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Review 
- Left 4 Dead
- Left 4 Dead
Publisher: Valve
Developer: Valve
Overall Rating: 8.3
124 members own this game
52 members are playing game
49 members want this game
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The game pits you against mobs (The Horde) of zombies, but technically they are infected with a virus, and “Special Infected” zombies, which include: The Hunter, The Smoker, The Boomer, The Tank, and The Witch.
The Special Infected have special abilities and are more difficult to defeat. The entire point of the game is to survive… hence it being a survival horror game.
Lets do a rundown of the Special Infected.
Turtle Rock Studios(defunct)
Certain Affinity (Xbox 360)
Steam (online)
(retail)
NA November 18, 2008
EU November 21, 2008
Windows: (download)
November 18, 2008
First-person shooter
ESRB: M
OFLC: MA 15+
PEGI: 18+
USK: 18+
1 GB RAM,
128 MB DirectX 9.0 graphics card,
Pixel Shader 2.0 support,
DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
The Hunter, a quick and agile foe, able to pin a survivor down permanently until either shot (killed), or melee’d off (I dunno what you’re talking about, that’s not an achievement). His only weakness? He has to charge up is pounce before attacking, leaving him vulnerable for 5-10 seconds.
The Smoker, a slow but very useful Special. He is able to use is lengthy tongue to wrap around, drag, and dangle infected into an attacking horde, or to The Smoker, himself. If you play as a smoker, you will find how to use him to “alert” The Horde, if your near a loud RED, and FLASHING object :Þ .
The Boomer, an extremely slow, and virtually harmless… unless you consider him VOMITING, or EXPLODING on you, thus causing a Horde to attack you, or anyone that got his bile, and causing serious damage to an already incapacitated survivor, and blindness to who ever received his face full of bile.
The Tank. Yep… the name says it all… a mean gray fighting machine… he will ruin your day. he can slap you off buildings, throw boulders at you, slap cars that will incapacitate all 4 survivors. He is just not fun. He has a huge amount of damage, moves slightly slower then a healthy survivor, and is the fucker upper of your day.
The Witch. Even worse then The Tank. She moves fast, and targets only one survivor, and only that one survivor until either are dead… and if the survivor dies, she screams and cries and runs off to go crouch down somewhere else to cry. When you play on advanced or expert, a single blow from her WILL kill you, no matter the health you have. Easiest thing to do is to avoid her… or shoot her in the back of the head with a single neutralizing shot. The nice thing about The Witch, is that she only has approximately 1/28 the amount of health the tank has, it might not seem like much, but its more then you think.
Now the run down on the survivors:
Bill: “It took two eventful tours in Vietnam, a handful of medals, a knee full of shrapnel, and an honorable discharge before the unthinkable happened: Bill ran out of wars. But now an army of infected undead has declared war on humanity. After decades of aimless drifting and dead-end jobs, Bill’s finally gotten back the only thing he ever wanted: an enemy to fight.”
Francis: “Cocky, loud, and pretty sure he’s indestructible, Francis acts like the zombie apocalypse is the world’s biggest bar fight. When the virus hit, everybody else stockpiled food and looked for a place to hide. Francis found a gun and had some fun. No cops, no laws, no order—if it wasn’t for all the zombies, he could almost get used to life like this.”
Louis: “Louis had been working up the courage to quit his job as Junior Systems Analyst at his company’s IT department when a virus showed up and downsized the world. Now Louis has a new set of goals (live long enough to succeed) and a new set of tools (guns, sharp objects) to help him achieve them. With any luck, he’ll figure out how the new management operates before they get a chance to murder him.”
Zoey: “After spending her first semester holed up in a dorm room watching old horror movies, Zoey was given a choice: Stop fooling around and get her grades up, or drop out. Now that the planet’s overrun with murderous zombies, and all of her professors are dead, Zoey at least has the cold comfort that she’s been studying up on the right subject after all.”
None of the survivors have special abilities, other the Louis, who has the ability of getting himself shot at by teammates… there is something about that white shirt… damn it!
