Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead


PUBLISHER: Valve
DEVELOPER: Valve
Played on: PC
Initial impression: Co-Op Zombie Shooter Goodness!

Liked:
- Characters
- Environments
- Movie-like approach

Disliked:
- Repetition
- Lack of SP in some modes

On The Fence:
- Versus mode
- Survival mode

The only story you get and need to know is this - Something has infected people, turning them into hideous zombie-like creatures that want to tear you apart. You choose one of four characters and off you go. Initially you only have access to a pistol, a shot gun and an uzi. Yep, that's it. The point? Get from where you start to a designated 'rescue' area, determined by which campaign you are playing.

The four characters you can choose from are:
- Bill, a grizzled Vietnam Vet who has been itching for a fight since he was discharged.
- Francis, a pessimistic biker looking to cause chaos now that the cops aren't around.
- Louis, a disgruntled IT expert who was on the verge of quitting his day job out of frustration.
- Zoey, a college co-ed whose love of horror films kept her from studying.

All four are exactly the same insofar as skill - that is to say, they are only as good as you are. There's no advantage to choosing one over the other. The banter between them all is priceless. Francis hates everything, and he'll remind you of that every chance he gets. Bill's familiarity with military protocol will guive you insight on how to procede. He's also hilarious, and conversations during scripted break points are awesome. While riding an elevator the following took place one time:

Z: Think we'll ever see an end to this?
B: There'll be peace on Earth if I have to kill every last one of these fuckers!
F: Hell yeah!
L: That's what I'm talkin' about!

While approaching an abandoned cabin in the woods, Zoey lets out "A lone cabin in the woods... I know how this movie ends."

Speaking of movies, each of the four campaigns play like films. "No Mercy" involves getting to the roof of Mercy Hospital for extraction by helicopter. "Dead Air" brings you through an airport. The finale of "Death Toll" has you waiting for a boat while fighting off a never-ending stream of undead. "Blood Harvest" has you run through a cornfield in its conclusion.
The zombies are not your run of the mill "Night of the Living Dead" variety. They are fast and agile, and peppered with "special" infected. Those consist of Boomers (fat, bloated zombies whose vomit attracts waves of common zombies), Smokers (tall zombies with long tongues they use to lasso you), hunters (crawlers who leap on you, knock you to the ground and rip out your guts), tanks (near-unstoppable hulking beasts) and witches (crying girls who go psycho when disturbed).

The only thing that really bugs me is repetition. The mission environments don't change. The enemies do, thanks to something called the AI Director, which senses how well you're doing and throws more (or less) zombies, ammo or health kits your way depending on whether you need it. Still, as I said the locales and situations are never really altered, so after you've played a campaign a few times you know what to expect. I can get through No Mercy almost flawlessly because I know exactly where to go. It was a lot more exciting when I didn't have a clue where I was going.

There are a few other modes, though I'll only touch on the ones I've actually seen in action. Versus mode pits our four 'survivors' against four players controlling the special zombies. You can take control of a Boomer, Hunter, Smoker or Tank to hunt down the four uninfected humans. Overall this sounds cool - but what I didn't like was that I can't even attempt it outside of the online play. It has no solo option. None. Otherwise it's a cool concept.

The other mode is Survivor mode, and it's about as crazy as it sounds. You hole up in a location and try to fight the oncoming waves of enemies. Tossed in there are the specials too, and they tend to come 2-3 at a time. I've played this a number of times and never really made it past the 5 minute mark (which is actually more impressive than I realized). My only complaint is that there isn't enough of a break between waves, and the difficulty starts on HARD. I guess I'm just spoiled by UT's survival mode where you have a lot of time between waves and it starts out shamefully simple, slowly ramping up difficulty as you go.

This game is a SOLID FPS, though there's nearly NO story and somewhat pointless to play alone. The key to this game is playing Co-Op. Seriously. Don't play it solo. Find three friends and get together.

A good thing is that Valve is looking to throw more DLC out there.
8/10