And I'm not speaking of some predicted rapture- some end of days, in fire, brimstone and all that. I speak of the day that the dead will rise from their graves, in a non-biblical way. The day that Zombies will begin biting the living hell out of the... Well, out of the living. It'll hurt for a moment, but only a moment... And then, you'll be one of them and you won't really care about your bite wound or perhaps even your missing arms or maybe your bullet wounds.
So, instead of just quietly awaiting our fates, curled up in the fetal position in our apartments and houses and slums and trailers, we're picking up boxes of shotgun shells, passing the time with target practice and reading up on field dressing bite wounds. Those of us who do this will be the leaders in the Zombie Apocalypse.
When that day comes, try not to Left 4 Dead, possibly the greatest multi-player effort yet from your friends at Valve, based on the Source Engine, does what no other team shooter has yet achieved to date.
Left 4 Dead achieves balance.
A gameplay issue that few developers ever triumph over, even in the smallest ways, Valve have taken their time and learned from what must be nearly a decade of experience at multi-player shooters and the first person genre by now (and I'm not looking it up, I just know it's been a really long time). They've taken a subject which is certain to excite their core fanbase and they've done it great justice. In lesser hands, this game would have been a putrid pile of bugs, poor performance choices and annoyingly difficult, repetitive scenarios.
Instead, we have the survivors on one side- a four person, playable force of humans, immune to a disease/virus/infection thing that consumes people and forces uncontrolable rage and deadness into them before sending them off in search of warm bodies to munch on. And as for those who wish to munch on aforementioned warm bodies, they are well covered in the form of a massive horde of drone-like zombies and five powerful super-ish zombies.
Pitting these two historical forces against each other, in a rag-dolling, realistically attributed physical world, constantly AI-shifting series of levels leaves not only a delicious feeling in the extermities, but also sets the player up for an amazingly visceral jump factor. It forces the reaction dial to eleven on allowing for the realization that the horde is stumbling, rumbling and screaming down on you at the speed of a leaping, snarling, hooded undead maniac.
In a way, it is a ridiculously plain and most innovatively simple aspect that balances the game in an interesting way:
Valve took away one side's guns. And then they took away most of the bullets and the choices of grenades and silencers... They took almost everything from the team that got to keep their guns and they said:
Aw, hell. These guys always trample my corn."GOOD LUCK GETTING TO THE END OF THE LEVEL. WE'VE PUT A JILLION ZOMBIES IN YOUR PATH AND IF YOU DO REALLY WELL, WE TOLD THEM TO RUN FASTER, BITE HARDER AND SEE IF THEY CAN'T DRAG YOU ACROSS THE ENTIRE LEVEL ONLY TO TEAR YOU TO BITS AT THE MOMENT WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT."
But this is good. It gives those of us preparing for the end of days a bit of extra practice, just to make sure our tactics are sound. And don't worry, guys- we're here for you. This practice will do us all a world of good when that day comes.
kiss kiss, bang bang
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