The Campaigns:
No Mercy: This is opening video for Left 4 Dead. And where we first play the demo. Fight from streets, to sewers, covering your back along the way. Get to the hospital, fight your way to the top in a close quarter barely enough room too move hospital. Protect yourself from Boomers, they are nasty in this area. Hold your ground on the rooftop of Mercy Hospital, and fly away to safety.
Dead Air: Fight your way from rooftop to rooftop to get to the downtown Metro Airport. Assault Rifles = your best friend! Keep your back against the wall on choke points, because they can ruin your day more then a Tank can… oh and watch out for a few of those too. Watch were you walk, and NEVER walk through a metal detector, it might have been safe back then, but its suicide now. Help fuel up the airplane that flew over head in the opening scene, and get your ass out of there!
Blood Harvest: You find yourselves waking up in the Appalachian Mountains, fighting your way to a farm house that you must hold up, and fight waves and waves of infected. But first you must get their through mountain passes, forest, and a horrid, pain in the ass can see anywhere corn field.
Death Toll: Fight your way through a deserted and mangled highway into a ghost town, or should I say, Zombie Town, of Riverside. Fight in an open environment, where nothing can stop the waves of infected! Watch out for the church bell, and keep your wits about you!
The Weapons:
Guns:
Pistol - Unlimited ammo, and if you can find another one laying around… DUAL WIELD and those close quarter areas and no match when you are putting holes through everything!
Uzi - Fast firing spray of death
Pump Action Shotgun - Bash, shoot, bash, shoot. Anything “Zombie” needs a pump action shotgun… DUH! Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead.. etc etc
Assault Rifle - Nice to have the stopping power of a 7.62 round riddle the bodies of zombies, spray through the walls and get those nasties that might surprise you.
Auto-shotgun - Auto-firing shot gun, with more stopping power, and 2 extra shells, and the ultimate Tank stopper, when all 4 of the survivors are equipped with it.
Hunting Rifle - The sniper rifle, that can shoot through ANYTHING. Your comrades will get this if they are wanting to pop the heads off of zombie infected. In my opinion, the only thing this is good for is… oh right… nothing.
Gatling Gun - no you can not Arnold this around, but you can disrupt a might amount of infected. Insta-death to anything hit by a couple rounds from it. This are found where there is a choke point in which you must trigger an event and defend it to move on. You will always find these at the last level where you have to contact the rescue vehicle.
Explosives:
Propane tanks - Place them
strategically around a choke point and pop one with a shot and take out some infected! It goes boom!
Pipe Bomb - Throw one of these if you get bile on you and keep those nasties off of you until you can see clearly again. The infect will ALWAYS chase it, so if you are getting swarmed, toss it to get some zombies off of you or another survivor to help save them.
Oxygen Tanks - Yep, just like those geriatric people use to keep alive… not as violent as the propane tanks, but can still do some major damage if strategically placed.
Fire:
Molotov Cocktails - Throw one of these into a nice congested area of zombies, and watch them roast! Be careful, you can light yourself, or other survivors on fire… and I have seen MANY MANY instances of someone throwing one of these down near themselves, or other survivors and it will incapacitate themselves or others, and if low enough health, even kill them… and that is no bueno.
It also helps to take out the tank much faster.
Gas Cans - These are hell fires in a can. if you set up a perimeter with a few of these you can defend fairly well, the flames do spread a distance so back a good distance away before setting one of these off. The flame moves fast and violently, consuming all in its wake.
Alright, we have gone through the background of the game, characters, and weapons. Now my run down (I have both PC and HugeBox 360 versions), I will discuss both, and if need be, I will differentiate between them.
As for game play, in single player, it is virtually the same. The game play is the same. Same campaigns, same versus … oh yeah,
that’s right… you heard me VERSUS… 4v4, take turns as survivors and see who can last the longest against The Tank, The Boomer, The Hunter, and The Smoker. No you can not play as The Witch, don’t ask.
