Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 72
Of course, the internet isn’t a lawless place—
Once A-Yin got caught by the supervisor, the other three didn’t get off easy either.
It took about five minutes for all four of them to adjust their streams,
and then they regrouped in the game.
Thankfully, the game had just started.
Otherwise, with no safe house reached yet, there’d be no save point, and they’d have to restart the whole thing.
Back at it!
The squad returned to the corridor like pros.
“Man, these zombies are just straight-up unlucky...”
“This time, I’ll make it quick. You—taste my power!”
Bzzzt!
CRACK!
The axe swept horizontally—
The zombie’s head popped clean off, flying into the air.
A geyser of blood shot straight up, splattering the ceiling.
Even though he was ready for it, A-Yin still couldn’t help but let out a low roar:
“Holy f***! This blood spray is insane!”
And then—
A zombie’s guttural roar rang out from the other end of the corridor!
Without even turning his head, A-Yin knew those “sunflower” zombies were about to start chasing the sun!
“Cover me!”
With a shout, A-Yin bolted at full speed, tearing down the hallway toward the fire door!
GRRAAAHHHH!!!
The horde erupted—
Their furious screams were even more terrifying than the demo, making hearts race and palms sweat!
And as the roars echoed, a massive wave of zombies came surging down the hallway—
rolling, clawing, biting, like rabid dogs unleashed!
Here’s the thing.
In Gu Sheng’s previous life, Left 4 Dead had a design flaw—
the max number of zombies per horde was capped at thirty due to the game’s initial setup.
Sure, Turtle Rock Studio had worked hard to juice the sound design, visuals, zombie animations, even the background music—
all in an effort to make the horde feel bigger.
But that cap still held back the visual impact.
So!
In this world, Gu Sheng had specifically addressed that.
From day one, the Golden Wind version of Left 4 Dead had its horde cap cranked up to match Train to Busan and World War Z.
One wave could now spawn up to three hundred zombies.
That’s right—
If Gu Sheng wanted to, he could set up a literal “skyfall” event, dropping 300 zombies onto the player’s head all at once!
And in the corridor where A-Yin was now?
That system was fully at work.
Fifty-plus zombies spawned simultaneously.
The moment A-Yin showed himself, the horde instantly triggered—
No cooldown, no delay, just BAM—go time!
No doubt about it—
This setup made the gameplay smoother and cranked the horde’s pressure way up.
After all, there’s a huge difference between thirty cavalry charging in waves and three hundred charging in unison!
The horde surged forward!
For some reason, the three teammates waiting at the fire door felt like the horde in the final release was way scarier than the demo.
It was like a tidal wave, ready to swallow the sprinting A-Yin whole!
“Ready!”
Liuliu took the lead, snapping her pistol’s slide into place and aiming straight at A-Yin.
Sister Zhou and Bobo followed suit, raising their guns in textbook form.
At that moment, everyone’s eyes were on Captain Yin as he sprinted for his life—
even the audience held their breath!
Next second—
Liuliu shouted, sharp and crisp:
“Open fire!”
Bang bang bang bang!
Muzzle flashes lit up, gunfire crackled through the narrow hallway, a storm of bullets sweeping the space!
It was déjà vu—
The Survivor Squad’s tactic seemed unchanged from before:
three teammates aiming at A-Yin, shooting over his head.
The only difference?
This time, they were finally holding their guns with both hands.
Their stances were actually proper!
But!
Just as everyone thought the classic “team shoots at A-Yin” routine was about to repeat itself...
Whoosh!
Suddenly, A-Yin dropped low, hitting his knees—
and slid forward in a perfect knee slide!
In the same motion, he whipped out his pistol, crouched beneath the firestorm of his teammates’ bullets,
and opened fire on the charging horde!
That’s right!
In Golden Wind’s Left 4 Dead, Gu Sheng had removed the restriction between pistols and melee weapons—
allowing players to switch between the two seamlessly!
Bang bang bang bang!
In an instant, the four players’ firing lines formed a perfect crossfire web, blanketing the entire hallway!
It looked like a scene straight out of a promo trailer!
Howling zombies flooded the hallway, blood splattering everywhere as they dropped like wheat under the scythe.
Meanwhile, the trio at the fire door looked like gods of war, unloading shot after shot, cutting down the undead with relentless precision!
BOOM!
The sheer elegance and badassery of the scene blew up the chat!
“ohhhhhh——”
“What the f***?! That knee slide tho!”
“Holy s***, that was so damn cool!”
“What the hell was that move?! Fing second-gen FPS, baby!”
“So fing slick! Doesn’t even feel like the same old squad!”
“Ahhhh take my fifty bucks! I want in on that move!”
“Hot damn, that was epic!”
“If I pulled off a move like that, I’d make a video, put a QR code on my grave, and let people scan it to see me flex!”
“So smooth! So damn smooth!”
“This is peak content!”
“God-tier move, I’m in awe…”
Gifts poured into the stream—planes, rockets, you name it!
That’s why—
Gu Sheng didn’t just copy the mechanics of the original Left 4 Dead, one of the most acclaimed co-op shooters ever.
He enhanced it with a ton of second-gen FPS elements!
Like the knee slide—
That idea came to him during a meeting, while demoing some gun techniques to Lu Bian and the crew.
If they were gonna call it second-gen FPS, they might as well go all the way.
So they added knee slides, prone shooting, edge climbing, side-tilt aiming, and other detailed mechanics—
features that had never existed in first-gen FPS.
For Gu Sheng, these moves were nothing special.
But for the VR gaming market—
where mass production tech had only just been cracked in recent years,
and most design still clung to the old PC game paradigms—
this level of movement innovation was mind-blowing.
