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From Valve (the creators of Counter-Strike, Half-Life and more) comes Left 4 Dead, a new kind of action game for the PC and Xbox 360™ that features single player, co-op and multiplayer game modes.
Set in the immediate aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, L4D offers four expansive "movie campaigns" that challenge you and your fellow survivors to battle thousands of swarming zombies as you travel across the rooftops of an abandoned metropolis, through rural ghost towns and pitch-black forests. In addition to the movie campaigns, Left 4 Dead features a Versus mode that allows you to play as the Boss Zombies.
New technology dubbed "the AI Director" is used to generate a unique gameplay experience every time you play. The Director tailors the frequency and ferocity of the zombie attacks to your performance, adjusting pacing, special effects and audio on the fly.
Left 4 Dead is due for worldwide release on the PC and Xbox 360 on November 18 in the US, and Nov 21 around the globe. A playable demo will be available November 11 on both platforms the world over
Gameplay
Left 4 Dead is played in first-person perspective, where up to four players take control of the four main characters of the game; the "Survivors". If four human players are not available to play, the Survivors can also be AI-controlled bots. They play through the levels fighting off the Infected, which are humans who have been infected with a mysterious virus.
The game is focused on cooperation and team play; colored outlines are visible through walls to help players stick together and coordinate their movement, and Survivors can be knocked down by the Infected and only helped up by another player. If a teammate is downed after being helped up twice, without tending to his wounds in between, the player is out and must wait 60 seconds before respawning. Sometimes there are "closets" scattered around the map that can be opened to bring back dead survivors.
Certain "Boss Infected" also command special attacks, such as a Hunter's pin, which requires assistance from a teammate to get out of. Survivors can also share first-aid kits and help each other heal. Left 4 Dead has full friendly fire that cannot be switched off, increasing the need for caution around other Survivors.
The Survivors communicate by voice commands that are accessed by quick menus, and some will also sound off automatically when doing such things as reloading or spotting Infected. Over 1000 unique lines have been recorded for each Survivor. Additional communication of player actions is conveyed through character lights. Also, weapon-mounted flashlights and muzzle flashes help the players in determining whether their companions are shooting, performing melee attacks, reloading or moving. Due to control issues and to the fact that players will invariably be using a LIVE headset, the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead will omit the quick phrases feature.
The game is experienced through four scenarios that take place in various urban and rural locales, such as a hospital, an airport and a murky countryside. Each scenario is divided into several shorter sections marked by safehouse checkpoints, where players can heal, re-arm, calm their nerves, save their progress and retrieve players who were killed. The levels are neither linear nor completely open-ended or free-roaming. There are a number of alternate routes to follow with more supplies and alternate objectives. At the end of each scenario, the players must defend a position from an onslaught of Infected until rescue arrives. Each scenario lasts between 45 and 75 minutes.
AI and the Director
The artificial intelligence of Left 4 Dead features a dynamic system for game dramatics, pacing, and difficulty called the "Director." Instead of set spawn points for enemies, the Director places enemies in varying positions and numbers based upon each player's current situation, status, skill and location, creating a new experience each playthrough. The Director also creates mood and tension with emotional cues such as visual effects, dynamic music and character communication.
Versus mode
In the deathmatch Versus mode, four additional players can take control of powerful Infected with unique abilities, amongst the other AI-controlled Infected. The playable Infected numbers are limited so players must select their preferred Infected and wait for it to spawn, with the Tank as the exception, it being able to only spawn a few times in each scenario. The Infected have the ability to see Survivors through the walls at a certain range if the Survivors are running, have the flashlight on, or are talking. The Infected can also see in the dark, unlike the Survivors. Infected spawn ahead of the Survivors and can, if they stay still, see a marker for their likely path of advance so they can set up ambushes. Throughout levels, Infected-only ways up buildings are marked with symbols. These can be climbed and used for ambushes, especially with the Infected immunity to falling damage.
Award system
Left 4 Dead will include Steam's achievement system, recording players' accomplishments and mishaps. Part of the intent of this system is to help players to avoid griefers and to find teammates with more experience. The Xbox 360 version will feature 50 official achievements that differ from Steam's achievement system.
Weapons
Generally, Valve have decided to go along the realistic road in regard to weapons, generally giving you equipment you’d scavenge in such a crisis. But there are plans to add weapons to the game over time post-release. Your inventory in-game will rise over time.
