While most zombie games and films often depict the story from the perspective of the helpless survivor, Left 4 Dead shows players the other side of the coin by letting them experience the perspective of the zombie infected as they hunt down the last bastion of humanity. No matter the side you play on, the game puts together a number of challenging scenarios that forces players to think as a cohesive unit because in the harsh, desolate landscape of Left 4 Dead you have to be a team player to stay alive.
Everybody needs to work together in order to survive.
Which brings us to the crux of this well-crafted piece of gaming: the multiplayer experience. In all honesty, if you are intending to purchase this game just to play through the single-player campaign, you're better off spending your money on one of the other brilliant FPS titles that are circulating the shops these days, titles like Far Cry 2 or Call of Duty: World at War. The team at PALGN have spent much time in the lure of Left 4 Dead, and we can not stress enough that this is a game that needs to be played online. Not only do you get to mock your friend who seems to perpetually find himself clinging to life because he bit off more than he could chew (special shoutout to the eternal damsel in distress that is Mr. Harry Milonas) - no matter how many times you advise them not to go in that direction - you'll really get to challenge how well you can work with other players. While most multiplayer components of titles stress teamwork to some extent, they have never really been able to deliver in the way that Left 4 Dead does.
When you play alongside a competent teammate or two, Left 4 Dead is such a blast to play - especially since you can vote a player out of your game if they are being an uncooperative teammate. Even if you've played through every level a hundred times, you'll still find that the zombies will appear from different spots of the map, making for continuously unpredictable gameplay. Whether they are shuffling around the service station or launching themselves at you from a high space, these nasty suckers are some of the most superbly animated characters that you'll find in a videogame today. They run fast, jump out of nowhere and viciously claw at you like a possum on crack. Whether you're dying by their hand or blowing off one of their limbs, you can't help but be completely energised by the frenetic pace of the title.
Here they come.
At the moment, there are four campaigns in Left 4 Dead, each of which spans five levels. The first four levels of each campaign will end with you getting the survivors into a safe house, where you can heal your wounds and rearm your weapons before you take a final stand against the infected zombie menace as you wait for help to arrive in the campaign's final level. What is special about Left 4 Dead is that each area of the level is a potential battleground, in fact the silence is more telling than the screams of the zombie horde. This leaves players in a state of constant vigilance, always primed and ready for action. Each campaign presents a different setting, each with their own varying strategies for players to sink their teeth into. You'll travel through the urban sprawl, the eerily quiet suburbs, and through rural parkland. Each setting is a telling reminder of the desolate infection that has taken hold of the population. Apart from an opening cutscene that sheds a little light on the situation, you never really find out what has caused the zombie plague, but the grim environment and grafittied safe houses expertly set the stage, leaving you salivating for more tidbits of information. Each campaign will roughly take you an hour to complete on the normal difficulty setting, so you'll soon find yourself becoming very familiar with each of the game maps. Although the limited number of levels and grim landscape can sometimes feel a bit repetitious after a handful of play-throughs, the dynamic enemy placement, varying equipment spawns, and an ever-changing group of players to team up with factor in to make each play-through of Left 4 Dead a surprisingly unique experience.
Of course, the dynamic difficulty also plays a significant role in the title. If your team of survivors is easily carving a path through the horde of zombies, you'll find that the game will kick it up a notch. You'll find a larger number of foes to repel as the periods of respite seem to get smaller and smaller. Players will also be forced to be more careful with their supplies as these seemingly dry up as your team becomes more skilled in the art of zombie killing.
Exploring isn't always the best option.
Supply wise, each player comes equipped with a primary weapon - such as a shotgun or a submachine gun - as well as a pistol (or two), which thankfully comes with unlimited ammunition. Players can also get their hands on an explosive device or two in the form of pipe bombs and molotov cocktails, both of which are uniquely deadly when used correctly. All of these supplies become a crucial part of your survival. If you run out of assault rifle ammo too quickly or you use that health pack at the wrong time, not only do you put yourself at danger, you can guarantee that your foolhardy actions have signed a death warrant for your entire team. Therefore management of these supplies is a critical element of the gameplay, giving players the urge to seek out supplies which are often hidden off the beaten path, not to mention further adding to the tension of an already precarious situation.
Of course, survival isn't the only goal in Left 4 Dead. In fact, the goal is often the opposite when you play in Versus mode. The Versus gameplay mode allows two teams of up to four players to compete for points. Survivors can earn points by progressing through the campaigns, while the infected earn points by damaging and killing survivors. What is really fun about Versus mode is that it allows players to have a taste of playing as one of the boss zombies from the main campaign: Boomers - a large variety of zombie which vomits on survivors. The bile covered survivor then becomes a target for the ravenous horde of normal infected. Smokers - these creepy characters strangle unwitting survivors with their long, lasso-like tongue. Hunters - as their name suggests, these monsters viciously tear survivors into ribbons. Then finally there is the tank - a big hulk of a zombie that smashes his way through just about everything. Not only does playing as these characters mix up the gameplay, it also gives players some insight into the weaknesses of these boss zombies.
They don't call him the hunter for nothing.
While there are not hours of rendered cutscenes to flesh out the characters, the game definitely has a set of stars in its four captivating survivors: Bill, Francis, Zoey and Louis. The banter between the characters as you are fighting for survival adds an immersive experience to the game. When things are going well they'll compliment you on that well placed shot, and when things fall to pieces you can hear the anxiety and emotion playing out through their voices. Valve has always prided themselves on giving gamers characters that they can empathise with, and this ragtag bunch are no exception. As well as being aurally superb, you'll find that the character models in Left 4 Dead also live up to the quality that Valve has shown us over the years, as the entire range of emotions - from fear, right through to relief - plays out across their faces as you make your way through the game.
For all of its single-player shortcomings, you'll find that the fast-paced thrills of co-op action in Left 4 Dead are second to none. Do yourself a favour: grab a few friends, turn the lights off, turn the sound up and experience the atmosphere of Left 4 Dead.
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