Zombies, a HUGE trend lately in the video game and pop culture arena, what is our fascination with bring back the dead? When I heard about Left 4 Dead, I was not really that excited to tell you the truth. Zombies are cool sure, but it didn’t seem like the kind of game that would hold my attention for hours. Well that is true to an extent but then I had to step back and look at this game for what it was. I loved I Am Legend. I know, those weren’t zombies, they were supposedly vampires, but same general idea. Last survivor in this crazy world of monsters and he has to survive. Well Left 4 Dead takes that idea and builds on it! They put the last 4 survivors after the zombie apocalypse together to give them a fighting chance at survival and reach the extraction point. Along the way you encounter tons of zombies and some more “advanced” zombies. By special request here is the Left 4 Dead review! On to the review!
1. Graphics/Sound
Graphics:
First thing you will notice is the beauty of this game. It is nothing special but at the same time it is a beautiful game that creates a sense of realism. They really create eerie environments which include hospitals, abandoned houses, barns, fields, forest roads and even air ports. This game is definitely creepy at times. There are certain areas that are not lit and you have to depend on your trusty flashlight to illuminate the darkness. Fortunately it never runs out of batteries. The shadows and lighting in this game are superb. The graphics and zombie models are excellent. Dismemberment is a beautiful thing in this game and the detail on the boomer when you blow it up is amazing. It’s gory and is probably not suitable for kids, but it is everything a zombie massacre should be. When you go running around with the shotgun zombie limbs and blood will go flying!
Sound:
The sound in this game is wonderful! It does not distract but enhances the mood and puts you in the action. If you play it with surround sound you will notice all the small details and effects that are thrown in. You can hear the rustling of zombies lurking in the shadows the moans for your brains and when the special zombies are around you know it! Each of them has a very unique sound and soon you will be able to identify them by their grunts and snarls. The way that the halls echo make you wonder where that hunter is. Where is he waiting for you so he can pounce on you and rip you to shreds? One of the eeriest sounds is the witch, when you approach her you know it and you know if you are not careful you are about to get murdered. There were many times my heart was racing in anticipation as our health gauges were low and there were zombies swarming. The music is very eerie and subtle adding to the tenseness it is not overpowering and it build well as the special zombies approach.
2. Game play/Controls
Gameplay:
Ok, I have to be very honest here. The single player game is NOT that good. The reason being is because the AI doesn’t always do what you want it to, not a surprise there. Over all the AI is good about getting zombies off you and healing you when you need it. They can be very dumb and get themselves killed making the game even tougher. If you want to start out and get a feel for the game I recommend Beginner, friendly fire is off and the zombies are just trying to give you hugs. Easily disposed of and you will take little to no damage. Extreme may leave you crying like the witch.
The weapons in the game are pretty basic and unfortunately not that varied. You start out with a pistol 1911 that has unlimited ammo. You can choose from 1 other weapon that include either a Mini Uzi or pump action shotgun. As you move on you will find ammo stations that sometimes have weapon upgrades which let you choose from a M16 rifle, Semi-auto shotgun, and a Ruger sniper rifle. Normally I love sniper rifles, in this game, not so much. It is bolt action and takes too much time to reload at the pace that this game throws zombies at you, it’s kind of pointless and not powerful enough.
Now, where this game shines, as do many games by valve is in the MULTIPLAYER! You can join up with 3 of your friends and tackle the zombie horde online or Co-op on the same box. It limits you to 2 people not 4 on local play but you can have 2 people on the same box playing with others over live, if both of you have Gold memberships. The ability to tackle the story mode with your buddies makes this game an AMAZING game. It is good for building up strategy to survive your way to the end and it allows you to use people as bait while others take out zombies.
VERSUS mode is one of the MOST fun games I have played on live. In versus mode you can team up with 3-7 of your buddies and play against each other or find people over live to play with. In versus mode the teams are 2 teams of 4. The basic premise if zombies versus humans…didn’t see that one coming. One team will start out as the survivors and the other will start out as…yes the zombie horde! This is what makes it so fun! The game is divided up into the 5 chapters from the campaign and each team takes turns playing the chapter as the survivors and zombies before you move on. For example, your team is the survivors, your will start out in chapter 1 and have to fight your way to the safe house. The other team will then start out as the zombies and do everything zombily possible to stop you. When the round is over, by the survivors reaching the safe house or the zombies killing them the round will switch. And the previously zombie team will now be the survivors and you can have your revenge on them as you try to stop them from getting to the save house. Points are rewarded by distance traveled, amount of health and survivors have at the end and how many zombies/how much damage you do. You will get a total for chapter 1 then moves on to chapter 2 rinse and repeat until chapter 5 where the scores are totaled up. So if you lose the first round don’t worry there is plenty of time to make a comeback!
