Whitney
Edward 1
Left 4 Dead Review
December 3rd 2008 10:21
Left 4 Dead is a video game that we've seen the same or similar storyline concept in a number of movies. Basically, you and up toe three other survivors must battle a zombie apocalypse with a simple goal in mind- to survive. The differnce between Left 4 Dead and all the other movies and video games with similar concepts, this video game feels to be more of an experiement with gameplay that is near out of this world.
The game is built around a multiplayer concept, but Left 4 Dead offers singleplayer mode that lets you go through the game with bots, but that is more of practice for the real thing because the bots lack dynamic play, interaction, interplay, and the social aspect of co-op play. The game is jsut so much better playing with real people.
Ok, so basically Left 4 Dead has the seemingly trendy zombie apocalypse storyline with a small handful of humans that are immune to the zombie virus. You are one of them. Other characters that are immune include Zoey, Bill, Louis, and Francis. You will be armed with real and makeshift weapons that you must use to battle your way to survival.
In each of hte scenarios, you must battle your way to various safe houses that lead to your rescue point. You can either play with three other people, and you each control one of the characters, or you can play with the bots, but the AI not as good about killing the zombies and they are passive.
Each scenario is presented like a movie, which is pretty cool, and only adds to the overall gameplay enjoyment. If you manage to survive, the credits will roll with who inflicted the most headshots, how many zombies were killed, and who delivered the most friendly fire.
The zombie horde is based on fast zombies that don't shamble. They sprint at you with inhuman speed, scale fences, and bust down doors to get to you. These horde zombies aren't smart, but they are dangerous in their numbers.
The real danger comes from the special zombies are more dangerous. You'll encounter the following special zombies:
* The hunter who can leap across large distances to pin a survivor.
* The smoker who has a frog-like tonge that can grab survivors by the throat.
* The boomer who vomits or explodes to spray survivors, which will temporarily blind you but it will drive the horde zombies nutes.
* The tank who can take enormous amounts of damage and dish it out just the same.
* The witch who can take down a survivor with just a single swipe.
The overall game is paced perfectly so that you are always pushed to the edge and running on low health or ammo.
As for avaialable weapons, you will have access to shotguns, assault rifles, submachine guns, pipe bombs, and loads of makeshift weapons.
A concern with Left 4 Dead is that there are only 4 scenarios, which if you play on the easier difficulties, may only take 20 to 30 minutes to complete. But, on the harder difficulites, it will take much longer as you will die more often.
But, at the same time, you can play the Versus mode, where you play as the zombies against the humans, instead of the humans against the zombies, which makes things a little interesting. The Versus mode plays out with each team alternating between zombie and human, and you take turns to see how far you can get in each level.
When playing as the zombies, you'll notice that you need a good bit more coordination in order to work effectively.
The graphics may not be as cutting edge as other games, but there are a variety of environments that are packed with detail andclutter. The lighting system is awesome; for example, you'll find yourself i na dark room with the only light coming from the flashlight on your gun. You'll also notice that the facial animation is excellent as you can see soi much emotion on the faces of hte survivors.
The game runs well on the xBox and the PC versions. You will find that the PC version will look better on higher resolutions, and there are some loading lags with the xBox version but nothing that is a serious concern.
The audio is very stong, with realistic sounds and special effects.
Overall, the game is probably one of the better social video games that has been released in a long time. It's definitely worth the gameplay.
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