The Princess is in another Castle

Oh yes! A bunch full of infected zombies, 4 survivors wihich kicks ass like battalions and a big and creepy game-map! That’s LEFT 4 DEAD!

I entered the game without any background information, so I was practically blind, except for the intro vid. This vid at least informs the player about a virus that spread around for 2 weeks. The entire sequency is before the first of 4 gigantic campaigns. You can play one of 4 survivors which are fighting their way through the infected city. Zombies lurk in every corner, and special zombies like the Hunter or the Smoker can make life hard for you.
The main menu of the game is pretty easy built, so you can enter the campaigns and online games easy. One surprise: All campaigns and chapters are already open. Well, truly not very good.
For online matches, you need XBL Gold. F**k.
The gameplay of L4D is simple and fast to use, since a huge bunch of zombies can attack you and your friends at any time. Also, very funny is the fact that you can easily kill an incoming bunch of zombies with a single grenade, because the zombies start to run in it’s direction and try to beat it down. There’s also an achievement for that: Kill 20 Zombies with one single grenade. Else, you can shoot the zombies with an assault rifle (M16), a shotgun (looks like XM1014), a sniper rifle (like AWP), an SMG (like M42) and pistols (you can take up to 2 pistols.). You fight your way from one chapter to another, each of them divided through a special room the zombies can only enter if the door is open. Within the room, there is a selection of weapons, medipacks and ammo so you can hunt zombies without a lack of something.
There are specific point that make the game very exctinig:
– If a so-called “Boomer” vomits on you, it won’t take seconds until a huge bunch of zombies will show up. Also, if you accidentaly activate the alarm signals of some cars, the bunch will also come up. Also in special events.
– The maps are huge and have a whole bunch of places where zombies can hide. Also, the will be weapons, ammo and other items like painkillers or molotov-cocktails on the map.
Also, there specific and unique zombies that can come up at any time:
Hunter – a fast and aggressive zombie, can jump at distances like 10 metres or more. Attacks outta nowhere (I got various shockings from these b***hes!)
Boomer – A really fat zombie, can vomit on you and attract a huge bunch of zombies. Blows up if you shoot him.
Smoker – Catches the survivors with his enourmous tongue. Blows up to a poisonous cloud if you shoot him apart.
Witch – A female zombie, sits in some places like a siren and crys out a terrific melody. If you disturb her, she will paralyze you and tear you apart with her big claws.
Tank – A big and strong zombie, often punches away the smaller zombies to get to the survivors. Very hard to kill, if you can kill a tank all alone you’ll get an achievement.

Update (31.01.2009)
I changed a few times the difficulty of the game, and soon it came to a case when me or another survivor was killed. If the player dies, he has to restart at the last “safety room” (yeah, i forgot that word). If a computerzied survivor dies, you continue the campaign until the dead survivor shows up in a small room you have him to get out of. In some cases (for example If you encounter a Tank) this is very helpful.

Since I got some friends at mine’s last evening, we tried out the coop-mode, for my friends just to try out the game and for me to write about it here :P
The splitscreen has one big minus: it heavily slows down the game, so you have to get used to it first. Of course you got the same positive and negative aspects like single player, but also, in case of death, a dead player can show up in a room if the other player survives long enough. Another gut point in case of taking out a Tank.
I think I’m gonna buy some XBL Gold the next days, to try out some online matches.

For the ones who don’t like to read this much, here a listing of positive and negative aspects I experienced:

Positive:
– Huge maps, big an detailed environment
– No lack of ammo (except for some cases)
– Creepy atmoshere
– zombies can come from nowhere
– AI-Bots are intelligent enough to heal you

Negative:
– Zombies are too easy to kill – Except for the Expert-Mode.
– XBL Gold required for Online matches
– Source Engine cannot take out the maximum power of the 360
– Game is slower during Splitscreen

I finished most parts of the game, but still I need to check out the online matches and the zombie gameplay. I’ll update this Post If I get to know something interesting. I think in the end you can access all information I can give you about Left 4 Dead.

Oh yes, that is a game that’s also on my wish list for future PS3 versions. But it doesn’t look like Sony is going to get a license.

I am playing a similar game at the moment which is also very interesting. The thing with this type of game is that they often have an abundance of blood and gore without needing it. A good game creates a creepy atmosphere without a single drop of blood – just like any good horror movie. So I usually don’t mind if they cut the blood from the German versions and leave the gameplay and story untouched.

But since I order most of my games from amazon.co.uk (because it is usually 50% cheaper than in Germany) I often get the uncut versions, so I wouldn’t know about what is actually different in German versions.

Comment by BW January 27, 2009 @ 11:23 am

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Youre saying its negative that the zombies go down so easily. I say its positive. Those bastards are fast, strong AND it feels like youre being totally overrushed by Zerglings. It wouldn’t be fair anymore. If the zombies are to easy to kill, raise the difficulty.

Comment by ovIm January 27, 2009 @ 5:07 pm

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Youre saying its negative that the zombies go down so easily. I say its positive.
I’m not. I wasn’t talking about the difficulty or amount of zombies at all, you must have gotten me wrong here. I was just saying that there is a lot of blood shown in games like these, especially “Dead Space”, the game I was referring to. A game with such a good gameplay and atmosphere doesn’t need an abundance of brutality. You catch my drift? XP

Comment by BW January 29, 2009 @ 12:32 pm

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No no no, you get me wrong. I wasn’t refering to you, I was refering to Diego, stating that it is a bad thing, that those zombies go down easy. I like this game, and I would feel overwhelmed if every single zombie in this game would be as tough as in Resident Evil. It would start getting unfair, since they are fast and outnumber you.

Comment by ovIm January 29, 2009 @ 8:40 pm

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multiple misunderstandings. o_O Isn’t the internet wonderful…? ^^

Comment by BW January 30, 2009 @ 12:30 pm

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Here a bunch of answers, after these misunderstandings xD

Since me and ovIm got the demo of Dead Space, I know that Dead Space is a complete different genre as Left 4 Dead. It is hardly possible to compare them, since Dead Space is a survival-horror-game and Left 4 Dead more some “Shoot-zombies-like-a-turret”-game. I’d also say that the blood and the gore of Dead Space somehow make it to the game it is. In Left 4 Dead the only body fluid you can encounter is the vomit of a Boomer, which makes you blind for some time and attracts a bunch of like 100 zombies you have to take out without seeing them. So, more or less, sometimes brutality is part of a game. ;)

Okay, I take some parts about zombies back. Since I’m hunting Gamerscore, I had to finish first one and then all campaigns at “Expert”. I take it back. The Expert-zombies have triple the quantity and double the strength. I could not finish a campaign. I keep trying xD”

Comment by demondiego January 31, 2009 @ 12:39 pm

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