Left 4 Dead

"Fun for you and three friends (no more, no less)"

Graphics

The first thing you may notice about the graphics is that texture look great from a distance, but up close most every thing in this game looks terrible, more then once I saw windows that were little more then drawn on, on top of that some of the scenery is too sharp or too blurry. Then there are the fire effects, once again good from a distance, but close up it just looks like a layered 2D effect, It's spreading is also very inorganic. Honestly I wouldn't care I would care that much abot the graphics in a game like this but it can lead to problems trying to judge what's safe to stand on or where you need to go next. For example in the second area there's a broken bridge that seems to now form a ramp to the river below, but if you try to get down to the river using it you'll take falling damage, despite sliding down a modest slope and not plummeting from a roof top. Another example is in the sewer area that you can get into by dropping down a man hole, not that it worked the first time. I slowly walked over to it so I wouldn't run over it, but I didn't go down. I spun around and I was standing on air, turns out I need to be slightly to the side of the hole to drop down. There are actually a lot of instances when you find your self standing in thin air or facing the wrong way on a ladder.

Still if it was just the map's features that pose graphical problems it might be excusable, but unfortunately zombie bits seem to be MIA as well. When you use a pipe bomb or blow a zombie apart with a shot gun said disembodied parts will just liquefy into a blood splatter. You do get the occasional leg or arm, but, when you throw a pipe bomb the subsequent explosion doesn't chunkify the hoard they just turn to a blood fountain, which then seems to evaporate.

I guess because the game's so dark and the combat so hectic most of these graphic problems will go unnoticed and I can't deduct major points for this one point. Ultimately the graphics aren't bad, but there was really no technical reason to put this game on a next gen system, it's nothing the X-Box couldn't handle.

Sound

Not much to say here. The sound effects are fine, the mesh up pretty well with zombie genocide. There are also sounds that warn you of special enemies, including the other survivors saying they hear something. The voice acting is equally fine, when I could actually hear them over the slaughter. I guess the music isn't very memorable, seriously I just played it an hour ago and I can't recall a note. It does get menacing when danger is near, but you spend more time swimming in the hoard then not, so the musical cues are is pretty irrelevant for most of the game. An epic score can be important, but I doubt it would be that noticeable in this game

Gameplay

The game is pretty much what you'd expect: you and up to three friends select a character and a mission and play through several levels of sprinting zombies. At its core a Left 4 Dead modernized Arcade game. Despite the lack of FPS games at your local Arcade (if your lucky enough to still have one) it truly feels like I should be playing it with a plastic gun or joystick, hoping some one else will put in a quarter and give me a hand. This is not all good as the ability to alter the control scheme simply does not exist beyond sensitivity and inverting, combine that with the unorthodox button set up and many are probably going to wonder: Who at “VALVE” (makers of international award wining games Haft-Life and Portal) thought it was a good idea to not add control adjustments?!

Speaking of “Valve” (i.e. the gaming physics guys) the physics are a hair unpolished. The rag doll effects can be very unrealistic, the collision detection is way off and sprites/objects will clip together, you WILL get hit by attacks that landed no where near you, but it matters little as flying zombies are funny as heck. Still the funniest physics defying moment has to be the Hoping Heal. If some one is down and you tap the healing button (as apposed to holding it down like your suppose to) the downed ally leaps two feet in the air like they've just been molly woped with a cattle prod.

One thing that can wear on your nerves is how hard team work gets shoved down your throat. Every time something grabs, pounces, pukes or dances (yes dances) on you, you NEED your buddies, the option to help your self doesn't exist. Unless you shoot the beast dead within a second of it getting a hold of you, it's got you. You know I never thought I'd miss quick time events, the ability to remove your self from one of the games many scrapes would defiantly be nice. You get five types of team work enforcing beasties and most of them are just not fun to fight. The puking is just a pain, when (not if, WHEN) you get puked on you can't see jack, but every zombie and they're mum loves this stuff so they will attack you and only you, making it a great time to be blind. There's also these tentacle tongue…things. These will grab you out of no where, it may scare you the first time, but by the third level they'll just be ticking you off. You can only release a captured friend by shooting the bloody Hentai critter, but there usually using said friend as a meat shield and may even be out of site and/or shooting range. But by far the worst are the Witches, Yes you're supposed to avoid these things, but frequently they're in your way or you stubble into them or far more likely you set them off because a battle spilled over into the witch's area. When this happens the poor shmuck who ired it will get bum rushed and will likely insta-die. At this point the Witch will dance on they're downed butt and every one else has to pump the zombie lady with lead before reviving you. The Witches are bent over, haft hiding and the sound cue to their location just isn't enough, it's almost impossible to avoid them, heck avoiding every one in an area is actually an Achievement. Now every special attack can be avoided, but you need to see the monsters before they see you, because if they've seen you they've already started their attack run.

