crashed into buildings, the leftovers in the safe rooms…. and so much more. I love how everything that needs to be known is told by the game itself, not by manuals, not by cutscenes, just by exploring the world, listenting to the comments of the characters, paying attention.

I admire this love to detail and the commitment to the world Valve created. And I think this is also one of the reason why most people consider it to be one of the best, if not the best zombie - related game ever created. It contains so much more that isn’t instantly handed to the player and allows for discoveries and new experiencies even after years of playing through the campaigns. <3