It is an enjoyable game for those who simply want to shoot up some zombies with their friends.
There are many people out there, myself included, who have fantasized about an impending zombie apocalypse--or any apocalypse for that matter . We go over in our heads what we would do if it ever happened, lying to ourselves about bringing the Bible along when we'd really bring a Maxim. We over-analyze the stupid mistakes people have made in books and movies, swearing to ourselves we would never commit such idiocy. Some have taken these fantasies to such extents that they purchased land in states out west; building forts and stockpiling them with anything imaginable, including their very own copy of The Zombie Survival Guide. And yet with all our preparation and analysis, we fail to realize or don't care to admit that very few, if any of us, would survive such an event, even if we were prepared. At least the people who lived through the Bubonic plague had a fighting chance because they were self-sufficient, we're not so lucky today. The modern world has seen the eradication of many skills and vocations that would be invaluable in such a situation. See how many people you know who can grow their own food, hunt, or are blacksmiths for instance. Things like these today are undertaken by a small group of people or automated machines while the rest of us sit on our butts in air conditioned buildings with worthless business administration degrees. We go to supermarkets that are always stocked full of foods from across the world without giving it a second thought. Do we even consider how many of the things we do or use require electricity? Who do you think will be working the coals mines and feeding the fires if an apocalypse happened? As the trite saying goes: we take too much for granting, thinking nothing of the modern world until it's gone. In an apocalypse, if disease, starvation, or the elements don't get you, something else most certainly will.
But despite all this, for some sick reason, many of us secretly still want it to happen. But is it really so sick? Life, even with all of today's conveniences, can be overwhelming, boring, and downright depressing. How I see it, the allure of an apocalypse is the ultimate adventure of freedom; no longer a routine constrained by society or everyday petty crap that really doesn't matter in the end. It's a more simple life where your only concern is survival, not paying the mortgage or worrying about conformity. Then again they say you don't know what you have until it's gone and there is truth to that. Regardless, it comes as no surprise, especially nowadays, that the apocalypse, the zombie apocalypse in particular, is a favorite genre in the entertainment world.
Valve Software decided to stroke our fantasies with Left 4 Dead, a cooperative first-person shooter that takes place during a impending zombie epidemic in Pennsylvania. The game is not necessarily about basic survival as it is about blasting zombies and getting to the next checkpoint. In this why it loses the allure of the zombie apocalypse. There is no freedom, just a set path and a destination to reach. The emotions that you should experience during such a event don't exist. After all it is suppose to be a survival horror game and the survival and horror parts really don't materialize like they should. As a forewarning I will be calling them zombies. The reason I'm wasting time disclosing this is because there are people out there who will have coronaries if you call them zombies because they don't consider them to be. Well, the definition of a zombie has been constantly evolving and what they consider to be the "classic zombie"--which is downright unbelievable, not to mention defies logic-- is an evolution as well. And if you have been around the zombie genre at all you'd see the lines have blurred considerably over the years, most notably in zombie novels. It's also important to point out that I am reviewing the original Left 4 Dead game on the PC and not the Left 4 Dead maps that were ported to Left 4 Dead 2.
In Left 4 Dead you have a few playing options. There is the "Campaign" mode that you can either choose to play on single player or online. I've played the game on single player once and it never has the same effect as playing online with friends because the NPC's are pretty much worthless. In short the single player is bad and you should only be getting this game for the cooperative play. The second option is "Versus" mode. This is where two teams are pitted against each other during a campaign game. The first team is made up of the survivors. The second team consists of the "special" zombies who work with regular zombies to prevent the survivors from completing each level and vice versa. The last is "Survival" which has your team of four attempt to hold out from the infected as long as possible in a confined space.
