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Over the past year we've seen the rise of the sequel, a "play it safe" route that publishers have chosen to follow. One can’t really blame them given the massively rising costs of putting out these games. Why waste millions of dollars on something new, when tried and true franchises are guaranteed to bring in sales?
The downside of this trend is that aside from a few notable exceptions such as Dead Space and Little Big Planet, the vast majority of major releases have really felt stale to me. While many of the big sequels that came out this fall are spectacular games, and in most cases even better than the originals in terms of visuals and gameplay modes, they still really didn't give a truly unique and completely new gameplay experience.
This is why Left 4 Dead was such a surprise to me. Unlike many other folks out there I hadn't been following Left 4 Dead's development. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't even heard of Valve’s Left 4 Dead until the early demo hit. For me the game came completely out of the left field, and I have to admit I was caught completely off guard.
In a way I think I'm lucky. While many people agonized for months waiting for this much-anticipated title, I lived in blissful ignorance. In the end this turned out to be a good thing, because after playing through the retail product, Left 4 Dead is going to be my personal choice for Game of the Year and will receive the highest review score I have ever awarded a game in the two years I have been writing reviews at MSXBOX-WORLD. I came into the game with no real expectations, and left with my mind simply blown away.
The game takes place two weeks following a zombie apocalypse. Society is in ruins, infected zombie hordes run rampant, and death lurks around every corner. Left 4 Dead follows the story of 4 survivors as they attempt to make it to safety. Alone, they are sure to fail, but working together they just might have a chance...
Gameplay:
Left 4 Dead is built from the ground up as a multiplayer title. It makes no apologies for this, and while players are free to play alone with the A.I., they will be cheating themselves out of the true brilliance of the title.
In the main co-op campaign mode, four players take on the role of the survivors, struggling to make it out of a zombie-infested area. Starting in a safe house, the player will throw on a health pack and arm him or herself. There are a number of different weapons in the game, which include an Uzi, a shotgun, an assault rifle, a hunting rifle, or an auto shotgun. In addition, players can arm themselves with Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs found throughout the levels.
Co-op mode is broken into four completely different campaigns, and each of these campaigns is further broken into five chapters. During each of the first four chapters the survivors goal is to make it to the next safe house, which signifies the end of a chapter. The final chapter of each campaign culminates in a "finale" where the survivors attempt to hold off the zombie hordes until a rescue vehicle arrives.
In terms of how all of this pans out from the player's perspective, it's basically a non-stop heart thumping roller-coaster ride of sheer terror. Team damage is always on and plays a major factor in the chaos of trying to fend off zombie hordes while not shooting your fellow survivors. The zombie hordes themselves are relentless yet unpredictable thanks to a Valve created AI program called "The Director". The Director decides when and where zombie hordes will attack the survivors. Every run through a chapter is different, with zombies spawning in completely new locations based on a variety of factors ranging from player health, to how long the survivors stay in one place. This creates an environment where the survivors never truly know what’s going to hit them next.
The Infected come in several different flavours. The "Horde" consists of fairly weak but extremely fast moving zombies that attack the players in vast numbers. While alone they are easy to take out, it's a completely different story when fifty of them rush in from all corners of the level. Stronger “boss” zombies that have special powers further compound the survivor's problems. The Smoker zombie has a special 50-foot long tongue that can grab a survivor and pull him or her away from the group. Once a player is caught in the Smoker's tongue there is no escape without the assistance of a fellow survivor. Often either a Hunter zombie or a Boomer accompanies the Smoker. Hunter Zombies have a special pounce that knocks a survivor down, also incapacitating them. Boomers are fat, slow moving zombies that vomit thick bile on survivors, and also explode when killed in a shower of bile. This bile attracts the attention of the "Horde" while also blinding those players it hits. A survivor caught in the tongue of a Smoker often finds him or herself pulled directly into the path of a waiting Hunter or Boomer.
Further complicating the survivors trek to safety, the AI Director will sometimes choose to spawn a Witch. Witches are one of the strongest infected types in the game and encounters with them generally end badly... for somebody. The Witch sits alone emitting an eerie wail. If a survivor is unfortunate enough to shine his or her flashlight on the witch, or even worse, nick her with a stray bullet, she will relentlessly attack the transgressor with her razor sharp claws. Thankfully survivors who are careful can sneak past her, however be aware that the Director enjoys summoning the Horde at the worst possible moments.
