Review - Left 4 Dead

Developer/Publisher: Valve Corp. (Certain Affinity Xbox 360 version)

Release Date: November 18, 2008
Rating: M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language

Available On: PC, Xbox 360

Genre: First Person Shooter

Number of Players: 1-8 (online), 1-2 (local split screen)
Strong Points: Online and offline play; fast pace; solid gameplay; easy drop-in-drop-out play; lots of humor; high replay value; well-crafted horror setting (lighting, sounds, etc.); gives everyone a “this one time..!” story; lovable characters; ZOMIBES.

Weak Points: Not for everyone; limited weapons; single player is not enough to justify a purchase; just as described story is even less than a typical B movie; limited map selection (though DLC will increase this); the nature of the game can make getting an exact party difficult.
Technical Score: A-

Artistic Score:B+

Final Score (not an average): A

Moral Warnings: Lots of swearing (including GD and JC); “God is Dead” is spray painted a few locations; lots of violence; blood (splatters on HUD) and head explosions; violence includes sounds such as hearing your teammates screaming for help while being assaulted by various undead


Do you have your plan? Everyone needs one. I have had my plan for surviving the zombie apocalypse since I was about twelve. It predates my plans for supercomputer takeover, but not communist invasion. Whether you have one or not, Left 4 Dead gives us the best method for weeding out which of our friends you really want to keep around when the dead start shuffling; or rather running. Breaking from the Resident Evil and George Romero norm of stumbling, moaning brain eaters, Valve is following closer to the 28 Days Later style of dashing cannibals. I think this is mostly a control decision.

If Valve does one thing right, it is first person shooters. If you pit a team of four people who can headshot from the hip against old school zombies it might start out fun but lack of challenge will quickly kill the game. So instead of taking the Resident Evil or Silent Hill path of confining controls Valve chose a balance. They used fast zombies (“infected”) and “special infected," and they kept the shooting simple. There is no aiming down the sights (except with a scope) and no leaning to peer around corners or cover. As a straight FPS, L4D is rather basic, including when compared to Valve’s own products. They take this and implement it in a very “get from start point to safe room” gameplay style with lots of obstacles and events to make it fun along the way.


Another thing that you always need for your survival plan is guns. Lots of them and ammunition, too. This is something I have mixed feelings for in L4D. They provide two tiers of guns. The first consists of pistol, pump shotgun, and Uzi; the second has dual pistols, auto shotgun, assault rifle, and hunting rifle (the only gun with a scope). This basically limits the player to four weapons with nearly no variation. Even though it is a more practical design, I can’t help but be upset. Each gun is made very well however; great sounds, kick and firepower will keep you happy with what you do have. For a bit of an extra punch someone ran ahead of you and made large quantities of Molotov cocktails and timed pipe bomb grenades, both of which are perfect for killing massive quantities of zombies in a short period of time. But be careful with those Molotovs since survivors are flammable, too!

The last thing you need for firepower are the actual bullets, and they are fairly scarce in this game. As they should be. While this is not a resource managing game, if there was no end to the number of clips a survivor could carry, then nothing would stop them from holding down the trigger the entire game. I feel they hit the spot nearly on target, as I rarely have run out of ammo but often would if the group missed an ammo stockpile. Funny how there are heaping piles of all sorts of bullets lying around on tables at such a chaotic time (left by the same person as made the grenades?). I do think the shotgun could use a few fewer rounds as I have yet to run out and the assault rifle could use with perhaps one clip as I regularly run out with it.

But just who’s plans worked well enough to live long enough for you to play as them in L4D? Luckily, making great characters around the player through scripted events is something Valve takes pride in and does very well in L4D. I have talked with several people who, before knowing too much about the game, claimed that it would be much better if it was more customizable, specifically if it allowed players to make their own players. At first, prior to launch, I was leaning in favor of their argument. After playing it, though, I have to say they are completely wrong. Valve chose four characters and built the world around them. They each have very specific responses to locations, events, situations, and each other. They also have very specific voices, and I think this is incredibly important. Voice chat is a must, of course, but hearing the responses of the characters is incredibly moving, both in a uplifting and funny way, but mostly in a terrifying way as they are dragged kicking and screaming through near death again and again.

The four characters quickly grow on you and give you a feel for them and the situation; it associates them with the danger in a way that you would not get with a generically created avatar with the same voice as half the other players. You will be disappointed if you expect a great story but what you will get is a great experience. Most of the story that is there is told through writing scrawled on walls and floors through the levels and particularly in the safe rooms. From “God is Dead” and “We deserved this” and the like to messages for missing loves ones to a list of how many zombies the writer had killed. Portal, which was also a survival story without much story, used similar messages to depict the tales of those here in the past, to give you hints for what you may do in the future, and leave you with a chuckle now.


When, at last, one succumbs to the inevitable and becomes one of the undead, it turns out to actually be just as exciting as being alive, maybe even more so. When not playing through the game with three friends, or as many bots as needed to fill out the team, you can pit your team against four other former survivors in the Versus mode. Instead of respawning in a closet as usual there is no respawn at all and if at least one team member does not make it to the safe room they lose the round. As of the time of original writing, only two of the four campaigns are playable for Versus, but the rest will be added later for free by Valve. Until then, the rush of hunting down the other team in either a city or forest is more than enough.