There are four characters, known as "survivors", to choose from. Bill, the stereotypical words-of-wisdom Vietnam vet who wears his aged uniform and acts as the leader of the group. Bill gets into arguments with Francis often because of Bill's status within the group. In fact the group looks up to him and he acts as a father figure for Zoey. There's Francis who actually isn't the stereotypical redneck biker. Even though he has the shaved head, ample body tattoos, and leather vest and gloves to back it up, he is actually revealed to be a good guy who happens to be a sissy, hate everything, is always negative, and the funniest character in the game. Although all the characters have good voice actors and memorable quotes, Francis has some of the best. Louis is the black IT professional guy who is always positive. And because he is "Mr. Positive" Francis provokes small arguments with Louis throughout the game about his unnatural optimism. Zoey is the good looking female college student who loves horror movies and has some of the most hilarious laugh and screams adlibs in the game. Despite their uneven chemistry at times, everyone likes and respects each other. Their back stories can be deduced a little bit via dialogue throughout the game but the only real way to explore their pasts is to read the comic that Valve introduced two years after the game was released. Character development is witnessed through dialogue basically. Despite this you fall in love with the characters and that's what counts.
Originally there were four campaigns that really didn't have any natural progression from one to the other. There was "No Mercy", "Death Toll", "Dead Air", and "Blood Harvest". Well, to add consistency, if only by a little, Valve introduced a free mini level called "Crash Course" that attempts to explain how the survivors got from the hospital in No Mercy to the highway in Death Toll. How they get from the end of Death Toll to Dead Air and from Dead Air to Blood Harvest is not well explained and a bunch of things can just be assumed. Blood Harvest is officially the last level of the game and Valve added another free map called "Sacrifice" which takes place after Blood Harvest and shows what happens before "The Passing" in Left 4 Dead 2. No Mercy is hands down the favorite level for most people . It's my favorite map because it takes place both on the streets of a big city and forces you to find shelter in a mega hospital that is most likely the epicenter of the outbreak. The rest of the levels are alright but I always find myself coming back to No Mercy. I think that's probably one of the biggest faults with Left 4 Dead; that there aren't enough maps to play. Thus you can get bored with the game quickly even after you up the difficulty with the "Director" at the helm.
In terms of game play it is has the classic controls of a PC first-person shoot like Half-Life or Counter-Strike. Valve continues to use its source engine which feels outdated to me but is probably more profitable for them. Left 4 Dead boasts the "Director" (the computer) that creates a different experience each time you play the game. The Director decides when, where, and what types of enemies and supplies to spawn during the game. This insures your experience will never be 100% the same but never dissimilar enough to hold your attention for long. Each campaign consists of four levels that you complete once you reach "safe rooms" that are located in strange places and somehow have red steel doors installed. You could say other survivors built them but where the hell did the steel doors come from and who had the time and installed them on ever single safe room? Each safe room comes with ammo, weapons, and first aid kits for the next level. What's most notable about safe rooms is that each one has unique text on their interior walls, written by passing survivors who have been in the safe room. This is one of the ways the story of the outbreak is being told to the player. Nothing about the outbreak is directly said to you. On the contrary, you have to figure out everything by reading survivor messages, posters, and anything else you can find throughout the game to help you reach conclusions. Sometimes there's a lot of them and if your teammates are anxious to leave you won't be able to read them all unless you want to the risk the Director spawning zombies to kill you by your lonesome.
For the most part the only objective you have is to get to the safe room at the end of each level. Besides the occasional objective like radioing someone or turning on a generator, that's about it. So basically you run through each level guns-a-blazing and hope you get to the safe room without dying. If you die during a level you will respawn in a closet somewhere and a teammate can come and get you. If they don't get you you'll respawn in the safe room at the start of the next level, assuming someone survived. So there's really not a lot of tension or anxiety here if die or make mistakes. Then there's the finale which is the last level of the campaign and is triggered once you call for a rescue. This encompasses two waves that begin with multiple hordes and end with a Tank. Once the second tank is eliminated you try to escape by getting to the rescue vehicle.
What is noticeably annoying about Left 4 Dead gameplay, and is true of Left for Dead 2 as well, is that friendly fire is always on. You have no option of turning it off. Considering all the unrealistic things in this game, arguing that it adds realism isn't a solid justification for not being able to change the setting. The reason I bring this up is because one of biggest problems online players had to experience is intentional friendly fire by people called "incappers". Since you can't turn friendly fire off, incappers would intentionally join games, especially at the higher difficulties, and shoot all the players, either incapacitating them or killing them. Then they would leave or get kicked and rejoin to do the exact same thing. These people were never banned or suspended for what they did and it only adds further frustration to the game.
