Valve's vision of survival horror is fully realized
Looking back, only a game or two that I can think of have actually attempted to take on the zombie apocalypse in online form, throwing players–competitively or cooperatively–into a world decimated by plague and letting them decide the final outcome that would ultimately tell the fate of their world.
Games such as Resident Evil Outbreak its just-as-mediocre sequel have tried, but only Left 4 Dead has succeeded.
Left 4 Dead feels like every other Source Engine shooter you can think of, hardly differentiating its controls from games like Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. Where the differences really lie is in the overall process of playing the game.
It’s tough to review this game and not get more in-depth with the character design, which is just amazing. Despite the lack of a story, the few moments when the characters do interact (typically during pauses in the game’s action, such as an elevator ride or the beginning of a movie) are done so convincingly well that it honestly feels like a shame they aren’t fleshed out just a little bit more. Everything from their interactions to their facial expressions while slaying hordes of the undead are done perfectly.
Left 4 Dead is comprised of four “movies,” all of which, as stated already, are completely unrelated, with no overarching storyline to connect them, and all of them generally begin, progress and ultimately come to an end in the same manner. Despite this, it’s very difficult to feel as if you’re constantly running through the same environments, as apart from a few instances in the third movie, Valve has done an excellent job at diversifying the different chapters of the game from one another, throwing you from areas such as a warehouse into sewers and subway tunnels in an effort to keep the game fresh.
Valve has been touting their “A.I. Director” for quite some time now, talking up how every gameplay experience will be different thanks to dynamic monster and item locations. While skeptical when it was first announced, we’re now fully on board with this new system.
The A.I. Director is both your friend and ally, watching over every inch of progress you make within a single chapter of the game. Depending on how you’re doing, the director generally knows exactly what to throw at you for a decent challenge (boss infected, zombie swarms), and also when to lay off and give you a break if you’re overwhelmed by the amount of enemies. The one rule of thumb to remember when dealing with the A.I. Director is this: when you think you’re okay, you’re probably not anymore.
Along with hordes of super-fast zombies like those featured in films such as 28 Days Later and the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, there are five boss infected stalking your every move. This group consists of the Boomer, who’s vulgar habit of vomiting zombie-attracting bile all over entire groups of players can often cause unwanted attention; the Smoker, who’s exceedingly long tongue can find its way around your neck and force other survivors to backtrack in effort to retrieve you; the Hunter, who’s agile moves will pin you to the ground and often serve as a quick distraction; the Tank, who’s rare appearance is usually accompanied by an epic change in music and a few dead party members; and finally the Witch, who is simply best avoided, as she is the only one who can be.
The star feature of Left 4 Dead is its cooperative campaign, throwing up to four players together into a chaotic world filled with sprinting zombies and hulking boss infected hurling slabs of concrete across entire streets. The entire focus of the game is teamwork, practically forcing players to work steadily together in an effort to survive. Not cooperating generally means certain failure, and any one player that decides to run off on their own and attempt to play the hero or lone wolf will–more often than not–find themselves being revived by their disgruntled teammates a moment or two later.
Versus mode is also a great feature in the game, utilizing the campaign’s stages and boss infected to pit four Infected players against four Survivors. Versus plays just like campaign, with the rather large difference in that four of the game’s five boss infected (excluding the Witch) are controlled by actual players.
Playing as the Infected is significantly more game altering than it might seem in theory, and may not be for everyone. You’re ultimately forced to spawn as whatever it is that the A.I. Director wants you to spawn as, though how you choose to play that role is entirely up to you. Most Infected aside from the Tank take some strategy and stealth tactics to use, and teaming up with your group mates and formulating plans against the survivors can often have devastating results.
Perhaps one of the most enjoyable aspects in the game is that — for some reason or other — losing is actually fun. Valve has found some miraculous equation in their constantly changing levels and dynamic boss infected spawning that simply makes the circumstances of your ultimate demise and absolute blast to witness and experience. Whatever the equation is, we just wish Valve would share it with some other developers, and reward failure rather than do everything there is to do to make the player feel downtrodden for it.
Graphically, Left 4 Dead is a Source Engine game, which hasn’t aged well. It’s unfortunate that the graphics aren’t all that they could be, but it’s also very obvious that certain sacrifices had to be made in order to actually make the often ridiculous amounts of infected appear on screen and not completely destroy anyone’s computer or console.
The only gripe that I really have with the game overall is that it certainly isn’t intended for extended amounts of play. While the dynamic levels can keep things fresh for a long time, playing too much in one sitting does get considerably more repetitive than I was initially prepared for. Luckily, this doesn’t seem to effect the overall replay value of the game, and it will definitely keep you coming back for more.
