The latest release from Valve, Left 4 Dead, is a first person shooter that takes place in a world where humans have been infected with a new, super strain of rabies, which turns them into the walking undead. Some unlucky souls are even turned into what are called Super Infected, a sort of uber-zombie that will bring you pain in a multitude of different ways.
You play as one of four different characters. There's Bill, the grizzled war veteran, Francis, who's a biker covered in tattoos, Zoey, a self described horror movie enthusiast, and finally Louis, who works in his company's IT department. The game is best played with three of your friends, but if you don't happen to have that many handy, the game will allow the roles of the others to be played by AI controlled bots. It's up to the four of you to stick together and watch each others backs to make it to various safehouses strewn about the world. How you get there is entirely up to you.
In control of the enemy characters in the standard campaign mode is what's called a “Director.” It's up to this director to watch how the players are doing, and adjust the difficulty accordingly. If the survivors are doing relatively well, the Director will decide to send more zombies, or even a super infected enemy or two your way to help bring things into a frantic mess. If you're not doing too well, the Director might choose to put a supply of ammo in the next room, or even a medkit or two. The game can pretty much never be played the same way twice.
In addition to the campaign mode, there's also the Versus mode, which uses up to 8 players. Four players are put in the roles of the survivors, and the other four are placed into the super infected. When you're set up to be a super infected, the game will randomly choose one of the four classes to put you into. First off, there's the Boomer, a grossly overweight character with the ability to vomit on the survivors, which causes their vision to go crazy, and also acts as a magnet for the infected. After that, you have the Tank, a gigantic character with oversized arms who can soak up damage like a sponge. The Tank is also able to pick up chunks of the ground and toss it at survivors if they're too far away. There's also a character called the Hunter, which is able to scale walls and leap like a frog from rooftop to rooftop. When the Hunter crouches, he can pounce on a survivor, knocking them to the ground as it jumps on top and claws away. Finally you have the Smoker, who has a rather long tongue which it uses to wrap around the necks of survivors and pull them away from their group, both strangling the character and leaving them somewhat stranded. There is also another type of super infected character that the player will never get to control, and that is the Witch. The Witch is basically a young girl who sits and cries. Flash your light at her, shoot her, or annoy her in any way and she leaps into action. She's able to kill a survivor in one hit, so be sure to be careful around her.
In Left 4 Dead, there are four different campaign levels, each one split into about 4 or 5 different sections, marked by entering a safe house at the end of each section. In each safe house, there are weapon and ammo stashes, as well as first aid kits for everyone. Each section is completed when the group of survivors makes their way into a safe house, and as the next section loads, you'll see statistics about how that section went. Such stats include how much damage each character dished out, how many infected they killed, how much health they lost, and so forth. The levels themselves are linear, and the only thing that really changes is what the AI Director decides to change.
Typical first person shooter controls apply here. On the XBox 360 side, the left stick controls movement, while the right stick controls your aiming. The X button is used to pick up items such as guns, first aid kits, and the like, and it is also used to open/close doors. A is the jump button, B is your reload button, and Y switches weapons. On the top of the controller, LB makes your character crouch/stand, LT is your melee attack, the RB is used for a quick 180 degree turn, while RT is to fire. The d-pad is used to select items from your inventory. Up is turn your flashlight off and on, Down is for pain pills, Right is to select the first aid kit, while Left is for selecting the pipe bomb/molotov cocktail. The controls for the super infected are pretty much the same, without the inventory. The LT uses the character's secondary attack, usually clawing an opponent, while RT is used for the main attack: the Hunter's is the pounce attack, which can only be used while crouching, the Boomer has his vomit attack, and the Smoker has his tongue.
The weapon lineup in the game is fairly limited, but there are quite a few favorites. You have a few guns to choose from. There's two varieties of shotgun (automatic and regular), there's an assault rifle, a hunting rifle, and an uzi. You're also never without your trusty pistol, which may not have the stopping power of the other guns, but the ammo is unlimited, so they're always handy in a pinch. You can even pick up two, which makes things a great deal easier. Along with the regular firearms, there are a few mounted machine guns strewn about in specific areas of the map, as well as pipe bombs, and molotov cocktails, which come in handy in enclosed locations.
Visually the game is very good, but there are areas that could definitely be improved. While it looks very good, the Source engine isn't known for its breathtaking graphics. The game does look amazing, don't get me wrong, but when putting it up against other games on the 360/PC, the graphics just don't stack up. Each survivor has his or her own distinct look, and it's easy to tell who's who from afar. You will see a lot of the same infected models, but they come in such great numbers, it's really hard to notice unless you're paying specific attention. The super infected also have their own look to them, so it's very easy to see one coming and know which one it is. The environment is a relatively drab one, which helps set the mood of the game itself. No two levels look exactly the same, either. There's No Mercy, which takes place in a hospital. Death Toll has you running through a small town/countryside. Dead Air is in an airport, and finally there's Blood Harvest, which has you hiding in cornfields, and is very rural.
The sound design in the game is quite amazing as well. Each of the super infected has their own specific sounds to be watchful for. The Boomer sounds like he's ready to throw up at any given moment (and he is), the Witch's cries can be heard from a decent enough distance away, the Hunter loves to scream and growl, while the Smoker will be coughing, and it's breathing will sound very labored. Each survivor has hundreds of lines of their own, to help distinguish between the four. The weapons sound like they have sufficient stopping power, and the ambient sounds help give the game a very creepy vibe.
Overall, the game is best played with a bunch of friends, but even if you must play with random people, if you can find ones that will actually communicate, work as a team, and not alert the infected before everyone's ready, it will be a very enjoyable experience. Even if you can't find three other people to play with, the bots that take the place of the other characters are no slouch. They'll work together, heal you if you need it, and generally do a good job of helping you out. There's even an option if you need to step away from the controller for a bit while playing online where the AI will automatically take over for you until you're ready to come back. If you have the system to play this game (and on the PC you should have no problem, the Source engine which powers this game is very well known for it's ability to scale over various systems), I highly recommend picking this one up. While the game is amazingly fun, if you get stuck with a bad group of players, it can bring things down.
Grade:
A
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