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Left 4 Dead
THE SCOREBOARD
Good
| Gameplay |  | "Fun but light on content." |
| Graphics | | |
| Sound | | |
| Value | |
Survival horror games, like Resident Evil for example, have often relied on quirky controls or contrived limitations (such as five bullets for any given gun across an entire map, for example) to create the tension and atmosphere necessary to convey the suspense and horror the game is trying to achieve. A legitimate conceit, it's fair to argue, given that without this tense atmosphere the games are pretty straight forward.
However that sort of thing is not everyone's cup of tea. There's a wide audience who are interested in gunning down hordes of zombies without the frustration and cerebral complexity one might normally associate with a lumbering Resident Evil or even the more agile Dead Space. Enter Left 4 Dead.
Built on the Source engine (originally released by Valve with Half Life 2), which is great news for those of us with lower specced PCs, Left 4 Dead eschews the traditional slow pace and third person camera in favor of a first-person viewpoint and high speed gameplay.
Taking the role of one of four characters (all the bases are covered - there's a grumpy old guy, a woman, a black dude and your all-american youngish white guy), the player must attempt to get from the start of the level to the exit, dispatching numerous "infected" (read: zombies) along the way. The infected just sort of mill about most of the time, until they notice you - at which point (much like 28 Days Later or I Am Legend infected) they charge at you at full speed. This rapid and angry charge, typically accompanied by much wailing and nashing of teeth, can be seriously intimidating - especially when you consider that this often occurs en-masse, with dozens of them running for you at once!
The infected are pretty clever, too, able to clamber up on top of each other (etc) to reach you when you think you're safe (such as on top of a roof for example). Additionally, there's an AI "controller" observing the action at all times, spawning zombies in rooms based on your style / technique. If it thinks you're doing too well, it'll spawn a tough "boss" zombie or trigger a horde assault to mix things up.
There are a number of special creature types, in addition to the "horde", which have special techniques by which they attack you and by which you should attack them back. The Boomer, for example, explodes at the slightest touch, however the goop that bursts out of him will trigger an assault from a horde of zombies, all of which will come straight for whoever just got gooped over - they'll be hard pressed to fight off the horde themselves, as their vision is severely (and adversely) affected by that same goop. This is just one of the ways that the game strongly encourages teamwork, regularly reminding you that you must stay together to survive.
The game is purely multiplayer. Sure, there's a singleplayer mode but it's very clearly the multiplayer mode with bots in it. There's no real narrative (there's an intro and ending video sequence but that's it) and the entire thing occurs over just four levels (each broken out into several sub-stages). On my first play through it took just 28 minutes to play from beginning to end of the first level and just over two hours for the entire game.
Given it's a Valve game (Valve brought the developer in-house partly through development), it's reasonably safe to assume there's going to be more content coming - out of the box, however, it's probably the worst value for money game released in a very long time, which is extra surprising given the last game Valve released was the Orange Box, probably the best value game ever released. It really does feel like it would make more sense as part of another compilation, rather than as a stand-alone game. Portal took four times as long to play through, for example, and itself offers lots of replayability (although no multiplayer, of course).
All up it's fun, looks pretty good and runs incredibly well - even on a low end system. It's also ludicrously light on content, with no real single player to speak of and very little multiplayer content. Compared to something like Call of Duty, for example, it's super light weight and yet it's the same price. If you're a multiplayer fiend and like the thought of mowing down zombies with chainguns, this is definitely worth checking out. The thrill of obliterating hordes of screaming bad guys that just want to gobble up your brains really is quite unique and fun. Just don't expect to be getting very good value for money because there's really not very much inside the box.
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FacebookCOMMENTS (47)
How can you score a game though (which contributes to metacritic) based on only one level of the game.
I didn't score it based on one level; I played the game extensively. I can see how you'd read my review as if I had only played that one chapter, for which I apologise.
I think thats the confusing comment.
Get your mates together and play versus using teamspeak or whatever to shout insults at each other...great fun :)
i also hoped there was gonna be more or a survival aspect to it. like having to conserve your ammo which really doesen't matter. thankfully conserving your medkits makes some survival tactics in there.
i am suprised by them beating it in less than 30mins, it just doesen't sound possible unless its a exaggeration.
i know tons of people love this game but i think its just decent really. i know i won't get hours out of reptative gameplay, thankfully i didn't pay for my copy (my bro did :P)
I think the score is fair enough, it's just the way he wrote it. Had factual errors and was misleading.
well really i just think this is a really dissapointing game for valve and it doesen't live up to its hype.
We rule this world.
And there ain't sh*t you can do to stop us.
Zombie power.
Even playing through every map in the single player will take as long as playing through portal, but Left4Dead has the added bonus of playing differently every time, thanks to the AI Director. But then, the single player is really only a training mode for the TWO (count 'em) multiplayer modes, each of which are completely re-playable. Was Counterstrike an incomplete game because it would only take half an hour to play one round on each of the maps?
So, just to let your readers know-- in two weeks I have already logged almost as many hours as I got out of the ENTIRE ORANGE BOX, and I'm nowhere near done. I love Portal, I love Half-Life 2 and I love Teamfortress 2.
Left4Dead is better. It is quite simply the most outstandingly designed multiplayer game ever made. Even my girlfriend loves it.
I think this is a fair review. Not sure why its stirring up the controversy here.
I think this is a fair review. Not sure why its stirring up the controversy here.
im keen on this wun cant wait to get it owt on pc
Stories in video games can be good, but I love multiplayer games because they totally rely on the fun factor of their gameplay. L4D is an example of highly-replayable mp experiences that should improve with the kind of commitment that Valve can offer - think of all the new weapons and classes added over 1 year in Team Fortress 2.
