Another one of my video game thingies. Yay!
So! As with the last 2 games I've jibber jabbered about, let me start with some history.
In 1999, an unknown company exploded out of a closet and onto the scene with the single most jaw dropping, epic, awesome, amazing, oh my god its full of stars KICKASS game ever made.
The company was Valve.
The game: Half Life.
It took the premise of a FPS and twisted it into one of the most well made, exciting, original, and THRILLING games ever made! Everyone who has played this game remembers that jaw dropping, stomach twisting moment where the rules of reality are turned on their head, where the entire world of the game swaps place and turns around and gets all gooey.
And then they remember how this happens 20 more times. Whether its the first time you see a headcrab latch onto a fellow scientists up not to save you and your freinds but rather to kill them all, each moment has been cemented in the gamer concsiousness.
And then...way too many years later...
HALF LIFE 2 came out. And it was the Second Coming...of awesome. And from the platform of Half Life 2, Valve went on to create some glittering gems that range from the funny
To the serious.
Left 4 Dead.
Or...as I call it, Left for Dead.
I first heard about it and thought, "This is going to be the best game EVER!"
And then...it came out...
And it was.
Essentially, a super infectious version of super deadly rabies has sweapt through 99% of the population, turning most of them into horrible zombies. The "lucky" 1% are immune and now must get to the Safe Zone, a near mythical part of the united states where its...safe. Presumably.
Thare are four surivors that you control. Bill, a vietnam veteran. Francis, a hells angel's sorta person. Zoey, a college girl. And Louis, a rather ordinary office worker.
Now, you control one of these four folks...and three OTHER humans control the three others. Yes, this game is...COOPERATIVE!
After 30 odd years of Counterstrike and Team Fortress and Halo all cramming down the "Deathmatch" ideal of "shoot everyone else...then shove your genitles in their dead faces" down our throats, Left for Dead actually tries to get people to work together.
Afterall, you need 4 dudes' worth of gunfire to hold back the zombie hordes.
Now...the zombies. The zombies are...AMAZING. Valve put their trademark hours and hours of hard work into the zombies and it shows. They each have complex animations, made possible by a combination of a ton of motion captured actors and a realistic physics engine.
For example, shooting a zombie in the chest with a few pistol rounds will cause it to stagger, trip, then collapse to the ground, all realistically, all while its trying to grab your face and get to some tasty braaaains
Oh yes. These zombies are FAST zombies, more akin to the Infected of 28 Days Later fame. You don't need to shoot em in the head, but it does make them drop faster than hitting their chest.
Another genius bit of Valve programming is the pathfinding. The zombies are...some of the most...intelligent zombies I've ever seen. They are stupid, mind you..but they're REALISTICALLY stupid. They don't get caught on bits of scenery, they don't get stuck on walls...they clamber over fences, trip on rocks on the ground, and constantly try to get at you.
Even better, they all have incredible idle animations that play while they have not noticed you. They shamble around, lean against the wall, growl at one another, and vomit.
They vomit a lot.
Now, there are only 4 "campaings" to play through (No Mercy, Blood Harvest, Death Toll and Dead Air), and that sounds like it'd get old fast...but each campaing is actually made up of 5 "levels", interspersed with safe rooms where you and your buddies hide and rest up from the zombie hordes...and, best of all, each level has an A.I Director.
The A.I Director...well...I shall borrow a quote from another reviewer:
"Repetition is eased by the so called A.I Director. An omnipotent figure watching form the shadows who creates dramatic tension by giving you health and ammo when you need it and creating a million billion zombies whenever he's bored. WHICH IS ALL THE TIME!"
Now, there are only 6 kinds of guns to bring death to the zombies. There's the pistol, which never runs out of ammo (you can grab a second pistol for some John Wooness), a pump action shotgun, an uzi, a M16, an automatic shotgun, and a hunting rifle.
There are two kinds of thrown weapons as well...the pipe bomb with a smoke alarm attached to it (zombies are attracted to high pitched noises, see), and the ever so popular...MOLOTOV COCKTAILS!
Now, this hardware sounds like it'd make the zombies not all that hard. I mean, just pour on the lead and drop a few molotovs infront of the hordes...fun and easy...but a bit dull.
And that's when the Boss Infected show up. There are five boss infected...and they are each more evil than the last.
