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Developer: Valve
Platform: Xbox 360, PC
Multiplayer: Yes, up to 8 players
Single player: Yes, but limited
Left 4 Dead is a zombie game like no other. You play as one of 4 survivors left stranded in the chosen scenario, under heavy attack by waves of zombies. This is the primary aspect of the game. It requires all players to work in a team in order for anyone to succeed, and more importantly, survive. There’s also the option to play through scenarios with bots, however this really isn’t the same, and anyone considering buying the game should really endeavour to find friends to play with as this is really where this game comes into a league of its own. There’s also an 8 player “versus” mode, but I’ll get into that later.
Currently the only thing limiting the game is a lack of different scenarios, but as this is a Valve game, PC players will undoubtedly receive new maps before long through Valves gaming platform, Steam. The game uses Valves infamously successful Source engine – meaning it will run happily on older machines on lower settings, or if you have a mean machine you can crank up the settings and the view the carnage in immense detail. As with all source games, at high resolutions some textures aren’t available in high quality, and this shows through on in game miscellaneous items and objects such as posters – this isn’t a problem though, as every second of playing you’ll be immersed in the action, or closely on the lookout for trouble.
You have 1 of 4 players to choose from when you begin any campaign – Bill, Zoey, Francis and Louis. Other than looks there’s no difference between players. Louis is the token black guy, Bill is the big guy with the hat and never ending cigarette, Francis is the cool biker guy and Zoey is the women added so that women wouldn’t complain about being left out. Your objective is to play through the campaign (that is set out like a zombie movie, right from the loading screen to the credits upon completion) as a team, and get extracted from an area being heavily over-run by the zombie horde.
In any campaign you start at a relatively safe location, with only a pistol (that has unlimited ammo), and have a choice of weapons, ammo and 4 health packs on a table in front of you – convenient, eh? You can choose from either the traditional zombie-slaying pump action shotgun or an Uzi SMG, with more weapons available further through the campaign – These include an automatic shotgun, an M16 Rifle, and a scoped hunting rifle. My personal favourite being the automatic shotgun. You will also be given a second pistol at some point in the campaign. Other items available to pickup include pipe bombs – which flash and beep (that attracts zombies, apparently) before exploding, Molotov cocktails that set fire to and kill nearby zombies (but also your teammates so be careful), and pain pills that give players a temporary boost of health.
As you make your way through your chosen scenario the games shining jewel comes into play behind the scenes – The AI Director. This judges your performance as a team, along with how well you’re doing on the whole, and as such chooses when and where to create zombies of various kinds (that I’ll come to in a moment), along with items such as weapons. For example if one person keeps splitting off from the team, the AI Director will try to force the team back together by unleashing a horde of zombies and a boss zombie on them so that they require help from team mates. The AI Director is what makes Left 4 Dead so re-playable, as every time you play through a level it will be different and present you with new challenges.
Now, zombies. I’ve already touched on the fact that there are hordes of zombies and mentioned “boss” zombies, which I will now explain. There are thousands of general, run-of-the-mill zombies that will hurl themselves towards your stream of bullets, and will fall down very quickly and easily; however there are also 4 different types of boss zombie, each that has specific abilities that require combating in a specific way. There is the Hunter – they pounce on a player from the depths of the shadows, incapacitating them as they tear away at their bodies, until another player comes to their aid. The tank – you will only likely see one or two of these in any one campaign, until the ending scene anyway. These are huge zombies that have the strength to cause major damage in any blow against a player, along with tear away and throw pieces of concrete from surroundings, and can also take hundreds of shots to kill. To defeat a tank the players must work as a team drawing its attention away from any badly injured players. The Smoker – these zombies attack from range with their extremely long tongues, and constrict and drag a player away from the group, incapacitating them. The Boomer – these huge zombies will explode with only a single shot, however any nearby survivors will be smeared with bile which attracts every nearby zombie to attack those players. Finally, the Witch – though she may look innocent enough, a crying girl in a dark corner with no zombies around, she is far from it. If any player “startles” her, by either shooting at her, walking very close to her, or shining their flashlight at her, she will strike viciously. She is capable of leaving any single player badly wounded after a single attack, as she deals a large amount of damage, and will not stop attacking a player until she is killed, which takes several volleys of bullets.
I mentioned the concept of “versus” mode, and I’m sure that’s peaked your interest. In this mode, 8 players play through a normal campaign, but with a difference. 4 players play as the normal characters, and the other 4 play as boss zombies picked at random by the AI Director. This mode is much less serious than the normal campaign, but with 8 friends it can be amazing fun. At every checkpoint the teams will be swapped, so survivors become zombies and vice versa, also information about how well each side played is given to add competition to be the best survivor or zombie team. Playing as boss zombies (unless your tank, or 1 of the survivors is on their own) usually works much better if you co-ordinate an attack, rather than mindlessly running towards the survivors, who will single you out even more than normal bosses, simply because your another player.
In summary, Left 4 Dead is a co-op game in which players fight their way through waves of zombies to survive. As you’d expect from Valve (the creators of Half Life), it is immensely refined and oozes quality. One recommendation – make sure you have a headset setup and join a team speak server – this will greatly increase your co-ordination, and screaming help down the microphone tends to be more effective than the in game warning.
Good points – Great fun, very well thought out, good looking game.
Bad points – Currently has limited replay-ability, due to lack of levels.
