One of the survivors, Louis, is being pulled by a "Smoker" infected.
Last year saw quite the influx of zombie-related media, and video games were no different. EA released Dead Space, and the Playstation Network which plays host to many downloadable games was the platform for “The Last Guy.” While both titles had great spins on the undead-horror theme, neither made as big a splash as Valve’s Left 4 Dead.
The game pits four survivors against hordes of “infected.” Mankind has suffered a bizarre rabies-like virus outbreak and the four survivors are immune to the infection. As they traverse four campaigns they fight off countless enemies as well as “special infected,” zombies who have special skills like being able to lasso survivors and pull them away from the group or a “tank infected” who’s large amount of hit points allow him to steam roll the survivors.
The four campaigns are available from the first time you launch Left 4 Dead and can be played through by your lonesome with AI controlled partners or with three of your friends online.
The real fun is in Versus Mode. In Versus, players can take control of the special-infected and attempt to take down the survivors. The balancing is excellent with each side challenging each other despite the difference in play styles and the powers afforded to the players on either side.
I’ve been playing around with Left 4 Dead for a couple of weeks now and it keeps drawing me back for more. There’s a certain panic that is shared between you and your cohorts as a survivor and a certain pleasure when playing as an infected taking down the survivors in coordinated attacks.
Maybe playing both sides gives you a sense of where the other players are as you attack. As a survivor, you know that the infected players will try to attack at certain points and in certain formations. As an infected, you know you’re inducing a panic that will only further the damage you do to the survivors.
Its this sense of duality to the game that breathes new life into the zombie-horror genre, not to mention the cooperative efforts you make when playing with others.
The survivors are tasked with making it through a campaign.
Working together will offer plenty of incentive to try again as the game’s unique “A.I. director” throws different obstacles at the survivors every playthrough. Theoretically, you’ll never experience a campaign the same way.
And it works. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Left 4 Dead on the PC (its also available for Xbox 360). Playing with friends is a blast and the experience is never the same twice. Playing as the infected does have a certain feeling to it and there is a high difficulty curve when trying to take down the survivors, but with practice you start to learn points on each map where attacking will yield the most damage and points where staying back and waiting with your fellow infected is the best plan.
If you have a Windows PC you can try the game for FREE today by download the Steam client from Valve and running a free trial of the game (which ends tonight at midnight). Left 4 Dead is also at a discounted price all weekend at 23.99 (regular price 39.99). Run over to www.steampowered.com for more details and to download Steam.
You can check out more of Daniel’s writing on Video Games at playreadwrite.blogspot.com.
