Pre-release personal excitement.
I am a self proclaimed Valve fanboy. I love their games. Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead are two of my all-time favorites. TF2 was a stroke of genius, especially if you're able to look beyond the server crashes. L4D was very well done and I've been overall very happy with the game. There were numerous glitches upon release (examples - the forklift and dumpster blocks, power shot, ghost scratch), many of which are no longer an issue thanks to a few updates. Even in its original form, however, I had plenty of fun. I've been looking forward to the 9/29 release of Crash Course, the abbreviated campaign which takes place after No Mercy, since I heard about it.
I'll start with the good points.
The maps for the two parts of the campaign are improved over the old. It seems that they've paid attention to parts of the other maps that make the game interesting, and used those ideas to create fairly intense maps. I've yet to play versus (I'll get to that), but going through on campaign, I eyeballed plenty of great spots for smoker and boomer attacks (well placed corners, a neatly placed trailer "bridge," and others.) The way the paths were laid out also leaves room to get turned around easily, and the number of them makes it easier for disorganized teams to get separated and...Left 4 Dead.
The Dialogue is hilarious. The dialogue in the original release was quite funny, and the DLC has great banter between our beloved survivors. Apparently, Zoey shot the infected chopper pilot after the rooftop escape, and she doesn't hear the end of it through the campaign. Go through and listen- it's worth it.
The finale is different from the others in that you don't trigger it once. You've got to restart the finale in the midst of a zombie horde. This can prove challenging on the harder modes. There are better defense points than the other campaigns, but also factors which make it a lot more challenging to pick a favorite and stay through the finale.
Now the bad points.
The ability to walk through objects and barriers completely ruins the gameplay of the campaign from start to finish. I was able to pass through trucks, vans, containers, pillars, the escape vehicle, and a crescendo barrier (a major flaw by itself). Not only can these be passed through as a survivor, but also infected. What this means is, if you think you're in a choke point, you aren't. In the middle of a container, I had zombies attack through the walls from all sides. I did not play versus due to disgust at this huge flaw in the release, but watched as a friend played and dragged a survivor through a truck with a smoker attack.
Mismatched views when looking into a door caused confusion as well. If you stand outside a room with an open door and look into it, you might see an ocean view, only to pass through the door and find a normal room. What is in the room? Zombies? Ammo? A tank? Jimmy Hoffa? You have to actually walk into the room to find out. The effect is ridiculous, but is in tune with the DLC itself. It looks like a playable game, but when you get into it, it is quite unplayable due to a few major and pervasive glitches.
My overall take...
is that Valve has disgraced themselves. I'm not likely to play the campaign again until the wall and door glitches are fixed. This will hopefully happen prior to L4D2, which I was previously looking forward to, but am having doubts about now. I am quite sure that, once these major glitches have been patched, Crash Course will prove quite fun, but I wish I hadn't paid for an entirely unfinished product. I almost felt cheated that I wasn't paid to test their product.
I am a self proclaimed Valve fanboy. I love their games. Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead are two of my all-time favorites. TF2 was a stroke of genius, especially if you're able to look beyond the server crashes. L4D was very well done and I've been overall very happy with the game. There were numerous glitches upon release (examples - the forklift and dumpster blocks, power shot, ghost scratch), many of which are no longer an issue thanks to a few updates. Even in its original form, however, I had plenty of fun. I've been looking forward to the 9/29 release of Crash Course, the abbreviated campaign which takes place after No Mercy, since I heard about it.
I'll start with the good points.
The maps for the two parts of the campaign are improved over the old. It seems that they've paid attention to parts of the other maps that make the game interesting, and used those ideas to create fairly intense maps. I've yet to play versus (I'll get to that), but going through on campaign, I eyeballed plenty of great spots for smoker and boomer attacks (well placed corners, a neatly placed trailer "bridge," and others.) The way the paths were laid out also leaves room to get turned around easily, and the number of them makes it easier for disorganized teams to get separated and...Left 4 Dead.
The Dialogue is hilarious. The dialogue in the original release was quite funny, and the DLC has great banter between our beloved survivors. Apparently, Zoey shot the infected chopper pilot after the rooftop escape, and she doesn't hear the end of it through the campaign. Go through and listen- it's worth it.
The finale is different from the others in that you don't trigger it once. You've got to restart the finale in the midst of a zombie horde. This can prove challenging on the harder modes. There are better defense points than the other campaigns, but also factors which make it a lot more challenging to pick a favorite and stay through the finale.
Now the bad points.
The ability to walk through objects and barriers completely ruins the gameplay of the campaign from start to finish. I was able to pass through trucks, vans, containers, pillars, the escape vehicle, and a crescendo barrier (a major flaw by itself). Not only can these be passed through as a survivor, but also infected. What this means is, if you think you're in a choke point, you aren't. In the middle of a container, I had zombies attack through the walls from all sides. I did not play versus due to disgust at this huge flaw in the release, but watched as a friend played and dragged a survivor through a truck with a smoker attack.
Mismatched views when looking into a door caused confusion as well. If you stand outside a room with an open door and look into it, you might see an ocean view, only to pass through the door and find a normal room. What is in the room? Zombies? Ammo? A tank? Jimmy Hoffa? You have to actually walk into the room to find out. The effect is ridiculous, but is in tune with the DLC itself. It looks like a playable game, but when you get into it, it is quite unplayable due to a few major and pervasive glitches.
My overall take...
is that Valve has disgraced themselves. I'm not likely to play the campaign again until the wall and door glitches are fixed. This will hopefully happen prior to L4D2, which I was previously looking forward to, but am having doubts about now. I am quite sure that, once these major glitches have been patched, Crash Course will prove quite fun, but I wish I hadn't paid for an entirely unfinished product. I almost felt cheated that I wasn't paid to test their product.
