Gaming Thursday: Left 4 Dead

Ever since I heard of its existence, I have been waiting to play Left 4 Dead. When the demo finally came out a few weeks back, I logged in and played the 30 minute piece nearly 20 times all the way through on all of the difficulty levels. Needless to say, when my copy arrived last week, I peed myself.

It must be said starting out that this game is not meant to be played single player. Although the AI characters do a great job of making smart decisions and healing you (and each other) when necessary, it is nowhere near as fun to play with the computer as it is to play with friends. Friends make mistakes (sometimes on purpose), and friends know how to communicate best with you.

Outside of the horde of regular zombies that you must fight your way past as you move to the rescue station or safe house, the game introduces 5 super zombies to make your journey that much more difficult. Smokers and Hunters are similar, in that they will lurk in the dark and try to either pounce on you (Hunters) or grab you with their tongue (Smokers) at that exact moment that you weren't paying attention and deal out some damage before your buddies can rescue you. Boomers will wait just around a corner just for the chance to either vomit on you, or be close enough that when you kill them, they explode on you. Outside of this being pretty disgusting, it also draws the horde directly to you and you have to fight them off while being temporarily blinded by the green gunk all over the screen.

The final two super zombies are complete bullet sinks and require a bit of work to get past. The Tank is exactly what he sound like - huge and nigh-unstoppable. He requires that everyone in the group focus on him until he drops, because if he gets close to anyone, there is little chance that they can get away without being injured in some capacity or another. Finally, the Witch is best left undisturbed. As soon as you start to hear crying, cut your lights off and keep your eyes open. If the Witch gets disturbed by you shooting next to her or your lights flashing on her, whoever did it, is incapacitated in one hit, and if everyone isn't fast enough to take her down after that, that person is dead.

Now, all of these super zombies (except the Witch) are controllable in the Versus mode, but since I haven't had enough time to sink into that mode, I can't comment much on it yet (I've been spending my time trying to survive the story modes).

Speaking of story, although it isn't necessary at all since all you do is try to survive from point A to point B and call in the rescue, Valve has done an awesome job with telling the story just through the environment. Any time I get to a safe house, I have to hang around for a good 5 minutes to read everything that is written on the walls. Sometimes it provides some hints for gameplay (like avoiding the witches), but largely it just gives the entire world some depth, as you read about people who couldn't wait any longer for a loved one or people who have left their theories on the time it takes to turn into a zombie.

Valve is all about making quality games, and Left 4 Dead is no exception. It is the best zombie game I've ever played.