So here's the much hyped, oft-insulted zombie action game, Left 4 Dead. Another video game from Valve Corporation and a game that's spent a fairly long time in development. So was that long wait worth it? Was the game worthy of all the praise and pre-release hype? Honestly, it all depends.

If you're a whore for Valve, you'll absolutely love the game. It has everything that all the other Valve games has, in that it's a First Person Shooter, it uses the Source Engine, and a lot of the controller/keyboard settings are nearly identical to Valve's other games. Even the story telling is a much Portal-esque "Drawn on the Wall" narration.

But that's really the main flaw, and the main reason why people who love story telling in games would hate the game; there's practically no background in the story, no definite reason why the infected are the way they are, no information given on the city. Everything is told to the player through written word on the walls in saferooms, presumably from other survivors; but they mostly write about surviving and blowing eachother.

Each chapter in the campaign has no connection to the previous or the next, they're all simply different methods of how the survivors make it out of the area. The game is pretty short, in chapter completable in about an hour or two. This game is definitely meant to played sparingly, so don't expect to put more than two or three days in a row with this.

So if the story isn't there, is it worth it? Yes, it is! The game's simplistic, "make up your own outcome" way of (not) telling the story behind the infected make up some interesting imaginary scenarios. Despite a lack of story, the little history given on the characters (the only history really given in a short paragraph in the game's manual) makes you connect with them in a rather off-beat way.



The simplistic choice in weaponry also makes the game feel great. While most would complain that the game deserves more weaponry choices before it could be crowned as an amazing game, it is my belief that the lack of weapons makes it that much better. It makes things much more realistic and much more easily connectable; it's not like there are RPGs laying around in apartment complexes.

The gameplay is intense. It's incredibly scary to face a horde on Advanced, and even worse on Expert. The special zombies are significantly useful at taking you down, which makes the game more intense, of course. Each zombie is specifically designed to fuck you up in some way or another, and they will do it. Most of the gameplay experience is best enjoyed on a higher difficulty, so if you're playing on Normal or Easy, switch up to Advanced, if that's not enough, switch to Expert. Each time you play on the two higher difficulties, you will run into at least one thing that makes you yell in frustration or anxiety. The Director AI is amazing at its job, as it will make every experience unique. Also, you're going to want to play with friends, you lonely bastard, you.

The multiplayer is basically the exact same as the campaign, except the Special Infected are played by four humans (except The Witch) and you and your buddies have to fight them. Versus makes for a lot of fun times, as things get different when the Special Infected are humans and not just mindless zombie-robots. The complaint though? Only two campaigns available, which fucking blows.

This micro-review got a bit long, so I'll summarize it like I did with my other. You'll like Left 4 Dead for one of five reasons:

1) You're Valve's bitch
2) You love zombies
3) You love dynamic experiences in game, rather than the same old, same old.
4) You enjoy short, yet enjoyable, video games.
5) You place heavy emphasis on 4 player co-op and Versus modes.

The five reasons you shouldn't get it?

1) You hate the Half-Life series, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Counter-Strike or any game made by Valve.
2) You place a lot of emphasis on storyline.
3) You enjoy big, meaty arsenals. Complete with a dildo that fires laser beams.
4) You absolutely hate co-op games, or you do not have three friends you'd like to play with on Xbox Live or through Steam.
5) You want a game that you can play for a month straight.

There you have it.


Btw, I plan on doing these often. I need something to write about, right?