So we’ve been waiting for this one for a little while and I thought it would have been packaged along with Half-Life 2 Episode 3. While Episode 3 is nowhere near to being finished, Left 4 Dead is and oddly enough if you’re the type of gamer that likes to grief (intentionally screw up another person’s game) then Left 4 Dead may be your dream game. RELOADING!
Left 4 Dead takes place in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse within a city that’s been quarantined to help stop the spread of the infection. Each campaign of the game takes place during 4 different movie-themed scenarios taking place in different locations over the course of around 5 stages each:
No Mercy: The No Mercy campaign finds you on the rooftop of an obliterated apartment complex, deep in the heart of the once-thriving metropolis of Fairfield—now completely overrun with hordes of Infected. A voice from a bullhorn calls out from a rescue helicopter: Get to the roof of nearby Mercy Hospital and be airlifted to safety. Even if it means shooting your way through narrow alleys, open sewers and seething waves of zombies to get there.
Death Toll: Shoot, shove and sprint through a nightmare suburbia consumed by the Infected horde. The Death Toll campaign has your team of survivors making their way down a turnpike littered with abandoned cars to the nearby ghost town of Riverside—the site of a failed stand-off between the last of humanity and a limitless swarm of undead. Fight through the ruins of small town America to the waterfront nearby, where a rescue party can take you upriver to safety.
Dead Air: Guide your team of Survivors out of the downtown core of Newburg’s business district, through derelict office floors and still-inhabited cubicles, and out onto the runway of Metro International Airport, where the only thing standing between you and the last plane out of the city is a murderous army of the undead.
Blood Harvest: Zombies lurk behind every tree, over every hilltop and behind every shadow in this terrifying moonlit search for a rumored evacuation zone to the north: several acres of back-country farmland taken over by the military to get the last of humanity out of Ground Zero. Plunge through pitch-black forests, stumble blindly through fields of swaying corn, and take aim at the silhouettes leaping at you from the darkness—all towards finding a hold-out that might already have been abandoned to the horde.
When you jump into a game you have the choice of playing as 4 different characters:
Louis: Louis had been working up the courage to quit his job as Junior Systems Analyst at his company’s IT department when a virus showed up and downsized the world. Now Louis has a new set of goals (live long enough to succeed) and a new set of tools (guns, sharp objects) to help him achieve them. With any luck, he’ll figure out how the new management operates before they get a chance to murder him.
Francis: Cocky, loud, and pretty sure he’s indestructible, Francis acts like the zombie apocalypse is the world’s biggest bar fight. When the virus hit, everybody else stockpiled food and looked for a place to hide. Francis found a gun and had some fun. No cops, no laws, no order—if it wasn’t for all the zombies, he could almost get used to life like this.
Zoey: After spending her first semester holed up in a dorm room watching old horror movies, Zoey was given a choice: Stop fooling around and get her grades up, or drop out. Now that the planet’s overrun with murderous zombies, and all of her professors are dead, Zoey at least has the cold comfort that she’s been studying up on the right subject after all.
Bill: It took two eventful tours in Vietnam, a handful of medals, a knee full of shrapnel, and an honorable discharge before the unthinkable happened: Bill ran out of wars. But now an army of infected undead has declared war on humanity. After decades of aimless drifting and dead-end jobs, Bill’s finally gotten back the only thing he ever wanted: an enemy to fight.
Or if you’re playing a VS game, 4 different Infected:
The Boomer: The fat, slow Boomer vomits a thick bile with two side effects: It blinds Survivors, and it attracts hordes of Infected. When Boomers are killed, they explode, showering bile on anyone nearby. Get close to Survivors when attacking. Even if you miss, they might not.
The Smoker: Smokers work best from an out-of-sight vantage point. Ensnaring Survivors from rooftops leaves them helpless and hanging—perfect targets for a pounce or vomit attack from a teammate.
The Hunter: Hunters are a mutated breed of zombie—faster, fiercer and far more dangerous than common Infected. Keep your ears perked—a shriek from the darkness means a Hunter is near, and ready to pounce in for the kill.
The Tank: Mutated through infection, the Tank’s only strategy is brute force. Find the Survivors. Pummel them to death. Repeat. Healthy Survivors can run slightly faster than you. Try to trap them in tight areas, or use a thrown chunk of concrete to stun them.
