Left 4 Dead Co-Op Review
Review System(s): XBox 360, PC
Since I entered a dimly lit room in the LA Convention Center last July during E3, and set off that infamous "car alarm" in Left 4 Dead, we've been talking up Valve's four player co-op shooter. The sheer concept of it is simple, four people against a seemingly impossible world filled with endless zombie hordes. We've said it before, it's something in the nature in all of us to want to live the situation. What would you do if you were humanity's last chance?
Left 4 Dead is a game that is not only cooperative by design, but cooperative by nature. While players are forced to work together to get out of situations like being sucked up by a smoker or pinned by a hunter; players will find themselves working together naturally calling out exits, hordes of zombies, and survival strategies. Keeping your teammates healed if need be is vital, there is no room for selfish acts in Left 4 Dead. And if they do die, there's a chance to rescue them later in the level as you'll find them trapped in a closet. There's no other way to put it, if you want to survive one of Left 4 Dead's four scenarios, teamwork is essential.
The aforementioned scenarios offer a bit of variety to the zombie apocalypse setting. No Mercy takes you through city streets, winding you through an overrun hospital and to an epic escape on the rooftop. Death Toll takes players underground through tunnels and forests. Dead Air again takes you to the streets, this time culminating in an airport escape. Finally Blood Harvest has players working through the woods, train yards and finally a corn field and farm house to survive. Every campaign has it's own unique "highlight" moments, and no play through is the same as the previous thanks to an AI Director.
The director is responsible for placing weapons, ammo, hordes of zombies, music cues, and just about everything else in the game. This create a certain unpredictability in the game, and just when you think you've got a level down pat, a lack of weapons and ammunition throws a wrench in your best laid plans to defeat that hunter up ahead which has now become a tank. You'll quickly become familiar with music and sound cues, and you quickly learn to hate the cue for the tank.
If there's a downside to Left 4 Dead is that there's very little exposition, it's simply survive at all costs. The in game characters do offer some personality, spouting off one liners from time to time, but you won't find much depth in story here. But really, there's very little to complain about here, Left 4 Dead offers exactly what it advertises. I'm happy to say the game has lived up to my expectations. After almost 6 months people finally understand why I got so excited over such a little thing as a car alarm, and nothing beats that moment you hear it go off.
"HERE THEY COME!!!!!!"
The Co-Op Experience: Fight with up to 4 players against the impending zombie horde. Cover, heal, revive, and protect your teammates. Full drop in and drop out support including the ability to "pause" your character and let the AI take over.
Score: 5 out of 5
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Reader Comments 
I knew you would give it 5 stars. I agree too.
More importantly, I feel the game lacked weapons, not too much of a choice since no one I know would use the Hunting Rifle. However, the dynamics of the game, be they textures, enemy/item placement and the visual/audio cues give this game epic status.
Oh and also, THIS IS ALL LIES!
Left 4 Dead, is slow and repetitive. Limited of weapons, No FlameThrower LAME!
The graphics are purdy, but they can actually cause seizures and turn you into real zombies.
No shields and health isn't regenerative either. So you know that's old stuff. Valve, it's the 21st century they've made advances in this stuff. Look at Halo and learn.
Not mention, I get no chainsaw or saw-bayonet for my rifle, what's the point of having close-ups of zombies if you can't slice and dice like Gears. Only 4 players. Come on, they should have at least done 8. 8 is the new 4, VALVE!
The story is lame, you spawn on map. One of the characters either sees a plane fly by or a Helicopter and says, some stupid s**t that's suppose to direct you to a location. Although you really have no choice. Fallout 3 had zombies in train tunnels or you could walk across the huge map and fight other things.
The map really should have been bigger, with NPCs you could talk and trade with.
Bap, you sure you reviewed it? Have you even played it? I bet Valve just gave you a nice little "donation" for the site, so you just slapped whatever they told you in the review.
Have a little bit of pride, maybe some integrity too? Come on! The site isn't even a year old and already your laundering money like Saint's Row, which is another thing you can't do in Left 4 Dead.
In short, it's just a reskinned mod of Portal, the levels are exactly the same.
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;P
I try, I really do It started off small, but I just kept going and went with it.
1) The game is still an absolute blast to play in co-op
2) Adding more players doesn't make it more fun, in fact I think by having only 4 it adds something to the situation.
3) You can very easily blow people's limbs and heads off, I'm not sure why you have to "chainsaw" them.
4) Regenerative health? Really? This shit isn't sci-fi.
You clearly are missing the point of the game, the setting, and the goal.
Plus since you are (or is it now were?) on my friend's list I know you played Left 4 Dead basically every time I logged in.
Go get it now!
(now all that we need is a little less lag playing online and the announcement of a new "movie" to be released in a few months)
I must admit this game is awesome! THis is how co-op should be!
Great review, Bape
Great review Nick, and bang on. Left 4 Dead is THE multiplayer game to own this season, hands down.
1) It is very accessible. There's no extra features. You only zoom with the Hunting Rifle. The rest you just point and pull the trigger. When you want to pick up an object or weapon, a little message next to the item will pop up showing the 'X' button as a hint to hit it to grab the item.
When you want to switch weapons, On HUD, right between the two weapon icons is the 'Y' button as a little hint telling you to hit the Y button to switch weapons.
Same thing with doors. If you just look at the screen, they should be fine.
Also, You should definitely play No Mercy first. It's the first campaign (there is no order to the campaigns you play) and the first level is the best for learning the controls. It's not going to be easy. Because if you are doing great as a team, it WILL throw more at you.
Also, as you start little messages will pop up to tell you things like "Pistols have unlimited Ammo" and whatnot.
2) Yes, the levels are Easy, Normal, Advanced, and Expert.
You set the difficulty for the stage, and all players play on that difficulty.
For Mrxknown,
Gears 2 lets you set Player 1 difficulty at Casual, and Player 2 difficulty on Hardcore for the same level.
Ah, okay. That's a weird feature....
I'm a non-FPS guy. Can't stand them. Love this game. Every other FPS feel like the same game to me, but this game's tight, tight teamwork really makes it a great time.
I also love the fact that there are three main weapons short range, mid range, and long range, each with a low level version and a high level version you swap out later in the campaign. No more or less than are needed. Then you've got the pistol as backup, and the pipe bomb/molitov for completely different purposes. Too many other games add weapons just to advertise how many they have. Every single element of L4D was carefully considered, and cut if it wasn't fun.
Oh, and splitscreen. Way too underused. I live with two other guys. We rarely play this game without someone else on the couch, and a couple friends remotely.
Sorry for the wall of text. It looks like linebreaks don't work so well.
Total Comments: 24
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