Left 4 Dead

As a graying and grizzled gamer, I have always found one thing to be true over the years: the games that develop the largest fan base are not those with the most original story, nor those games with superior graphics, but games that provide such a thoroughly entertaining experience that gamers can’t stop talking about them long after they have put the joystick down (or, in modern parlance, “the mouse” or “the controller”). If this principle holds true, Valve may have a monster hit (ahem) on their hands with the release of the zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead. Combining the best elements of the first person shooter genre with a thoroughly engaging co-op mode, Left 4 Dead is the most exciting co-op gaming experience to grace the PC in quite some time.

Join the Survivors

From the moment the opening cinematic begins playing, it becomes abundantly clear that Left 4 Dead is less game and more movie. Molded in the fashion of some of the more popular zombie flicks of recent years, particular the Dawn of the Dead remake and 28 Days Later, Left 4 Dead revolves around four survivors whom are immune from the viral contagion that has reduced the nation (world?) to a zombie-infested warzone. The survivors include Bill, a Vietnam War vet who seems to relish a chance to go into combat against a new enemy; Louis, a tie-wearing assistant manager at an electronics store; Zoey, daughter of a wealthy family now forced on her own by the pandemic; and Francis, a hardcore biker who confronts the apocalypse as if it’s just another bar room brawl. Be advised that while these are the official back stories for the survivors, there is no game narrative that reveals these characters in any greater depth beyond the in-character game dialogue.

The player begins L4D by choosing to play as one of the four – there is no distinction between them in terms of gameplay – and off he goes into the zombie-infested streets. The gameplay is sublimely simple: the player, along with his three companions, must make it across the five maps that comprise a “movie” (better known as a “campaign” in other games). There are four movies to choose from: No Mercy, Death Toll, Blood Harvest and Dead Air. With the exception of setting – for example, Blood Harvest is a series of rural maps, while No Mercy is an urban setting - each of these movies function in the same fashion with the gamer just needing to cross and survive them, going from safe room to safe room, to eventually complete the movie with a dramatic rescue attempt. It’s as simple as that. Except, of course, for the zombies….

Left 4 Dead has zombies…lots and lots of zombies. Mind you, these aren’t just the old school shambling zombies of George Romero. While they may seem that way initially, once the infected catch sight of a player, they become the horrifyingly quick zombies of 28 Days Later. To spice things up, there are also five boss zombies that can be encountered: the Tank, a Hulk-like zombie that likes to beat players into oblivion; the Smoker, a zombie that grabs the survivors with his long-rang, frog-like tongue; the Hunter, a predatory infected that launches himself at the survivors and claws them to death; the Boomer, a particularly disgusting zombie that vomits on the survivors to call the rank and file zombie horde to attack them; and the Witch, a tortured soul who can kill with a single blow and is one of the creepiest gaming villains in a long while. Clearly, the survivors have their hands full.

But there is another villain in this game, and its name is the AI Director. In what is potentially a significant innovation in game design, Valve has ditched the tried and true system of predetermined spawn points and has created a freewheeling system whereby the AI Director is free to place as many zombies as it wants, where and when it wants to, based upon how well the survivors are doing as they make their way across the maps. For example, if your team is in reasonably good health and has had little trouble defending themselves, the gamer can expect the AI Director to kick things up a notch by unleashing wave after wave of zombies, along with a boss zombie or two depending on the difficulty level, to take the survivors down a notch. As I played the game, I found myself admiring how well this system works. The AI Director really seems to have a knack on controlling the action, seeing to it that no matter how many times the player has crossed a particular map, each time he can expect a different experience (albeit, boss zombies seem to be more predictable in their appearances). As such, this system goes a long way in creating fresh thrills and nearly infinite replayability.

As the survivors confront these myriad foes, they need to be well armed. Left 4 Dead provides ten weapons for their zombie-maiming enjoyment, including an Uzi, shotguns, an M16, a hunting rifle, pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails and pistols. Each looks and sounds nice, with the trick being to use the right tool for the task at hand. For example, need to take down some distant zombies? Use the scoped hunting rifle for one shot, one kill effectiveness. Planning on clearing out a zombie-packed room? Nothing works better than a shotgun! The pipe bomb is particularly fun to use because it’s blinking red light attracts the zombie horde, an effective way of baiting the undead to their destruction.

Another method of dealing with the horde is with the “melee function”, which is just a way of saying that players can use the stock of their weapon to bash the grasping zombies back a step or two so they can get a clean shot. This doesn’t seem like much in the way of importance, but it is as friendly fire is always on in Left 4 Dead. What this means is that you can’t just indiscriminately spray down a room, hitting friend and foe alike. You will need to melee with the zombie freaks, especially when they are all over a friend so you can safely shoot the zombies without hurting your teammate, or when you need to kill a Boomer from a safe distance because when these guys die, they explode and cover everything in bile. Yuck!

Three Modes of Play

Left 4 Dead offers three modes of play: co-op, co-op Versus and single player.