First, the Boomer:
The boomer is big, fat, and can vomit on you. Now, this dosn't sound so bad...till you remember this vomit A) Stinks and B) Smells like hony to zombies. Yes, not only are you blind, but you also get attacked by a million billion zombies. Oh and the boomer explodes when shot, splattering everyone around him with vomit. Yay!
The Smoker
A tall, lanky guy who refuses to have a picture, the Smoker has a 50 foot long TONGUE OF DOOM that can and will strangle you while other zombies eat your face. Ugh. Also, fun fact, he is surrounded by a cloud of spores. Yay spores!
The Hunter
Also not pictures here, the Hunter is a zombie capable of leaping a single building in a bound...and then landing on your back...and ripping your nipples off.
The Tank
Sadly, its NOT the incredible hulk coming to your rescue. No, its the Tank: A massive creature that can throw cars, hunks of masonry, and rip you limb from limb. These guys are nasty, and the music becomes extra ominus as he apporaches...complete with screen shakes a-la Jarrasuc Park.
And lastly, the Witch.
I.
Hate.
The.
Witch.
Everyone hates the Witch. Everyone fears the Witch. The Witch...ugh.
Okay, basically, you'll hear the witch before you see her. If you're lucky, you won't see her at all! She sits in the darkness and sobs to herself...and the music gets haunting and creepy....
And, well, if you startle the Witch...she will scream, get up, and RIP YOUR HEART OUT all in under 30 seconds.
Startling the witch includes...shining a flash light on her, shooting a gun near her, looking at her for too long, standing too close to her, setting off a car alarm...really, being near her at all.
Now, just to make the game extra fun, the Boomer, Smoker, Hunter and Tank are all played by HUMAN players...so you have someone to blame and shake your first at. The Witch is too powerful to be played by a human, so she's A.I controlled only.
So...if you like zombies, get this game.
If you like games. Get this game.
If you like working WITH your fellow man rather than shooting them. Get this game.
If you are interested in getting INTO games...this is actually a fairly good place to start! Its easy to pick up, and fun to do with family and freinds.
So, in the end, I give it a Zoombiescore of 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000...out of 10.
So! As with the last 2 games I've jibber jabbered about, let me start with some history.
In 1999, an unknown company exploded out of a closet and onto the scene with the single most jaw dropping, epic, awesome, amazing, oh my god its full of stars KICKASS game ever made.
The company was Valve.
The game: Half Life.
It took the premise of a FPS and twisted it into one of the most well made, exciting, original, and THRILLING games ever made! Everyone who has played this game remembers that jaw dropping, stomach twisting moment where the rules of reality are turned on their head, where the entire world of the game swaps place and turns around and gets all gooey.
And then they remember how this happens 20 more times. Whether its the first time you see a headcrab latch onto a fellow scientists up not to save you and your freinds but rather to kill them all, each moment has been cemented in the gamer concsiousness.
And then...way too many years later...
HALF LIFE 2 came out. And it was the Second Coming...of awesome. And from the platform of Half Life 2, Valve went on to create some glittering gems that range from the funny
To the serious.
Left 4 Dead.
Or...as I call it, Left for Dead.
I first heard about it and thought, "This is going to be the best game EVER!"
And then...it came out...
And it was.
Essentially, a super infectious version of super deadly rabies has sweapt through 99% of the population, turning most of them into horrible zombies. The "lucky" 1% are immune and now must get to the Safe Zone, a near mythical part of the united states where its...safe. Presumably.
Thare are four surivors that you control. Bill, a vietnam veteran. Francis, a hells angel's sorta person. Zoey, a college girl. And Louis, a rather ordinary office worker.
Now, you control one of these four folks...and three OTHER humans control the three others. Yes, this game is...COOPERATIVE!
After 30 odd years of Counterstrike and Team Fortress and Halo all cramming down the "Deathmatch" ideal of "shoot everyone else...then shove your genitles in their dead faces" down our throats, Left for Dead actually tries to get people to work together.
Afterall, you need 4 dudes' worth of gunfire to hold back the zombie hordes.
Now...the zombies. The zombies are...AMAZING. Valve put their trademark hours and hours of hard work into the zombies and it shows. They each have complex animations, made possible by a combination of a ton of motion captured actors and a realistic physics engine.
