For every genre, there is a game. The basic game that ticks all the boxes of said genre. For the survival horror, there is Left 4 Dead. Before the release of this game, I would have said the Resident Evil series defined survival horror. But, Capcom went and screwed that up. In my opinion, a survival horror stops being a survival horror when there?s a scripted boss fight at the end of every level. It doesn?t give the same feel Left 4 Dead has.
The general premise of gameplay features four players, taking control of four preset characters, who must fight their way from one end of a level to the other, facing down a zombie horde. Although it sounds simple and basic enough, the horde have a few extra cards to play in the form of Special Infected. Rather than having the four players shoot angry people all the time, the Special Infected show up in the form of either the Boomer, Hunter, Smoker or Tank. Or Witch. I always forget to add the Witch.
With the exception of the Tank, the Special Infected just seem to be annoyances during the main story. True. But it?s in the Versus mode that their value comes into play.
But I?ll discuss that in further detail later on. This is still general gameplay. I?m getting ahead of myself.
The players have a limited selection of weaponry, being allowed to choose from five different kinds, two of which are made obsolete by the introduction of the later three. And each player has a pistol with infinite ammo, should you run out of ammo in your main gun, which happens to me very frequently.
The thing that makes Left 4 Dead so unique is its reliance on teamwork. Everything that happens generally requires players to work together to survive. If a Survivor takes too much damage, they fall to the ground, and must be helped up by another Survivor, known as Incapacitation within the game. While Incapacitated, the player can only use their pistol, or pistols, depending on their progress, until helped up.
There are three different game modes. The first is the Campaign.
This mode features the four characters trying to escape wherever they are, be it a city, forest, highway or airport, given that they are the four available Campaigns, aptly named and complete with a movie-style poster. The aim of each level is to get from the starting Safe Room, to the one at the end of the map, with only a few hundred yards between them. And a horde of zombies.
I notice I?ve been calling them zombies all the time. They?re technically not. They?re neither undead nor under the control of something. They?ve been infected with some disease that drives them into bloodthirsty frenzies. And to lose their thumb. They always seem to be missing a thumb. Why? What is that meant to solve?
The next game mode is Versus. Which is identical to Campaign, aside from the option to play as the Special Infected.
Up to eight players may play Versus, with them taking it in turns to play through each mission as the Survivors. As four players take the Survivors, the other four play the Infected. Rather than becoming minor annoyances, the Special Infected now have specific tactical advantages, as when there are four players, generally one will become a Boomer, one a Smoker, and two Hunters. A Boomer has the ability to throw up on the Survivors, which attracts a horde of Infected, who keep spawning and attacking while the vomit?s effect lasts. When shot, the Boomer explodes, showering any nearby Survivors with its horde-attracting bile.
The Smoker has a very long tongue, which it uses to drag Survivors great distances and constrict them. If a Smoker grabs a Survivor, the Survivor is given two seconds to kill the Smoker before it starts constricting. Once it does, it is up to the other Survivors to free their team-mate. Hunters are fast and agile, and leap huge distances. Their main form of attack is to pounce on a Survivor, and start pulling bits out of them. The pounced Survivor is rendered unable to defend themselves, and must rely on their team-mates to save them.
The Tank is only available at certain points in certain missions, and the Infected player with the highest score may play as it. The Tank is big, tough and very dangerous. Often it takes four guns to bring one down, and the Tank is given the ability to throw rubble at the Survivors, flooring them and giving it the opportunity to kill them with its oversized fists. As the Tank, everything is a weapon. Punching a car will send it soaring after your targets, incapacitating the ones it hits.
The Witch is not a playable Infected, for some reason, and remains AI controlled. She generally sits at some inconvenient point on the map, and cries. Get too close or shoot at her, or if you shine a light on her from too close, she?ll get up looking all mad, and start screaming. Before you can tell her to take a chill pill, she?s floored you and is currently beating you to death with your own spleen.
The Witch is pretty dangerous.
These seemingly overpowered Infected are balanced by the overly long spawning times. It takes at least twenty-five seconds to respawn after dying, and given the very limited hit points, that will happen a lot. While waiting to respawn, you get to watch the Survivors cruise merrily to their goal, while you crush your controller in impatience, seeing every opportunity for a team-crushing ambush pass you by while you wait to respawn.
The Tank is available for a limited time. If the Tank spawns somewhere where the are no Survivors, the Tank?s timer will run down, and control of the Tank will be lost. The only way to refresh the timer is to brutalise a Survivor.
Before the release of the Survival DLC, Versus was restricted to just two of the Campaign maps, but is now available on all four.
The third game mode is Survival, which was released recently with the Survival DLC, complete with a new map.