The zombies are a blast to play. The regular zombies are still AI controlled as well as the witch. You get to take control of a random special zombie. These zombies are the Hunter, smoker and boomer. Each of them have a special ability, the hunter can jump huge distances and pounce on people and tear them up. The smoker can shoot his tongue out and drag a straggling survivor down a dark alley or strangle them from the rooftop. The boomer vomits on people covering them with bile that attracts hundreds of zombies. If you are sprayed you will glow purple and all the zombies will focus on you. If the boomer is blown up next to the survivors they will cover all surrounding people with bile. Once in a while someone random will spawn as the TANK this is a behemoth that can turn over cars and rip up pieces of the ground and throw them at the survivors. The tank is tough to kill and takes everyone focusing on him to get it down as fast as possible, but a skilled player can eliminate an entire team if they don’t work together. Remember, hiding behind cars is not safe. The tank can turn it over and throw it on you!
As of right now there are only 2 levels from the main stories 4 that you can play, but soon there will be DLC letting you play the other 2 levels in versus!
Controls:
Not going to lie, the controls are very well done. At first I thought to myself “why in the world is the melee button my left trigger” I am used to games where a button is the melee and not a trigger. Well it didn’t take me long to figure out why, melee makes up a good majority of this game. When you are surrounded by zombies you can melee them knocking them away giving you time to reload and blow them away. It also is useful for knocking the hunter and smoker off your teammates. This prevents you from dealing damage to them if you were to shoot the zombie off. The controls are laid out very well and they take a little getting used to if you play games like Call of Duty or Halo 3. But once you get them you won’t think twice about bashing a zombie in with your shotgun. The D-pad is used nicely to turn your flash light on and off as well as take pain pills, use the medpack, and even equip your pipe bomb or Molotov.
3. Story
What story? No really, there is not that much of a story to the game, honestly there doesn’t need to be. It is the basic mismatched group of people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. There is no character development and the same 4 people need to be extracted every single time. The characters are pretty funny though. You have the rough tough biker Francis who is tattooed and hates everything. You have the Bill the former Green Beret and Vietnam vet who is hard as nails and limps a long. You have Louis who works in IT. Last but not least, Zoey the college student who loves horror movies. (My personal favorite character) You go through 5 chapters of each level and the objective is to get to a safe house where you can restock on weapons and health. The final chapter is the rescue mission where you have to activate a distress radio and wait 10 minutes for the rescue party to get you, during this time, wave after wave of zombie, special zombie and even 2 tanks will swarm you and try to stop you. If you survive a rescue vehicle will show up and the team needs to climb aboard. Then there is a small cinematic, if you can even call it that and then your stats.
The one cool thing is at the beginning of the level it will show you a movie poster with the characters names and under each is says “Played by: [gamertag]” this was kind of cool because it made it feel more like a zombie movie and personalized it a little more.
4. Pros/Cons
Pros:
This game is tons of fun with your friends. Versus mode is one of the most fun things I have played in a long time. It is great getting to play as the zombies and try to stop your friends from reaching safety. Even though it is limited to 2 levels from the campaign at the moment it is hours of fun. My wife who hates scary games and zombies found that she loves this game and enjoys playing it with friends. There are some fantastic achievements that make you work for them, but they are well worth it and fun to go after. My favorite one is All 4 Dead, which is rewarded when you control the tank and kill all 4 survivors in one round.
Cons:
The main con to this game is that the single player is fun once, but after that it is not that fun without friends. This game was definitely designed for a group of friends. I wish that they made the characters customizable,that would have added another level to this game. I would say that to only have 2 levels for versus mode is a letdown but they are releasing content soon and it will be free. So that argument is gone!
Overall I think Left 4 Dead is a solid zombie survival game, it is tons of fun with friends and getting to play as the infected is an excellent feature. This game is definitely worth the purchase if you have friends you can play with. I rented it first because I did not think it looked that good, but once I played it online, it was a must have! If they continue to release levels for it and tweak the bugs, this game will have a lot of replay for a good while to come! I highly recommend it!
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