Left 4 Dead is the latest work of the developer Valve. It's a first person shooter, taking place across four campaigns, with multiple modes of play. The version I'll be reviewing today is the Xbox 360 version, for what it's worth.
The game consists of two main modes, playable by different means. There's the Campaign mode, where a team of four players works together, each controlling one of the playable survivors. The objective of the game is to reach a series of safe houses, followed by a grand finale zombie slaying extravaganza in which the players must hold a location against wave upon wave of infected humans. Each of the four campaigns is different in layout, but the objectives remain the same. For those who would prefer not to put their faith in Xbox Live partners, the game also works in System Link mode, for LAN play, and in single player, with AI's taking over where players are absent.
The other play mode is Versus. Versus mode plays much like Campaign, in which a team of four attempts to escape the zombie apocalypse. The difference lies in the fact that there is an opposing team of four players who control special types of infected zombies, aiming to kill the survivors before they can escape. When a given 'chapter' (one fifth of a campaign, broken up by safe rooms) is completed, the teams switch, and the recipients of Infected attack take their turn exacting sweet, sweet revenge on their attackers. Versus mode is available online and in System Link, but not in single player.
This might sound like a monotonous affair after a while, but let me assure you, Valve has done everything within their power to make your stay in the Infected wasteland and enjoyable and repeatable event. The backbone of this effort comes from their much-touted 'AI Director'. The best means to explain this system is to think of yourself as being in a zombie film, instead of a game. This isn't too hard, given the 'theme' of the game if you will is that of a movie, right down to a movie poster right from the get-go introducing everyone. The 'AI Director' is just that: the film's director. It sits off screen watching the player's performance and yelling commands at metaphorical stagehands to improve the performance. Players are going to slow? "Stagehand, fetch more Infected! MORE!". Players too wounded? "Stagehand, slip some pain pills into a cupboard for them." Players running short of ammunition? "Stagehand, move a pile of infinite ammunition into that closet!". The director controls the pacing, making sure there's always tension, yet the players are never completely hopeless.
If this system sounds like it coddles the player, allow me to disparage your newly formed belief. There is certainly a limit to how much help the Director will give you before it decides that it's time to cut the film, and you exit stage dead. Handouts of actual first aid are scarce, ammunition can still be depleted carelessly, and sometimes sheer bad luck will mean you're down to your sidearm and your last quarter of a health bar.
Luckily, there is still hope for even the most wounded of survivors: their teammates. When I said co-operative gameplay, I only said co-operative because the English language does not contain a word that means "absolute reliance on your fellow man, while they rely on you." If one were to theoretically shoot all their AI or human compatriots in the back and run off giggling in a solo fashion, I would estimate your survival time to be somewhere under thirty seconds. The Infected enemies swarm you, pulling you down with sheer numbers. The Special Infected can all leave you helpless, regretting your decision of a solo career. A 'boss' Infected will require an entire team to put down, regardless of achievements to the contrary. More on these enemies later. Thankfully, even should you be incapable of locating any teammates, the teammate-in-a-can AIs are exceptionally competent, to the point of me thanking them vocally while playing. (Case in point, despite countless hours played, I have never once been shot by one. EVER.)
The Versus mode provides even more replay value, when you can finally take no more team efforts. Playing as an Infected enemy requires some practice, some patience, and some foreknowledge, but the payoff from actually managing to kill a survivor is incredible once you pull it off. Infected players will randomly be assigned to play either a Smoker, a Boomer, or a Hunter, each with different play styles. The Smoker's main attribute is a long tongue, used to break up tight-knit teams of Survivors by hauling them off into the distance and constricting them. The Boomer's primary (and gross) attack is his stomach contents, vomiting them onto Survivors to attract swarms of lesser minions. When killed, vomit coats anybody unlucky enough to be nearby. The Hunter is a speedy, leaping little monster, pinning his victims to the ground with a leaping attack, and shredding them while helpless. Each of these has their use, and all are well-balanced to be neither too unfair to Survivors, nor too frustrating to the Infected player, although it may take many deaths to finally deal any damage to a Survivor. The reward for your patience comes in the form of the fourth playable Infected: the Tank. The Tank is an enormous monstrosity, the only enemy which can sponge up massive amounts of damage. A single Tank if played right can kill an entire team, but this is a good trick and requires a lot of work on the behalf of the Infected team. These monsters don't see a lot of play time, but they see the most intense play time.