The game, is EXTREMELY linear, get from Point A to Point B, but avoid the problems that would ensue such as Hunter 1 attacks from behind, while Hunter 2 attacks from the front, and Smoker 1 attacks from the roof top right side, and Boomer 1 attacks by jumping off a building and showering all 4 of you with bile at once. Working as a team is the key to
survival, if you find someone running ahead of everyone else, its best to let them die, and not even attempt to help them, or even get them out of a closet from when they respawn. A microphone is key in this! If you
don’t have a mic on the PC version there are 2 commo-roses that you can use the “Z” key and “X” key. They will call for help. etc.
etc.
The AI is nice, and there is an “AI Director” which means each play though is
different each time through (new placement/quantities of normal infected, new
attack strategies from the special infected, random placement of The Witch
[which can be out of your way, or sitting right in front of the only way to
continue the game would be to walk directly to her and kill her]). Although I
did find that there were "normal" or "predictable" spots that you would find
a Tank or Witch.
On the Xbox 360, I found that playing on expert was more simple to play on
then on PC. I played normal on PC, and it was ridiculously hard to play, it
seemed more like expert on 360, until I got used to it. I had to adjust the
sensitivity to my mouse (even though I'm using a Razer Copperhead) to turn
faster. The console, turning was not a problem. The video is nice for both,
and if you do not have a HDTV you can not see the true graphics of the game
on 360. I like over all, the PC version, there are some outstanding mods
that have been, and will be release fairly soon.
And it will be a matter of time before we see mods of better weapons.
*crosses fingers to see HK's, chainsaws, and "boom sticks"*
OVERALL SCORE for both PC and 360
Graphics
9/10
Visually stunning, there are things that you would never expect to see. Although
at times, there are "boxy" looking models, the extra enhancements (Film grain,
flash lights tapering off like real flashlights, the writing on the walls of
safe houses) It is a eye candy type game.
Audio:
8/10
A unique musical score, although I did see that some of the sounds were used in
multiple places but for different things… i.e. zombies bashing through a wood
door sounds the same as bashing through a steel door.
Length:
6/10
Each of the campaigns take on average an hour to complete on normal/advanced.
Much much longer on expert. On easy, I think my record time was 35 minutes.
Replayability:
9/10
You really want to get those achievements no matter what, but I find that the
most enjoyable is versus, you can truly end a round in a matter of minutes if
you coordinate with your other fellow special infected.
Gameplay
7/10
As I said before, EXTREMELY linear. But then again, you cant deny shooting heads
off of infected with shotties, and rifles. And the fires really add to the
effect of "Oh god! a burning zombie! this could be bad!"
Overall Game Score: 8/10
With new mods coming out with in hours of release for PC, and the versus
extremely enjoyable, the money for this game is totally worth it! And if you
purchase off of Steam, you can buy a 4 pack and save $50, and have 3 other
friends to play with.
The 360 has its advantages and disadvantages, for example… if i were playing
versus with a friend on the same console, I can see where they are
attacking/moving. But the VOIP is pretty much guaranteed and a lot easier
to plan, and move with friends.
This game gets my SEAL OF APPROVAL!
Valve has worked extremely hard on this game to provide the right atmosphere for you. They use a contrast of bright and dark colours that make dark shapes stand out so that while it's not impossible to see, you can't make out details without getting close to things (unless they are near a light source, of course.)
Complimentary to Valve's "Portal", the Graffiti on the wall gives the backstory and sense of mood. Of course, there is a lot of silly graffiti and just plain crazy stuff. It really gives you a sense that nobody knows whats going on and you're not the only one to pass through here. It provides stories of families torn apart, and people leaving each other messages.
The main goal of the game is either to survive to the end, or kill all the survivors. In the campaign mode, the game holds 4 survivors who must make it to the end, and there are 4 AI Director controlled Special Infected. These are people who have been mutated by a special strain of virus to give them special powers.
TANK: A hulking brute of muscle. His mutation gives him super strength, and the ability to rip giant rocks or pieces of concrete straight out of the ground. His primary attack which is a form of a swipe or punch can send cars flying and will knock you flying against walls and off edges. It's very dangerous and can take a person down to low health in a few hits. His secondary attack, he rips a piece of the ground out that's practically the size of a person, and then throws it in the direction he aims. It's about the same power as his punch, but it's a slow move and it can be hard to hit a moving target with it. Fortunately, these Zombies are considered "Bosses" and only appear at rare times in the Campaign and Versus modes. In Versus mode, a lucky infected is chosen to become the Tank, but they have a meter that says if they aren't acting tank like (Getting up close and personal with the survivors) they will lose becoming the tank.
