L4D2 Realism mode: Glows dropped, one-hit-kill Witch

Valve's finally confirmed proper details on Left 4 Dead 2's Realism mode, saying it'll be playable at all difficulty settings, will remove character glows to force teams to greatly increase communication, and give the Witch super-kill powers.

"Realism mode isn't just making Expert harder," Valve boss Chet Faliszek said at the London leg of the EG expo last week.

"We have our four skill levels again, and you can play Realism mode with any of them.

"We find that people play with the same people a lot... And those teams don't necessarily want to play Expert or Hard, they want to be challenged as a team."

Faliszek outlined an intrigued proposition at the Expo, one designed to take closely knit player-groups to the limit.

"It's real easy to say, 'Let's make the creatures harder for you to kill and you easier to kill.' It's less interesting," he added.

"With this, we remove the glows, we make events like the Witch more important now, because if the Witch hits you once, she kills you. And you die. You don't come back.

"There's no safe closets. You can use the defib to get back, but your team has to do that for you."

No glows? No glows.

"Way back in development of Left 4 dead 1 we didn't have glows for a while, and it was really frustrating and hard," Faliszek said.

"The first time you turn around, and you run off by yourself and you're going to get something out of this building, and you turn and go, 'I've got the pipe bomb! Oh, man, where is everybody?' And you have no idea. It's a really different experience.

"Realism mode is really about pushing the skill of the team."

Left 4 Dead 2 hits on November 17. The 360 demo's out now for all Gold subs.