Still not counting the team work BS the enemies are actually very clever, they seem to come from every direction and it's genuinely scary in places, they can even bust through scenery or come out of something you thought was inaccessible, creating a lot of immersion when a massive armada is barring down, because northing and I mean nothing short of splattering their brains on the pavement will stop them.

Yet all these problems and up sides are dwarfed by the games major flaw, the allied A.I. is a nightmare.

First off your brain dead compatriots will take the hard to find healing pills or first aid kits faster then the human brain can process “press the X button to pick up”. Some times they use it on you if you're in bad shape, but they never give you the pills. It's not even necessary for them to having healing items, then never go in anywhere first and as such never get hit by the nigh undodgeable BS attacks described above, plus if they die “permanently” they just respawn a few minuets latter in a closet some where. Yes, you heard me right the penalty for death in this game is that you respawn inside a closet. Yet in a single player if you die, that's it, no closet time for you, you have to restart the mission from the last safe room. What's weird is that you have to let them out of the closet, they're listed as unknown survivors, despite some George Romero-esk he/she/the old guy is dead lines. The game tries to play it off as them being new survivors and yet still the same guy/girl, it just doesn't mesh.

Second the A.I. doesn't know a pipe bomb from a letter opener, they won't even bother with explosives and since you can only carry one your survival poetical is further limited for each A.I ally you rely on.

Third your computerized cohorts LOVE to leap in front of your firing barrel, back of the head first and then yell and moan about friendly fire. This is exacerbated massively by the game brimming over with narrow corridors and hallways, but even in wide open areas they some how mange to sponge up rounds. Thankful bullets seem to be as damaging as wads of paper to the non-infected.

Four, you have no control over them, but they will follow you. This is a problem because the guy/girl taking the lead will almost always get hit by the special attacks, so your heath is constantly low and the again the game only ends when you die. I just can't get them to be the bait for once.

Final, and this is the biggy, they hate you and they what you to die! I can't figure out any other explanation for they're lack of interest in team work; in a game that seems to exist exclusively to force team work morals on would be zombie slayers. When you go down they ether try to revive you instantly with the horded killing them as there trying to patch you up or wait until ever last zombie is dead…which is usually too late. The times when you need them the most, say a Hunter is gutting you alive; they may or may not help you. It's about a 50-50 shot. This is inexcusably bad programming, when a special enemy comes around the whole team should rise up and take it down, but some time their just not on board.

. There just so frustrating, I swear the most fun I had in this game was blowing my digital friends apart, especial when they took a heath pack and used it on them self. Playing this game alone is just too hard and for all the wrong reasons

There are still more irritating features your vision goes black and white when your on your on your last life, heath packs, pills and explosives are reasonably sparse, but ammo piles never empty out and nether do your pistols or the mounted guns. The melee attacks are way, way, WAY too effective and the one liners, as always get old fast, but (sigh) it completely faithful to the zombie movie formula, each of the four areas are like a different zombie movie, even though the characters remain the same. Which is a pity, but they're fun characters.

Story

If you were hoping for a zombie epic like “Dead Rising” your going to be seriously disappointed, what little narrative there is told by writings on walls, usually in the safe rooms. It really doesn't explain any thing, so in that way it's faithful to George Romero's work, but I've seen more interesting writing in bathroom stalls.

Conclusion

So yeah the graphics are second rate and the sound is a right off the generic truck, but it can be a really fun party game…just don't buy it. Yes, once you get use to all these things the game is thoroughly enjoyable to play. It's very standard RPS fair and it's fun to play with friends (even if you're just poking fun at some of the lamer features). But it's to short, the story (or lack their of) is a joke and it gets easy fast, too easy… as long as your playing with other human beings. I just can't emphasize this enough, play it with three friends or not at all.
There are way better shooters and zombie games to spend your cash on and at $60 I just can't recommend a buy. Rent it for a party, but keep something else handy.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/08

Game Release: Left 4 Dead (US, 11/17/08)