HUNTER: This is the most common form of Special Infected in Versus Mode, because due to the lack of a witch in Versus Mode (It would be too unfair), two people often spawn as Hunters. He can be identified by a Blue Hoodie, and he growls/screams a lot. His primary attack is a crouching pounce, where he can leap long distances (even from on top of a building) and once he catches his target, he pins them to the ground and starts ripping them apart with his claws. His secondary attack is the common special infected swipe. It's a low damage melee attack that can be a last resort, say they get knocked off someone or they miss a jump, they can start meleeing the survivor. This one is really annoying to deal with, as they move fast and can come flying out of nowhere (Off buildings?). Fortunately, they are really easy to kill in close range so stick with your teammates, otherwise these guys will catch you.
Boomer: The boomer is a Special Infected full of bile. He looks like a walking AD for Clearasil. He is easily identified by his large body, horrifying boils and pus-filled pimples(?) and his disgusting gurgling sound. This is the zombie you gotta watch out for the most, because if the Boomer doesn't get you, you won't have too much trouble with the other zombies. The Boomer's primary attack is he spits bile at the survivors and anyone hit with it attracts a horde of zombies and can't see for an ammount of time. If he gets shot, he explodes sending the bile everywhere so the common tactic is blind everyone and then run in and get shot to explode all over everyone. While they are blinded and swarmed, the two hunters and smoker paralyze three of the survivors. This is probaly the most dangerous zombie, because even the tank can be dealt with if the team sticks together. Always use your secondary melee (right click) to knock this zombie away so you don't get blinded and swarmed.
WITCH: The witch is a special zombie that CANNOT be controlled by a player in Versus mode. She is identifiable by her thin figure, long fingers, torn clothes, and bright eyes. She is commonly crying and spooky Twilight Zone-esque music starts playing. It really scares the *BEEP* out of everyone that is playing and makes everyone co-operate a whole lot more. Similar to normal zombies, unless you disturb her, she won't attack you. She is quite a bit harder to disturb than normal zombies, but if you shine your flashlight at her or shoot at her, she will start screaming and run at whoever startled her. If she reaches you before you kill her, she will knock you down in one hit, instantly sending you into the red zone of laying down on the ground and shooting with your pistol. She will then continue attacking until you are dead. She is fairly weak health wise, but with a practically one hit kill attack, she is worth avoiding unless you are going for the achievement where you have to kill her before she gets to anyone.
The survivors
Bill: Bill is a former Green Baret (Member of the US Special Forces) and Vietnam Veteran. He is a bit more rough around the edges than other characters due to his military and war experience. He also is a bit in command of the group, because he has the best idea of what to do and where they are going.
Francis: Francis appears to be your typical Biker. He's also somewhat like Bill, with his more rough nature than Louis or Zoey, but he has a bit less idea of what is going on. He's not the greatest friends with Bill but hell, anyone would be your best friend in a forsaken zombie apocalypse. Francis' input is valuable at times, such as when he spots a Witch or another special infected.
Louis: Louis wears a casual business outfit throughout the story. His outfit of black pants, a white shirt and a tie shows that he was at work when he had to start running for it. He was previously a Junior systems analysis in his company's IT department. He is quick to laugh when they make jokes or Bill rubs zombie slime on Francis, but he's quite scared compared to Francis or Bill. You can see the terror in his face when he hears screams coming around the corner.
Zoey: Zoey is your average hoodie wearing college student. She's a horror movie enthusiast, so it is likely she has watched quite a few zombie movies, and is not a completely clueless idiot. She seems to be a bit scared but with her teammates at her side, she is well-off. She can handle her own well (somehow even reloading like a pro while meleeing zombies in the face) and is an essential member of the team.
