Left 4 Dead Review

Zombie apocalypse. Sounds ridiculous....ly amazing. Play as one of the four immune survivors in Valve's new cooperative survival horror game: Left 4 Dead. There is only one objective in this game. Survive. Whether or not your fellow friends survive is up to you. I say that on so many levels. Grab a gun, some ammo, and a first aid kit. Because it's go time.

The Good:

- 4 Player Cooperative. Be it with AI or with friends, Left 4 Dead offers a 4 player cooperative experience unlike any other game out on the market right now. You MUST work together with your fellow mates to make it from safehouse to safehouse, and ultimately to extraction, should you wish to survive. There are a few reasons as to why.
- Special infected. Much of the time, you will have to work together with your mates to figure out how to best deal with special infected, or react to save each other from them. For example, Hunters can and will jump out of nowhere and pin you to the ground. You cannot get it off you. You cannot fire your weapon. You cannot try to run away once its on you (obviously). You can only scream for help, and your teammates have to help you, or you die. There isn't any other choice. Or, a smoker will grab you and drag you far away with it's tongue, and after the few two seconds you can't do shit. A teammate has to save you, or you are fucked. Again, your only option is to scream for help. Other special infected have other tactics that do not necessarily render you unable to do anything but scream- but they might instagib you. Boomers will vomit all over you, which will draw other infected to you. Tanks will smash your face, kill you and your friends relatively quickly, and take fierce quantities of bullets to down (as in, all 4 of you better be shooting).
- Special Infected: Witches. What can I say about witches. They're the kind of infected that will give you an early warning when they're around, and even though you like the early warning.. you really wish the witch was never there to begin with? Because when you hear the ominous music, and the sound of a girl crying, all that really comes audible is a quiet, solemn, "fuck." And when you say it, you will have spoken for everyone. You see, the great thing about L4D, is that when you lose your 100 health, and you go down- you get a temporary 300 health counter (which counts down at a fixed rate, expedited by additional damage) before you die. But let's say you're playing this game on expert. Well, once you startle a witch, it will jump you and kill you instantly. Health and temp health included. Playing on any other mode, such as advanced, just leads to you going down if you startle her. Don't get me wrong, if your teammates don't start firing immediately, you'll be dead within seconds. Remember, if you hear the crying: lights off, move slow, try not to shoot anything random, and if you spot her- do not look at her for more than just a glance.
- Zombies. These are not your Resident Evil 2 zombies that sit there and go "uhhhhh...." These are your 28 Days Later zombies that will rush you like women at Macy's on Black Friday. Do not underestimate them. Do not underestimate women either. Especially on Black Friday.
- Downs. As I said earlier, when you go down, you get a temporary health counter as you wait for your friends to revive you- provided they can kill the zombies surrounding you (or can cover someone long enough to pick you up). You can help them help you too, since you can fire your handgun while you're down.
- Med-kits. Each of you can only hold one med-kit. You can heal yourself or you can heal someone else in your group. You'll find other med-kits (sometimes) in the stage, but they are few and far between (and moreover should not be counted on to be available). Many of you at this point will say "fuck that, I'm using it on myself," which is fine. But when a hunter is on you and your friends are all already dead because you wouldn't use your healthpack on them, it doesn't matter how much health you have- because you are fucked. Also, one important caveat, med-kits give more hp to those who are dying than those who are in relatively good condition; so think twice before you stop and patch yourself up.
- Pain pills. These work similarly to med-kits, except they don't take as long to use, and can be given to others to use at their discretion. These pain pills only provide a temporary boost to your health though, and are overridden when a med-kit is used afterwards, so beware.
- Thought out weapons. There are 10 weapons in the game; each are well thought out and serve different tactical agendas. For example, shotguns and autoshotties are great for clearing hallways of hordes and even fighting some special infected. The uzi and assault rifle, while weaker at close quarters are great for longer distances and still not bad at clearing rooms with (also good for spray and pray players). Each have their advantages and disadvantages. Choose accordingly, and to your own playstyle.
- Melee. The ability to melee and knock zombies back (domino effects apply) is an important strategic maneuver, and is not to be underestimated. You can also reload some guns while meleeing, so keep this in mind.
- the Director. The AI controller known as the Director will dynamically control the flow of zombies and special infected based on your performance in game. So if it thinks you're doing too well, it'll add infected to bog you down. If you're getting wrecked, it might make the next area easier (maybe, probably not). The Director is great in the way that it makes sure your gameplay experience is different each time. Let's say for example in the parking lot one game, you are swamped with zombies and a tank. Next time, maybe it will be quiet and have no movement whatsoever. You generally won't know what to expect, unless you are playing the Finale of a campaign.
- Music. There probably is some. But honestly I am too busy dealing with other shit when playing this game to notice.
- Friendly fire is on. Always. This can be good or bad for you. I like it because it adds complexity to the game, and you can potentially get a lot of "WHAT WAS THAT" kind of moments with friends.
- Fun with friends. Expect a lot of those hilarious coop moments when playing this game with others, especially with friends. You're all on the same team here, so you know they all mean well.. or do they?
- Ally AI. In a game like L4D, where you need the computer to fill AI spots at times, it's important for your bots to be some what intelligent. Luckily, in L4D, they're not bad. They get smokers and hunters off you relatively quickly, try to avoid witches, and do their part on tanks and boomers. They'll heal you if you get low, give you pain pills from time to time, and generally look out for you. They'll stick together for the most part as a team too. Bonus points here.

The Bad:

- Sometimes allied AI is stupid. One main specific scenario of the allied AI annoys me. They don't like to crouch. Generally speaking, if I am trying to save your ass and you are crowding the doorway with zombies outside, get the fuck down.
- Griefers in pub games. Sometimes there are people out there who enjoy making everyone else's life miserable. Team killers, carshooters, leavers (in versus- you know the ones who only want to play infected), whatever you want to call them. Griefing in general. I'm not talking about accidental downs or hitting a car. These guys just really have nothing better to do but to piss you off. This cannot be attributed to Valve, but perhaps a better penalty system should be in place. On XBL gamers can at least report players for poor conduct.
- Lack of story. I wasn't expecting one with this game, but for some people this may be an issue. For what story you can find, check the walls.

Overall:

Left 4 Dead provides an experience a great deal of gamers have been yearing for for a long time. Cooperative gaming? Check. Lots of shooting? Check. Zombies? Check. Strategy? On a finale, sure. Check. Difficulty? Check. Producing a game of this replayability is very difficult, but it appears Valve is very good at doing just that as can be seen from their other offerings (notably counterstrike). A word on difficulty though- if you are having a tough time on a difficulty, there is no shame in stepping down after a great deal of hours go into attempts and wipes. For those familiar, it might even feel like raiding and the World of Warcraft at times. Progression, anyone? Beyond that, Left 4 Dead steps up to the challenge presented by a game that fully encourages cooperative play (many times forcibly)- and does so with grace with the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse. Fans of coop (and those who fantasize about their neighbors and city become infected by zombie rage), do not hesitate to buy. Even if you are not a fan of the horror genre or survival horror gaming, give it a look if you have friends playing. From what I've read, a lot of people who aren't fans of the genre are having fun with the game with their friends, so you never know.

- Jack