The game then drops you in this scenario, with up to four friends over Xbox Live, and tells you to go wild. You start by selecting one of the game’s characters, each one helping cover all corners of a stereotypical zombie flick cast. You have the hard-as-nails older man, the timid middle-class businessman, the Pantera guy, and the chick (for diversity sake). Luckily for us, the demo does provide the opportunity to play the game co-op with three other players, and it’s really the only way to go about playing Left 4 Dead. The game was made for players to scream, shoot, and run together. So if you don’t have any friends with Xbox 360s, or who aren’t willing to throw down for this game, Left 4 Dead isn’t really a worthwhile purchase. I’m just going to put that out there right now.
Once everyone has chosen their character (I was lucky enough to be the girl…yippie), it’s time to start fending off hordes of zombies. And I do mean hordes. These things run at you from all directions and come in a variety of flavors. You have the standard running zombie (made popular roughly five years ago), zombies that have incredibly long tongues that rip you away from your group to kill you, fat-ass zombies who throw up their scent on you to attract their friends, and finally, you have the “witch.” These albino sweeties are by far the most frightening aspect of Left 4 Dead. You hear them from afar, sounds of little girls crying and lullaby songs being sung, and god help you if you’re the one to wake her. Because you’re screwed, one hit death. The first encounter with a witch that my group had, I was that unlucky one. I nearly shit my pants. But that’s a good thing because it’s a way for the game to keep you on your toes, pull you into the experience and most of all; gives you and your friends a good laugh and story to tell after the rifle barrels have cooled down.
So as I mentioned before, the premise to any good zombie movie/ game/ comic is to survive, and Left 4 Dead is no different You move from safe house to safe house (steel enforced bunkers to save progress), picking up first-aid packs, ammo, and anything else that would be of use to someone evading hell on Earth. And since guns are a vital part of living in a world overrun with the undead, it’s important that they feel “right.” And luckily, they do. Pistols can be precisely aimed, perfect for popping open skulls like grapes. Submachine guns and rifles kick back with a feeling of authenticity, and shotguns have that “pop” that reverberates through your gonads as well as enough power to blast through multiple zombies. Switching between weapons is also handled rather intuitively with a simple press of the “Y” button to swap between your primary and secondary weapons. Supplies, like your health packs and flashlight, are then mapped to the controller’s D-Pad. The only problem I had with the controls come from the actual player movement, which feels exactly how Half-Life 2 did (also made by Valve). The player never feels that his/her feet touch solid ground, instead hovering an inch over its surface. Now if the game took place on a city size ice rink this would make sense. But it doesn’t, and therefore feels wonky. For everything else control-wise being so fluid, it would have been nice if Valve learned from some complaints regarding the player movement from Half-Life 2 and fixed this slight problem. Unfortunately, they didn’t.
When it comes to the graphics of Left 4 Dead, they aren’t anything that’s going to make your jaw drop. They are merely serviceable. It’s impressive that Valve was able to throw so many zombies and characters onscreen without a hiccup in framerate (this is true even through online play) but defining features are absent. You won’t see any wrinkles, freckles, etc. on your characters hands holding weapons, they are simply standard models with different skin colors. Like I said: serviceable. But when you think about it, having a smooth running online experience is worth the cost of toned down visuals.
Left 4 Dead is a fun experience. Best when played with the maximum amount of real individuals (preferably friends), L4D brings you right into a zombie flick. You even have creative movie posters during loading screens that use your gamertag as the star actor playing the role of your character. The game also randomly generates the zombies in different locations so your experience is rarely ever the same. So if you haven’t been burnt out by the multitude of games released thus far, and have friends in the same position, Left 4 Dead might be the game to scratch that itch.
