Remember that Half-Life thing? Gordon Freeman bringing us Aliens and chaos and a lot of shooting? Well, this one is completely different, except for the shooting part and that it is a game developed by the same company (Valve). Why do I start with this confusing introduction? Because I want to point out that Valve has produced a lot of great games. Unfortunately, they pissed off a lot of gamers with their DRM platform Steam. Anyhow, let’s talk about this game.

Story  ★★★☆☆

As you might infer from the cover this is a zombie game. Yes, exactly – the guys running around wanting to eat you. You play one of 4 characters (see controls below) that try to escape from them by shooting them down and getting to and exit point, hopefully being picked up alive.

This is it: Run for your life, shoot everything, escape. I don’t need more!

By watching the introduction video you learn everything you need to know about the enemies in the game. Apart from the normal zombies that you will encounter in sheer masses there are 5 special types to terrify the fink out of you:

  • The Hunter: Very fast and tries to jump on you
  • The Tank: Very bullet tolerable
  • The Boomer: His superpower is puking and exploding from one single bullet
  • The Smoker: Catches you with his tongue
  • The Witch (not in the picture): Sensible to light and very rare

Controls ★★★★★

As I said before, you are one of 4 survivors. The interesting thing is that this is a Coop game. That means that up to 4 people can play the game at the same time – either online or via LAN.

It doesn’t matter which character you are, because everyone can choose the weapons he/she likes. However, weapons are limited to one big gun (Shotgun, Automatic, Sniper) and two pistols. Additionally you can have one grenade or one molotov, and you can also have a medipack and a bottle of painkiller pills with you. Everything is assigned to the numbers 1-5 on keyboard. You can shoot with the left mouse button and melee with the right button. With F you turn on/off your flashlight. Movement works with WASD, as always in a shooter.

Controls are very simple and work fine. You will get used to it in only a few seconds.

Graphics ★★★★½

The game looks very good and horror-like. It is very dark (but not too dark thanks to your flashlight) and there is a constant grain on your screen. If you thought: “Oh, it’s time to clean the screen again” – Nope, it’s just the game that looks like it. Whatever your buddies take with you can be seen on their bodies which are very detailed thanks to the new Source engine. In contrast to the living dead the levels are hardly alive. They are lacking real interactive objects like the doors that you can shoot holes in.

Balance ★★★★★

There are 4 campaigns that you can play [airport, hospital, farm, and what was the last again?] and every one is divided into several section with increasing difficulty up to the last section where you will have trouble with your ammunition. Nevertheless, Left4Dead remains always quite fair and your colleagues act smart. One time, when I was playing with a friend the two AI controlled guys even were as smart to leave in the van, happy to escape the brutal masses of zombies, leaving us to die.

Replayability ★★★★☆

Now here’s what all these magazines won’t tell you. Namely, if you can play the game again without getting bored. For Left4Dead this is a clear Yes, you can! Due to the AI director system, events and zombies are put on a different point. All special zombies will be in a different place and sometimes you won’t even encounter a witch. The coop factor also accounts for its replay value, because gaming with friends is simply fun. There is just one criticism on my part: The campaigns are very short for this full price game.

Overall Rating: ★★★★½

I fink that Left4Dead is a solid and fun coop shooter for people that don’t give a fink about story or plot and just need a reason to shoot dead people.


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