Damnit! They got Francis! (Left 4 Dead (PC))

Member Name: badhandshakes

Product:	Left 4 Dead (PC)
Date:	17/01/09 (367 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Innovative, fast-paced, enjoyable, addictive!

Disadvantages: Erm, there are a lot of zombies. Some would say too many.

For those of us ardent zombie-hunter enthusiasts, who's first thought upon entering a room is "how many blunt heavy objects are there in here that I could utilise, if worst came to worst?", who devour zombie survival horror films with alarming ferocity, and who sat rapt in front of Channel 4's Dead Set recently... Left 4 Dead is your fantasy game. I know, because I'm one of you. I have a zombie-apocalypse plan, for goodness sake. With maps.

Anyway. Left 4 Dead is a first person shooter set in one such apocalyptic scenario, where like all good survival tales, the emphasis is on teamwork, and co-operation. You play one of 4 (clever title, eh? Eh!?) remaining survivors in a grim world plagued by uber-zombies, The Infected. Armed with one weapon, and whatever you can find as you go along (painkillers, medi-kits, the occasional grenade or petrol tank), you battle it through cities, woods, an airport, and a farmyard, trying to find the safe route through to escape in each episode (a helicopter, a boat, a plane and an army tank, respectively. Is this feeling like familiar territory yet?)

Don't expect dull-witted old-school zombies, who amble along tamely unless you grab them and tweak their ears, these are 28 days-later zombies, Dead Set zombies- the type that will run and run and run and LEAP at you and tear you to pieces. A lot of people disapprove of this approach to zombie games/fiction/films, and it certainly requires a different kind of strategy as a gamer, but in Left 4 Dead, it really works. You've got to be on your toes constantly, because they're not only deadly, bloodthirsty, and relentless, but there are MILLIONS of them.
On top of your traditional human-zombie (of which you could expect to kill about 1500-2500 of per episode, between the four of you)- there are also 5 "Special Infected"- or boss zombies, if you prefer. They each have their own signature ominous music, and it won't take much gameplay before the creepy "dun, duuuuuuun Dun!!!!" will make your blood run cold, as a Tank Zombie (built like a mutated incredible Hulk, about ten times your size and capable of throwing parts of buildings at you) bounds toward you, knocking out your entire team with one strike of its gargantuan fist. Other Special Infected you can look forward to include the Boomer (a massively obese zombie) who vomits bile over you which attracts the horde to the unfortunate survivor, and the Witch, a lonely crying female who, when disturbed by a flashlight, will race over and ravage your face. Good luck to you.

The truly fantastic thing about L4D, which is what makes it work so successfully as a replayable, is the AI behind the episodes- which creates an intelligently random distribution of zombies, special infected, and weapons/items on each level. Not only will everything be in different places every single time you play it- reducing the "There's a witch behind this corner, folks" factor from die-hard players, but the game measures how well you're succeeding through the level, and will throw more zombies/less ammo at you if it thinks you need an extra challenge, or tame it down a bit if you're all on low health. This adaptable side of L4D means that players of varying skill levels won't feel alienated by constantly getting overwhelmed on the same parts, and means that truly hardcore zombie-hunters won't be allowed to relax after their 45th consecutive headshot.

As mentioned before, the game is completely focused on the multi-player side of things, and teamwork is rewarded at every turn- through covering others when they reload, healing each other, and joining forces to take down the more lethal of the Special Infected. Those inclined to race off on their own will not last long.
The single-player mode employs three bots to accompany you, but although they're not entirely stupid, the game really doesn't come alive until you play with three friends (or enemies.. or randoms from the internet.. it doesn't really matter, as long as they're human). Then you can formulate strategies to deal with all the truly nasty moments when the entire horde comes rushing at you (a personal favourite is hiding in a cupboard, shooting a hole in it, and sniping the zombies one-by-one that way). You can also voice chat while you slaughter, but I imagine you mostly just be saying "damnit!" and "over here" etc.

All this co-operation makes it a truly fun, fast and furious multi-player game, that really doesn't leave out even the absolute beginner to FPSs, because even if you are incapacitated, and proceed to be knocked out and killed, the game spawns you in a closet or a toilet later on in the level, for your team-mates to find (yes, I question the realism of this too) so you can rejoin them.
More realistically, I would add at this point that you can't turn friendly fire off, so do look out for your friends.