At the start of each level there's always a stockpile of weapons and supplies to pick up. You automatically start out with a M1911 pistol that has infinite ammo, which I don't agree with. You can go the double pistols route if you find another one laying around somewhere. Your pistols are your secondary weapon and you are allowed one primary weapon, along with some pills, a first aid kit, and one throwable. The weapons in Left 4 Dead are divided into two types; tier 1 and tier 2. Most of the weapons found in the earlier chapters of a level have tier 1 weapons . This includes either the Uzi or the pump-action shotgun. The tier 2 weapons include the M16, auto shotgun, and a semi-automatic hunting rifle. Throwables include the ever helpful pipe bomb that attracts zombies by making a noise and blowing them up and the classic Molotov cocktail.
As you can see there's slim pickings when it comes to weapons and not much variety. I also had a problem with the weapons they chose. This is after all a first-person shooter so I believe these are legitimate complaints. I understand the M1911 was the official handgun of the US Military for 74 years, but it was replaced by the Beretta since 1985. I just find it strange that out of all the pistols Valve could have chosen they picked the outdated M1911. The Beretta or Glock would have been much more appropriate considering they are the most popular handguns today. Even if they chose the M1911 at least have a variety of pistols to find instead of finding the same handgun everywhere, and this can be said for all the weapons. An auto shotgun is not exactly a very common gun to come by, and I don't even know if its legal for civilian use. The only prominent institution that I know of that officially uses one is the US Marines. So I don't know if it was necessarily a realistic choice for a zombie apocalypse and whether it would be so common in one. However, I assume it's just for gameplay reasons. The best thing Valve could have done was include all the basic and most common weapons from the US Military and law enforcement agencies. At least then it would make more sense that the survivors come across these weapons because the military and police would be very active controlling the epidemic. In addition to all this, what was really lacking was any melee weapons whatsoever (unless you count melee with your guns), which apparently was an afterthought that would be charged for full price in the sequel. Actually I think that was the only motivation for the sequel, after money of course. Having a zombie apocalypse without melee weapons is just silly, enough said. What is also worth noting is that you cannot give any of your supplies, except for the pills, to your teammates. You can heal a teammate with your medic kit but you can't physically give the first aid kit to them. Some like giving a weapon or ammo to a teammate would have been a useful feature.
In this zombie apocalypse there are two types of zombie units; the regular ones that look like people for the most part and the "special" ones that are mutated and can be a force of their own. If this was a zombie game with only zombies as the enemy, it would get tedious fast. That's what Capcom knew and Valve fortunately knew as well. The regular zombies can only hit you with their hands or stomp on you when you are incapped. Of course people have over-analyzed this and said this means they don't bite, even though biting is mention throughout the game through dialogue, and was simply a game decision made by Valve. The Director scatters zombies throughout the level and initiates hordes at points of the map that it chooses to. If you are unfortunate enough to be near one of these spawn points, hopefully your melee will be enough. Hordes are usually initiated when the Director decides it's too quiet or wants further annoy you and hinder your advance. There is a music queue to notify the survivors a horde is coming and the music continues until the Horde is eliminated. Hordes can also be initiated if you are covered in bile from the Boomer, a special zombie mutant. In a sense hordes aren't that challenging because there's no melee fatigue so you can simply sit in a corner with your team and have two teammates melee with their weapons while the other two shoot. Obviously they can be difficult if you're alone.
