Left 4 Dead: Zombies Done Right
Left 4 Dead, given to us by the good folks at Valve, may be one of the truest zombie games to come out in some time. For those not in the know, Left 4 Dead is a four player co-op battle of four survivors (you and three other online players) vs. a horde of undead zombies. The game is broken up into a variety of campaign style segments that play out over the course of 5 areas per campaign. Released for both PC and 360, the game features the use of the Source engine and folks accustomed to the feel of TF2′s first person shooter gameplay will be right at home.
We’re big zombie fans here at Robot Panic, as if you didn’t already know this. So we take our zombie stuff pretty seriously. As such, we applauded a game like Dead Rising for it’s adherence to George Romero’s zombie rules and setting far more than it’s gameplay. While it got the “killing zombies in a mall” idea down, the save system did it’s best to pull you out of the game. Not to mention getting calls every couple of minutes and always in the middle of a swarm of zombies.
The latest zombie outing on the PSN, The Last Guy, also fell short for it’s enemy creatures barely qualifiying as zombies at all. While the gameplay provided some intense moments, when the “zombies” have multiple heads and tentacles we weren’t exactly pulled into the world. In order for a zombie game to really work, not only does the setting and character designs have to live up to the movies, but the gameplay must as well. And that’s a much more difficult thing to attain.
So what makes Left 4 Dead stand out as a Zombie game worthy of the name? Here are a few of the many reasons.
1. It Plays Like a Movie Feels: Rather than trying to simply re-enact segments of a zombie movie, or spoof them in some way, Left 4 Dead plays everything as if it were a movie. No artificial time elements, no gameplay “mechanics”, no “story” to drag you out of the moment. Just get from point A to point B and try not to die at the hands of a horde of zombies. Simple, pure and to the point.
From the opening “teaser poster” with your characters name on it to the credit roll at the end, this game has B-movie written all over it. If we’re being honest, that’s all a zombie movie needs to be. All a zombie game needs to be is one where you have to try to get out without dying and the more blood and guts the better. On this, Left 4 Dead delivers in spades and the only thing missing are the boob shots. Maybe that’s planned for the sequel. At the end of the day, Left 4 Dead takes what you feel while watching a good zombie flick and lets you experience it as you play.
2. It Let’s You BE the Character: That’s not me saying it gives you the ability to role play. Although you can do that if you must. What makes Left 4 Dead such a brilliant game is that it’s meant to be co-op and as such, takes what is often Xbox LIVE’s greatest detriment and turns it into an asset. We’ve bitched about the douche factor on LIVE for years. We’re not easy people to get along with in general over here and we’re often too easily annoyed by the slightest quirks in people. When it comes to online play, the anonymous nature of a headset and an avatar usually leads us far, far away from any interaction with strangers. But in Left 4 Dead, it works.
When you’re in a group with 3 other strangers, the weird ass quirky people actually work as characters in a zombie movie. You’re always going to have the “new kid” who’s doing this for the first time. There’s your noob. You’re going to have the experienced, hard as nails tough guy. There’s your expert, hardcore player. You’re going to have your strategist, you’re going to have a daredevil, and you’re going to have some crazy ass guy that’s a loose cannon and annoys the shit out of everybody. All the different personalities that you find on your favorite online service work very well in a game like this. Without putting on some fake story, or forcing you to do something to give the game a better narrative, the co-op nature of the game simply let’s everyone be a character. And with every “oh, shit!” moment, the nature of your companions comes through and makes it feel as if you’re really IN a zombie movie. This may be the first time that the fundamental nature of Xbox LIVE and Steam really become an integral, core part of the game. For my money, this is the first time the social element of Xbox LIVE really, really works.
3. Zombies Are Finally “Correct”: That’s a huge statement for the zombie purists out there and I’ll try and defend it as best I can. Left 4 Dead breaks a basic and core tenant of zombie movies and that would be the Romero Rule #1: Zombies are SLOW. However, after playing a lot of zombie games I find that what works in movies doesn’t always translate to a good game. What makes a zombie truly scary is their tenacity and their surprise. Slow zombies (while awesome in the world of cinema) are not scary in the twitchy, reactionary world of videogames. Dead Rising solved this by swarming the shit out of you with zombie choke points in every area. But even then, it was far less scary and simply fun to just take the chainsaw to the masses. It gave you plenty of satisfying blood and guts but none of the fear.