As you can tell, each character is completely unique from each other and brings a unique feeling to the story. How they talk, what they talk about, and how they look brings more to the story and they have a lot of life and feeling. Valve worked really hard to make the characters great, and while the original characters were big bulky characters wearing Bandoliers of Bullets, they decided to make the characters more like the average person so you could really feel like "Hey, if I was in a zombie apocalypse, this might actually happen!"
They really bring the story to life, and the CO-OP of the game is wonderful. The only problem with the game is it's a little bit Mic-Depended because on the Expert difficulty, you really need to communicate. It's not a problem though due to the large array of Voice Commands and text options (as in all Valve games).
WEAPONS:
For weapons you start off with either a military issue pump-action 8 shot shotgun, or an UZI. Both are effective while the shotgun is slower to reload, you can melee while reloading and I don't know if it's the same for the Uzi. Personally, I prefer the shotgun for it can take out multiple enemies and it feels more reliable. I don't like the spray n pray fire of the Uzi, and I feel the shotgun does more damage.
Later on in the game, you find a stockpile of weapons such as the M16A3 Rifle, a military variant of the military issued M16A2 rifle. Contrary to it's A2 companion, it is fully-automatic and it was primarily made for the US Navy Seals, SeaBEE, and Security.
There is also a Benelli M4 Super 90 shotgun. Made by the company Benelli, a popular shotgun company, it is currently in use by the US Marine Corps and is going to be distributed to the US Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard. It is a military action shotgun that has a collapsible buttstock, can be easibly modified without any tools quickly, supports a wide variety of scopes, lazer sights, and flash lights with it's rail system, and it is civilian legal. This shows that someone has been through here and left weapons and ammo that are perfect for their purpose. It is a semi-automatic shotgun that does heavy damage, and can be reloaded while meleeing.
Last but not least, there is a Ruger Mini-14 Snipe Rifle. It is a lightweight semi-automatic sniper rifle created by the US Firearms company Ruger. The rifle can fire the .233 remington cartridges and 5.56x44mm rounds. The Mini-14 proved popular with small-game hunters, ranchers, law enforcement, security personnel and target shooters. It is a powerful rifle capable to killing even multiple targets with one shot. The only problem is it is slow to fire and while constantly moving, it is difficult to even pick off targets from a distance. You will find yourself using your handguns more than this if you take this. I recommend the Benelli or M16.
Graphics: The graphics are wonderful for this game. Valve used a lot of common horror movie and game concepts and completely re-did them to suit their game. They really used a lot of tactics to set the mood, and the Graffiti on the wall was a nice touch. The graphics really show the story of the game, and the character animation is wonderful. I can only play this game on Medium settings at 1024x768 (Haven't tried turning it up yet) but to be honest, I am happy with the graphics now. I'm sure Very High looks spectacular and I think for the effort they put into the game and their release date, it is the best they could of done with it. 9/10 because I think no matter how great a game is with their graphics, if I can't play it on Max Settings, it's not perfect. Really now.
Story: The story really brings out a scare factor in this. At some point in Late November/Early October, people started turning and No Mercy Hospital became a quarantine area. Later, zombies started breaking out of No Mercy hospital and the infection spread. Some non-immunes and immunes ran for it, but in the end most immunes ended up dying and any non-immunes still alive have escaped. The military had to pull out because of the infection, and have set up outposts in the Rural Areas. It's unknown as to whether or not the outposts have been overrun as there is Graffiti that contradicts one another. I guess you'll just have to find out yourself.
8/10
Sound: Sound is a crucial part in this game. The horrifying music that comes on when theres a witch or a tank coming makes everyone think "Oh #&@$" and it really adds a whole new level of "OH #$!@" to the game. The sound isn't perfect for the game, but the gurgling of the boomer, the screams of the hunter. It's just amazing.
8.5/10
Overall Game Score: 8.6
This is a wonderful game that I have played through over and over again. Although it is limited in it's chose of Campaign and Versus levels, it is fun to play consistently over and over again. The AI director brings a new level of replayability to the game and I just love this game. Even with all it's faults (Lack of variety in weapons and levels), it is still an amazing game that I love, and if you didn't pick it up during Steam's christmas sale, I recommend you go pick it up at a store during their boxing week sales! Go go go!