There are several annoying things about regular zombies. First they have a tendency to get stuck in tables, chairs, and tight corners. That is why if you are next to a table and a zombie gets stuck, they will continue to hit you even if you melee them and this can do major damage if you're stuck in a corner and keep getting hit. Another annoyance is no matter what, they will always catch up to you, always. So if you're trying to run from a bunch of them ,on say a finale, one will somehow punch you in the back and for some reason a single hit from a zombie will drastically slow you down. This give other zombies the opportunity to catch up to you and slow you down even further when they hit you. Before you know it you are surrounded, going nowhere and incapacitated, all because a single zombie managed to catch up to you and landed a punch in your back. This doesn't have to be on a finale either. It can happen anytime in the game, further frustrating the players. The other frustration that comes to mind is when zombies do these super punch moves where they hold back there arm while they're running with you, will then run ahead of you and then turn back around in front of you, punch you and then block your path. Because this one zombie blocks your path you stop moving immediately, allowing all the other zombies to come up behind you. Then you are surrounded and you can't go anywhere.
The special zombies includes the aforementioned Boomer, the Smoker, the Hunter, and the Tank. They are what add variety to the game. The Boomer is basically a very fat zombie that spits bile at you when you are close enough. The distance a Boomer is can spit their bile is never consistent which can get annoying. Boomers can also cover you in bile if you shoot/pop them when they are too close to you. Whenever you are covered in bile it attracts hordes of zombies and that's the real power of the Boomer, especially if he appears during a rough situation. He can also claw at you when you are too close. The Smoker coughs all the time and has a ridiculously long tongue that he can wrap around you from afar and wheel you in for a kill. The Smoker suffers the same problem in that the distance their tongue can go is never consistent so you can be somewhere you think you're safe and you aren't according to the "Director". The Hunter sounds like a cat and walks on all fours with a hoodie and long nails. Besides the Tank, he is probably considered the most dangerous. The Hunter is very fast and can literally leap through the air and pounce on you, ripping your chest to shreds with his nails. The witch is a pale half-naked girl who lays of the floors is always crying. If you disturb it for long enough or by flashing a light on her or being too close, she will go after you. She can incapacitate you with one hit and kill you with one hit on the Very Hard difficulty. Because she can be avoided, she's really not considered to be as dangerous as the Hunter who can take out the team. Lastly comes the Tank. The Tank should be called the Hulk because that what he looks like. He is considered a boss since you are forced to play him at the end of every finale and pops in randomly throughout a campaign. He is also difficult kill, in addition to being fast. He can knock you across rooms, and depending on what difficulty you choose, can incapacitate you with one hit and kill you with two more. All these different types of zombies add a nice variety to Left 4 Dead and keeps the gameplay interesting.
The graphics are generic. You can tell it was made for the PC because everything is boxy and the skins that are used are not very detailed. The character models for the survivors are actually very good. This is because Valve brought real people in and scanned their faces. Even the action animation are good. However, as in other games, some of things you do in first-person are not translated into third-person. A perfect example is when you are loading your weapons. In third-person you don't see any magazine being removed or loaded, just hands moving around with a loading noise. Another example is your characters don't show recoil in third-person when they fire pistols. But my real complaint has to be in first person. The models for the hands look really weird especially the thumbs. And in Left 4 Dead 2 I think this has gotten even worse. Also the model of the guns you see in first person are off. I don't know how to describe it exactly but they aren't angled correctly and don't look realistic enough. This issue was actually improved a bit in Left 4 Dead 2 and if you play that game or any COD games you'll see what I'm talking about when you compare them. All the zombies have a similar appearance in general. There are female and male adult zombies. They all have pale skin, have faces covered in blood, and their eyes glow in the dark. They also wear similar attire and hairs styles that are mixed and matched. But for the most part they look the same and I guess that's so you can distinguish zombies from players. Ragdoll physics are use in this game which means when zombies or characters are killed they fall realistically .
Left 4 Dead doesn't have a soundtrack in the traditional sense. Most of the music you here, except for the theme song, is relatively short. And when you do here music in the background it is very faint or is a music queue to alert you that a special zombie is nearby, a horde is spawning, or you died. Despite this they are still some nice little touches.
Left 4 Dead is an enjoyable game for those who simply want to shoot up some zombies with their friends. The characters help solidify the game while the Director element adds subtle variations during every playthrough. However this doesn't make up for the fact that Left 4 Dead feels lacking for those who were expecting more or something completely different in a apocalyptic zombie game.