L4D is first and foremost a cooperative multiplayer game. Yeah, I know there have been more than a few games billed as “cooperative multiplayer” where the actual gameplay was anything but cooperative as players would quickly go off in their own direction. L4D is different in that the survivors have to work together to survive; showboating is going to get you and your team killed. Because of this grim fact, the cooperation envisioned by the devs actually materializes during online gameplay. Imagine that! I have watched some marvelous acts of charity take place in L4D, such as when an injured player offer his last health pack to a more seriously injured comrade. I have also seen touching scenes of grim solidarity, as when two fallen survivors, who were unable to get up on their own due to injuries, instinctually provided covering fire for each other as they awaited rescue. To watch a session of Left 4 Dead play out can be an outright inspiring experience as the “dog eat dog” mentality of gaming gives way to outright altruism. Let me also assure you that if your band of plucky survivors makes it through the final zombie gauntlet to blessed rescue, the resulting sense of warm camaraderie can be as powerful as it is memorable. Left 4 Dead is definitely a game where you will make new friends, something I find supremely ironic in light of the fact that it took a grim, zombie shooter to achieve a new high in social gaming.

Of course, not all is peace and love in L4D. There is a second, intriguing co-op mode called “Versus”. This is where the “dog eat dog” mentality comes back into full swing as one group of four players work together as zombies to hunt down and kill the four human players. In this mode, the humans playing as zombies are assigned one of four boss zombies (the Tank, Hunter, Smoker, or Boomer) by the AI Director on a somewhat rotating basis. Even though I didn’t initially have a particular interest in this mode, after giving it a try, I was hooked! It can be a great deal of fun to run around stalking the humans from the shadows, waiting for just the right moment to strike. Like the human survivors, there is a degree of cooperation required by the zombies, as success is far more likely with a well-timed cooperative attack than by going it alone. Regardless of the cooperation, expect to die a lot in this mode as it is a challenge to take down gun-toting humans with your virally-enhanced powers. Once all the humans make it to a safe room at the end of a map, or are killed by the zombies, the game switches roles with the former zombies becoming the human survivors and vice versa with the ultimate victor team being determined by a calculated score based upon team performance.

Even though L4D is promoted as a co-op game, I have found the single player mode to be an enjoyable experience. It is somewhat less challenging than multiplayer as the player’s three AI-controlled companions are deadeye shots who are never guilty of friendly fire, a common occurrence when playing with real humans, and react with preternatural swiftness to an attack by a boss zombie. Furthermore, as in a traditional single player FPS, the human-controlled character is expected to lead the way. Nonetheless, if the gamer tires of ad hoc multiplayer matches, it is nice to know that there is an enjoyable experience to be had when playing solo. Mind you, not as enjoyable as multiplayer, but enjoyable nonetheless and a good way to practice as well.

Sights and Sounds of the Apocalypse

Left 4 Dead utilizes the Source engine for it graphics, and while they are not as cutting edge as some other recent titles, that game has a nice, crisp look to it. This look is further enhanced by “filmic effects”, such as intentional graininess and vignetting, that adds a thoroughly believable horror film appearance to the entire game.

Zombies are also well animated and move around with believable realism. Likewise, the manner in which the gamer can blast these creatures apart - complete with spraying blood and detachable limbs - it suitably gory for a game such as this.

The audio portion of L4D deserves special mention as it is perhaps the most ingenious use of in-game dialogue that I have ever come across. To begin with, part of the dialogue facilitates gameplay through such helpful exclamations as “Reloading!” when a player is vulnerable to attack while out of ammo or “Help me!” when attacked by a super zombie.

But there is a deeper purpose to the reputedly more than 1,000 different lines of dialogue for the characters. While it is true that there are no pre-rendered cut scenes to advance a narrative, I have found the many different quips made by the four survivors during the course of a movie actually creates quite a narrative on its own. Ranging from the sarcastic, to the caring, to the downright laugh out loud funny, the dialogue found in Left 4 Dead is far more natural and entertaining than any pre-canned narration I have ever seen in a game. This is the clever way to insert character development and I hope other game developers take notice.

So What’s Not to Like?

If Left 4 Dead has a flaw, it’s that the game ships with only four movies, for a total of twenty maps. Worse, of the four movies, only two are can be played in Versus mode. To be honest, these twenty maps, combined with the randomness of the AI Director, still equate to a lot of replayability, but L4D is a game begging for more, More, MORE! Valve has let it be known that they are planning on releasing new movies, as well as other enhancements, so the future looks bright for the franchise. Plus, I suspect there is going to be a lot of community-made maps coming down the pike. Nonetheless, until these materialize, gamers are just going to have to be happy with the limited selection that shipped with L4D.

My only other complaint is temporal: Why the heck wasn’t this game released in time for Halloween?!?

So there we were, attempting to cross the street and make it to the Pawn Shop and its interior safe room. The streets were empty…initially. As the four of us started sprinting to the shop’s well-lit and inviting interior, the AI Director threw a ton of zombies at us. They came from alleyways, over fences, even out of empty buildings. Panicked, I managed to use my M16 to gun down a few sprinters before they were upon me. Clawing hands surrounded me, forcing me to use the butt of my rifle to knock some of them back and then shoot ‘em down. Bludgeoning and gunning my way out of the throng, I resume my run for the store when Francis is tackled from behind by a Hunter. It was decision time. The Pawn Shop was tantalizingly close…should I leave Francis to his fate and make a dash for safety? Or should I rush back into the fray and rescue him? Darn it! I run to Francis, knocking the Hunter off with my rifle’s stock and shoot it down. I start helping Francis off the ground…at a painfully slow pace…while Zoey and Bill cover us from a distance. Once Francis is up, we run like there is no tomorrow – for there isn’t if we get mobbed again – stopping to shoot whenever the things get too close. I eventually abandon my empty M16 for two pistols and blaze away as I backpedaled to the store’s safe zone.