It’s the zombie apocalypse and I’m not sure you have what it takes to survive. Do you think you can? Walk outside of your safe room with three other complete strangers and get assaulted by waves of mindless zombies hellbent on nothing more than draining your sweet life blood. Fending them off shouldn’t be too much of a problem but fend them off while trying not to get ensnared by a Smoker or belched on by a Boomer or even ripped to shreds by the feared Hunter. If you make it this far, you’ll have to face the likes of the Tank or God forbid a Witch. These elements, a fantastic multiplayer and the inclusion of a brilliant AI Director add up to just three of the many reasons why Left 4 Dead should be included in your library of games.
Gameplay
You can take control of one of the four survivors in any part of any campaign straight from the first load. It doesn’t matter which one you choose because they’ll all be slightly different each time. Starting from the beginning of "No Mercy", the first campaign in the story will lead you from the top of an apartment and eventually into a finale pitting you up against endless waves of zombies while you wait 10 minutes for the rescue helicopter to show up. What makes this beautiful is that the rush of zombies or the special zombies you encounter the first time through may or may not be there the second or third times through. The AI Director built into this game mixes up spawn locations and horde pushes to keep every corner a potential choke point as you try to journey to safety.
The game offers several difficulty levels but honestly the true potential of this game isn’t realized unless you play on Advanced or Expert. The other two lesser difficulty settings don’t offer enough of a challenge to truly bring the survival element into your gameplay. When playing, you’ll have to deal with massive rushes of regular zombies who surround you from all angles forcing you to melee them to keep them at bay. Be warned though, these ambushes are often just camouflage for one of the aforementioned Special Infected to come in and mess up your entire night. Most prevalent seem to be Boomers and Hunters. Boomers are giant zombies filled with bile and vomit. You can hear them sloshing towards you ready to purge their ambush inducing filth all over you. If you’re hit, you’re instantly blinded and become a beacon for even more hideous horde swarms. Hunters on the other hand are fast and deadly. Often crouched within a group of zombies, out of sight, Hunters will spring forward towards you with amazing speed and pin you to the ground. Their attack leaves you helpless until one of your teammates can break free and get them off of you. If no one comes to your aid, the Hunter will continue ripping you apart until you are no more. The other Special Infected in this group is the Smoker. Smokers ensnare you with their freakishly long tongues and allow other zombies to beat you while you helplessly writhe in their grip until freed by a partner.
This brings us to the two boss type characters in the game. At certain points in the game, you’ll see and feel the building shake and intense growling feverishly heading your way as the Tank comes in to finish off the floppers. This oversized muscle-bound monster takes collaboration from all four survivors to bring down. Armed with nothing more than his sheer brute strength, he’ll make quick work of any survivor if he’s allowed to get too close. Alternatively, at random points in the game you’ll hear the soft whimper of a woman. Perhaps a damsel in distress or another survivor who needs aid? Don’t be fooled by these cries as they are merely the siren song of the Witch. Easily startled by lights or loud noises, the Witch sleeps in precarious places locked in her own internal turmoil. Do not flash your light on her or fire your weapon in her direction or you will truly know the meaning of Hell. Once startled, the Witch takes off at lightning speed towards whoever disturbed her slumber and instantly incapacitates her foe with one swipe. Once she’s done there, she’ll continue to fight whoever antagonizes her until she’s either brought down or no one is left standing.
Graphics
While it can be argued that the graphics in Left 4 Dead aren’t the most pristine that you’ll see on a next gen console or PC, it can’t be argued just how much the game allows to happen on the screen at one time without a hint of slowdown. Everything moves fluidly and you’ll literally see hundreds of zombies on the screen at one time, along with the environments all serving as eye candy. I personally played this game on the Xbox 360 and found that there were only minor areas where the entire level wasn’t completely detailed when you got there. Only every now and again, did I notice some spots hadn’t quite finished loading in their texture when I came in view, but otherwise everything is very slick. The FPS visuals are all enticing. Vomit from the Boomers produce a sloppy green runny bile that drips down your screen and eventually clears with time. Getting slashed by zombies produces drops of blood to appear on the corners of your screen and slowly fade. If you’ve been revived too many times and are literally on your last leg, the screen will turn black and white as you are literally about to die at any minute. Even the slight blur effect of taking a bottle of pain pills comes off with nice effect.
Sound
The sounds in Left 4 Dead are another area where the game excels. Gurgling from the Boomer’s stomach or a howl from a Hunter sound haunting and just as you’d imagine them to be. The music ramps up at just the right moments when all Hell is about to break loose. Gunshots are equally as pleasing and some of the splatter effects of dismantling your foes sounds eerily real.
Multiplayer
This is where the game shines. Grab four of your friends and go zombie hunting and watch the hours melt off the clock. Nothing beats having to figure out the best strategy for given situations and each person doing their role; something that AI can never do effectively. In co-op, you and your friends can work your way through the campaigns and communicate what each person needs through the headsets to perfection. Setting up a game is very easy and on the Xbox 360 version, the game will even tell you when you have friends playing the game currently. Alternatively, you can go into Versus mode where you alternate between taking the role of the Survivors or the Infected. As the Survivors, you have to make it from one safe room to another without dying and as the Infected, your job is to become the Boomer, Smoker or Hunter and try and stop them before they achieve their goal.
Controls
Controls for the Xbox 360 version of the game are standard FPS flare. If you’ve played just about any console shooter, you’ll fall right into the controls. Switching between medpacks, weapons, flashlight and pain pills is as easy as tapping the appropriate direction on the D-pad. Everything with the controls are smooth and accurate.
Conclusion
Can you survive the zombie apocalypse? If you pick up Left 4 Dead and let yourself get involved with the many aspects of this game that are done right, you wont give up until you do survive. There are a few aspects of the game that come off as repetitive, but the AI Director and tougher difficulties go well beyond making up for those things. If you haven’t tried this game by now, you’re doing yourself an injustice. Granted, the appeal is mostly in the multiplayer, so if you’re a solo player, you may want to rent at best. As a multiplayer gamer myself, I’ve already used this game well past the asking price of admission.
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