Left 4 Dead
Set in a modern day survival-horror universe, the co-operative gameplay of Left 4 Dead (L4D) casts four "Survivors" in an epic struggle against hordes of swarming zombies and terrifying "Boss Infected" mutants. Developed by Turtle Rock Studios and Valve, creators of the Counter-Strike and Half-Life games, the latest AI technology allows for multiplayer games of one to eight players. A new and highly virulent strain of the rabies virus emerges and spreads through the human population with frightening speed. The pandemic's victims become grotesquely disfigured widely violent psychopaths, attacking the uninfected on sight. As one of the "lucky" few apparently immune to the sickness, you, unfortunately, are also trapped in a city crawling with thousands of the bloodthirsty Infected. Alone, you're dead. But together with a handful of fellow survivors, you might just fight your way to safety.Players can play as a Survivor or as one of four types of Boss Infected, each of whom possess a unique mutant ability, such as a 50-foot tongue lasso or a giant belly full of explosive methane gas. The gameplay of L4D is set across four massive campaigns. The zombie population of each mission is choreographed by an AI Director that monitors the human players' actions and creates a unique and dramatic experience for them on the fly.
Left 4 Dead Accessories
 Fallout 3
Far Cry 2
The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray]
Crysis Warhead
Gears of War 2
Iron Man (Single-Disc Edition)
Dead Space
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
Spore
Left 4 Dead Reviews
It is all about team play. There is also the tank, a huge zombie monster that takes like most of your ammo to kill. Just get the game if you like social gaming and fps. The game itself is quite simple. There are special monsters along the way like the witch (hear everyone on voice say turn off your flashlight) who goes mental if you disturb her, hunters that jump on you and pin you helplessly unless a friend gets you up, bloomers that explode yucky stuff on you that attracts hordes of zombies directly to you and a smoker that has a tongue that can drag you helplessly along the ground. 45 minutes from start to end. Other scenarios I played with self-interested members and anything can happen from watching them get all the best stuff while everyone else dies to not being able to finish a level, ever. Valve completely underestimated how popular this would be.
Along the way you can get pipe bombs, molotov cocktails and pain suppressants. You will always encounter zombies but they could be in any number form 3 or 4 to literally one hundred. There are 4 scenarios with 5 levels each. If you are all helpless then you die and need to restart the level.
The concept is ingenious and you will be adding friends to your list and looking forward to nothing more than filling the zombie hordes full of hot lead with your new mates. Some members get damaged more than others and how the game flows depends largely on how selfish or friendly your team is. You get a primary weapon, a secondary weapon and health pack. You can share items with your teammates. You make your way across each level with your buddies shooting zombies to get to an extraction point.
With Left 4 Dead you must cooperate with your other three team members or else you will not, cannot make it. There is nothing like it. Valve got this one right. I played scenarios where cooperation was rife and we made it through really well. If you can play it where everyone else is on voice then it absolutely rocks.
A game takes approx. Left 4 Dead is everything that Resident Evil multiplayer wasn't and then some more. The thing is once you are helpless a team mate must get you up.
This is one of the best zombie games I have ever played and highly recommend it to anyone who likes to fight their way through hundreds of infected zombies. What I love about this game is that each time you play a level, don't expect it to be the same experience if you have played the level before, the weapons will spawn in different places, the infected will be in different spots and in different numbers based on how well you do in the map. Another great thing about this game is the AI and the director that goes along with it. You must rely on your team to help you out and they must rely on you. If your the type who likes to run off and go solo you will not make it.
They will also take the time to give you health if you are running low and protect you from getting hit. The environment of the map also give it a nice feel to the whole "zombie apocalypse" scenario and will give you some eye candy when your being overrun with infected raging towards you. There is a good balance between the weapon damage and the number of damage an infected will cause to create a challenge and a breeze you can just sail through, if you work together as a team. You also need to work together as a team in this game. Trust me.
The AI survivors actually will help you and not get in your way when shooting zombies, and when you get knocked down, they will help you up. First off, let me say this game is one of my all time favorite games and will remain to be a top choice for me.
Why pay $50 for a game with limited install. I am not buying any games with SecuRom. If EA is selling installs for a game, then it is fair for me to just pay for one install for $5.
That said, the game is insanely fun, and it's different with every group you play with so just get in there and HAVE FUN. New levels seem to be cropping up by the players, so it should be replayable for some time, and given the setup, I can see long term single maps come up too, in the same realm as "use map settings" maps from Starcraft, that eventually spawned Tower Defense and others. When I first got Left 4 Dead (off of Steam, right through Valve the BEST way to do it)., she watched me play and before long, she was pointing out the smoker, to watch the corner for the hidden zombie, and was shrieking with delight when the 'horde' came after me and the 3 other players. And not because she appreciates it, but simply because I can play without getting too much flack about it. When my wife can appreciate the game I'm playing, it's a DAMN good game. Get this one folks, it's a blast to play, make sure you have a microphone and KILL THE HORDE. Usually speaking, if I play Counterstrike my wife sits back and says "this is so boring, I don't know how you enjoy it.". I usually play with a headset, but having her there I turned on the speakers, and she was shouting "Get them, get them.", or "Watch out.", or "Nice hit.".
The sound is also pretty good, with the zombies making different sounds and the witches crying. Another bad thing was that I don't play co-op online and this is what this game is for really. Also the bots can get in the way at times and lag behind you too much. I didn't have a problem with the save system but if you were playing with others it could be a problem, essentially you can't save wherever you want it has to be at a safe house.
This game is fun to play, not really a story but that's a good thing as we've all seen the movies and played the other games and know the story anyways, why waste our time rehashing it. It's a blast to see them all running at you in huge numbers and just blasting away. Your AI teammates have a variety of things to say that make sense based on the situation, they yell at you if you accidentally shoot them and call out where the zombies are coming from. I think the plan is probably to come up with new maps and sell them online through Steam or have the modders generate them because even with multiplayer I could see this being too small an area to keep coming back to again and again. Granted it does give you the major type of weapons but I'd like to see more powerful and different ones.
When you get close to an important point it does a good job of letting you know you are there and what you need to do. The details in the environment are well done also like scrawlings on the wall from previous survivors and the details of a hospital or house interior. I've played through all of the 4 maps on single player and am interested in playing them again but it's just not enough to really pay full price for. One of the things that was nice was there was no real directions given, no map, nothing other than if you wander the wrong way you'll eventually hit a dead end and then have to explore until you find your way. The weapons sound pretty realistic as well.
So make sure you are willing and able to play co-op if you get this game, otherwise it is not worth it. The things I didn't like were the lack of more than 4-5 standard weapons, a flamethrower, bat or other option would be nice. It's really fun not knowing where the next rush of zombies is going to come from and just picking off the ones that are aimless. I want to stay a casual gamer and going online really is a time consuming thing as well as some of the people can be obnoxious.
The graphics are pretty good as well, with Valves strengths for me being the environments and the movement of the characters, especially the zombies.
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