Friends Don't Leave Friends to Die in 'Left 4 Dead'
April 02nd, 2008 at 7:49 AM Nicholas "bapenguin" PuleoEverybody loves a good zombie game. Dead Rising was an amazing title. The Resident Evil series is legendary. But there's a new kid on the block, and the game has you fighting for surivival. But it's not one man versus the world in Valve's upcoming game Left for Dead. The game is tightly focused on team-play, specifically 4 player cooperative action.
Next-Gen has a short preview of the latest build of the title.
It’s unlike almost any other FPS experience (the closest relations are probably the Aliens Vs Predator games), and the infected find themselves constantly working on new ways to mess up the plans of the escaping survivors, dogging them constantly, right through the epic final showdown. On the Farmhouse level this was a military truck arriving to take the players from the scene, and that means staying put in the farmyard for five minutes as wave after cresting wave of rabid zombies pours in from the cornfields. It’s a spectacularly gory crescendo, especially when the survivors find the mounted Gatling gun.
Left 4 Dead will feature 5 large scenarios, and should be availble this June on both the Xbox 360 and PC.
zombies
4 player co-op
Sounds good! I've been waiting for a good title to implement teamwork while holding down an area, defending yourselves from a horde of something. And zombies make a good "something" to defend against. Valve usually know what they're doing...
EDIT:
Man, there are some good videos on the l4d.com site (particularly this interview">LINK with gameplay footage). They're using the "hyper" zombies (as one previewer called them), which I typically don't like but in a game like this it might work well. You've got the stereotype characters so I hope it doesn't become like Hunter: The Reckoning">LINK, a great concept with poor execution.
One neat thing mentioned in the interview with the designer is friendly fire is always on! Could make for some sticky situations. I speak from experience, being TK'ed several times by my GRAW2 buddies...
Friendly fire...excellent...always looking to increase my kill-count. Oops...did I say that out loud?
I am very excited for this game. For something that is "of team fortress 2 quality" to be in a zombie survival game... I just can't contain myself. For people that really can't wait, check out Zombie Master - http://www.zombiemaster.org/ - basically the same idea, everyone plays as a survivor, except 1 person plays as the 'zombie master', who controls all the zombies on the map using an RTS type interface to spawn zombies around people. Pretty fun if you're at a lan party, or on ventrilo with everyone who is playing (so the zombie master knows what everyone is thinking! psychological warfare!).
I'm cautiously optimistic for this title, survival zombie flicks have always been some of my favorite (land of the dead, resident evil, Dawn of the Dead (original), and many more). The reason I'm only half way excited about this is due to the hype around the land of the dead game which flopped terribly. So heres hoping I'll be mowing down zombies with the best of you in the near future.
And nobody else bats an eyelid at the concept of people finding a Gatling gun... in a farmhouse?
Well.. I guess when all you can see is crops, you might go crazy and buy heavy weapons from the military too.. the corn people might rise up after all.
Total Comments: 7
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Grrr... Why are Valve continuing to hold a grudge against the PS3! Just because they couldn't be arsed to learn something new when they saw the big scary PS3 dev kit they seem to be refusing to so much as give it a chance. I never thought I'd say this but I can't thank EA enough for doing the dirty work and porting the Orange Box onto the PS3...
Come on Valve. Stop being so petty and give the PS3 a go...