This is a list of what weapons have been confirmed so far:
- Sub-Machine Guns
- M16's
- Pump-action Shotguns
- Automatic Shotguns
- Pistols (dual-wielding possible)
- Hunting Rifles
- Molotov Cocktails
- Pipe Bombs
- There will be no melee weapons apart from using the butt of your chosen projectile killing machine, which will stagger them away for an easy kill with the said weapon.
- If you do happen to melee attack an infected that hasn't seen you, it will be instantly killed.
- So no chainsaws, sledge-hammers, or rusty pipes on release, but you can hope for them to be added with later updates.
The 'Infected'
- Whilst players with 21st-century weapons pitted against weaponless psychopaths with no thought of tactics may seem like a no brainer, it won’t be. The infected have one very clear advantage…
...numbers. BIG numbers.
- The infected horde is gigantic, they pour out from everywhere. A lack of strength means nothing if there are a good fifty or so of them attacking at once.
- One thing that needs to be stressed is the speed of the Infected. These aren't half-dead shamblers, they are alive, mad, and their speed shows it. They are insanely fast.
- Usually you'll find infected wandering around the city aimlessly. But once they see you, they'll know you're not one of them, and their demeanour changes immediately. Their only thought is of stomping your face in and, unless you do something about it, that's exactly what they'll do.
- You cannot kill all of the infected. There is no set number of them. They attack you at the Director's discretion, and they will not stop coming. The goal is to escape, there is no way you can survive if you stay in one spot for too long.
Unfair Advantages
- As the survivors, you have access to a variety of projectile weapons and happy little explosives. Shotguns, Uzis, Molotov Cocktails, and Pipe Bombs are all at your disposal from the get-go, with more weapons becoming available as the game progresses through the separate levels of the campaign (scroll down further for a more in-depth view of the weapons).
- Equipment-wise, you have a flashlight (unlimited battery) for seeing in the dark, can see the outlines of your teammates through walls and other objects so you don't get separated, and have one med-kit each for healing yourself or a teammate.
- There is a melee attack with your weapon that does some minimal damage, but its important aspect is that it pushes the infected back. Tactical uses of this become apparant with the knowledge that pushing one into another will cause both to fall down, and domino effects are quite in play. Also, the only way to effectively combat some of the Boss-Infected without hurting your teammates is to melee them away before using the more deadly aspects of your chosen weapon.
- As a Survivor, you can close and lock doors behind you. This effectively stalls any infected pursuing you, for a while. They can and will break through wooden doors, but it takes a while, and it is also possible to blow a hole in it yourself use it to shoot at them, though that only delays the inevitable. Of course, certain Boss-Infected don't find doors very hard to open. Or walls, for that matter.
Setting and Characters
- Left 4 Dead is set in contemporary America gone wrong. The aim of the design is to remind people (ie. Yanks ) of home while giving the impression that it has been completely and utterly changed in light of the infection.
- There are both rural and urban areas in the four campaigns. They take place in the following:
* No Mercy - An urban campaign through city streets and ending on a hospital roof.
* Blood Harvest - A forested campaign ending in a farmhouse in the middle of a cornfield.
* Dead Air - Another urban campaign that transpires almost entirely on rooftops.
* Death Toll - Murky Countryside
Player Characters
Bill – A Vietnam vet who’s combat skills have allowed him to survive thus far.
Louis – An assistant manager at a local electronics store.
Zoey – A daughter of a wealthy family.
Francis – Crude, rude and unrefined...but a good bloke who’s always got your back.
Infected Characters
#The Infected are Left 4 Dead's foe of the Survivors, and they are partly inspired by the infected from the 2002 film 28 Days Later. The Infected, as opposed to the slow, shuffling zombies associated with Night of the Living Dead, the Resident Evil series and Half-Life, are fast and agile, creating quite a formidable foe. They can be dealt with easily on their own, but in great numbers are difficult to defeat. In addition, there are five mutated Infected who have their own special mutant abilities and are more powerful than the regular Infected. Four of the five Infected characters are playable in Versus mode.
# The Boomer This is a form of Boss Infected who is grossly overweight, carrying a massive stomache full of bloody vomit and methane gas. He can vomit all over a player, or several if he's good, obscuring their view, and attracting all the surrounding zombies in the vicinity to attack said player(s), while also spawning some infected (there's a counter telling the Boomer how many will be spawned) to help lower their life expectancy. Vomited-on Survivors are partially blind, and have all the infected (plus the spawned infected) in the area gunning for them. They are almost completely helpless and must rely on their teammates to survive. What's even worse in this aspect (for the Survivors) is that the Boomer can 'charge' his puke, meaning the longer he charges it, the more infected appear to attack the unfortunate recipients of the deluge.
