Left 4 Dead Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Original L4D review of Nov 18, 2008

'Left 4 Dead' is a great new 4 man co-op or single player FPS game from VALVE.

The GAME:

This game is a 4 player journey of survival; it can be played as single player (with 3 computer comrades) or with 3 other people on-line. The trek begins in any of 4 different locations and ends in another part of town with an extraction to safety if you survive. (or a nice mention, in memoriam, if you don't)

The Pros:

1.)Great graphics and audio. The atmosphere is very dusky and eerie; lighting is sparse in buildings except for your flashlight (kind of reminds me of 'Doom 3'). Creeping into a pitch black room with only a flashlight to find it either empty, full of zombies or even worse, harbouring a super mutant is visceral to say the least.

2.)The action is fast paced and hectic; there is not a lot of down time between one attack and the next. Attacks either by a hoard of undead or a super mutant comes at a fairly regular clip. Half the fun here is trying to find out what weakness the monsters have and what works best against them.

3.)Weaponry come in the form of guns (shotgun, sniper rifle, automatic machine gun and pistols) explosives consist of pipe bombs and Molotov fire bombs.

4.)You can start the game from the beginning any one of four campaigns OR at the beginning of any chapter within a campaign. Each section of the game is reasonably short, so you don't have to redo the entire game if you have to shut down for a while [see Cons: 2.) below]. Also, if your team dies while playing, you restart from the last 'safe-house' you made it to.

5.)The game resets weapons, monsters, and health packs for every new game; so each game is slightly different than the last, although played over the same geographic area.

6.)Certain 'achievements' are awarded throughout the game for accomplishing certain things. I initially thought these were a perk or upgrade, but now I don't think so...they just recognize certain 'accomplishments' i.e. setting a 'tank' afire or pushing away a 'hunter', and many others.
They add absolutely nothing to the game play and they were not available in the demo.

7.)You have the ability to set up a game from the Undead point of view; haven't tried this yet.

8.)A couple of nice on-line game features:

a.] you can change the difficulty setting ANYTIME; great if it's too easy or if your taking a continual pounding

b.] if you have a player that is 'disruptive' to the team play, you can kick that player out of the game by simply taking a vote among the other three on-line players. (I was surprised that this actually happened a couple of times while I was playing)

c.)And finally, a truly great feature; You can 'Take a Break' from an on-line game by pressing ESC> Take a Break> anytime while playing; great for a call to the BR or to take a phone call. When you 'Take a Break' you go 'Idle' while your away and your computer player takes over until you get back into the game (by pressing the left mouse key).

The Cons: (all minor)

1.)A fairly linear game; only a little room to travel off the prescribed path. Yet, in retrospect, having played this game many times, it would be difficult for this game to function properly with a 'open world', given the fighting style required for on-line co-op; each segment is a fairly short 'meat' run from point 'A' to point 'B'.

2.)No game saves...none; and this is understandable from the 4 player on-line game. However with the single player game, the chapters aren't terribly long BUT they do require a degree of concentration and work to finish, especially on the higher difficulty levels. And somehow losing all your hard fought gains if you have to leave the game unexpectedly, seems a little unfair; you'll understand more clearly what I mean once you begin to play.

3.)The AI of your comrades in the single person game needs one small modification; your buddies will guard you, heal you and stay near you BUT, they won't pick up the extra pipe bombs or Molotov bombs that often sit there before them. And it would be really helpful in the single person game-play if they did, especially on advanced and expert.

Suggestions:

I can not stress how much headphones/microphone add to the enjoyment of playing this game on-line; especially with communicating with your on-line playing partners. If you can, try playing with a headset, you won't believe the difference.

Conclusion:

A new FPS that requires 4 player co-operation (in both single and on-line play) to be successful.You may get away with a little 'individuality' on 'Easy',but on 'Normal', 'Advanced' or 'Expert' forget about it; if you don't travel and fight as a pack, your toast.

