Game Review: L4D

[Yawgm0th]

I don't stop by too much lately. Life has me pretty busy, but lately I've had some free time.

I have been playing Left 4 Dead with this free time. I bought it on Steam on a whim for $40. Joke was on me as they had a $20 sale the weekend before, but whatever.

This game is EPIC. At face value, it is unbeatable. It's a post-apocalyptic zombie shooter. You shoot zombies. Lots of zombies. What better premise can there be?

It doesn't even try to pretend it's anything else. There are four "campaigns" that come with the game. Each one takes maybe an hour, probably less, to finish. You play as one of four survivors in a major urban center or open countryside, go figure, filled to the brim with zombies.

There is really no story to speak of. Just four people, lots of bullets, and lots of zombies. Each campaign has its own poster, a la your stereotypical Hollywood horror film, complete with cheesy title and subtitle. Your motley crew of survivors must make it through the zombie-ridden maps to a series of safe rooms, each filled with ammo, health, weapons and occasionally explosives. Each level contains a healthy variety of obstacles and fun situations. While certain parts are scripted, it's still quite immersive -- and loads of fun.

The nature of the combat probably makes this game require teamwork more than any other shooter ever -- or darn close to it. If the team doesn't work together effectively, zombies will slowly wear down and kill the players. Anyone who strays too far from the main group is bound to get Hunted and killed. Yes, Hunted -- capital H.

The best part of this zombie thriller, is of course, the zombies. On top of your run-of-the-mill "infected," who are mostly cannon fodder without backup, there are four playable unique zombies. There is the Hunter, who is just that. He crouches constantly and keeps out of site until he pounces. He has a leap attack, and when used properly, he can leap to and from unexpected places, right onto the survivors.

When used properly, I say? Indeed. The zombies are playable in online Versus mode, and they are an incredible experience. If there was a conspicuous shortage of zombie shooters in the gaming world, clearly the lack of playable zombies was more conspicuous. Valve has done an excellent job of making four excellent playable zombies.

Not only are the designers at Valve really innovating with a whole sub-genre here, but they've kept the design good from the start. Zombies require teamwork just as much, if not more than the survivors. While zombie players can go and do their own thing and slowly wear down the survivors, it won't be effective against a good group of survivors.

Zombies that intelligently work together can finish the group off quickly. The hunter can leap around and pounce, but with four survivors together, he'll be torn apart easily. Two hunters working together are more effective, but even they will need some teamwork to accomplish anything.

There is the Smoker, a putrid zombie who uses an incredibly long tongue as a grappling hook to pull players away. He or his tongue can be shot to free the survivor. If left unattended, he will hit constricted survivor indefinitely -- so will the infected who invariably surround the poor survivor.

Potentially the most deadly of the "normal" playable zombies is the Boomer. He is an obese zombie, lacking speed and just waiting to explode. He has a vomit attack, which effectively marks the affected players for death. Once vomited upon, a player has blurred vision and attracts the horde (mobs of infected -- self explanatory). This goes on for a few seconds, and at the right time and place it can be deadly. He's extra dangerous because he explodes on death, and the effect is the same as vomit for players who are too close.

A Boomer who is well coordinated with a Smoker can be too effective. If their job is done well, the Hunters come in and clean up.

Of course, with tons of health and ammo, the survivors seem at an advantage. The zombies respawn, but they are tender at best, with a few rounds taking them down. The zombies have more, though.

Depending on the campaign, the map, and the server, occasionally a Tank will spawn. This aptly named monstrosity can take down the whole team, under the right conditions. Like the other three unique zombies, he is player controlled in Versus and incredibly enjoyable. The Hunters and Tank actually have learning curves to them, but it's not too unfriendly on newbs -- and both are so much fun to play and learn.

On top of the Versus mode, which basically rotates zombies and survivors through a campaign, there is Survival mode. It's a bit of a misnomer, since the players will ultimately die. The survivors fight unending hordes of zombies until they can't go on, with larger amounts of time being the objective. Steam (or XBL, for you console "people") tracks your time (as well as various in-game accomplishments), so the bragging rights are there and very visible when playing Survivor mode. Versus will be more compelling for most players, but both game modes as well as the straight Campaign are thoroughly enjoyable.

L4D runs into a few minor snags, as any game will. There is a chronic lack of weapon variety. The Survivors start with their choice of submachine or pump-action, with a backup pistol that never runs out of ammo. They can upgrade later in the campaign to an assault rifle, semi-auto shotgun, or sniper rifle. The pistols become dual wielded, and there are periodic pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails provided. While still enjoyable, the weapon selection does hurt replay value.

Additionally, with only four campaigns, a mere five or ten hours of fragging will have most players used to all the maps. There is a healthy modding community, providing custom maps, but Valve simply didn't provide enough post-release DLC to keep this one running. It will hold my interest for a while yet, but the map limitation will eventually lead me elsewhere -- but "eventually" will probably be many, many game-hours from now.

Overall, Left 4 Dead is an excellent and truly innovative shooter that we've come to expect from the company that came up with Half-Life, Team Fortress, and Portal. If anyone here actually hasn't tried the now eight-month-old game, now is the time.