Left 4 Dead

"A bland zombie shooter with more glitches then a 1983 Apple computer"

Left 4 Dead has been out for awhile now, so this review is a bit late, but I felt after constantly being baffled at the large amount of people calling this game 'perfect' that I had to step in and list some facts in a review of my own. Left 4 Dead is nowhere near a perfect game, where should I begin?

The game features three modes to "enjoy", two it comes with, one must be downloaded for free off of the xbox live marketplace. The first mode is campaign, which is just the game. Versus is what some people consider to be the core of the game, it's really the exact same as campaign though, the only differences are that all special and boss infected are actually controlled by other online players, and that if your team dies the level won't end. You get to play as the infected too of course, and while that part is entertaining you will die faster then a hamster in a punching bag.

The downloadable mode is called "Survival" which puts you into one of 15 spots from the main campaigns (and one spot that isn't in a campaign) and throws endless waves of enemies at you to see how long you can survive.

Gameplay-7/10: Really the only thing L4D does well, and even this has some problems because it doesn't really do anything new and is VERY repetitive. You can shoot with right trigger, and do a small (rather overpowered) melee attack with left trigger to push zombies back. Other commands involve healing your partners or yourself, sharing pain pills, and throwing pipebombs and molotovs.

The game has plenty of challenge in it due to the four different difficulty settings, so that's no problem, and it's nice that the game encourages teamwork so strongly. It is literally near impossible to survive without someone helping you, mainly due to Hunters and Smokers, two creatures that can 'constrict' you in an unescapeable attack, only way to get out is if someone takes out the creature.

L4D's main gameplay 'feature' is something known as the "AI Director" which controls enemy and boss zombie spawns, supposedly it makes all enemy locations randomly generated. Though really it doesn't matter much since the majority of normal zombies in an area rush straight for you the second you are spotted, making the spot they spawned in not really matter at all, and as for tanks and the other bosses it just means you won't know when to expect them, though they are never really hard to deal with no matter where they appear.

The weapons you can use in the game include two types of shotguns, an assault rifle, hunting rifle, an uzi, and handguns. The small amount of weaponry only contributes to the games repetitiveness, there may be new weapons released as DLC in the future, but it doesn't seem likely.

One last note is that this game should be avoided at ALL COSTS if you do not have Xbox live, as a solo experience this game fails even harder then usual, and is probably going to be the biggest waste of your money you can find, if you don't have people to play with you will be stuck with AI partners, and they aren't that clever to say the least! Not to mention without other people there you will most likely be bored out of your mind with this game.

Soundtrack-3/10: Nothing in the game's music stood out to me at all, it was all very unremarkable in my opinion. That's all I really have to say about that...

Story-1/10: This game has no story or depth aside from a few random scribbles you can find on saferoom walls that were written by other survivors, pathetic really. As for character depth, there isn't any of that either. You play as one of four survivors. Francis, Bill, Zoey, or Louis. They each have their own personality, but that is the only difference between the four. They all have the same health, the same running speed, and the exact same damage output.

Replay Value-2/10: Honestly, the only reason to play this game is if you have friends to play it with who enjoy it, once you have gone through each of the four campaigns once, you've seen all the noteworthy things the game has to offer, it doesn't even have any unlockables! Unless you count achievements as unlockables, which I don't.

Graphics-5/10: I've seen better, I've seen worse. Nothing remarkable for this day and age really.

Glitches: I mentioned this in the title, this took away at least 2 points to my final score for this game. I have never seen a game with more glitches and exploits then this one. None are particularly 'gamebreaking', but just by the fact that you can get almost EVERY LAST achievement in the game by glitching it is a problem. And every last level has a spot you can stand somewhere that will make you unnoticed by enemies (these are normally referred to as "Jesus Spots").

There are also several countless minor things you can use to make the game easier on you, like breaking open a wall you aren't meant to to skip a zombie hoard for example. If you play versus there are also several things you can do in that mode to basically give your team an easy win in every round. Stupid.

All in all, I really wish I could give this game a better score, but it's countless flaws don't allow me to with good taste. Don't believe the hype, this game isn't perfect, QUITE the opposite in fact. Avoid it completely unless you have Xbox Live, and you have friends you will be able to enjoy it with.

Hopefully Left 4 Dead 2 will be better, but I somehow doubt it. Valve is a great game developing company, but all companies have to make mistakes somewhere I suppose. The L4D series is their mistake.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/09, Updated 07/15/09

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