The on-line co-op version is one of the greatest games EVER...IF played with the 4 players who have an understanding of the game concepts and are willing to work together. And that being said, having a maximum of 4 players for on-line play is probably the perfect number; 3 would not be enough to fend off the hoards (except on easy maybe) and with 5 players you'd be getting in each others way.

The game chapters are fairly short and there are no game saves. However the game play is intense and visceral and you do tend to become wrapped up in the action that is taking place around you.

And finally, this is one of those rare games that I just don't ever get tired ofplaying, (at least, with the on-line game)...and a game with this quality has to be in the running for game of the year.
4 1/2 to 5 Stars

Ray Nicholson (cujo)

Addendum: Oct 07/09

"Crash Course"...some comments

First impressions from a co-op viewpoint...initially disappointing, but better since they've updated it (see comments below).

A very short game...maybe 30 minutes or so consisting of only two segments. The map is mostly made up of streets littered with abandoned cars and trucks, and the buildings are mostly warehouses. This added map, although playable as single player or co-op, was primarily intended I believe, for Versus players.

This map has improved since its original debut; updates have apparently removed a lot of the excess ammo and guns, making it a better challenge.

The finale...interesting and takes some planning (although the final run to the rescue vehicle is extremely easy). Which leads to the one drawback in this new map...if you all die in the finale, you must restart at the last safehouse...about 15 minutes of travel to the ending.

Conclusion:
Now that the game (with the removal of all the extra guns and ammo) has become more of a challenge, I'll probably play this map a bit more...too bad they didn't make it a full map like the others (probably didn't want to divert too much attention away from the upcoming L4D2).Addendum: April 22/09

"Survival"... some comments,

Well the much anticipated update for Left 4 Dead has finally arrived. The new game is call 'Survival' and it IS aptly named. There are several new individual mods to this new game that use slight variations from some of the different sections of the 4 established games i.e. No Mercy, Death Toll, Dead Air and Blood Harvest. There is one brand new locale called 'Last Stand'; its setting is at a lighthouse and it's probably the most difficult game of the lot.

Rather than a prolonged campaign these games are very short; and make no mistake about it, you are going to die. The challenge here is to see how long you can last; 4 minutes gets you a bronze medal, 7 minutes a silver and you get a gold medal if you last for ten minutes. Unlike the regular game, there is NO option for easy, normal etc. difficulty; just the one standard for everyone; "brutal" might be a good name for this newness addition.

In the regular game you get attacked by hordes of zombies, with an occasional smoker, hunter or tank thrown in, but usually not all at once. However in this game, you get attacked by ALL types of infected, all at once. In addition, there is no long stretch to outrun a tank; not that that matters, as you are fighting the horde, smokers and hunters the same time as your trying to fight off the tank...yup, just about impossible.

Impression:

Intense...yes. Gut wrenching...yes. FUN...hmmm, I'm not sure. One of the great strengths of on-line Left 4 Dead was the co-op fighting style needed to get through the advanced and expert campaigns. Here in 'Survival', co-op is needed but somehow, after a battle that begins with about 1 minute of 'easy', all chaos breaks-out. And because your being attacked from all side by ALL types of infected, the co-op gaming style, that made the regular L4D sooo enjoyable, is gone; gone because at this point, it becomes a game of personal survival, rather than the group...and that's the real shortcoming of this update.

And finally, I could play the regular on-line L4D for hours and never (well almost never) get tired. But with this game, I found that not only did it take quite a lot of time/effort to strategically set up gas cans, propane tanks etc. in the area you want to TRY to defend, but also, that after 3 or 4 tries I wasfrustrated, weary and eager to return to the regular game.

I must admit, in fairness, that I've never been a great fan of time based/get the highest score, type games, so I'm probably a little prejudiced. I'll continue to 'give this a go' for a while; maybe it'll turn out to be a great game. But somehow, I think I'd have liked a new regular campaign map better.

R.N. (cujo)

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