Impressions: Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead is Valves’s latest game that allows up to four players to join forces and survive a zombie on onslaught.  The demo features two chapters from one of the game’s five scenes, which lead the player on a path from a rooftop down to an underground subway system.

The game’s combat is typical of a Valve shooter and feels much like Counter-Strike and Half-Life.  There are a variety of weapons at your disposal, pump action shot guns, automatic shotguns, assault rifles, sub machine guns, and sniper rifles all make killing hordes of zombies an enjoyable experience.  The game can be played single-player, but the real fun comes from playing four player co-op with some friends.

At the beginning of each game players have their choice of four different characters to play as;  Zoey, a young woman who probably has never held a gun in her life.  Bill, a war veteren who can fight just as well as the other young survivors.   Louis, an electrical store manager who joins the group to escape the city.  And my personal favorite survivor, Francis a tough biker, who gives people named Francis (like myself) a chance to feel cool.  All of these characters play exactly the same, aside from a few dialogue expressions in certain situations.

Your life is in the Director's hands

When I had first heard of the game’s Director AI system I was a little skeptical.  I mean how could the game know what the player is actually doing and then change the game based on that?  Well I am glad that I was wrong because no two scenario play through are the same as a result.  For example say your team is not holding up too well against the zombie apocalypse, well it might spawn a pile of weapons around the corner for you to equip.  I began to experiment with the Director and got some interesting results.  For example, in the first level of the demo your crew is held up on a rooftop while zombies populate the rooms below.  If you go down the stairs or jump through one of the windows on the roof then you will be open to attack, but I decided to sit up on the roof to see what happens.

Now I do not know if what happened was a result of the game being on the hardest difficulty, but I was ambushed by zombies who jumped onto the roof from a near by building.  I was not expecting that to happen at all.  On the second level of the demo, which was an underground subway tunnel, you have the oppurtunity to pick up some more firepower.  I grabbed a sniper rifle and camped in a corner picking off zombies from across the tunnel without them noticing me at all.  After about five minutes of sniping the undead I was caught off guard when I stopped looking down the gun’s scope…a horde of zombies was rushing me and too be honest made me jump.

I have had so many memorable experiences play the demo for Left 4 Dead and it only offers two levels to choose from.  I cannot imagine the fun that the final game will offer with the added game modes and scenarios to play through.  This game promises to be a great title for anyone interested in horror games or those looking to shoot up some undead zombies with their friends.

-Frank