Even worse than a witch, is the Tank. The Tank is the strongest zombie type the survivors will encounter. He is fast, massive, can take an astonishing number of bullets, and almost always ruins at least one survivor's day. To put things into perspective, only losing one member of the group to a Tank is considered a blessing.
Make no mistake, the group will lose members in their journey through each chapter. Thankfully dead players respawn after a set amount of time, however the surviving until those respawns happen can be a touch and go affair. As mentioned earlier molotovs and pipe bombs are scattered throughout the map can be the difference between life and death. Molotov's can be very dangerous as they burn survivors just as well as zombies. Believe me when I say a badly tossed Molotov generally ends in tears. Pipe bombs on the other hand are great for drawing off the horde but have no effect on boss zombies.
Due to the massive number of zombies and large number of ways to be incapacitated, the game literally forces players to work together if they wish to succeed. Reliance on the other three survivors is not just helpful it's required if the group wishes to survive to make it to the end of each chapter. I noticed that the co-op gameplay mechanics worked in such a way that is seems like the usual grief players you find in multiplayer games just aren't a problem in Left 4 Dead. There is no reward except death for the "griefer", and Valve has implemented a voting system to quickly boot anyone stupid enough to try to cause problems. The end result is a totally engrossing co-op multiplayer experience that is truly unlike anything that has come before it. Raging zombie hordes bond people together in a way I've never seen in other games, and before long it becomes second nature to watch the backs of your fellow survivors. In no other game have I seen some of the things that are commonplace in Left 4 Dead. Players willingly giving up their health packs, sharing their pain pills, often sacrificing themselves for each other to get a buddy up off the ground, a group of survivors moving at a slower pace so as to protect a wounded limping group member.
Aside from a totally engrossing co-op campaign, the game also offers a Versus mode for those wishing to try their hand as one of the Undead. In Versus mode, four players take on the role of the Survivors just as in the co-op campaign. The difference is that there are an additional four players that get to play in the shoes of boss infected. The AI Director randomly chooses what type of zombie players will spawn as, and then players simply move out of sight of the Survivors to spawn. While Survivors only get one life in versus Mode, the infected get unlimited spawns, albeit with a fairly long 20-second timer. Versus mode appears set to Normal difficulty, however, this is necessary given the continuous onslaught of player boss zombies that hit the Survivors. At the end of each round the Survivors wrack up a score count, and then players switch roles, playing the same chapter over again. At the end of the final chapter whichever team has the most points wins the game.
I found Versus mode to be just as addictive as co-op, and playing as a zombie also gave me insight into death zones on the map I really need to be careful about when playing the co-op campaign. Currently Versus mode is only available on two of the regular campaigns, however it would seem a likely bet that Valve will make the other two campaigns playable at a later date.
Whether playing Co-op Mode or Versus, both modes feel like an entirely new gameplay experience compared to the vast majority of other games currently available right now. The experience of Left 4 Dead is one of shared terror, collectively not knowing when the next horde will hit, not knowing if you will be one of the unlucky Survivors sacrificed to a Tank so the rest of the team can make a break for safety. Things can go so wrong so quickly it will make your head spin and the multiplayer dynamic further accentuates this with fellow survivors screaming in terror, gunfire ripping through hordes of zombies (and very often through fellow Survivors as well).
Graphics:
While Valve has chosen to use Source, an older game engine, it works beautifully in creating an art style that very believably depicts the fall of civilization. Words can’t really express how immersive each of the four campaigns felt, drawing me into Valve's "zombacaplyse" in a way that no other game has ever done.
The four campaigns take place in completely different locales, and each of them look absolutely astounding. "No Mercy" occurs in a large metropolis, "Dead Air" places the survivors in an airport that could be a dead ringer for any one of the international airports many of us have waited in. "Blood Harvest" chills the player with cornstalks teeming with zombies, and "Death Toll" takes players on a ride across a highway of death. The artwork in each of these locations is beautiful to look at.
The actual characters themselves are rendered gorgeously, both Survivors and zombies. You can even tell how healthy a fellow survivor is just by how banged up he or she looks. Zombies explode in showers of blood; headshots are graphically magical moments each and every time they happen.
