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Left 4 Dead’s zombie horde is controlled by a technology called AI Director, a complex intelligence algorithm that tracks and monitors your performance throughout the game to dynamically ramp up or tone down the difficulty. Attributes like the health of the team, available ammunition, and accuracy are taken into consideration when the director decides how many zombies to throw at you in each set piece.
This ensures that the game not only feels balanced when you’re playing with strangers of varying shooter aptitude but also that no two sessions will play out the same way. Variables that are changed include the number and location of the zombies you encounter, the timing of Boss Infected attacks, and the placement of weapon, health, and ammo drops. So even though you might learn the layout of a level after running through it a few times, you can still expect to be challenged and surprised by the AI Director’s unpredictability. Left 4 Dead will ship with a software development kit that’ll let modders build their own levels and populate them with the AI Director, as well. We can’t wait to see what the community will do with this powerful tool.