Left 4 Dead PC Review

It's a little late ( as usual for me ) but it's time for the Left 4 Dead review. If any of you happen to have checked out my steam account you may have noticed it is almost the only game I have played in the past month and a half. This gives you an idea what kind of addiction can be found in some games. The badge of 'Eagles Scream' is supposed be a badge of honor, but in reality it's a badge letting people know you are no longer alive for any other reason to play your games on Steam. Left 4 Dead is the newest 3D shooter from the makers of the online powerhouse Team Fortress 2, Valve. Left 4 Dead is a zombie game for those who have been waiting to play a game that puts them into the shoes of the characters you see in every zombie movie. Most zombie movies have a pretty weak plot. Left 4 Dead has no plot at all. That's fantastic! Why is that fantastic? Well that means there is nothing to muddle up the fun of killing hoard after hoard of ravenous zombies, or pouncing across the map to rip apart you best buddy playing as a survivor. The two types of game modes are campaign, and versus. You can play the campaign in single player or online. In single player you play as one of four survivors trying to fight through infected to eventual escape. There is 4 chapters with 4 game locations. Essentially it's all the same in the end. The main difference you notice is that each level has a change in play style to it, which is enough to keep the gameplay fresh even after long hours logged in the game.

The true beauty is how the game actually REQUIRES cooperation in online play. Weather you are on a team of 4 survivors, or 4 zombies, you will need to work together and help each other if you want to see any kind of success. The four survivors are your basic roundup covering a range of fans. There is a black guy, a badass white guy, an older war vet guy, and finally a female character. On the opposing side there is four types of playable zombies. Each zombie has a different ability. The first I will mention is the hunter zombie. The hunters main ability is the pounce. With the pounce you jump across the map pinning a survivor as you tear away at him. The survivor is helpless until another survivor knocks you off. The second is the smoker zombie. The smoker has a long tongue that shoots out towards a survivor, which then constricts the him/her until another survivor shoots your victim free. The third is a boomer zombie. The boomer zombie is a big fat fellow that spits up bile on survivors. If a survivor gets hit by this bile a horde of regular zombies controlled by AI, attack that player. The boomer also has a secondary ability. If you shoot the boomer while he is close to you, he explodes covering you in bile, again attracting the horde. The final zombie you get to play as is the tank zombie. The tank is ( as the name suggests ) a large powerful zombie that sends a survivor flying. There is a catch preventing the tank from wreaking continuous havoc though. The tank only spawns a maximum of one or two times in a round ( unless you are in the server I have admin rights to that is, in which case if I'm on the zombie team you can expect about six tanks waiting for you in front of the safe room).

Slapping myself around

There is also a witch character that you do not get to play as. The witch is an innocent looking female character sobbing on the ground at various locations of the map. One hit from the witch is enough to incapacitate you. You are left waiting for your friends to kill the witch and help you up.

Single player gives you an idea about the gameplay style and general feel of the game, but multiplayer is the bread and butter. It adds so much to the game style when you form a plan, stick together and make tactical decisions based on who is healthiest and best equipped for each situation. The only frustration is when you partner with a player who doesn't understand the concept of the game and goes off on their own only to die or leave you to die. Sharing med packs and pain pills is essential to balancing out health between each character. The weapons aren't super varied, but have primarily been design to make sure they fit the balance. Included are the pump action shotgun, the auto shotgun, the uzi, the hunting rifle, and assault rifle. You can only chose one of these as your primary weapon. As a secondary weapon there is the pistol, or dual pistols. The pistols come with unlimited ammo, making sure you don't spend longer levels feebly swatting away zombies like a war amputee swatting bugs in a swamp. The shot speed is determined by how quickly you can click your mouse. If you have dual wield pistols, and a fast click finger then you will enjoy great effectiveness. Unfortunately if you are knocked down you are left with the pistols as your only weapon, with your rate of fire set back to an agonizing speed.

Explosives play a big part in tactical decisions. There is only two explosives you can equip. The molotov is a straight fire damage weapon that spreads over a large area. This is handy for blocking off a rush of regular zombies, or inflicting constant damage on the tank or the witch. The second is the pipe bomb. The pipe bomb is a delayed explosive device. There is a flashing light and tone attached to the pipe bomb which draws zombies in close to it until it explodes turning the whole horde into red chunks. This makes the pipe bomb handy in luring away large groups of zombies when you need to create a little space. You also locate explosives throughout the levels like propane tanks, and gas tanks. These can be shot to trigger explosions or spreading fire, basically becoming a pipe bomb, or molotov you aren't able to equip.

Next->