Release: Nov 17 2008 (US), Nov 21 2008 (UK)
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: First-Person shooter
What makes Left 4 Dead so special is that it knows exactly what it’s trying to accomplish and goes after it one hundred percent, ditching anything that doesn’t add to the core gameplay experience. The result is a game that oozes action, excitement and pure fun with none of the baggage that often taints titles with a similar goal. Forget what you think you know about survival horror because Valve have thrown the rulebook out the window and started afresh; Resident Evil this is certainly not.
Joined at the hip
You play as one of four survivors trying to escape a horde of zombies that were once your fellow citizens. Split into four self contained campaigns, each lasting sixty to ninety minutes on normal difficulty, it’s your task (as a team) to make your way to the extraction point alive. The game thrives on co-operation. We’re sure the bulk of you have played ‘co-op games’ in the past, but what we’ve got here is something on a whole other level. If you don’t work as a team you’ll not survive, it’s as simple as that. While you can play in single player mode (with A.I. taking control of your three fellow survivors), the game is more enjoyable, and unpredictable, when played with other ‘real-lifers’.
Sticking together and not hanging around is the key to success. If one of your team-mates gets pinned down by a pack of crazed zombies then they’ll need you to pick them up – and possibly patch them up with that health pack you’ve been saving for yourself. You might be thinking that you’d just let them die instead, well that would be a mistake as you need the combined firepower of all four of you if you hope to escape with life intact. It’s this type of situation that demands you stick together; you’re as reliant on each other for help as much as you rely on yourself. Try not to stay too close though as you can inflict friendly fire damage on your friends.
The zombie hordes (known as ‘The Infected’) you encounter aren’t your typical super-slow-motion kind of undead, these are high horse powered monsters that will rush at you with an alarming turn of speed, giving you minimal time to read and react to the situation. At any given moment, in what was once a deserted street, you can find yourself the point of interest for countless numbers of enemies approaching from all sides; another reason sticking together is so vital for success.
Aside from your regular every day ‘Common Infected’, you’ll also have to contend with a number of ‘Special Infected’. This handsome group are altogether more dangerous than their common brothers and sisters and, unlike the common infected, present a considered danger indiviually. Made up of Boomers (grossly overweight fiends that spit vomit over you, attracting hordes of infected), Hunters (agile little guys that pin you to the floor and savagely claw at your flesh), Smokers (use their long tongues to hoist you in and constrict you), Witches (tough little ‘ladies’ that do serious damage with their nails) and Tanks (the behemoth of the bunch who hurls chunks of concrete your way or simply flings you through the air). It’s this group of characters that unleash the real chaos, as you may be happily fighting a small wave of zombies one minute only to realise your team-mates have been pinned by a hunter, or caught by a smoker, and it falls to you to fight your way towards them and free them before it’s too late.
It’s the director’s show
While the game only contains four campaign maps (more would have been very welcome) the experience is different each time you play through, thanks to the ‘A.I. Director’. This system, built into the game (it’s not an actual person), dynamical decides on the placement, and frequency, of enemies, weapons, ammo and health packs throughout the level. For example, it may decide that you’ve been performing a little to well for its tastes and so removes the weapons from a spot you could pick them up in a previous play through, or it may take a dislike to the way that you’ve stayed in one area for so long and send a pack of Infected your way to give you a lesson on loitering. It’s a brilliant concept that works perfectly, giving each session an unpredictable, exciting edge.
As well as the campaign, you have the option of going at it in versus mode. However, this is not your typical death match/capture the flag/king of the hill etc. Essentially versus takes the same form as campaign, only this time one team controls the survivors and one the infected with the roles reversing after each of the campaign’s five chapters. The team controlling the infected spawn as a Boomer, Hunter or Smoker and it’s their job to deal as much harm (preferably death) unto the survivors as possible. If you happen to get killed by a survivor you’ll need to wait until the respawn counter reaches zero before reappearing as a another – randomly selected – Infected. There’s a case to be made for it being even more fun playing as the Infected then as a survivor; the satisfaction of successfully ‘Booming’ someone with vomit and watching as the horde descends on them is hard to match in any of today’s videogames. At times you could even be lucky enough to spawn as the dreaded Tank himself (or herself, it’s difficult to tell), which will usually result in some serious carnage of your own design.
That’s a nasty burn
Presentation is great too, both in the visuals and audio. The environments are nicely varied over the four campaigns and the Infected are suitably hideous and disgusting by design. Fire effects are particularly nice; especially after a well aimed Molotov hits its target of unsuspecting zombies. Audio is well prodcued with the required screams and howls from the Infected coupled with excellent, and humorous, voice acting from the four survivors.
If there is anything that is going to stop you picking this game up it’ll be that some may find the gameplay a little repetitive, in that you’re basically doing the same thing throughout each of the campaigns. However, the A.I. Director, and the fact that playing with different people changes the experience dramatically, keeps the game alive long after you’ve beaten it once through. That being said, it would still have been nice to have more environments to explore; we’re keeping our fingers crossed that some sort of DLC in that form will soon appear on the horizon.
An engrossing, exciting and, above all, fun experience that takes the term ‘co-op’ to new heights. Left 4 Dead has thrown the survival horror rulebook out of the window and injected a much needed jolt of life, and degree of originality, into the genre. Some may feel a little cheated at the short campaign length but the dynamic difficulty settings, and an emphasis on team-work, should keep you coming back for more long after your first play through. Plus, how many other games give you option of actually playing as the zombies!?
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