By: Lee C. Howley
Left 4 Dead is a new first-person shooter by Valve. Using the Source engine, the game puts you behind the eyes of one of four survivors in a zombie apocalypse. With four different chapters to play cooperatively or in versus, the game offers a lot of play time, with surprisingly good replay value.
Story
There is very little in the way of story in this game, but there doesn’t have to be. You know what you need to do – survive against endless waves of zombies. At the start of each chapter you are motivated by an idea relating to a possible escape. As you progress through each chapter, you will reach safe houses allowing you to restock and heal. However, during this time you are not given one shred of information regarding any of the characters, just further motivation to find an escape. When you do finally reach the finale of a chapter, you escape thus bringing an end to the chapter. Its hard to judge a games story when there clearly isn’t meant to be one. The game is all about working together – oh, and killing lots of zombies.
Gameplay
Left 4 Dead uses Valves traditional take on first person shooters where the player will fire weapons from the hip. A secondary melee is always available to knock back any zombies that have managed to get through your fire. I have not yet played a game where you take on as many enemies at once. The AI director will randomly place enemies based on how you play the game. This means that the game will never play the same twice. Despite the sometimes overwhelming number of enemies, you will find they fall easily, and with infinite pistol ammo you will always have a gun to depend on. There are only 5 primary weapons to choose from, so you will quickly find your favorite.
In addition to the standard zombies you will also come across special zombies that are considerably more dangerous. The Hunter is a quick moving zombie that can easily pin you down, leaving you defenseless until one of you teammates removes it. A Smoker will attempt to lasso you with its tongue and strangle you, again until a team mate is able to help you. The Boomer will try vomit on you, attracting any nearby zombies all at once, which can easily lead to you and your teammates being overwhelmed. A Witch is easily avoided because it doesn’t move until disturbed, but if awoken it can bring you down in one hit. Lastly, there is the Tank, which is a massive boss zombie that can take tons of damage and easily incapacitate you. With such a variety of enemies that can spawn anywhere in the game, you will never be short of a surprise or challenge.
If you choose to play through the game by yourself, you will be dependant on the computer’s AI for you the remaining three survivors. However, there isn’t much to worry about, because in single player mode they are very competent, and will rarely let you down. Should you be knocked down, they will be right there to help you up, and will heal you before themselves; that’s something you may find your friends are not so willing to do. However, if you go down three times without using first aid you will die. Don’t fret though, because as long as you’re playing with friends, they will simply find you locked in a closet in just a few minutes allowing you to rejoin the fun.
Graphics and Sound
The game is designed to play like a movie. Throughout the entire game there is a film grain effect added, giving you the impression you’re aware watching a cinematic movie and not playing a game. Player models don’t quiet look as good as they did in previous Source engine-based games, but there is a subtle hint of a different style with this game. There is plenty of gore, but this shouldn’t surprise anyone, as you will regularly eliminate upwards of two thousand zombies per chapter. The Source engine can still compare to the newest engines on the market, as it continues to produce good-looking games. Additionally, because it runs on the Source engine, there is no need to have expensive hardware to play the game. My Nvidia GeForce 9600 GSO (384mb) played this with settings nearly maxed out.
Valve clearly took their time when it came to sound. Sound makes this game considerably more interesting to play since they can downplay a moment or build it up. The sound, like the graphics, was intended to make the game seem more like a movie, by adapting to what’s going on in the game. You will quickly learn which sounds relate to which monsters or events and prepare accordingly.
Multiplayer
While playing through the game in the online or local co-op mode, you will have to work closely with your teammates to share health and take on the horde. Playing on more difficult setting will require thinking ahead and setting traps. Likewise, this is true in the versus mode, as you will be playing against human controlled zombies. Playing as the horde actually requires equally as much team work to separate a survivor and eliminate them. While playing as the horde you will spawn as any one of four special zombies: a hunter, boomer, smoker, or tank. You will have control of their abilities, making the game play for each unique.
As you play through each of the levels, you will take turns completing the sections of the chapter as the horde and survivors. At the end of your turn, your score will calculated based on damage and health remaining and whether you team succeeded. Survival means significant boosts in score because you will receive a multiplier. Because both teams play as the horde and survivors, the game is very fair, as both team will be subjected to the same difficulties.
Conclusion
Left 4 Dead doesn’t bring anything new to the first-person shooter genre, it simply does everything right. This game has been polished through and through to give you a slightly different experience every time you play it. The co-op and versus modes will likely be the bread and butter of this game, as they allow you to play through the whole game with your friends.
What we liked
- Co-op and versus modes
- AI director
- Intelligent AI
- Achievements
What we didn’t like
- Not enough weapons
- No story
- To few levels, to much emphasis on replay
Final Grade
9.0/10
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