Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1753 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2008-11-21
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Platform: Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Original language: English, German, French, Russian, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Korean, Norwegian

Manufacturer's Description
Left 4 Dead (L4D) is a new action title from Valve, creators of the Counter-Strike and Half-Life games, that promises to redefine the co-operative genre as those titles did for multiplayer and single player action games.

Set in a modern day survival-horror universe, the co-operative gameplay of L4D casts four "Survivors" in an epic struggle against hordes of swarming zombies and terrifying "Boss Infected" mutants.

The Survivor Co-op Game Mode is played out across four sprawling campaigns, set in urban and rural environments. Each campaign has an over-riding team objective, and is comprised of five large maps. The campaigns link together to tell the story of the Survivor's escape to safety. The team of four Survivors may be comprised of 1 to 4 human players, allowing for single player and multiplayer co-op games.

Next generation AI technology powers all non-player Survivor and zombie characters. This is facilitated by the AI Director, a pool of systems used to procedurally generate a unique experience by monitoring the players' experiences and tailoring the pacing and difficulty of action for each game. This makes for a different experience each time the game is played.

In Left 4 Dead's Vs. Mode players may play as a Survivor or as one of four types of "Boss Infected." Each of the "Boss Infected" possesses an exceptional mutant ability - such as a 50-foot tongue lasso (Smoker) or a giant belly full of explosive methane gas (Boome) - instead of traditional firearms.

Customer Reviews

Awesome game and no securom!
For anyone looking to experience "28 days later" in a game, this is for you. Zombie hordes, creepy deserted locations and 4 people who need to make it out alive. The game is created by valve, the folks who brought you Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Half Life and Portal....so you know this is going to be a quality title and they don't disappoint.

After finishing the single player campaigns, online multiplayer will keep you coming back for more as you and three friends (or three random people) fight your way through different maps. It is a barrel of laughs and makes you play as a team..because alone you will not be able to survive and will be ripped up by some zombie.

Go ahead and buy this one, you won't regret it.

This game uses the "steam" system to deliver and control who can play this game- basically what this means is that you will have to install the steam software, which acts as a game delivery mechanism, and will also conviniently update your game with all the latest updates as they come out automatically. It also allows you to keep track of your friends, chat to them and find them when they are in game via the steam community and save your configs/savegames to the steam cloud in order to access them anywhere.

Some people say steam is DRM, but it is the good kind of DRM. There are no install limits, steam doesn't probe your system like securom or starforce and it does not complain when you use virtual drives or software like process explorer. You can download steam and install your game on as many systems as you like, and all you have to do in order to be able to play on any of those systems is login with your username and password. No hassle, no fuss....(you will require an internet connection for the first time, but after this you can opt to play the game in "offline mode" if you do not have an active connection (Unlike securom protected titles which limit your activations and require a working internet connection at all times)....developers have to protect their works, and steam is an example to the industry of how it should be done, with minimum fuss for the user!

Fast Broadband and time on your hands? Then this is the game for you.
I think I've found my new favourite shooter.

Bought this about three hours ago and I've only just put my head back up. My jaw has bounced off the floor several times, and I need a good cuppa and a sit-down.

The premise is simple. You are one of four survivors of a zombie apocalypse, fighting off the horde and trying to survive. But, you know that anyway, don't you? You want to know if it's any good, and the answer is a definitive Yes. Valve have once again blown expecations away.

You can play either online or with the computer-controlled teammates, and I'd recommend trying the computer first, as you'll get the hang of it in a "safe" environment.

Mind you, it really doesn't feel very safe. Right from the off, when you tool up, Counter-Strike style, it's action all the way. And ammo is, rightly, a bit scarce so you'll be shooting with care, most of the time. However, it's properly panic-inducing when the full horde show up (and they do, often!) then you're overwhelmed, firing blindly all around you and praying for an end to it all. Honestly, it's just great. There's a good few different zombie "classes" to face up against, including Smokers, who explode in a cloud of choking gas which blinds you and they have another nasty trick up their sleeves too; hunters who as the name suggests are quick and wily; and Boomers, great big fat zombies who retch bile all over you. Don't shoot these big fellas at point blank range, or they'll burst into green goo, obscuring your vision and in a particularly mean twist this goo attracts Loads and Loads of zombies, and remember you can't see them for all the muck spattered across your face! Noisy and horrible.

The co-op element has been done before, but it's really important in this game. Look after your team and they'll look after you, rescuing you when you're pinned down, reviving you when you're badly wounded and providing medical aid when health is low. When your teammates are hurt, you can choose to heal them (assuming you're carrying any first-aid) and when they're seriously hurt the'll shudder and shake all over the place and genuinely look poorly. Again, it's the Source engine's face rendering that really sets it apart from other games. Valve have done a great job making sure you will want to play as a team, not as a lone gun.

