Left 4 Dead

Rating: M

Score: 9.0/10

Valve is a pretty well-known gaming company. They had a huge success with the Half Life series, the Team Fortress series, the Counter Strike series and Portal. Now the geniuses have devised this game, Left 4 Dead, based on a zombie outbreak. Is it powerful enough to stand with the bigger zombie outbreak games like Resident Evil and Dead Rising? This game is available for the Xbox 360 and the PC.

There’s a quick (no pun intended) detail you’ll notice about the undead in this game – they sprint. This isn’t a completely new concept for the dead; they ran in Dawn of the Dead. It’s a new concept for the gaming world, though. They run, and they run in groups, to make things worse.

So, maybe the last four survivors of the outbreak aren’t having the greatest day in the world. Running zombies, lots of zombies, and no one to hear you scream. If you get in trouble, your only hope is assistance from one of the three other survivors. If all the other survivors are killed, though, then expect nothing less than a frantic mad dash to the next safe house.

Safe houses are small cabins/rooms where you can get health and ammo back, along with your fallen teammates. There are five safe houses in one campaign and four total campaigns. At the last part of every campaign, and sometimes in the middle of one, you’ll be forced to make some noise; noise attracts hordes of zombies. It’s truly a memorable part of the game, where you and three other survivors are being beaten down by a screen full of zombies.

Similar hordes will appear randomly in the middle of the campaigns. Thanks to the A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) Director, you’re sure to find different hordes in different places. To put it simply, the A.I. Director changes the game every time you play. It’s the best part of the game, being completely unable to predict where and when the next horde will hit.

The hordes consist of multiple types of zombies. Normal zombies are predominant and are fast and decently powerful. Boomers have a few different ways to attract zombies to your spot, which is never good when you already have your hands full. Tanks are Hulks as zombies. They are hard to take down, and can both throw huge cement blocks at you for massive damage, and punch you for massive damage. Hunters will hunt you down and pounce on you. Smokers will drag you with their long tongues. Both Hunters and Smokers will leave you defenseless if you’re caught by them and you must have a teammate come by and help you.

As you might be able to tell, there’s a lot of co-op goodness in this game. Co-op being the main part of the game, you’ll want to make sure your buddies have a copy of the game so they can join in.

There is just something special about yelling for help over a headset while your friends are knee-deep in zombies. It just seems to complete the mood already, nicely set. There is also multi-player, but it’s basically co-op with human controlled zombies added.

Single player wise, this game is lacking. Four campaigns aren’t that long by today’s standards, and you’ll breeze through it alone in an evening. Multi-player wise, it’s easily one of the best you’ll ever play. It’s truly one of a kind, in a good way. Finding it around is pretty hard, but owning a copy with online set up on your Xbox 360 or PC is truly a worthwhile experience.