For example, shooting a zombie in the chest with a few pistol rounds will cause it to stagger, trip, then collapse to the ground, all realistically, all while its trying to grab your face and get to some tasty braaaains
Oh yes. These zombies are FAST zombies, more akin to the Infected of 28 Days Later fame. You don't need to shoot em in the head, but it does make them drop faster than hitting their chest.
Another genius bit of Valve programming is the pathfinding. The zombies are...some of the most...intelligent zombies I've ever seen. They are stupid, mind you..but they're REALISTICALLY stupid. They don't get caught on bits of scenery, they don't get stuck on walls...they clamber over fences, trip on rocks on the ground, and constantly try to get at you.
Even better, they all have incredible idle animations that play while they have not noticed you. They shamble around, lean against the wall, growl at one another, and vomit.
They vomit a lot.
Now, there are only 4 "campaings" to play through (No Mercy, Blood Harvest, Death Toll and Dead Air), and that sounds like it'd get old fast...but each campaing is actually made up of 5 "levels", interspersed with safe rooms where you and your buddies hide and rest up from the zombie hordes...and, best of all, each level has an A.I Director.
The A.I Director...well...I shall borrow a quote from another reviewer:
"Repetition is eased by the so called A.I Director. An omnipotent figure watching form the shadows who creates dramatic tension by giving you health and ammo when you need it and creating a million billion zombies whenever he's bored. WHICH IS ALL THE TIME!"
Now, there are only 6 kinds of guns to bring death to the zombies. There's the pistol, which never runs out of ammo (you can grab a second pistol for some John Wooness), a pump action shotgun, an uzi, a M16, an automatic shotgun, and a hunting rifle.
There are two kinds of thrown weapons as well...the pipe bomb with a smoke alarm attached to it (zombies are attracted to high pitched noises, see), and the ever so popular...MOLOTOV COCKTAILS!
Now, this hardware sounds like it'd make the zombies not all that hard. I mean, just pour on the lead and drop a few molotovs infront of the hordes...fun and easy...but a bit dull.
And that's when the Boss Infected show up. There are five boss infected...and they are each more evil than the last.
First, the Boomer:
The boomer is big, fat, and can vomit on you. Now, this dosn't sound so bad...till you remember this vomit A) Stinks and B) Smells like hony to zombies. Yes, not only are you blind, but you also get attacked by a million billion zombies. Oh and the boomer explodes when shot, splattering everyone around him with vomit. Yay!
The Smoker
A tall, lanky guy who refuses to have a picture, the Smoker has a 50 foot long TONGUE OF DOOM that can and will strangle you while other zombies eat your face. Ugh. Also, fun fact, he is surrounded by a cloud of spores. Yay spores!
The Hunter
Also not pictures here, the Hunter is a zombie capable of leaping a single building in a bound...and then landing on your back...and ripping your nipples off.
The Tank
Sadly, its NOT the incredible hulk coming to your rescue. No, its the Tank: A massive creature that can throw cars, hunks of masonry, and rip you limb from limb. These guys are nasty, and the music becomes extra ominus as he apporaches...complete with screen shakes a-la Jarrasuc Park.
And lastly, the Witch.
I.
Hate.
The.
Witch.
Everyone hates the Witch. Everyone fears the Witch. The Witch...ugh.
Okay, basically, you'll hear the witch before you see her. If you're lucky, you won't see her at all! She sits in the darkness and sobs to herself...and the music gets haunting and creepy....
And, well, if you startle the Witch...she will scream, get up, and RIP YOUR HEART OUT all in under 30 seconds.
Startling the witch includes...shining a flash light on her, shooting a gun near her, looking at her for too long, standing too close to her, setting off a car alarm...really, being near her at all.
Now, just to make the game extra fun, the Boomer, Smoker, Hunter and Tank are all played by HUMAN players...so you have someone to blame and shake your first at. The Witch is too powerful to be played by a human, so she's A.I controlled only.
So...if you like zombies, get this game.
If you like games. Get this game.
If you like working WITH your fellow man rather than shooting them. Get this game.
If you are interested in getting INTO games...this is actually a fairly good place to start! Its easy to pick up, and fun to do with family and freinds.
So, in the end, I give it a Zoombiescore of 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000...out of 10.
But I personally like halo 3 better... That and Gears 2..... But overall, yea Left 4 Dead is fun.