On top of this, this guy will explode with tremendous force when shot due to the methane, so keep your distance. The explosion, while not doing any health damage, will throw the aforementioned vomit on any unsuspecting Survivor who is too close to the Boomer when it goes off, as well as staggering any Survivors in the immediate vicinity. This renders them unable to do anything for a short time, giving the Infected precious time to close in and do some damage. It is quite possible to spell certain doom for the group by shooting this bloke at the wrong time.
Suicidal Boomers can even jump off buildings and explode on impact, generally becoming a guided bomb in the right hands. Of the three most common bosses, the Boomer is the only one really equipped for tackling more than one survivor well. Of course, this is offsetted by his slow waddle, and the fact that you'd have to be blind, drunk, and facing in the opposite direction to miss the massive bugger.
# The HunterThe last selectable Boss Infected, Hunters are the assassins of the infected. They have two types of attacks.
'Lunging' is fairly basic and simple, the Hunter jumps at the Survivor and knocks them back a fair distance (hopefully off a ledge or into a mob of infected), doing damage and disorientating them for a short time. It can be used to quickly move around the map, and is a sure way to escape if you find yourself in a situation you'd rather someone else to be in. Just take note that the Hunter lets out a very loud howl whenever he lunges (that kind of strain on the muscles must hurt), so it's not the most subtle way to get around.
'Pouncing' is accomplished when a Hunter lunges after being crouched for a period of time, which sees it jump in an arc (rather than a straight line) and land on a Survivor, pinning them down and shredding them to pieces unless dealt with by his mates. The pounce can only be accomplished after it 'charges', which is done while the Hunter is crouched. When the pounce is fully charged however, the Hunter lets out a low growl, which can easily alert the Survivors if too close, so you must use it as soon as they're in range if you want the element of surprise.
Hunters are hands-down the most mobile infected of the lot, which is accentuated by their amazing jump distances and attacks based on those jumps. Hunters can also regenerate health over time, giving them the ability to do several hit-and-run attacks. This is offsetted by the fact that the Hunter's attacks are limited to only one target at a time, and require it to really get into the fray in the middle of a group of survivors, which isn't a good way to survive in the first place.
# The Smoker Basic specialty is his 50-foot tongue, which he uses to grab players from a great distance (50 feet). The tongue can be used to pull them into a mob of infected, or off a ledge to hang them, or just let them fall. He can effectively hang people if he grabs them from an above ledge, or even from a level playing field and snagging them over a lamp post, and just hold them there. Also, the longer he has a Survivor in his tongue's grasp, even if he isn't hanging them, more and more of their health will turn into temporary health, up until 100%.
Like Boomers, this bloke explodes when killed, but instead of force this guy expels smoke when in his death throes. Very thick smoke, you can't see in this stuff. Even the green outlines are hidden by this smoke, and Survivors start choking and can't use voice communication. The smoker can drop some of this smoke willingly, making him very dangerous in the right hands.
# The Tank The biggest Boss Infected, this Infected's name is self explanatory. This infected is a rock, a gigantic lump of muscle and sinew, insanely strong and fast enough to run any survivor down, but no stealthy options available to him at all. The footsteps of this mother can be heard from miles away, so don't expect to catch anyone by surprise.
Because the Tank is so powerful, it isn't possible to choose to be him when playing as Infected. Instead, a random player will be informed that he can be respawned as a Tank at the Director's discretion. A Tank's role is pure and simple, destroy with no thought of self-preservation and with one object in mind, the death of the Survivors. Locked doors and even certain parts of walls will not stop your rampant destruction, so Survivors can't simply lock themselves in a room and wait you out.
To stop Tank players camping for surprise attacks there's a frustration meter that fills when you're out of sight of the Survivors. When this fills, you lose all control of the Tank.
Nevertheless, this bloke can wipe out the Survivors if they aren't skilled and use teamplay.
# The Witch These are computer controlled Boss-Infected, and aren't available to choose for an Infected player. That is because these are potentially the most dangerous enemies in the game, and only appear once in a campaign.
A Witch spends her time writhing on the floor in agony. She won't even take any notice of you unless you do something silly, such as walk too close to her, shoot near her, shoot her, or shine the flashlight at her. This lets you pass by her if you're quiet, which is the safer option.
If you do accidentally annoy her, or decide to risk attacking her, she'll attack you. She is fast, she is strong, she kills with each hit. Try to avoid her if you can.