There's something about zombie flicks and games that makes them fun to watch/play, no matter how lame they are. So when a high quality piece of entertainment hits us zombie fanatics, it's a little unsettling since we're used to the mediocre stuff thrown at us. Left 4 Dead is just that - an extremely well designed co-op zombie shooter, that offers an experience more intense than anything out there.
Left 4 Dead has you play the role of one of four survivors of a zombie holocaust - Francis, Bill, Zoey and Louis. Your goal is to make your way to an extraction/rescue point, as you carve your way through an endless onslaught of the risen dead. This cooperative approach to survival horror has never been done before, and it exercises both - your skills with the gun, as well as your ability to work as part of a team.
The game has two modes - Campaign and Versus. Campaign plays out as a standard co-op game with up to four players playing as survivors, while empty slots get filled by the game's AI. The Campaigns are presented as zombie flicks, namely No Mercy, Death Toll, Dead Air and Blood Harvest. The loading screen of each Campaign displays a poster of each of these flicks, with a rather cheesy caption like "Curing the infection, one bullet at a time", reminding you of those dusty old zombie movies sitting in your VHS collection.
But don't be fooled by its cocky appearance. While Left 4 Dead isn't scary enough to make you wet your pants, it's probably the most intense co-op shooter you're ever going to play. You start off each campaign in a relatively safe spot - the roof of a building or a safe room inside a factory - with a stash of firearms, ammunition and first aid kits at your disposal. From the minute you leave the comfort of these safe zones, you're up for a different experience no matter how many times you've played the game.
You morons, there *is* a server browser.