In order to make a zombie shooter work, Valve realized that you have to surprise the player with the undead and the only real way to do that is to have the zombies be on top of you before you know it. It creates an “oh, shit, we’re trapped!” situation in a way that can’t be done with the shuffling zombie. The element of surprise and fear that are so important in a horror themed game really work in Left 4 Dead and it’s due to the fast and aggressive pace of the zombies. The tenacity of the zombie also comes across with this relentless and fast horde driving toward you without mercy. It forces you to work together and help each other out. Characters will get trapped and they will have to work together to get out alive. It’s the exact form of chaos you see in movies where you don’t know if the heroes are going to get out alive. The fast zombies may not be the truest depiction of the undead but they work to create the perfect zombie movie moment time and time again.
There are many more reasons why Left 4 Dead rises to the top of the zombie game heap and these are just a quick few. I’d be interested in everyone else’s take on this game and the genre in general. Leave your thoughts in the commments.
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Tags: 360, co-op, pc, shooter, steam, valve, xbox live, Zombies
November 19th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I fucking LOVE this game. It’s so damn fun! But I think there’s something with Valve games that literally make me sick. After playing this for about 30 minutes, I was starting to feel nauseous, just like I was with the 360 version of Half Life 2. I’m going to play through it, though, because it’s freaking bad ass.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I’m installing on my 360 hard drive right now. My wife even liked the demo enough where she said she would play it, and she’s really not that into video games. Anyone who wants to play, friend me up on XBL. Gamertag: Zinswin.
November 19th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I want this game so badly….but my wallet is in pain right now.
goddamn youse awesome Holiday season releases all being released within a month!
goddamn youse all to hell!
November 19th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
It’s a great game and I think it’ll have a lot of legs, at least on the PC. In addition to getting together with friends or random strangers for co-op there’s the versus mode which should be challenging at least (even if I’ve yet to get to it). I’m also looking forward to mods for this puppy; I’m absolutely certain someone will create the true Romero zombie game via mods. Limited ammo, limited weapon selection, slow but extremely powerful zombies that only go down from head shots. I don’t know who and I don’t know when but it’ll happen.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Holy shit we had fun last night! It was Hilden, JediMacster, one of his friends, and me. We took down the second mission, I think. The last standoff at the cabin on the river was fucking incredible!
This is the best online game I’ve played in years.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Awesome game last night, guys! You can never go wrong with 4 buds and a shitload of zombies.
It was intense till the very end, especially when our rescue arrived: all of us with low health and zombies nipping at our heels. I barely made it on the boat! Really epic!
You gotta try Versus! Playing as the Boss Infected is a griefer’s wet dream. VERY fun! >:-D
November 20th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
This might be my game of the year. This weekend let’s definitely do some multi-player which is tres cool. 8 people, survivors versus zombies. It takes each “movie” and each sides takes turns during each chapter and you get points for surviving, or killing the survivors.
Drop me an invite or FR if you want to play: gamertag Leftybrown
November 20th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
This game is reanimated awesome.
The cool kids are playing on PC, add me on Steam if you like: burlapsmack
If Blockbuster has it when I go return a rental tomorrow, I may rent the 360 version to play with some of you nerds.
November 20th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I’ve only played the demo on the PC, but I really had a blast with it. I loved the fact that ammo wasn’t a huge worry. You could pretty much just shoot zombies continually and there wasn’t much ammo management. It made the frenetic pace of the game that much more fun.
Also, and this is kind of small, they changed the movement from the PC version of Half-Life 2 so that when you walk the view actually bobs and moves back and forth just slightly. I thought it really added to the realism of the game… although John, maybe it’s what makes you sick!
The “noise / static” on the screen really added to the grittiness of the game too. Especially cool that it gets more noisy in darker areas and less in lighter areas.
November 20th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
As one of the aforementioned cool kids, you can add me on steam too: carrotpanic
November 21st, 2008 at 10:07 am
There’s a gigantic Left 4 Dead billboard right outside my office window. Hells yeah.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 am
I am drunk and “Darkradish” on steam.
November 30th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
The demo kicked so much ass I MUST HAVE THIS GAME!!!