Left 4 Dead Impressions

News from Simon - Wednesday, 19 November 2008 @ 4:29pm

After playing only a few hours of Left 4 Dead last night I feel as though I have contracted something, some kind of subtle but contagious ailment that I can feel in the tips of my fingers and at the front of my eyes. I don’t know how dangerous it is yet, but what I have diagnosed is that it’s glorious! Something has stuck, stuck to me like boomer vomit, leapt into my system like a hunters pounce, awakening in the darkest parts of my body like the cries of a deadly witch. What Valve’s done is created a kind of game unlike I’ve seen. It has the excitement and determining drive of a highly competitive game, the hilarious fun of a party game and the thoughtful chin stroking of a deep story driven title.

I know I’m making a fuss, getting all caught up in the initial wonders of a new game… But this is the best time for a game, that initial impact that will hopefully stick for some time.

Left 4 Dead is hard to define as a genre; at first I was enjoying it as a hectic fast paced shooter, then I was thinking of it like as a strong team sport, a horror game and finally a high level MMORPG raid. The raid element is really neat; it’s really prominent on a hard difficulty and on a big last stand area. You will have to work together so closely to take down the bosses and deal with the hordes that at times I wanted to yell for a priest. Failing to do so, you will all wipe and respawn a bit of a way from the last stand. I loved it! Every time we wiped I understood why, we just need to work together like peas and carrots. One thing that I didn’t really expect to be so crazy amazing is the levels, going through all number of environments within a specific theme. They have amazing pacing and are a real journey within each ‘chapter’. It is a hard thing to define with words, so I suggest you all go play it and love it. I also have to learn more about how the ‘AI Director’ is working and what behind the scenes stuff is going on, because it is a truly important piece of tech in this new generation of online games.

One possible Left 4 Dead issue may be stress fatigue. A huge play session in such a high tension and constantly changing environment could be exhausting after a while, especially if you are staying up real late.

I will have to do some more ‘tests’ tonight. See you guys in zombie HELL/HEAVEN!

But so far, this may just be my game of the year!