Late in the game review: Left 4 Dead

Game Title: Left 4 Dead
Consoles: Xbox 360, PC, Mac
Developer: Valve
Release Date: November 17, 2008

Pregame:

When Valve's Left 4 Dead (L4D) came out, it was one of the few mainstream FPS games to emphasize four-player co-op, hence the "4" in the title. Online or offline, humans or bots, there will be a four-player team, and players will need all the help they can get.

Play-by-Play:

As the cast makes its way through a zombie-infested city, forest, sewer and other locales, teamwork will be an absolute necessity. For example, any player can be utterly incapacitated by certain zombie archetypes, like Hunters. If a comrade doesn't step in, that player will die and remain dead for the rest of the campaign chapter. Also, in the particularly rough sections of the game, the whole team is doomed if they don't stick together.

Players (and the sometimes ham-handed bots) can share weapons, items and, most importantly, health packs. They can also revive teammates if the zombie horde gets the better of them. If you plan on playing this game longer than a few minutes, someone will snatch you out of the jaws of death, and you'll do the same for someone else.

A lot of team-based games promise a sense of community, but many players ignore this and and just do their own things right out of the gate. Not so with L4D. While some players will set a pace that's difficult for a newbie to maintain, most realize that it's better for everyone if the group stays together. In L4D, the players are a team, and it shows.

At first glance, there doesn't seem to be much of a story here. Get from point A to point B, hold off a horde of  zombies at the end of the campaign, end of story. There's more than meets the eye here, though. At the beginning of each campaign, a movie-like poster appears.

The cast members, and they are definitely a cast, are part of a zombie flick. Not the jumpy fright fest kind, either - it's the kind where nobody ever runs out of ammo and the zombies just keep coming. There are even credits at the end of each campaign that end with "X number of zombies were harmed in the making of this film." L4D isn't a survival horror game, it's an action game with a zombie flair.

What story this game does have is conveyed almost entirely through in-game chatter between characters, and it's often hilarious. For example, after the group's helicopter crashes (which players don't actually see happen), one character pipes up when they approach a nearby corpse.

"Hey, Zoey, here's the pilot, in case you want to shoot him again."
"He was a zombie, Francis!"

Players don't need a cutscene to know that, for whatever reason, the helicopter pilot turned into a zombie mid-flight and Zoey was forced to shoot him, causing the crash. Later, when a big wave of zombies is fast approaching, Francis calls out, "Here they come! Zoey, just pretend they're all helicopter pilots!"

Each of these characters, like many Valve creations, have 20lbs of personality in a 10lb bag. The gruff war vet Bill fights alongside the brash biker Francis, who watches over the kind but tough Zoey, who backs up the clean-cut businessman Louis. Despite the fact that each cast member carries his or her own weight battle-wise, they're always playfully taunting each other.

This helps the game keep a pretty light-hearted tone, especially compared to the "Oh no, society has collapsed around us, how will we go on?" pieces of zombie fiction. L4D's attitude is mostly for those of us who are already familiar with zombie mythos and don't need every detail explained again. We don't know how this plague got started, or why some zombies became Boomers or Smokers, and we don't care. Just put a shotgun in our hands and stand back.

Some additional information is available at the L4D website for those who care to look, but it's certainly not necessary to enjoy the game. What they don't explain is why it's so easy to find painkillers everywhere. Seriously, were they having a sale?

As mentioned above, the zombie horde comes in many forms, and players will need to learn the rules to survive. Don't get close to Boomers, don't startle Witches, pull out the big guns for Tanks, and so on. One naive player can get the whole group killed, especially with Witches. Fuckin' Witches.

Witchy Woman seeks loving, caring human with tasty brains

Each special zombie archetype has it's own abilities, and players get to wield those powers for evil in Versus Mode. In Versus Mode, players are split into two teams: Survivors and Infected. As Survivors, Versus Mode works much like the rest of L4D, except whenever a chapter is finished (or all the survivors are dead), players switch teams. As Infected, players will automatically be assigned an archetype and continuously respawn as such for the rest of the chapter. Occasionally, someone will respawn as a Tank, and woe unto any unprepared Survivors then.

Players will never spawn a the regular, run-of-the-mill zombies. It's comforting to know that Valve knows it's customers are above that.

Final Call:

L4D is a fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping shooter that's wickedly fun, especially with a friend or three. It's not the longest of games, but since the zombies' numbers and variety are never the same twice, it can easily keep you coming back for more. Since it's no longer a new release (and a sequel exists), the online community is not as strong as it once was, but the game's age also makes the price a steal. If you've got a fever for a good shoot-em-up, L4D might be your prescription.