I've tagged that it uses Steam, as no doubt there'll be loads of people whining on about Steam ruining their lives blah blah blah, so fair warning - You must have Steam for the game to work. If like me you embraced Steam a long time ago, then it won't be a problem.

Left 4 Dead won't win any awards for rich and complex storytelling, but that isn't what it's aimed at. It has no pretensions towards being Resident Evil or Silent Hill, it's just a very very effective Zombie Shooter, done much better than I was expecting. It's as cheesy as Dawn of The Dead, as simple as Team Fortress 2 and I was genuinely yelling at my screen several times, throwing ammo away blindly and then laughing like a goon.

Even as game art, it's a cut above. The AI is fast and scary, and it's never the same if you play the same scenario again, so replay value is assured. The action pacing is close to flawless which means you're not going to get time to be bored, but you'll never feel that the difficulty level is just too high. You do get lots of good chances to reload and mop your sweaty brow between the full-on assaults. You'll need them!

Top drawer. Well done Valve, Left 4 Dead is superb. Now, I'm off back online to find a server and kill me some deadites.

A tense roller-coaster ride with friends
Left 4 Dead is a Co-operative survival horror game, by Valve, renown for their games such as the Half-life series, Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2. Left 4 Dead is another promising Gem entering Valve's legacy.

Name: Left 4 Dead
Players: 1-4 (Co-operatively) 1-8 (Competitively)
RRP: £24.99
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve
Genre: Action/Survival Horror
Release Date: 21st November (18th November if purchased from Steam)

-=Story=-

The story is brief but does not really affect the game play at all. It's the usual modern day zombie survival story, seen in such films as 28 Days Later or The Dawn of the Dead Remake, where an infectious virus has been released into the world populous (this case an aggressive strain of rabies) turning many into mindless hordes, bent on murdering those who still remain alive. It's not a ground-breaking Indie storyline, but it sets the stage for the various scenarios. You play from the perspective of four survivors: Bill the old Vietnam veteran, Zoey a sentimental young lady, Francis a hot-header biker and Louis your typical store manager, the characters themselves are personalised and you'll quickly form an attachment to them, though you'll grow to hate the mutant evolved `Boss Zombies'from the: agile hoody wearing Hunter, the Smoker with his 30 ft tongue, the putrid Boomer, the weeping Witch and the all frightening Tank who will continuously hunt you down throughout the game.

-=Game play=-

The game's campaign mode is split into four different scenarios which are all completely unrelated to one another. Valve's aim for the game was to create different campaigns which would replicate many scenarios seen in the medium. The campaigns, which are comprised of 5 levels each, would take about an hour to complete each, but that is just down to Theory, and not necessarily the case. Depending on the difficulty you're playing at (I would recommended Expert as it really does make the game far more enjoyable with a challenge) you'll reach constant points of being killed and having to restart the level over. Fortunately that is not a bad thing at all, for the game constantly keeps you on your toes, and the inclusion of the AI director which continuously shakes up the game play, keeping it rich and exciting.

If you chose to play alone, the computer will take control of the other three characters in your party, however if you chose to play the game the way it is meant to be played, online then each player can take the role of each of the characters. Even if you lack human companions, the AI is very smart and sometimes you wish you had them backing you up as opposed to your human friends. The Campaign is limited to four player co-operative play, however you can take a gander over to the versus mode where an additional four players can take control of the Special `Boss' Zombies (apart from the Witch) and make the survivors' lives a living hell.

-= Design=-

Running from a newly upgraded version of the Source engine, which is used to power many of Valve's games, it is still the best in the business. The AI director constantly alters music, visual effects, spawns and much more throughout the game, which literally bolsters replayability ten times over. The game is very user friendly which means you pick up the game in a matter of minutes and be playing like a Professional in no time, the interface keeps you going through the game alerting to various points of interest and keeping you instructed on what to do next.

-=Presentation=-

The game is visually appealing, it's defiantly no Crysis in regards to graphics, but it bolsters a large variety of Photo-realistic textures and effects, which makes the game attractive, without hindering performance. This addition of the source engine is defiantly up to snuff, at times there can be up to fifty zombies on screen, all visually different and delicious gritty looking, and this does not hinder performance at all the game constantly runs at 50 fps with little to no drop in performance. Though it all depends on your system spec the source engine is really flexible and if you were able to run Half-life 2 - Episode 2 with no problem on medium settings, then you should be fine. The sound effects are very crisp and at times terrifying, the voice acting from the survivors is also very well delivered, reacting to everything around them.

-=Conclusion=-

If there was a must-buy game I could recommend for this holiday season, it would be Left 4 Dead. Get a few friends together online or at a lan-party and you're in for a treat, with many late-nights leaving you on the edge of your seat as you blast through a finely polished tense rollercoaster, at a game with is priced at well below the usual RRP, you could do no wrong.