“Wahoo! That was awesome!”
As the last zombie lunged at A-Yin,
he hacked it in half with a clean axe swing.
Looking at the corridor strewn with bodies and blood, the Survivor Squad erupted in cheers!
“That kill feedback is so satisfying!”
A-Yin hefted his fire axe, absolutely in love with the hack-and-slash vibes.
“So cathartic,” Liuliu said with a long exhale.
“Fast-paced and thrilling—after a long day at work, coming home to bash some zombies is just... perfection.”
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
After a round of exclamations, Sister Zhou holstered her pistol, yanked out a crowbar, and was itching to get in on the action.
“Seeing the boss go ham just now got me fired up—I want to play too.”
The group burst into laughter.
A-Yin waved them forward, and they pressed on.
Past the blood-soaked hallway, around the corner where the smoke billowed, they hit a barricade of burning tables blocking the path.
No choice—
they opened a side door to find another route.
Gotta say—this game’s design was smart.
No minimap, but the obstacles and layout guided players so well that they never felt lost.
Opening the door revealed a simple, hotel-like room.
Just a few zombies—three or five.
As soon as the door opened, the nearest zombie roared and lunged at A-Yin!
“F*** off!”
Bzzz!
A-Yin reacted in a flash, swinging the fire axe at the zombie’s head.
CRACK!
The head hit the floor, rolling away.
Before A-Yin could get into a full-on slaughter mode, Sister Zhou shouted:
“Don’t move! Let me handle this!”
She shoved past A-Yin, crowbar raised high, and smashed it down on the zombie charging at them!
CRUNCH!
Blood and brain matter exploded everywhere—
the perfect blend of resistance and vibration feedback made it feel just like smashing something real.
Sister Zhou’s eyes lit up!
“Holy s***! That feels so good!”
Unlike the flimsy melee feedback in other FPS games,
Left 4 Dead had a detailed force feedback system for melee weapons,
making each strike feel visceral and weighty.
Of course, that was because melee weapons were a core feature in this game.
If this were Rainbow Six, Gu Sheng probably wouldn’t have added an entire force feedback system just for knife stabs.
The new combat feel took Sister Zhou by surprise—
she was so hyped, she charged at the remaining zombies, crowbar swinging!
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! These are mine! Let me enjoy this!”
The bullet chat lost it:
“What a wild line of dialogue…”
“Classic Sister Zhou, man.”
“This is so unhinged…”
“Someone tell the supervisor to slap an 18+ rating on this stream.”
“Can’t even tell who’s the zombie anymore…”
“Humans shouldn’t... I mean, probably shouldn’t…”
“…”
Ding! Clang! Thud!
Three sharp strikes rang out—
and the remaining zombies collapsed in a shower of blood.
The last one flew into the bathroom, crashing open the door—
and the squad spotted something strange on the sink.
A bottle, about the size of a water bottle, made of glass, filled with green liquid.
It had a biohazard label and strange English text all over it.
The cap was white, sealed tight.
“What’s this?”
Sister Zhou, in front, picked up the green bottle and gave it a shake.
But just as she turned to pass it to A-Yin—
ROAR!!!
Suddenly, the zombie she’d smashed earlier wasn’t dead—
its lower body was gone, but it was crawling on the floor, flailing and roaring!
Sister Zhou yelped, stumbling back—
and dropped the green bottle!
“Ah!”
She reached for it, fingertips brushing it—
but not quite.
Whoosh!
The bottle flew into the air.
“Yikes!”
Bobo reached out, but just missed it—
his fingers slipped, sending the bottle flying again!
“Whoa!”
The sudden shift caught Liuliu off guard—
she reached for it reflexively, but was just a beat too slow.
Whoosh!
Under everyone’s stunned gaze, the bottle arced straight for A-Yin.
“Huh?!”
Yeah, no way he could’ve seen that coming.
Not even Buffon could’ve made that save.
And then—
SPLAT!
The bottle smashed right into A-Yin’s face, shattering on impact!
CRACK!
Green liquid splattered everywhere, blurring A-Yin’s vision.
“WTF?! What the h*** is this s***?!”
A-Yin was stunned.
This was some serious bad luck!
The thing had a biohazard label, right?!
Was it corrosive? Infectious?!
He wiped at his face, shaking it off.
But after a few moments, he realized...
nothing happened.
His health bar was still full, no infection meter popped up,
just a bit of screen blur.
He looked confused:
“Wait... it’s... it’s fine?”
But before he could finish—
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Loud bangs echoed from the room across the hallway.
The four of them exchanged worried glances.
Then they heard it—
the thunderous stomp of countless feet.
Something big—a lot of somethings—were coming fast.
“Sh**... f***...”
A-Yin sucked in a breath, already guessing what was about to happen.
That bottle... it was a horde attractor, wasn’t it?!
Patting his soaked clothes, he pointed at the other three, who looked sheepish and guilty.
A-Yin clenched his teeth, helplessly laughing through the pain:
“Haha... you motherf***ers...”
Next second—
BANG!
The door across the hall exploded open!
A massive, mutant zombie—easily taller than the doorframe, with a grotesquely swollen right arm—
charged out like a raging bull!
Behind it came an endless sea of zombies!
WHAM—
The mutant was so fast it didn’t even give A-Yin time to scream—
it rammed him straight into the wall,
then grabbed his legs and, like the Hulk swinging Loki,
started smashing him into the floor!
In the team’s voice chat, A-Yin’s final words were—
“I never want to play games with you three ever again—!!!”
Followed by the brutal sound of flesh slamming into concrete.
BANG! BANG! BANG!