So the highly anticipated survival-horror-coop-orientated-zombie-shooter from Valve was released today at 5am, in the UK anyway, and i was one of the brave, or sad, folks who stayed up to play it as soon as the game unlocked on Steam. And i haven't really stopped playing it since, infact its now nearlly 5pm and i've only just logged out to write this blog and share my thoughts.
First of all this game is intense and one thing i cannot stress enough is play it with people you trust. When there is so much going on, whether its a screaming horde of regular zombies or some devious zombie jumping out the shadows with a blood curdling howl as it pummels you to the floor. You really need to have people on your team to back you up when things get tough. I've been fortunate enough to play alongside a bunch of friends on Steam aswell as being unfortunate enough to play alongside a bunch of random people aswell. L4D is a game that really relies heavily on players knowing, trusting and being familiar with one another to achieve success against the undead. To use a term from MMO's it just doesn't end well if you have to PUG (pick up group) your way through the game.
The AI Director in the game is very clever and you find yourself experiencing a different style of gameplay each time you play one of the chapters in the 4 campaigns. I also found its very unforgiving too stupid players. In true horror movie style you'll get ripped apart if you stray too far ahead of the group or if you stray too far behind and hold the group up. One unfortunate French player in a group i was in kept straying behind to try and find pipebombs while the rest of us kept moving. Needless to say he was set upon by a group of somewhat pissed off zombies and we had to come back and rescue him a number of times. Sure we could have waited for him but like the old saying goes, "We can't stop here, this is bat country!"....or something along those lines. No two playthroughs ever really feel the same and you'll find yourself really saying "oh shit" when you walk outside the safe house into the loving arms of a Tank. And when you try to run back into the safe house and close the door you find the loving AI director has decided the door cannot be closed....
My only real gripes with the game, if you can consider them that, is that it left me wanting more. I didn't really feel satisfied after playing through each campaign and while yes i still have to go through them all again to get some of the campaign specific achievements. I really wished it was a little longer but i imagine thats where the higher difficulty settings and friends will add a lot of replay value to the game. The other thing is the variety of weapons on offer to help you ease the suffering of the ravenous hordes of undead you encounter. In a word there is very few weapons to be honest. You have the tier 1 set consisting of a basic pump action shotgun, uzi submachine gun and pistol(s) where as the tier 2 set consists of an M16, automatic shotgun and scoped hunting rifle. While secondary weapons such as pipebombs, molotov cocktails, petrol tanks and gas canisters can also be found dotted around the place.
It just seems a little boring at times when you come across the same suspiciously placed M16, hunting rifle and automatic shotgun in every safe house or obscure room in a building within each campaign's chapters. All the while starting off with the same choice of basic shotgun and uzi. I like variety in my options to kill the undead and L4D is somewhat limited in what it offers to carry out such mass slaughtering. I really do hope Valve bring out some updates before the new year to add in some more weapons and perhaps afterwards add in some more maps and campaigns to lengthen the experience. Because L4D is an awesome experience, it has such great atmosphere and replay value that the addition of extra content like new maps and weapons would increase that replay value and general great experience you have when you play the game.
If you've ever played Portal, another of Valve's creations, you'll probably remember the various hidden rooms and areas with messages written on the walls. Ramblings of previous participants in GLaDOS's cruel game like rats in a maze. Well L4D is similar to this in that if you take time to look through the many safe houses and levels you'll come across some entertaining messages such as "We waited for as long as we could, headed to Mercy Hospital, meet us there, Love...." and its these minor little details to the level design that help build up this atmosphere of solitude and despair. Even though you have 3 companions with you at all times you really can't help but feel alone in what is a city full of death, or undeath if you want to be picky.
Dialogue in L4D is immense. There is just tonnes of it and if you look in the games directory you'll see just how many sound files of dialogue each suvivor has. Like many of Valve's games the dialogue is of top quality and the voice acting is spot on. Facial animations and the general appearance and feeling you get from the survivors is very reminiscent of Alyx Vance in Half-Life 2 yet greatly improved. If there is one thing Valve does really well its bring a great deal of life and personification to its NPC's and characters in their games. Even the zombies have a degree of quality to them that makes you think "ok that could be a real zombie, even though i know its a bunch of pixels and code in a game". The general tone, feel and atmosphere within the game is greatly enhanced by the music that tends to pick up in a dramatic crescendo to let you know that something bad is coming your way.
Multiplayer in L4D comes in the form of Versus mode which i dabbled in briefly. It was fun to play as one of the infected and try to totally lick Zoey with my super long tongue, she was having none of it, but i couldn't help but feel it was way to one sided in favor of the infected. But it was somewhat fun when we utterly destroyed the survivors just outside their safe house and found ourselves suddenly in the same situation when the teams swapped over. Versus was fun but i think i'd much rather play coop on expert as the Versus mode just seems to me to be the player vs player, the multiplayer aspect to appeal to those few who must be able to play against other people and not a clever AI system. It just after awhile felt boring to either A.) Be constantly ripped apart only a few feet from a safe house door or B.) Keep spawning as a Hunter and wait 20 seconds sometimes to respawn.
Even though i have a few issues with L4D i think they can really be sorted out by further updates and support from Valve to both balance the game yet add too and extend the replay value of the game much like they have done with TF2. A few regular updates to add new maps, chapters or campaigns aswell as weapons and i'll be happy. Perhaps they can improve on the Versus mode aswell by maybe adding more maps or gameplay modes, who wouldn't want CTF with zombies? Overall though L4D is fucking awesome and if you haven't bought it or played the game yet then you suck and should hang your head in shame. Buy this game now and get in on the zombie killing action because its boat loads of fun!
Anyway here is a list of weapons i think would be cool to have in L4D, even if they are available for specific chapters or campaigns....
- Chainsaw - Iconic weapon of any zombie game and a powerful one for close combat. Refueled by using the contents of the many petrol cans dotted around the levels in the game and providing a small dilema for players. Is it worth them refueling the weapon or saving the petrol cans to use against waves of zombies?
- Revolver - Upgrade the pistol(s) to a more powerful handgun thats a little slower at reloading and obviously has fewer shots to fire.
- MP5 - Used by most police and security forces worldwide it would make sense to come across it in various levels of the game where we find police cars and such like.
- Flashbang - Again used by police forces as a method of crowd control it could provide a group a few seconds extra to reload, regroup and such like as it stuns the zombie hordes.
Hamz
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