Also, the game is build on a more simplistic engine, one that the developers know people can easily modify and make maps for. If this review was written in 3 months, I'm sure the huge part about "content" would be entirely different.
28 minutes to get through a whole "Movie" campaign?? I don't think so, you would have to be speed running it, which is tricky in single player with the bots... I would think the reviewer missed the choice of campaign button?
I've never heard of this site before, but it DEFINITELY stood out with this games score.
So I'm guessing the reviewer made the critic faux pas of purposely giving a bad review to draw attention to himself/the site. OR he genuinely thought the game deserved this rating.
Either way it reflects poorly on him and the site, and regardless of any action he takes now, clearly everyone who has seen this, will think only worse of him and "nzgamer".
To the reviewer: I believe it's pretty obvious you didn't really play this game very much. Or maybe you only prefer games with singleplayer.
Why is this important? If you don't know that its pretty dumb of you guys but right ill repeat it again...
NZ you guys need really listen to this. Why valve and updates? Because Team Fortress 2. Team fortress 2 started with 6 maps, 16 achievements and no unlock able weapons! LOOK NOW! Almost no bugs anymore in tf2,Over 16 maps!
valve releases with updates new unlock ables, tons of achievements and much more!
What you guys need to understand before giving it a low score is to look to the future! Valve is going to plan
LIKE TEAM FORTRESS2 New campaigns for versus and co-op in the future. On the PC it will be possible for the future to MAKE OWN MAPS.
I know you guys gonna say: Yes, but people who buy it when it comes out, will pay more then people who buy it later...
Who cares? just don't give such a low score only because the low content that will be filled within the next year...jeez.
And yes! its never the same and there is versus mode!!! a lot of jokes of Francis that makes you feel happy.
First: It "IS" light on content. On the other hand, after playing the game for over 120 hours, I have had no urge to play beyond the FIRST campaign (No Mercy).
Second: As with all Valve games... updates and new stuff is sure to occur. Already several game-changing patches have been released.
Third: "28 minutes to play from beginning to end of the first level" ... seriously? I doubt it unless you were speed running on EASY. Try a campaign on expert, where things don't take a mild grazing from a fart to die.
Some other gripes:
- As mentioned several times by others, the AI director is fantastic. It's goal is to get the survivors into the safe room, but just by the slimmest margin. Excepting the first level that the director seems to gauge skill levels on...this caveat tends to hold true. It varies the location and number of infected spawning for horde attacks while distributing uber-infected out if a team is moving too fast or doing too well, while sprinkling health packs and similar goodies if a team needs help.
- The online play is unbelievable. It might be a little frustrating should 'someone' be reviewing off of a demo, since there is no versus in the demo... but the versus makes the game. I hated CS, CS2, TF, and TF2 *gasp!* ... but this game makes me love the FPS again.
- 2 hours for the entire game? You seemed to miss the versus mode again. I rarely can finish an online match in under an hour (which is half an hour per team as survivors) ... and that is with my highly organized team running all out. Accomplishing this with bots would be nearly impossible.
Final Tip: Get some friends and try the versus mode, or try to play on Expert a little. Hopefully rethink this FAIL of a review. Buy a life online... try ebay.
Since you said it took you 2 hours for "all" of Left 4 Dead, I'll assume it took you 8 hours too complete Portal. Really? It takes 2 hours to complete Portal's main campaign. Shouldn't take more than that to do all the advanced levels also...so we're looking at ~4hours max? (not counting achievement whoring)
And making a point that Portal offers replayability...Left 4 Dead offers much much more.
Anyway, I guess my point is 8 HOURS. REALLY.
"Portal took four times as long to play through..." Since you said it took you 2 hours for "all" of Left 4 Dead, I'll assume it took you 8 hours too complete Portal. Really? It takes 2 hours to complete Portal's main campaign. Shouldn't take more than that to do all the advanced levels also...so we're looking at ~4hours max? (not counting achievement whoring) And making a point that Portal offers replayability...Left 4 Dead offers much much more. Anyway, I guess my point is 8 HOURS. REALLY.
You are comparing it to Call of Duty (god knows which one). You might as well do a review of 'Fallout 3' and compare it to 'Mario Kart 64' for not being happy.
Chatter! Thats me....
Who ya gonna give a shout when you're covered in boomer gas?
Chatter! uh-huh!
Left 4 Dead is not just a pure multiplayer experience, it's purely a co-operative experience as well. While the game was light on story, there was (is?) a narrative in the game: did you not see all the graffiti in the safe houses, and the motivation for players in context of the setting?
This should not be judged in comparison to Call of Duty, which initially was a single player affair. Rather, it should be seen as the next step in multiplayer addiction on the likes of Counter-Strike.
Alan, would you have given Counter-Strike a 7.0 since it's about headshots and de_dust?
If you play it single in easy difficulty, I understand that you rush through it and missed all the strategic points, and all the fun.
Try Expert, with good pals, and you'll see what I mean. It's just another dimension.
There IS really very much inside the box.
Maybe you'll find more content in L4D2, in case you suddenly begin to like multiplayer hardcore gaming... ;)
But please, don't review it... Stick to single-player console games...
USER SCORES
| Average user score
From 3 reviews » | 8.3 |
| Have your own say! Write a Reader Review | |
ABOUT THIS GAME
Left 4 Dead
Publisher: EA Games Developer: Valve
Genre: Survival Horror
Platforms:
SCREENSHOTS
READER REVIEWS
tnzk
Fri 24 Jul 09 |
Rewriting the rules of co-operative multiplayer.
Read Review
EFKT
Tue 31 Mar 09 |
First Aid Here! First Aid Here! First Aid Here!
Read Review
drybonehead1
Sun 8 Mar 09 |
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