Versus tends to make the game even more intense and exciting. While the AI is generally quite good, nothing compares to a living (or not so living), thinking human controlling your enemies. There is also nothing as exhilarating as pouncing a survivor as the hunter (a hoodie wearing, super jumping special zombie) or pulling one as smoker (a gangly special infected with a extra long tongue it uses to grab and pull as if fishing for humans) in a place you know no one will be able to save them. The point of that is that L4D makes you, as a survivor, completely dependent on your teammates. Without them to cover you, melee a special infected to save you, or to help you up you will die. When health reaches zero the survivor becomes incapacitated (with a “three strikes and you are out” rule for death) and will slowly bleed to death. Similarly, when pounced or hooked by a smoker, there is no way for you to free yourself.

The third special infected is not as deadly directly, but can wreak even more havoc; the boomer is a bloated zombie with a puke ability that will “slime” survivors and blur their screen. But that is not the worst of it. The regular infected are attracted to this goo and a horde of them will instantly spawn and come after anyone with it on their skin. The last playable infected is the tank. Basically the hulk lost his green and decided he likes to eat brains. Players are randomly chosen to play as the tank and will enjoy super strength and rock throwing abilities. I find it is better just to punch however, especially since logs and cars make for better people squishers than rocks. The last special infected is not playable but is perhaps the creepiest. The witch sits patiently in her spawn location crying and wailing until “startled.” Spooking a witch is very foolish. She instantly incapacitates anyone she hits at best and can kill them regardless of health. Stay away at all costs unless you are very good with the shotgun and can take her out before startling her. Otherwise turn off flashlights and don’t shoot around her or even get close.

On a more exact level, Left 4 Dead has a great interface and matchmaking system for easy play on both platforms. Getting a party is easy, just getting a party of people you know (the most fun way to play) can be hard and awkward, though it isn’t necessarily the game’s fault. Getting exactly four or eight people can leave teams lopsided, and if you want to play expert, you absolutely need four players. PC servers are sometimes buggy and good connections aren’t as common as they should be; it always takes a minute to properly establish the connections.


Sound plays a major role in any kind of horror or survival setting and Valve hits every note perfectly. From specific events to themes for witch and tank spawns to the sound effects, everything fits perfectly. The fear the witch’s cry incites or the terror of hearing the tank’s theme is incredible. Almost as good as those are terrible is the completion sound played when you make it into a safe room.

But that rewarding sound doesn’t come easy since the AI does an excellent job of keeping it challenging. Usually it does well for Survivor campaigns but it just doesn’t cut it in expert. It does have a few kinks still to work out, as they will do stupid things as all AI tend to do, but they generally function very well. In Versus it can actually be an advantage to have a bot on the Bloody Harvest campaign as they can "see" through trees and shoot infected when you would never have noticed. Valve also made a director AI that monitors stress levels of the survivors and sets up ratios against the number of infected currently spawned and killed and other factors to manipulate the game around the players. Hordes will be spawned suddenly or a witch or tank will be placed based on the player’s behavior and how well they are performing. Several times I have felt that the director hates particular teams when playing Versus, but that team has always been my own. so maybe it is just me. Versus, in the name of fairness, has also forced all tank and witch spawns to be in the same locations for both teams. In Versus, the teams take turns playing through each chapter of the each campaign so the second team will always know exactly what to expect as far as those two major obstacles are concerned. Hardly fair in my opinion.

Visually, both versions look very good. The Source engine is at its finest, but this game shows it is also clearly on its last legs. They are good but not great and certainly not amazing when compared to many other titles coming out. Valve did a very good job of prioritizing just what looks good, especially the animations. The faces of the survivors are depicted very well, and they portray their emotions (generally horror) particularly well. A special situation also throws the player into third person view and temporarily takes away control of the player. These situations provide a chance to see just how great he animations really are. Whether a hunter has you pinned to the ground and is tearing you apart, a witch just ran past and pushed you aside, or you are helping a teammate up, the animations and vocal responses fit perfectly. All the character models also look very good, the generic infected in particular have an immense number of skins keeping htem fresh visually, if not physically. Keeping with the B movie feel, this screenplay comes complete with a film grain slider bar to fit your personal preference when fighting off hordes of zombies. Oh, and there are several great explosions in the game that will make you smile, so don’t worry.

Left 4 Dead grabs the player and his friends and throws them right into a well crafted apocalypse with fun characters and terrifying enemies that will have them sweating bullets. Do you shoot the zombies and risk the harsh punishment of friendly fire, or do you call out and hope your friend reacts in time? Will you bleed out before your friends make it to you? Can you sneak past the witch, or will she completely destroy you with her Lady Deathstrike claws? I suggest you let the other guy go first.

I think the best part of Left 4 Dead is when you are talking about it. Nearly every time you play, it gives everyone playing a story to tell. A time you just made it to save all three of your team mates... or didn't. A time you blew a tank off the roof or were the tank and punched them all off. The possibilities are nearly endless and even though each campaign can be played through in roughly two hours, the variables of just Versus make them infinitely different in so many ways every time. In the four player Survivor campaigns there are different difficulties to create a constant challenge.

Besides the obvious violence the biggest issue this game has is language. Nearly every word in the book besides the f bomb is used and fairly regularly at that. It is not overly gory but there is plenty of blood. Fortunately, there is hardly any sexual content except a few zombies in hospital gowns show bare bottom.

When everything is lined up, I have to say that Left 4 Dead is an incredibly fun, incredibly replayable game simple enough for nearly anyone to enjoy but having enough depth and strategy for the hardcore. I can’t recommend it enough to those not put off by its moral content, especially with Valve’s promise and track record of content updates.

-Paul Alfred Brown, guest reviewer