For all the praise any game may get, there are inevitably a few flaws. I'll be upfront with you, my dear patient reader who has gotten this far, there are some flaws. If you are looking for a game driven by its story, with character development and growth, I advise you look somewhere else. While each character has dialogue, it's no more than a sentence or two with a possible response. While these lines are numerous to avoid repetition, and sometimes downright entertaining ("They aren't allowed to be this fast! I call zombie bullshit!"), you're not going to get much insight into what happened to the world, and why are all these gray-skinned people so angry with you. There exists some dialogue scratched into walls, telling little bits of other stories, and occasional things like a sniper's nest with chicken scratches next to it, exactly how this came to happen is not apparent.
Another flaw often cited is the fact that with reliance on other people there will always be a situation with reliance on an idiot, or deliberate grief-maker. Valve has done everything possible (I.E. a kick player button), but ultimately they can't brainwash us all into playing nice (yet). I won't hold this one against them, but I encourage you to try and set up LAN events and System Links, so that everyone is within arm's (read: punching) reach. You'll enjoy hilarity with friends, and a better ping time to boot. Finally, there's been some gripes about versus mode: namely that it takes twenty seconds for an Infected player to return from the dead. While I didn't have any problem with this, if twenty seconds sounds long to you, maybe this isn't your game.
A Developer Commentary is included in the game, which lets you walk around like a sightseer drinking in the game world. Without the omnipresent fear of being eaten, I could walk around and gawk at the visuals. When you have the time to look at it, the game world is actually pretty in a dystopian sort of way. All kinds of little details are pointed out to you if you hadn't seen them already, and my appreciation of the work that goes into a game was deepened. They go in-depth about the use of their audio (masterful, I must say), and visual effects like contrast and grain (also nifty, but more subtle). If you're going to get the game, the commentary is worth at least a once-over.
So I've been talking for more words than I'm likely to write for school all year but I've yet to deliver a verdict.
BUY IT
If you're a shooter fan at all, Left 4 Dead will keep you coming back longer in single player than some games will with Multiplayer. Once you hit the 'Versus' button, you'll be hooked even deeper.
Thank you for reading all that, and feel free to burn me (or educate me!) for not putting pictures in there because I don't know how to.
The game consists of two main modes, playable by different means. There's the Campaign mode, where a team of four players works together, each controlling one of the playable survivors. The objective of the game is to reach a series of safe houses, followed by a grand finale zombie slaying extravaganza in which the players must hold a location against wave upon wave of infected humans. Each of the four campaigns is different in layout, but the objectives remain the same. For those who would prefer not to put their faith in Xbox Live partners, the game also works in System Link mode, for LAN play, and in single player, with AI's taking over where players are absent.
The other play mode is Versus. Versus mode plays much like Campaign, in which a team of four attempts to escape the zombie apocalypse. The difference lies in the fact that there is an opposing team of four players who control special types of infected zombies, aiming to kill the survivors before they can escape. When a given 'chapter' (one fifth of a campaign, broken up by safe rooms) is completed, the teams switch, and the recipients of Infected attack take their turn exacting sweet, sweet revenge on their attackers. Versus mode is available online and in System Link, but not in single player.
This might sound like a monotonous affair after a while, but let me assure you, Valve has done everything within their power to make your stay in the Infected wasteland and enjoyable and repeatable event. The backbone of this effort comes from their much-touted 'AI Director'. The best means to explain this system is to think of yourself as being in a zombie film, instead of a game. This isn't too hard, given the 'theme' of the game if you will is that of a movie, right down to a movie poster right from the get-go introducing everyone. The 'AI Director' is just that: the film's director. It sits off screen watching the player's performance and yelling commands at metaphorical stagehands to improve the performance. Players are going to slow? "Stagehand, fetch more Infected! MORE!". Players too wounded? "Stagehand, slip some pain pills into a cupboard for them." Players running short of ammunition? "Stagehand, move a pile of infinite ammunition into that closet!". The director controls the pacing, making sure there's always tension, yet the players are never completely hopeless.
If this system sounds like it coddles the player, allow me to disparage your newly formed belief. There is certainly a limit to how much help the Director will give you before it decides that it's time to cut the film, and you exit stage dead. Handouts of actual first aid are scarce, ammunition can still be depleted carelessly, and sometimes sheer bad luck will mean you're down to your sidearm and your last quarter of a health bar.
