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LEFT 4 DEAD Posted by Dan Pearson on Dec 14, 2008 10:21 (Dec 14, 2008 10:21) |
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I have always been fascinated by zombie movies, as in every film humanity is almost wiped out by a bunch of brainless walking dead. Each time we have a chance or start to get organized we make stupid mistakes like going stir crazy and opening a door or popping out for medical supplies for someone who is clearly going to die, “hear you go dying man here is some paracetamol for your broken leg. Oh yeah and 10 people died getting this for you.” Well at last you can make your own decisions. Stay and fight or turn and run. Help the wounded or leave them to the zombies. Left 4 Dead is the perfect zombie holocaust simulator.
You play as one of four survivors fighting over four separate campaigns. The names are not really important as it is your actions that make the character, not a predesigned personality. Each campaign has five chapters the first four require you to get from safe-house to safe-house. The fifth is all about camping out and fighting for survival until the rescue arrives.  The basic idea is a simple one, get to each area and shoot the undead that get in your way, but in reality it is really tough, the balance of the game is clearly in the zombies favor, OK, you have weapons but they have an almost unlimited supply of monsters ready to rip you a new one. The clincher is that there are four of you fighting at once; stick together and you may have a chance of getting through. The game has gone with the more recent top speed zombies that seem to be current trend, you will come across the occasional drifter, aimlessly wandering around but then you also have the hordes, these packs of zombies will come at you full pelt, and when there is a bunch of 30 plus coming at you with only your pistol and a downed member asking for help this is real scary stuff. There is a huge variety of zombies to shoot at plus a few specials like the Smoker who lashes out his tongue to drag you away and constrict you. Hunters are very agile and will jump and run all over the pace before going for the final killer lunge, the bloated Boomer can vomit all over you and your team, causing the hordes to focus more heavily on you plus they explode when shot, the weeping Witch that will only go berserk if you startle her with noise of light and the almost unstoppable Tank who can only be taken down with real teamwork. All of these characters are great but the show is stolen by the AI Director, this unseen force will punish you at all opportunities, hang around one area and it will send a few more Hordes, stray away from the team and a Smoker will burst out of a corner killing you whilst you team mates fight on elsewhere. Because of this each game is different in many ways. Throughout the game team work is paramount, drift off and you go down leaving the team a person short and in danger. Even the levels fit into this philosophy, deserted streets, train yards and sewers are very claustrophobic but even open areas like the airport have great blink and you’ll miss it moments and the truly scary head height corn fields where you have no idea where the enemy are coming from offers their own type of fear and danger should you separate from your group or even stay side by side.
The weapon selection is suitable and believable, you will always have an unlimited ammo pistol which you can dual wield plus you will find limited ammo shotguns, rifles and assault rifles, they are always in the safe-houses and the AI Director will occasionally throw one into the level to help out. You can also get Molotov for flambéing and a pipe bomb that emits a noise attracting all local zombies and blowing them up, a very cool if not messy effect.
 Whilst the offline mode is fun and will take a good 2 hours on the normal setting for each campaign, the game is unbeatable online. You have the same four survivors running through the chapters, getting to safe houses and digging in on the last levels, but you can also play as the baddies, yep, you can zombie it up and cause absolute mayhem for the remaining survivors, since you don’t have weapons like the survivors you can use the infected special moves plus you can also bash down doors and certain walls, allowing you to pounce when the meat sack survivors least expect it. The online play is faultless, it is very easy to get into games plus it has a very nifty Take a Break mode where you can dip out of a game for a bit and have a computer controlled character take control until your return.
Once in the Xbox I found it very hard to stop playing, getting through a good 8 hours straight before taking a break. Left 4 Dead gets under your skin like a zombie digging out your brains, if you’re over 18 and have a home co-op buddy or online link this is a must.
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