A second opinion

When you hear Valve, you think quality. Responsible for multiple Game of the Year award winners in Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and The Orange Box, Valve has unmistakenable wedged themselves into gaming history with a number of brilliantly concieved, innovative, and technically sound video games. Unlike my counterpart who began Left 4 Dead before the fixes and survival pack, I recently took a crack at the title the same week the new and free expansion was added. With Valve being the developer, my expectations were high, myself being a little tired of the zombie genre in movies and games, I wasn’t sure what my reaction would be to this game and how much I would enjoy it. Valve failed to disappoint yet again, and not only did I fall for the Left 4 Dead world almost immediately, i’m still addicted to this gruesome and chaotic zombie masterpiece, and my disgruntled opinion on the overused zombie genre quickly dissolved.

The game itself takes itself in the form of four zombie films, telling the tale of four survivors struggling to reach numerous safe houses in efforts to finally be rescued and removed from this apocalyptic hell. The streets are littered with the undead, who react to light, loud noises, and certain interactions with the enviornment around you. There are scattered and dumb undead that trip over their own feet after being startled upon viewing you, to the hordes that sprint in your direction in a blood thirsty rampage, and the special infected that are stronger and much more deadly. Car Alarms are sure to awake the dead and cause you a handful of brain craving zombies swarming to you, but luckily the pulsating blip from a pipebomb attracts them just as effectively. The AI Director literally rewrites the script everytime you play, no memorizing enemy placement here as it’s all regenerated everytime you play. This adds a ton of depth and replayability, as it’s never the same experience twice even if you continue to replay the same scenario. Teamwork is the key to survival as the game will remind you constantly, and this offers the true meaning of complete teamwork and tactics.

You have the choice of either a sub-machine gun, a shotgun, an assault rifle, or a hunting rifle as your primary weapon, and carry a sidearm with unlimited ammo just in case you are in a tight situation and cannot reload or run out of ammo. The start of each chapter begins within a locked safehouse, the walls are desperately scribbled with notes and warnings of those who sought shelter there previous to you. You tend to stop and read some of what’s on the walls, notes to loved ones from family who just couldn’t wait for them any longer, banter that the military isn’t sending help, and dying cries from former survivors claiming that “This is our fault” and “We deserve this”. It’s a small detail that adds to the overall feel and experience, and it adds that Valve charm that we have all come to know and love. I would have liked to see more variety in weapon choice, as what is listed above is really your only option aside from upgrading to an auto-shotgun later into chapters. Even if they mixed up the appearance of the provided weaponry, it would have added just a little more to the game. A M-16 on “death toll” as an assault rifle option, and an AK-47 on “dead air” for example, even if they functioned identically, the difference in appearance would have made things slightly more interesting.

Online play is a blast, and I agree completely with D that being the infected is a little more enjoyable. I remember the first time I hid on the bottom level of an airport and lassoed a straggling survivor with my tongue on the upper level and dragged him to his demise. It’s a completely innovative experience that they’ve never really mastered in a multiplayer mode until now. It leaves for a great online experience that has more variety than your typical human vs human deathmatch. You can also go four player cooperative and blast through the scenarios with your buddies or take on survival mode and see how long you can last. There’s a lot of option, and the cooperative gameplay tends to be a little more attractive than the single player experience. The survivor AI is okay when you are playing by yourself, with minor issues that I ran into including being the first to ascend a ladder, being incapitated, and my three AI teammates being unable to figure out how to climb the ladder and save me. This only happened on two occassions, and it was reasonably my fault for getting further ahead, but a little more attention from the AI would have been appreciated. They will also not let human players take priority on medical supplies, they swarm first aid kits like jackals leaving you at times without one strapped to your back.

With very minor issues aside, Left 4 Dead is a fresh and inspiring take not only in the First Person Shooting genre, but in the whole Zombie genre as well. It’s different, addictive, completely fun especially with friends, and if Valve continues to support the game with downloadable content, especially free DLC, Left 4 Dead is going to be around for a long time. A lot of people play it online, and there’s really no arguing why the population is still so heavy because it’s just so well done. I can’t help but to agree with the Game of the Year status, as Left 4 Dead puts itself in the ranks of some of the best games available to date, and with Resident Evil 5 being released and RE supposedly being the authority in zombie gaming, I think Left 4 Dead beats it out on many levels. Buy this game, don’t even rent it, just go drop the cash into it today. You’ve already waited too long to play this game if you haven’t tried it.

Gameplay: 9.0

Graphics: 7.5

Replayability: 9.5

Overall: 9.5

P. Theimer

paulrtheimer@yahoo.com

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