by Paul Guardino

Created on: June 03, 2010

How would you fare against a world full of bloodthirsty zombies?  Any fan of the horror film genre has asked themselves that question at some point.  With the current generation of video games focused on building stories closer to movies in themselves, it was only a matter of time before a game was created that let us live the experience of a zombie apocalypse.

Left 4 Dead is essentially a series of zombie movies you get to play out. The Vietnam veteran Bill, the young college girl Zoey, the hotheaded street brawler Francis, and ex-systems analyst Louis are an unlikely team, but the only survivors of the zombie apocalypse.  Now, they have to fight their way across cities, off rooftops, and through woods and subways crawling with undead.

Left 4 Dead is a straightforward shooter. No surprise for a game coming from Valve, creators of Half-Life and Counter Strike. There are four “movies” to the game, each comprised of five heart-pounding levels. Throughout each level, players must defend against waves of zombie hoards, equipped with shotguns, assault rifles, uzis, handguns, pipe bombs, or Molotov cocktails. Each weapon has its specialty, and ammo is precious so choose wisely.

There are no checkpoints in Left 4 Dead; shoot your way through to the next safe house and lock yourself inside to save your progress and proceed to the next level.  Best of luck, because at most you can only carry one weapon, one med-kit, one bottle of pain pills for temporary health, and one explosive.  Most of the time you won’t even have those, so strategy during battles is key especially against large hoards.

Single player team AI is quick to rescue or heal you; They also fend well for themselves, so no babysitting idiotic computer players.  But smart teammates also means smart zombies…  Enemies in the game are as vicious as they are clever; they will always find a way to get you: back doors, windows, even closed doors won’t keep them at bay-they just break through eventually.  Attacks often come from several sides, and if you die they won’t always come that way again.

While you can play Left 4 Dead split screen with controllers, the multiplayer experience on Xbox Live is the essence of this game. Actually, the opening menu might fool you into thinking this an online-only game. Left 4 Dead is intended to be a co-op game for friends to enjoy, and when it comes down to it you are going to want some smart teammates

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