Left 4 Dead Review
Dec 19, 2008 Featured, Games, PC, Reviews
From the creators of Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike, and the Half Life anthologies comes Left 4 Dead, a first person shooter revolving around co-operative play, zombies and unpredictability.
Valve’s latest game, Left 4 Dead, debuts the much publicized AI called the Director AI. Instead of having fixed spawn-points, the AI Director places enemies of varying amounts at different places each time depending on the current players in the game. Depending on the skill and play-style of the current match’s players, the AI Director would adjust accordingly.
Left 4 Dead is in every way, a real survivor horror game.
Loved:
1. The Director AI
2. The Co-Op campaigns
3. Multiplayer
4. Zombie Hordes
Hated:
1. Almost non-existent storyline
The AI Director, aka Director AI, plays a huge role in the game’s replay factor. Many have complained that the game seems too short, with only four chapters and five scenes in each chapter. However, I’ve logged a minimum of 30 hours with the game and the Director AI makes each playthrough surprising and thrilling. You can never predict properly where zombies will come from, and how many they will appear in. I’ve gotten hurt a fair amount of times simply rushing into what was an empty room in the previous match only to be attacked by hordes of zombies.
The campaign itself is fairly short. Each chapter is about an hour long on normal difficulty. However, the winning aspect of this game is that it is truly CO-OPERATIVE. In other games, it’s not uncommon to hear the word Co-Op just to find out that the two roles played are distinctly different. However, in Left 4 Dead, each player is given the same access to the same types of guns and other than the skin looking different, they’re absolutely the same.
However, this game really does focuses on multiplayer. A single player leaving the group behind and venturing forth alone is a guaranteed death. This makes the game fresh with each playthrough because the players will have to adjust accordingly to the situation and really work together. The versus mode twists the game around even more, as it pits four survivors against four special infected against each other. The results can be frustrating, funny, exciting or all at once!
Multiplayer, is where this game is worth its heavy price tag of 49.99USD.
One more thing about Left 4 Dead that’s loved? The zombies. Zombies that lumber around are nothing when compared with the zombies in Left 4 Dead that sprints like an Olympic champion. A single zombie sprinting at you is a simple matter of quick reflexes, but multiply that by hundreds and you have Left 4 Dead.
While I understand that Left 4 Dead revolves around multiplayer. Nonetheless, I somehow feel a little bit turned off by the lack of a proper storyline. Each chapter begins with a small cutscene and the survivors saying they need to get somewhere to be evacuated. The next chapter begins the same way save for a different setting. A simple explanation of how they ended up re-evacuating again would have been satisfactory I believe.
Well, if you’re interested in good clean multiplayer goodness this is definitely a game you should consider. If you’re looking for a solid storyline with an engaging plot and hours of singleplayer gameplay, you might want to consider Resident Evil 4 instead.
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