One of the best multiplayer games ever!
Left 4 Dead gives us the pretty basic zombie apocalypse scenario. Most of the world's population has been infected with a virus and turned into mindless, bloodthirsty killers. Your one of the few humans who has managed to escape this fate and you're now fighting to stay alive. You play as one of four survivors: Bill, Francis, Zoey, and Louis. It doesn't matter which one you play as since they all play the same. It just comes down to personal preference. Your goal in each level is to make it to the safe room, or in the final level, survive until rescue comes. Teamwork is everything in this game. If the survivors don't stick together and watch each others backs, they won't last very long at all.
Gameplay is very fast paced. Since health packs are limited in each level, you must get through each one as quickly as possible. The game will often punish you with constant zombie hordes if you don't progress quickly which can chip away at your health pretty fast. This gives the game a run and gun feel and keeps it very action packed and engaging.
Since the game runs on the Source engine, graphics aren't quite up to par with a lot of other current games. However I would consider this more of a plus than a minus for this game since most computers today could run it very easily. But none the less the game does look great, especially when you're playing it in HD.
Sound effects are absolutely awesome. It's really sends a chill down your spine listening to all the zombies moaning around you or a Hunter growling in the distance. Each of the special infected, which I'll cover soon, are accompanied by their own music and sound effects so the survivors may know they're around, but they often can't tell where they are. You can often tell what's going on just by listening to the music. For example, when a zombie horde is approaching, the music turns to a very frantic pace. This feature is very useful since once you learn all the music cues, you'll know what to prepare for next.
Multiplayer is where this games separates itself from all other zombie games. It is very competitive and addicting and like I said, it will be what keeps you coming back to the game. There are 3 different modes to play. Doesn't sound like much but each one is very fun in it's own right.
First there is campaign mode. In this mode, you and up to three other people play through one of the games four scenarios. You goal is to make it to the end of each level and then survive until rescue comes at the end of the final level.
Next there is survival mode. Again you can have up to three other people in this mode with you. In this mode your goal is to simply survive as long as you can against endless waves of zombies which get progressively harder the longer you go. You receive a different medal at the end depending on how long your team survived.
Finally there is versus mode. This easily gets my vote for the best and funnest part of the game and alone makes it worth buying. You can have up to seven other people in this mode. Here you are split up into two teams of four players each. One team plays as the survivors while the other team plays as special infected. Each team gets to play both sides on each map. For the survivors, this is no different than campaign mode. They just have to make it to the end of each level while the infected team must try to kill the survivors before they reach the end. At the end of the level or when all the survivors are killed, the survivors will receive points depending on how many of them made it to the safe room, how far they traveled, how much health they all had left, and the difficulty of the map. The special infected have five different classes but only four are playable. When you spawn as a special infected the game randomly selects the class you will play as and you can then spawn wherever you want so long as the survivors can't see you. When you are killed you must wait about thirty seconds before you can respawn. The different classes of special infected are:
Hunter: This is the class you will play as the most. There are two (sometimes three) Hunters active at any given time. They are fast and agile and the infected teams main attacker. They attack by pouncing on their victims and ripping them to shreds.
Smoker: Smokers serve mainly a supporting role. They have a long tongue which they use to ensnare survivors. They then pull them in and start beating and tearing their victim apart. Mainly the Smoker's good for breaking the survivors up so the Hunters can then launch their attack.
Boomer: Boomers don't necessarily attack. Instead they must get close to the survivors so they can vomit on them. Survivors who have been vomited on have their vision temporarily blurred and the vomit also attracts a horde of zombies to that survivor. When killed Boomers explode and if any survivors are too close they get sprayed with the Boomers vomit. Boomers are constantly burping and moaning loudly which can make it very easy for the survivors to find them and kill them before the Boomer can make it's move.
Tank: Sometimes during a map, one of the infected players will be given control of a tank. This is completely random and doesn't always happen. The tank as the name suggests is extremely tough and can take a huge amount of damage before dying. The tank can bring down a survivor with just a few of its powerful punches. It can also grab huge rocks to hurl at the survivors. However the tank cannot run any faster than a healthy survivor meaning that a team of healthy survivors who work well together and keep moving can easily kill the tank.
Witch: This is the only non-playable class of special infected. Survivors can tell the witch is around because they can hear her crying. The witch will generally ignore the survivors if they are careful. However, if one of the the survivors gets too close to the witch or shoots her, they will startle her. If started, the witch will jump to her feet and go after the survivor that startled her. If this happens the survivors must kill her quickly because one swipe of her claws is enough to incapacitate a survivor.
Left 4 Dead is an absolutely fantastic game in every respect. Though there may be plenty of other zombie games out there, Left 4 Dead distinguishes itself as one of the best with and great single player aspect and a terrific multiplayer aspect that feels like it will never get old. If you love zombies and games with plenty of action or if you've ever wanted to join the zombie hordes and tear the remaining humans to shreds, then you should add this game to your collection immediately.