Although the whole game has got a very cinematic feel to it- and the loading screens are mocked-up film posters with you as the hero- there isn't any sort of plot, apart from what the levels provide for you to fill in the blanks, and there isn't any sort of backstory for you to justify the presence of all these undead. In a way this is quite good, because it throws you into the situation of the survivors, where there's no time for lengthy discussion or philosophising, you just have to get on with it. Also, any cut-scenes would get tedious, because the game is designed for replay after replay, and with four episodes, each averaging at about an hour, you're going to be playing the same levels over and over. You'll love it, but you will.

Once you get tired of massacring zombies (if ever)- there IS the alternative game-mode, Versus- whereupon you take the role of one of the Special Infected, chose a spot to spawn, and then take your turn to launch yourself upon the hapless survivors. Although this certainly has novelty appeal, it's limited fun as the survivors take you down relatively quickly as soon as you appear (with the exception of the Tank- who's a real bruiser- but the players are randomly assigned a zombie, and I NEVER get the Tank!), and then you have to wait a looooooooong 30 seconds waiting to respawn, where you watch all the action, feeling miffed. I prefer being on the other side, but the option does exist, and I guess you could use it as an icebreaker at a LAN party. (Do people still have LAN parties?)

Graphically, it's a very nice looking shooter, which doesn't sacrifice little details in favour of the fast-paced gameplay. There are marvellous little human touches in the game, and a few examples of interactive terrain- not so much so as in, for example, Dead Rising, because the focus is on moving, not exploring- but for example, on the Airport episode, after clambering over the broken luggage conveyer belt, if you step through a dilapidated metal detector, your gun will set of the alarm, and indeed, summon the horde! They love bright lights and loud noises- which you can use in your favour, in the case of the beeping pipe-bomb... but I'd be careful around those car parks... cars have alarms.


Left 4 Dead completely and seamlessly supports the Xbox 360 controller (plug into usb port, and away you go), which some gamers might prefer. Mouse is probably slightly more accurate, but each to their own.

Oh, and if the rest of the review wasn't enough of a clue- this is a DEEPLY gory and 18-rated game, but only in that charming way, like a good old-fashioned zombie survival horror is. It's not designed to disturb, more the excessive violence is a nod to the genre, for fans. But who is this game going to appeal to other than the personality type I outlined in the first paragraph? So there we go. Needless warning.

The only criticisms I've heard of L4D are mainly about its length- but really, I think Valve have done everything they can (clever, innovative stuff, too) to keep this game interesting, and personally I'd reckon it'd take several million playthroughs to get completely exhausted of tramping those same old corridors. Partly it's about the company, of course. The cut and thrust of human interaction with your team-mates is what keeps it exciting.



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Like Half-Life 2, Team Fortress, etc, to play Left 4 Dead on the PC- you'll need to download the Steam application (sorry, hardcore Valve fan folks- you can snooze through this bit). Whether or not you have the disk or the download directly from Steam (and I'd recommend the download, seems to be about a tenner cheaper, it's dead quick and all you miss out on is the box), you have to play the game, online, through Steam- you can read more about this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delive ry)
The reason I bring all this up is to warn those of you who don't have internet access, you're not going to be able to activate your disk, because you won't be able to connect to Steam, and therefore install the game. This does seem rather frustrating! (It wasn't my idea)

Steam has good and bad sides- the community panel makes it really easy to find and join multi-player games- and also instant-message friends, all very smoothly, even in-game. You can download games from it, often at much cheaper than shop prices, and get updates and add-ons very easily.
However, they do monitor all your gameplay and activity and keep a lot of statistics which some people could find intrusive. (Although, I hasten to add, no different from Xbox Live).
Although, you CAN set-up your games (through Steam) to be played offline, if you predict a period of non-net-access: as soon as you reconnect, Steam will send all your information that it has been collecting in the offline period. There is no escape! This is the sort of society we live in, I fear. However- I'm willing to compromise a little bit of privacy for awesome games.

Summary: Perfect multi-player massacre funtime.