Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) Review

Left 4 Dead is developed by Valve, the creators of Half Life and Counter Strike. The title is one of the most anticipated survival horror games of the year for a bunch of reasons, the main being the game being based around co-op play. L4D went gold on November 13^th, just under a week before its world wide release (Nov. 18^th in North America and Nov. 21^st in Europe.)

After the fantastic game that was (& still is) The Orange Box, Left 4 Dead had some pretty big shoes to fill, but the question is; did it?

There isn’t exactly a ‘story line’ in Left 4 Dead with the general idea being behind the games 4 campaigns (I’ll explain them later) is the world has gone to hell and zombies are roaming the Earth, your ‘goal’ as the survivors is to well… survive and escape to the rescue zone. All of the campaigns follow this plot, and you’d expect the idea behind it to get boring but it just doesn’t, there is too much happening on screen for you to be paying attention to the plot. Something which you can’t help but pay attention to is the characters; Zoey; the spoilt brat, Bill; the hardened war veteran, Louis; the office worker and Francis; the tattooed cover biker.

Within the game there’s 4 campaigns split into 5 acts within each one. The campaigns are -
No Mercy – Set in an urban/city like area and get to the hospital to be extracted from the roof of a hospital.
Death Toll – Ranging from destroyed suburbs to a riverside fight for survival.
Dead Air – You go through a few different types of areas here which are fantastic; office cubicles, apartment blocks and finally the evacuation site being an airport runway.
Blood Harvest – Country side like area, where you have forced to go running through thick corn fields, which makes you extremely paranoid and it ends in a desert old farm house/barn.

The best thing that Valve has always managed to do is capture the environment perfectly through the little details, no matter where you are, from the mist filled and blood stained train lines of Blood Harvest to the run down airport of Dead Air. Possibly one of the best things (I guess you could call it best?) is seeing the gigantic swarms of flesh hungry zombies charging at you down a narrow corridor while your torch is pointing at them, seeing all the zombies in such fantastically fluid animation and there reflections perfectly on the walls around them is one of the best experiences in a game this year. The only real downfall is the Source engine is begining too (unfortunately) show its age.

Possibly one of the most addictive things about Left 4 Dead is just because how fast paced the game always is, if there ever is that break for half a second where you are able to reload or heal, be warned, you’re about to be running for your life from the numerous special infected enemies or that dreaded horde. The only problem with fighting the constant waves of zombies/special infected is that unfortunately the game doesn’t actually have that many actual weapons around 10 in total, they come in 2 stages; basic (pump action shotgun, Uzi) or the ‘power’ weapons (m4 rifle, hunting rifle and auto-shotgun) also throughout the game you have your trusty pistol where you can find a second one too. Thankfully, all the weapons are balanced perfectly.

One thing which truly makes a horror game is the audio, and obviously; Valve being valve have pretty much perfected the soundtrack and the noises from the environment and the zombies. Yes, the music may give away what is going to happen, but when the music changed perfectly in time with what is going to happen and the current pace of your progress, you’re going to start getting extremely paranoid when you accidentally bump into that car with the alarm set and you instantly just think to yourself ‘fuck…’ then all of a sudden out of no where you hear the chain gates around you start rattling and see several hundred blood thirsty zombies charging at you.

Usually when a game developer/publisher tells the public that every time you play their game it will be somehow different well usually…its bullshit. But Valve have proved it can actually be done. No matter how many times you go through the game, the games ‘director’ will make sure that where the zombies are, the bosses are, ammo crates and the more powerful weapons will always be in different locations. It all depends on how well you and your team as a whole is performing will effect everything that happens within the level.

If your friends pick the game up (persuade all of them to buy it, its totally worth it) the director means its very doubtful you will ever get bored of the campaign just because of how much it keeps changing. Yes, it is a tad annoying having to play the same 4 campaigns over and over again, but that’s where the games fan-fucking-tastic multiplayer comes into the equation. The online portion of the game is based around survivors vs infected, the game only allows 8 people (4v4) and it works SO well. 4 players play as the survivors while the other 4 players play as the infected, randomly spawning as the ‘special’ boss zombies (except the witch, unfortunately.)

The game has some major potential to become even better from downloadable content, if we see the release of more campaigns or acts the game would be a hell of a lot better than the master piece it already is.

Left 4 Dead is one of those games were no matter how hard I tried, I struggled to find downfalls and problems, and there was nothing which could significantly damage its scores. The last game I played from Valve was Half Life 2: Episode 2 (FYI, one of the best games. Ever) and I honestly doubted that it would be hard for any game to replace it, and I think I may have found one. The more I play Left 4 Dead, the more I love the game, it was totally worth the wait and it was completely worth it. Left 4 Dead is by far the best zombie game ever made, and easily the best co-op game to date. Its safe to say, I am in love with this game. Thank you, Valve.

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