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Re: Grays reviews games...

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:45 pm
by BunnyWithStick

Re: Grays reviews games...

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 4:18 am
by Grayswandir
Yes, I'm bringing this thread back from the brink of death.

Left 4 Dead Demo (360) review:
If you've never heard of Left 4 Dead, its a zombie-survival game by Valve (Orange Box, Half-Life 2, etc...) that focuses on cooperative-multiplayer and replayability. You and 3 other people (or AI teammates) are charged with surviving waves of zombies and "super" (or boss zombies as they're called) zombies that attack you as you traverse the levels and try to complete objectives. There's something called "The Director" that spawns zombies in different parts of the map (rather than certain spawn points based off of triggers) based on how you're doing or what's going on. So each time you play a map, it will be different each time. The demo lets you experience the first two levels of the first scenario and immediately drops you on the roof of a building that was featured in the opening cinematic. There are a bunch of different weapons you can find in the level but the only two you're guaranteed (the only two not controlled by The Director) is the Shotgun and the Uzi. The first thing I noticed while playing is that your teammates are smart. While not at human level, they can hold their own and they'll back you up, follow you around, heal you, revive you, save you from zombies, and generally they aren't a pain in the ass to have around (the only thing I can think of that might get annoying is that they will sometimes hog health items). While the AI is smart, the game really starts to get fun if you have real people to play with. The 360 version offers 4-player online cooperative or 2-player split-screen cooperative with online capabilites with guest accounts.
If you're playing on Adept or below you'll notice that it isn't that hard to down enemies. You really don't get that feeling of zombie-survival/horror until you knock the difficulty setting up to the highest setting of Expert (Although in the game's favor I was only playing the first two levels that the demo had available). When playing on the lower difficulties I noticed that people would just wander off and were able to hold their own until the game would notice and would throw Smoker zombies at those players, totally ruining their day, but generally, there was no sense of vulnerability or even challenge on the lower difficulty settings. Speaking of zombie types (as the demo says nothing about them) there are six types:
Regular zombies (large in number): stupid, fast, weak, and the more the merrier. Your generic zombie, but think upgraded to 28 Days later "zombies". Always AI controlled.
Hunter (number varies depending on The Director): Boss zombie. Can climb on walls, leap really far and can pin survivors to the ground and claw them to death. Can be player controlled in the full game.
Smoker (number varies depending on The Director): Boss zombie. Can climb walls, has a long tongue used to drag away survivors and then strangle and beat them to death. Shoot the tongue to make it release a team mate. It explodes with a poisonous gas when it dies. Can be player controlled in full game.
Boomer (number varies depending on The Director): Boss Zombie. Slow, fat, can climb walls, and they explode when they die. They can vomit on survivors that attracts regular zombies to the smell. Can be player controlled in the full game.
Tank (one per level depending on The Director): Boss Zombie. Large, fast, powerful, and tears things apart. They can throw anything large that isn't nailed down and they can sit on survivors and smash them to death. Can be player controlled in the full game.
Witch (number varies...they're rather rare. Director controlled again): passive zombie. Becomes active if you touch it or shine light on it. It cries like its afraid or in sorrow and then tears you apart if you activate it. Really creepy. AI control only.

Left 4 Dead is quite fun but is really multiplayer centered, so if you're looking for something with a great storyline or something you can play by yourself, you may want to find something else.

Pros:
*4-player cooperative gameplay
*teammate AI is quite good
*The Director changes up gameplay depending on the situation so each time you play a level its different
*Versus mode allows you to be zombies
*Frantic gameplay and pacing is great

Cons:
*gameplay centered around multiplayer
*Lower difficulty options put the game in more of a run-and-gun setting than a survival/horror setting