Survival mode is pretty obvious. You?re given a supply of ammunition, explosives, health kits and the like, and put in a specific point on one of the Campaign maps, or in the new map, which is a lighthouse. Activating a certain object makes a very loud noise and attracts the entire horde, and players have to survive as long as they can, with Special Infected showing up at inconvenient times. Unlike most Survival modes in games I?ve played, Left 4 Dead survival is very, very difficult. Especially since the Tank shows up when it feels like, and has the urge to fling you from the top of the lighthouse into the ocean. Which is not pleasant.
The thing that really makes Left 4 Dead a unique experience is the AI Director. This mysterious intelligence laughs at your pain and suffering, and during Campaign and Versus modes, decides whether to give you much needed ammo and health, or to throw another hundred Infected at you.
For example, you?re the last one alive. The only way for your team-mates to respawn is for you to find them in a cupboard, and free them. You?re hoping to find one such cupboard. Or some ammo and health, given that you?re running low on both. The door ahead of you can either contain first aid kits, ammo stashes, a team-mate or an Infected horde.
The AI Director gets to decide what is in that cupboard, and depending on what mood its in, will choose whatever is most or least convenient for you.
I speak from a personal experience of a very bored AI Director. During a Campaign with three of my friends, I approached a cupboard which, on a past encounter, contained health kits. I was not aware of the AI Director at this point.
I told my friends I would check the cupboard, because I was certain of health. We gather around the door, and I go to open it. Imagine my horror and surprise when the door disintegrates in front of us, to reveal a very pissed off Tank. Not good.
Usually, in my reviews, I discuss both singleplayer and multiplayer. In this case, however, they seem to be exactly the same thing. Mind, this is not necessarily a bad thing, since the entire game revolves around teamwork. If you don?t possess Xbox LIVE, or that one Playstation 3 uses.
?
Is Left 4 Dead available on PS3? I don?t think so?.but it?s available on PC. Does that require Games for Windows? I have no idea. You know what? Screw it, I?m just going to refer to everything as an Xbox 360 game. Because that?s the console I have, and that?s the game I?m reviewing.
The final point of review is the community support. This consists entirely of the aforementioned Survival pack, which was a much-desired addition to the game, especially since it was free.
So?to summarise, Left 4 Dead is THE Survival Horror. Stop messing around with your story-driven Resident Evil, or, or those other survival horrors, play Left 4 Dead instead.
Please note ? This game has been known to break friendships and force enemies. You have no idea how upset people get when they?re left dangling from a rail, four hundred feet above the ground which is crawling with Infected, and you?re too busy staring at the only female character?s ass to go save them.
The general premise of gameplay features four players, taking control of four preset characters, who must fight their way from one end of a level to the other, facing down a zombie horde. Although it sounds simple and basic enough, the horde have a few extra cards to play in the form of Special Infected. Rather than having the four players shoot angry people all the time, the Special Infected show up in the form of either the Boomer, Hunter, Smoker or Tank. Or Witch. I always forget to add the Witch.
With the exception of the Tank, the Special Infected just seem to be annoyances during the main story. True. But it?s in the Versus mode that their value comes into play.
But I?ll discuss that in further detail later on. This is still general gameplay. I?m getting ahead of myself.
The players have a limited selection of weaponry, being allowed to choose from five different kinds, two of which are made obsolete by the introduction of the later three. And each player has a pistol with infinite ammo, should you run out of ammo in your main gun, which happens to me very frequently.
The thing that makes Left 4 Dead so unique is its reliance on teamwork. Everything that happens generally requires players to work together to survive. If a Survivor takes too much damage, they fall to the ground, and must be helped up by another Survivor, known as Incapacitation within the game. While Incapacitated, the player can only use their pistol, or pistols, depending on their progress, until helped up.
There are three different game modes. The first is the Campaign.
This mode features the four characters trying to escape wherever they are, be it a city, forest, highway or airport, given that they are the four available Campaigns, aptly named and complete with a movie-style poster. The aim of each level is to get from the starting Safe Room, to the one at the end of the map, with only a few hundred yards between them. And a horde of zombies.
I notice I?ve been calling them zombies all the time. They?re technically not. They?re neither undead nor under the control of something. They?ve been infected with some disease that drives them into bloodthirsty frenzies. And to lose their thumb. They always seem to be missing a thumb. Why? What is that meant to solve?
The next game mode is Versus. Which is identical to Campaign, aside from the option to play as the Special Infected.
Up to eight players may play Versus, with them taking it in turns to play through each mission as the Survivors. As four players take the Survivors, the other four play the Infected. Rather than becoming minor annoyances, the Special Infected now have specific tactical advantages, as when there are four players, generally one will become a Boomer, one a Smoker, and two Hunters. A Boomer has the ability to throw up on the Survivors, which attracts a horde of Infected, who keep spawning and attacking while the vomit?s effect lasts. When shot, the Boomer explodes, showering any nearby Survivors with its horde-attracting bile.
