Left 4 Dead came out November 18th 2008 for Windows and Xbox 360, and is Valve's first attempt at a Zombie movie style FPS. I've been playing Left 4 Dead since the 1st of December, and I can do nothing but praise Valve for one of the best games they've made so far. The only large flaw I can see with the game is that there are not too many levels to play, but I think Valve will be releasing downloadable content to resolve this sometime this year.

4 survivors, online play with friends and shitloads of zombies + ammo = fun. The core game concept is already fun, as said in the ingame commentary the development team could afford to play about with gameplay because they already had a really fun game, without any of their own additions. The game runs the source engine, and comes from Valve's Turtle Rock Studios, the same guys that worked on the massive FPS hit Counter-Strike:Source.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Left4Dead is nothing but fun, replayable action from the start. The "AI Director" as it's known places random pickups and NPCs in different places each time you play a level, and also bases its decisions on the team's condition - health, kills, ammo etc. This is a feature of the game I now take for granted, as it makes the game seem different every time you play it, regardless of how well you know the maps, or how to beat each of the zombie bosses.

The below video shows the first level of the campaign "No Mercy", which is also available in the Left 4 Dead demo.

The Verses game mode allows you to play as the zombies, in what seems like a "behind the scenes" look at the survivors, played by others online. You can play as the Hunter, Smoker, Boomer and Tank, all randomly picked for you each time you spawn into the game. Although obvious, this game mode allows players to extend the fun of killing zombies to killing human zombies, which is much more satisfying. The best thing is, at the end of the round the teams are switched, making the 4 players who were zombies in the previous round into survivors, and vice versa.

Although I would like the game more if there was a strong storyline to it, the arcade style of Left 4 Dead works well, and applying a storyline to the game would only deter users, and seem weak because of the way the game is layed out.

There are also some really nice level introductions, such as the plane crash from the finale of "Dead Air", the sweepthrough start of "Blood Harvest", and the start of "Dead Air" shown in the video below.

Graphics

Although the "Film Grain" feature of Left 4 Dead isn't for everyone, the graphics are awesome. The game really shows what the Source Engine is capable of, and shows new features to the engine such as realistic rain, colour correction and beautiful lighting on each level.

My GeForce 9600GT is capable of running the game at 1680x1050 with full anti-aliasing, texture quality and other settings all on the maximum at around 60FPS throughout the game, sported in the screenshots I have dotted around this post.

It seems to me that considering the horrific-ness of the PC version of GTA IV Left 4 Dead is pretty efficient on things like hardware requirements. (I would think I get about 10FPS on GTA IV, with graphics settings on the lowest value which is completely unacceptable for a game such as that).

Get Left 4 Dead http://store.steampowered.com/app/500

If you like FPSs, zombie madness and having fun, Left 4 Dead is the game for you. I can't really see anyone who likes Team Fortress 2 not liking L4D, the replay factor is so much greater, and it doesn't rely so heavily on online servers and players.