Great presentation but the gameplay...not so much.
So I have my fair share of playing games that has had zombies such as the Resident Evil series, Dead Rising ( bleh), etc. Although normally I wouldn't be so giddy if it wasn't for Valve developing it and I did have expectation for this game because of this. As a result, in the end what I see is a solid Zombie game with all the interesting twists that they put in the game, but it also lacked the elements of what made a first-person shooter game a terrific game.
Left 4 Dead's story is pretty simple, it begins two weeks after the infestation with 4 survivors trying to get to point A to B in order to be rescued. There are no fancy cut scenes and any points of interest are shown without any loading times. This really kept the game nice and flowing well as well as not really getting in your way. While there is no narration in the game the way that is shown is through the level itself with its writing on the walls which give it real sense of creepiness
Nice movie poster touches!
with all the different stuff that is written. Also the characters each have their own personality with Bill being the disgruntled veteran, Francis being a tough biker, etc. The characters are actually pretty enjoyable to watch interact with each other and gives them personality. The best thing it has going for is that the 4 different campaigns are treated in a cinematic way with all the dramatic music blaring and moments of pure tension. Although the 4 campaigns feel like they weren't correlated with each other which is kind of lame. It feels as though that they just plopped them there in a totally different scenario making the levels feel slightly arbitrary. With the good method of storytelling also comes with a solid gameplay.
Obviously the game has zombies in it but they are different. No longer are they the lame slow zombies...THEY RUN! This gives the feeling of being in the remake of Dawn of the Dead and it feels very scary at first. However the enemies are varied thanks to the special types of zombies such as the Hunter who will hunt to down, tackle you, and wail on you until someone gets them off of them. There is also the Boomer who will vomit on you and explode if you shoot him to closely. My personal favorite, the Tank who just charges in and starts raising hell and throwing things at you and send you flying! There are other types in there such as the smoker and the witch; they each have their own aspects and abilities and
Oh snap...
keeps things intense. However the 4 Campaigns that consist of 5 levels while look the game throughout, the enemies will be completely random thanks to the added Director A.I. You never see the Director but what it does is that it will place the enemies in random and tracks you as you play. This means that enemy placement won't be the same unless its in certain parts where a horde is supposed to come in. It keeps things fresh but soon it gets pretty predictable which is actually quite disappointing. Want to know when a horde is coming? Just listen for the little jingle to kick in and they swarm! Giant crescendo in the music? Tank is coming! Of course in the end its definitely a good step in the right direction.
As for the players you are one of 4 survivors, (no real special abilities with each of the characters). Your objective is simple, get from Point A to B in with at least one of you surviving. Here teamwork is 100% Essential! Can't go act like Rambo unless you want to be turned into mince meat. When you run out of health you end up going down which one of
One thing I find quite disappointing is the lack of weapon variety in the game. You start off with either a shotgun or sub-machine gun and a pistol with unlimited ammo then as it progresses you can pick either the assault rifle, auto-shotgun, or a sniper rifle and you can also dual-wield pistols. Those are just 6 weapons in a Zombie game, I expected to see some improvisation with melee weapons or some more different types of weapons. There is also a pipe bomb which oddly attracts the zombies to it and a Cocktail Molotov. Its not the fact that the guns aren't good it just feels very generic and boring. As for game modes you have a single player mode where you can play with bots (which aren't that great in some spots) and is no where near as great at all, Multiplayer with the 4 campaigns, and versus mode where you and seven other players play as either survivors or the special zombies (minus the witch). Versus mode is actually pretty good because it shows off how great the levels are designed because like the survivors, when you play special zombies it requires a bit of strategy as well.
Final Verdict:
The game has a very interesting concepts that are executed quite well and makes it feel quite fresh. However it really is limited with it 4 campaigns and can be beaten in an hour (much longer in a bad way on higher difficulties), so in the end I felt like that it wasn't enough. Also the weapon variety that I'm used to see in Zombie games is replaced with generic guns that do the job but it feels a bit disappointing without that sense of variety. The game is really fun with a coordinated team but with just random people that don't give a crap and don't have a mic makes it more difficult than it should be. Despite some of the game play shortcomings, it makes it up with a very excellent presentation that adds a real interesting and new perspective to the game. Even though I felt disappointed by the game play, this is still one of the best Zombie games that I have played in a long time. And that really says a lot.