The Smoker has a very long tongue, which it uses to drag Survivors great distances and constrict them. If a Smoker grabs a Survivor, the Survivor is given two seconds to kill the Smoker before it starts constricting. Once it does, it is up to the other Survivors to free their team-mate. Hunters are fast and agile, and leap huge distances. Their main form of attack is to pounce on a Survivor, and start pulling bits out of them. The pounced Survivor is rendered unable to defend themselves, and must rely on their team-mates to save them.
The Tank is only available at certain points in certain missions, and the Infected player with the highest score may play as it. The Tank is big, tough and very dangerous. Often it takes four guns to bring one down, and the Tank is given the ability to throw rubble at the Survivors, flooring them and giving it the opportunity to kill them with its oversized fists. As the Tank, everything is a weapon. Punching a car will send it soaring after your targets, incapacitating the ones it hits.
The Witch is not a playable Infected, for some reason, and remains AI controlled. She generally sits at some inconvenient point on the map, and cries. Get too close or shoot at her, or if you shine a light on her from too close, she?ll get up looking all mad, and start screaming. Before you can tell her to take a chill pill, she?s floored you and is currently beating you to death with your own spleen.
The Witch is pretty dangerous.
These seemingly overpowered Infected are balanced by the overly long spawning times. It takes at least twenty-five seconds to respawn after dying, and given the very limited hit points, that will happen a lot. While waiting to respawn, you get to watch the Survivors cruise merrily to their goal, while you crush your controller in impatience, seeing every opportunity for a team-crushing ambush pass you by while you wait to respawn.
The Tank is available for a limited time. If the Tank spawns somewhere where the are no Survivors, the Tank?s timer will run down, and control of the Tank will be lost. The only way to refresh the timer is to brutalise a Survivor.
Before the release of the Survival DLC, Versus was restricted to just two of the Campaign maps, but is now available on all four.
The third game mode is Survival, which was released recently with the Survival DLC, complete with a new map.
Survival mode is pretty obvious. You?re given a supply of ammunition, explosives, health kits and the like, and put in a specific point on one of the Campaign maps, or in the new map, which is a lighthouse. Activating a certain object makes a very loud noise and attracts the entire horde, and players have to survive as long as they can, with Special Infected showing up at inconvenient times. Unlike most Survival modes in games I?ve played, Left 4 Dead survival is very, very difficult. Especially since the Tank shows up when it feels like, and has the urge to fling you from the top of the lighthouse into the ocean. Which is not pleasant.
The thing that really makes Left 4 Dead a unique experience is the AI Director. This mysterious intelligence laughs at your pain and suffering, and during Campaign and Versus modes, decides whether to give you much needed ammo and health, or to throw another hundred Infected at you.
For example, you?re the last one alive. The only way for your team-mates to respawn is for you to find them in a cupboard, and free them. You?re hoping to find one such cupboard. Or some ammo and health, given that you?re running low on both. The door ahead of you can either contain first aid kits, ammo stashes, a team-mate or an Infected horde.
The AI Director gets to decide what is in that cupboard, and depending on what mood its in, will choose whatever is most or least convenient for you.
I speak from a personal experience of a very bored AI Director. During a Campaign with three of my friends, I approached a cupboard which, on a past encounter, contained health kits. I was not aware of the AI Director at this point.
I told my friends I would check the cupboard, because I was certain of health. We gather around the door, and I go to open it. Imagine my horror and surprise when the door disintegrates in front of us, to reveal a very pissed off Tank. Not good.
Usually, in my reviews, I discuss both singleplayer and multiplayer. In this case, however, they seem to be exactly the same thing. Mind, this is not necessarily a bad thing, since the entire game revolves around teamwork. If you don?t possess Xbox LIVE, or that one Playstation 3 uses.
?
Is Left 4 Dead available on PS3? I don?t think so?.but it?s available on PC. Does that require Games for Windows? I have no idea. You know what? Screw it, I?m just going to refer to everything as an Xbox 360 game. Because that?s the console I have, and that?s the game I?m reviewing.
The final point of review is the community support. This consists entirely of the aforementioned Survival pack, which was a much-desired addition to the game, especially since it was free.
So?to summarise, Left 4 Dead is THE Survival Horror. Stop messing around with your story-driven Resident Evil, or, or those other survival horrors, play Left 4 Dead instead.
Please note ? This game has been known to break friendships and force enemies. You have no idea how upset people get when they?re left dangling from a rail, four hundred feet above the ground which is crawling with Infected, and you?re too busy staring at the only female character?s ass to go save them.
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