Left 4 Dead Hands-on Preview - Infected Side
SMOKER - AKA GENE SIMMONS v2
I was pretty surprised when I first saw the Smoker because he really doesn't stand out from the crowd. Although still badass, he is a normal looking Infected with a gaping mouth and an ugly face. He is probably the hardest boss to notice in a group of the regular Infected. Although you may find this disappointing, the camouflage actually gives the Smoker an interesting tactic that I'll cover in a moment.
The Smoker's primary weapon is his fifty foot tongue that really makes him the hit of every party. The tongue seems to have mutated to allow prehensile movement (like your thumb or a monkey tail) and can be used in a number of different ways, depending on the situation.
The most defining use of his tongue is to choke an unsuspecting Survivor. This can be achieved in one of two ways: 1) you can climb to a point above the Survivors, working your way to a higher level or by using one of the nifty glowing ladder points to take a clear shot at a Survivors head, and watch as you yank the Survivor off his feet and let gravity do its work or 2) snag the Survivor from a more even level (or even a lower level) and snag them on something like a lamp post or corner as you pull them in, choking them to death. I think this was my first real satisfying experience as an Infected; there's just some sick pleasure to be had in grabbing that straggling Survivor, yanking him from the group, and watching as you choke the life out of the poor sap before his teammates can rescue him. When you do choke somebody from above, Left 4 Dead makes great use of the Source engine's physics and the Survivor actually dangles while choking. If a Hunter comes around and lunges at the dangling Survivor, the Survivor will sway back and forth like a pendulum.
Pulling this off these chokes turns out to be a little harder than you might expect. For one, the Smoker is very frail and can only take a few more shots than your average zombie. This is a real problem because when you do grab a Survivor and start pulling him in, the Survivor has a brief window to turn around and blast you to pieces. Once you start choking the Survivor, however, they become helpless and must rely on their teammates to save them. Here we see the biggest weakness of the Smoker: once you commit to an attack, there's no stopping it. From the time that you fire your tongue to the time that you roll it back up, you cannot move. This applies even if you missed your initial attack. There was nothing more painful than missing a shot because you know you just revealed your position and the Survivors are going to follow that tongue right back to its source. So you're sitting there, swearing at yourself and praying that you can get that tongue back in so you can turn tail and run - not a happy feeling. Even if you manage to grab a Survivor and start choking them, you're still just a sitting target until the Survivor is dead.
The challenge, however, is worth it. I did manage to choke a few Survivors out and I loved it. As a Smoker looking for the choke, you must first choose your position. The most obvious is to go high, and I must admit this is where I was most successful, but don't forget you can snag Survivors around objects as well. Also, when looking for a choke, try to snag the Survivor without being too close to the edge of the building. Step back a little and let the building provide you some cover (pictured below). My first choke happened when the Survivors were battling in the center of a mob of Infected and a Hunter had just appeared on the scene. In the chaos and struggle with the Hunter, the three teammates weren't able to get to their friend in time.
If you stand on the edge as a Smoker you make yourself vulnerable to Survivor fire. For maximum choking effectiveness, stand farther in and choke at an angle. The Survivors will have to run in order to get the right angle on you, in which time you might have already accomplished your goal.