The graphics of Left 4 Dead essentially draw the player in and never really let go from each wild campaign to the next.
Sound:
Valve has done a superb job of setting up a musical score that sounds like it’s directly out of a horror flick. Musical ques within the game abound, giving players little hints of when the proverbial s*** is about to hit the fan. The audio score in the game is not overbearing, but has an ominous overtone throughout each chapter helping to continually foster a feeling of dread in the player. When the Director chooses to throw a horde or three at the Survivors the music rises to a crescendo, matching everyone’s heat rate, when things seem safe the music takes on a more thoughtful tone, as if the Director is pondering what horror to throw at your group next.
Each of the special zombies also has their own unique sound effects as well which helps give players clues as to what disaster may be waiting around the next corner. There is something truly terrifying hearing a Hunter’s tell tale growl (the Left 4 Dead equivalent of saying "I AM NEARBY AND READY TO KILL YOU"). Even worse, most of the time you’ll not be able to locate that hunter until he has already pounced.
The actual audio of the game aside, I decided it's important to consider the audio that occurs between players when scoring sound. In Left 4 Dead, the audio communication between survivors via microphones makes the game that much more engrossing. I've never played a game before where all four players are completely immersed in the shared experience of trying to stay alive against horrific odds. At one moment the team will be discussing plans of where they are going to go next, or how they are going to defend a choke point, the next moment somebody will be squealing like a little girl as they get dragged off into the darkness by a Smoker's tongue.
Thanks to most Xbox 360s coming with a headset, the Xbox 360 version of the game has one major trump card over the PC version...almost everyone has, and is using their mics, even in pub games. This to me is the triumph of the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead, there are hundreds of audio "moments" throughout the game, where the chatter between survivors creates just as much tension and fear as the actual in game audio itself.
Longevity:
I'm going to go out on a limb and say there will be people that claim Left 4 Dead is "too short" or "lacks content". My advice is to ignore them; they just don't "get it".
Valve has wisely chosen to go the route of ensuring every moment of Left 4 Dead is an amazing experience EVERY time you play. Quality content, not filler is the name of the game here, and that quality shines through clearly. Left 4 Dead is first and foremost a “multiplayer” experience and the quality campaign builds reflect this heritage. Mark my words, years down the road, "No Mercy", "Dead Air", "Blood Harvest" and "Death Toll" will be spoken of and remembered in reverent tones, much the same way people say and remember "Gridlock", "Broadside", and "Facing Worlds".
Never mind the fact that the Four campaigns are hardly short, with each lasting at least an hour and 10 minutes on normal. It's worth noting as well that the average run through will take MUCH longer when a group is playing the advanced/expert modes the game is very obviously truly meant to be experienced on. Sorry guys but normal is for chumps.
In addition to stellar map design, that will be enjoyed over and over again, the dynamic AI Director will always provide a completely new game experience changing up weapon and health locations, as well as zombie spawns. Combine that with the unpredictable human component, and you've got a game that is going to play out differently every single time you do a run through. Essentially the campaigns are going to provide a well-built backdrop for the ever-changing drama of a completely different game experience every time you play.
It's also worth noting that it is probably pretty safe to assume that there will be additional campaigns down the road via downloadable content. The self-contained nature of each campaign makes this almost a given.
Overall:
So there you have it...Left 4 Dead is a breath of fresh mountain air in a fall quarter that has been filled with sequels that offer incrementally better graphics yet multiplayer gameplay that is essentially the same as yesteryear. Yes, there have been a lot of great games that have come out this year, but I believe that Left 4 Dead is going to be the one that is remembered the most.
The start of a new and exciting franchise combined with some of the best co-op and competitive multiplayer gameplay seen in years. A game that is new and wonderfully different in an industry that's grown complacent with churning out rehashes.
Left 4 Dead is THE best game I've played in years, and offers one of the best new multiplayer experiences available on the market. Bravo, Valve, game of the year in my books, Left 4 Dead, game of the f***ing year!
| Review By: Scott Strickland - Overall Rating 10 (out of 10) |
| Gameplay: |
10 |
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| Graphics: |
9.5 |
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| Sound: |
10 |
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| Longevity: |
10 |
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| Overall: |
10 |
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