There’s also a 5th zombie type, but you can’t play as her for reasons defined in her description:
The Witch: Witches only want to be left alone so they can enjoy a good cry. They hate flashlights and loud noises, but what they hate more than anything is being shot at. If you hear the Witch’s tell tale sobs, turn off your flashlights and try to sneak around her. If she starts to get angry, her growl will let you know she’s close to attacking.
The main goal of the game is simple – survive long enough to escape from the city. Each campaign has a different end objective and some aren’t apparent until close to the end of the campaign. Although in each level your objective is to make it to a safe room at the end of the level with a big red steel door. Inside the room will be med-kits, ammo and different weapons to choose from. Now, there really aren’t that many weapons in the game with I think 8 total with 2 grenade type weapons, but knowing Valve as well as I do, I’m almost certain they’ll be adding more down the road so it isn’t that big of an issue. I’m also 100% certain they’ll be adding more campaigns over time as well since 4 seems a little small, however 360 owners can expect a charge for these since Microsoft’s greedy. Although with those 4 there’s nearly endless fun to be had because of a little bit of code Valve added to the game called The Director.
Let’s talk about The Director a little bit. In short, the director is the game’s balance AI. Those of you that have played the game on Extreme will know it as the asshole making shit go bad for you. While playing through any of the 4 campaigns you’ll notice that the placement of zombies is different every time. The reason for this is the director, it changes what’s impeding your path based off several factors such as health, ammunition and how “safe” you are. Now what do I mean by “safe” you say? well here’s something I love about Left 4 Dead’s Director: Just when you think you have things under control and feel relatively safe, you’re not. I can’t really describe it aside from saying every moment I felt like it was too quiet, a massive zombie attack would smash through the doors and windows along with at least 1 of the named zombies above.
Left 4 Dead also adds something new to the world of gaming in giving a single player game a multiplayer angle. Yes you can play the game by yourself with 3 bots, but you’ll have the most fun letting 3 other players fill those three spots. I’ve played a good number of online games and I don’t know, it’s as if Left 4 Dead forces players to play cooperatively rather than being dicks to one another. I mean I really really enjoyed playing through an entire campaign with 3 other people. Plus, because they were helpful and weren’t complete jerks, I was more inclined to play to the end. Although I played the PC version and we all know about the “quality” of Xbox Live gamers.
Those of you familiar with the normal Valve server browser will complain a little bit when you see the interface when you go looking to play an online game. Mostly it looks more reminiscent of the console FPS style interface with “quickplay” and “custom game” options. Now, I know it’s the day of the game’s release and all, but whenever I tried to start a game today, it took FOR-EV-ER to find a dedicated server to play on. Finally I just said screw it and hosted the game locally since my system could easily handle the load. Hopefully this will die down once people stop bogging down the servers or Valve starts hosting more games.
Now I must take note that the 4 survivors mentioned above are the only side of the game I’ve been playing so far, but I’ve heard from many sources that playing as the infected in VS games is basically letting you fuck with another gamers’ experience. That to me sounds like a lot of fun and I intend to try it out tomorrow.
Why you should buy it: Did you like Team Fortress 2? Do you like zombies? Do you want to play a game where you’re encouraged to join a game and mess with others? Then you’ll like Left 4 Dead quite a lot. The game has plenty of replayability and I expect it to have just as much if not more future additions from Valve as TF2 has enjoyed. Even if they don’t, the fact the game always changes things up to keep you on your toes will keep you playing it for a long, long time.
Why you shouldn’t buy it: Well, put simply if you hate FPS games like one person I know in particular does, you probably won’t enjoy L4D that much. Although really, I think the prospect of a game that keeps the experience fresh and new would be enough for me to try at least this one.
Left 4 Dead is available now on Xbox 360 and PC. Those of you the want to play it via PC should get it through Steam since there’s a new “Everything Valve” package for $99 that includes EVARY game valve has put onto Steam. That includes: Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Day of Defeat, Deathmatch Classic, Half-Life: Opposing Force, Ricochet, Half-Life, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Half-Life Deathmatch: Source, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Portal, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead and Peggle Extreme. *takes labored breaths* That’s a LOT for 99 bones, especially considering the PC version of Left 4 Dead is $49 on it’s own. I’d also like to offer my condolences to those forced to buy the 360 version of the game since it’s $59… I dunno, PC gamers get all the love.
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