Versus mode is not at all what people will expect from a "horror game." It's funny. It's hilarious fun. It brings out the twisted monster in all of us--the monster that doesn't care about cooperation, and only wants to grab a friend from across the room and bite his arm off.
That's not to say there aren't moments of tension. But while I'll make a comparison to Aliens vs. Predators later on in this preview, Versus mode is simply too much of a blast to sustain any sense of real dread. In that respect, it's got more in common with Team Fortress 2 than something like Counter-Strike.
But let's get the basics down first. Versus essentially pits two teams of four humans and Infected against eachother, in what Valve described to me as a football-esque scenario. The humans have to reach a safe room--like carrying a football to the endzone--while constantly being hunted by AI zombies and the four player-controlled zombie heroes.
When the round ends--either with the humans reaching the room, or being decimated--the teams switch sides, playing the same map but as the other race. The team that carries the "ball" the furthest as the human side wins.
From the human perspective, the objective is identical to the co-op mode. But playing from the Infected side, everything changes dramatically.
As a zombie, you begin the round--and every subsequent spawn--directly on top of the humans. Unfortunately, you can't hit them yet--your first objective is... Read more