Luckily, there is still hope for even the most wounded of survivors: their teammates. When I said co-operative gameplay, I only said co-operative because the English language does not contain a word that means "absolute reliance on your fellow man, while they rely on you." If one were to theoretically shoot all their AI or human compatriots in the back and run off giggling in a solo fashion, I would estimate your survival time to be somewhere under thirty seconds. The Infected enemies swarm you, pulling you down with sheer numbers. The Special Infected can all leave you helpless, regretting your decision of a solo career. A 'boss' Infected will require an entire team to put down, regardless of achievements to the contrary. More on these enemies later. Thankfully, even should you be incapable of locating any teammates, the teammate-in-a-can AIs are exceptionally competent, to the point of me thanking them vocally while playing. (Case in point, despite countless hours played, I have never once been shot by one. EVER.)
The Versus mode provides even more replay value, when you can finally take no more team efforts. Playing as an Infected enemy requires some practice, some patience, and some foreknowledge, but the payoff from actually managing to kill a survivor is incredible once you pull it off. Infected players will randomly be assigned to play either a Smoker, a Boomer, or a Hunter, each with different play styles. The Smoker's main attribute is a long tongue, used to break up tight-knit teams of Survivors by hauling them off into the distance and constricting them. The Boomer's primary (and gross) attack is his stomach contents, vomiting them onto Survivors to attract swarms of lesser minions. When killed, vomit coats anybody unlucky enough to be nearby. The Hunter is a speedy, leaping little monster, pinning his victims to the ground with a leaping attack, and shredding them while helpless. Each of these has their use, and all are well-balanced to be neither too unfair to Survivors, nor too frustrating to the Infected player, although it may take many deaths to finally deal any damage to a Survivor. The reward for your patience comes in the form of the fourth playable Infected: the Tank. The Tank is an enormous monstrosity, the only enemy which can sponge up massive amounts of damage. A single Tank if played right can kill an entire team, but this is a good trick and requires a lot of work on the behalf of the Infected team. These monsters don't see a lot of play time, but they see the most intense play time.
For all the praise any game may get, there are inevitably a few flaws. I'll be upfront with you, my dear patient reader who has gotten this far, there are some flaws. If you are looking for a game driven by its story, with character development and growth, I advise you look somewhere else. While each character has dialogue, it's no more than a sentence or two with a possible response. While these lines are numerous to avoid repetition, and sometimes downright entertaining ("They aren't allowed to be this fast! I call zombie bullshit!"), you're not going to get much insight into what happened to the world, and why are all these gray-skinned people so angry with you. There exists some dialogue scratched into walls, telling little bits of other stories, and occasional things like a sniper's nest with chicken scratches next to it, exactly how this came to happen is not apparent.
Another flaw often cited is the fact that with reliance on other people there will always be a situation with reliance on an idiot, or deliberate grief-maker. Valve has done everything possible (I.E. a kick player button), but ultimately they can't brainwash us all into playing nice (yet). I won't hold this one against them, but I encourage you to try and set up LAN events and System Links, so that everyone is within arm's (read: punching) reach. You'll enjoy hilarity with friends, and a better ping time to boot. Finally, there's been some gripes about versus mode: namely that it takes twenty seconds for an Infected player to return from the dead. While I didn't have any problem with this, if twenty seconds sounds long to you, maybe this isn't your game.
A Developer Commentary is included in the game, which lets you walk around like a sightseer drinking in the game world. Without the omnipresent fear of being eaten, I could walk around and gawk at the visuals. When you have the time to look at it, the game world is actually pretty in a dystopian sort of way. All kinds of little details are pointed out to you if you hadn't seen them already, and my appreciation of the work that goes into a game was deepened. They go in-depth about the use of their audio (masterful, I must say), and visual effects like contrast and grain (also nifty, but more subtle). If you're going to get the game, the commentary is worth at least a once-over.
So I've been talking for more words than I'm likely to write for school all year but I've yet to deliver a verdict.
BUY IT
If you're a shooter fan at all, Left 4 Dead will keep you coming back longer in single player than some games will with Multiplayer. Once you hit the 'Versus' button, you'll be hooked even deeper.
Thank you for reading all that, and feel free to burn me (or educate me!) for not putting pictures in there because I don't know how to.
