Left 4 Dead

[X]

So, please tell me I'm not the only person to have played and loved this awesome, awesome game. I've only just gotten around to playing it, and I'm downright blown away by it. I've only played it for about a day, and I can already say it's the best zombie game I've ever played. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Resident Evil games (Dead Space is great as well) but there's too much "crazy Scientific monsters" and mystical type shit for my taste sometimes. Sometimes I just want a straight-up, run for your life shoot everything moving in giant environment type of zombie game, something that Resident Evil has NEVER been. These aren't your grandma's slow moving mindless creatures, these things are straight out of 28 Days Later or the Dawn of the Dead remake, in other words, THEY RUN LIKE FUCK. Wave after wave after wave of zombies will come at you, you're literally killing hundreds and HUNDREDS of zombies.

Anyone else played this game and loved it? What's everyone's thoughts?

 

[Spunky]

Like yourself, I picked it up late, But I have only played it online for about 4 hours total(it's on my brothers 360), And I would say it ranks up high in the horror genre. You really do have to run like fuck, And shot everything thaty moves, Or you will be zombie food in about 2 minutes flat. Apart from the Resident Evil series, It's probably my favourite horror game. Although i've not as yet, You can have endless amounts of fun on it, And the online options are great, It's like playing night of the living dead.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Meh. Give it about a C grade. I read one sentance of what you said, and that basically sums up your entire game playing experience here.

You go a little ways. and a shit ton of zombies runs up on you. you go a little ways. and a shit ton of zombies comes after you. You go a bit farther and...oh look, a shit ton of zombies. With like, all of 5 character models. Shitty ones.

Yea, I wasnt too impressed. it was fun for about 4 hours or so, and then just got extremely reptitive.

 

[X]

You go a little ways. and a shit ton of zombies runs up on you. you go a little ways. and a shit ton of zombies comes after you. You go a bit farther and...oh look, a shit ton of zombies. With like, all of 5 character models. Shitty ones.

See, that's exactly why I like the game. Too many survival horror games get far too caught up in backstories and explanations and forget about the whole "survival horror" thing. I love the Resident Evil games, but sometimes I don't want fucking cheesy cultists and government conspiracies and this and that. Sometimes all I want is some good weapons, a shit ton of zombies, and a giant level to travel through for that. That's why I enjoyed Resident Evil: Outbreak so much, because it was just a simple story of surviving hordes of zombies in different settings (the hospital level in Outbreak is badass to the max)

Left 4 Dead has everything I want from it, simple and endlessly effective. The greatest zombie films of all time don't ever go into the backstory of how the zombies happened like Resident Evil does with all of their crazy cultists and government experiments turned into monsters. Romero's Dead trilogy is the greatest of all time, and theres no backstory to the zombies whatsoever. One day, the dead just beings to rise. No reason, it just happens. To me, that's a THOUSAND times scarier than if zombies are the result of some crazy government/corporation conspiracy, which gives you a way to explain the events. Without any explanations, you're just left with the utter chaos and confusion of what the fuck is going on.

So, that's my rant on zombie games and films in general, and why I enjoy Left 4 Dead so much thus far. Like Spunky said, it's like playing Night of the Living Dead. For a horror fan, that's a dream come true that the large majority of zombie games just don't fulfill.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

I truly dont require a long fleshed out backstory, and all that just abit of varying gameplay and character models, if you please. A sandbox type enviornment with shit tons of Zombies just roaming, places to get, things to do, tthat would be much more fun and interesting to me than "Start here. get to here. Fight zombies in the middle." Also the fighting gets so chaotic and fucking nutso that it gets extremely unrealisitc. I mean. let me hide, set traps, use my environment, shit like that.


I can see how it would have pretty mass appeal, but to me, as I said, it just got very bland and repetitve after a very short time.

 

[Leeds Guy]

I bought it a while ago and have only played it once. As Norcal says it's ok for a number of hours before it get boring. I hear the online play is fantastic though so I will check that out at somepoint, and I will play the main game again eventually, but at the moment I don't like it as its just endless zombies running at you as you get to the occasional safe room.

 

[Razor]

I like it. I mean, it was crazyiness on my computer screen. Zombies running around, fat ass zombies throwing up on me, getting strangled by a big tounge thingy...it was crazy. And it was fun. For the first day or so.

Then stuff about the game started to wear on me. What's this about I can just spam melee when I'm on the survivor's team? The team would just hole up in a corner and spam melee. Great for us, but if you were on the zombie team it was fucking annoying. The tank. Fuck me. Especially if your team is incompetent and doesn't understand the premise of "Shoot him in the face."

I wlll say this though, the zombie balance was perfect. Hunters/Smokers/Fat ass(I forgot the name)/and tanks were all very good at what they were supposed to do. But the game hinged on your teammates knowing what the fuck to do. It's the most frustrating thing in the world when your teammate runs off, your fellow Hunter spends 5 minutes leaping into the air on top of a smokestack, or they refuse to do simple things. /facepalm

I guess you could say my not-liking of the game is more about the people than it is about the actual game. However, I refuse to play Left 4 Dead 2. A whole new game for a few maps and 2 new characters? Fuck that. I can spend my time on WoW.

 

[Kip The Fury]

I like it but i dont play on it much because as an online multiplayer game it suffers from the curse that many games suffer from... thats right, 12 yr old noobs.

Last time i played i had to listen to a kid, who sounded like he hadn't hit puberty yet, shout abuse (mainly a combination of fuck and some variation of raping my mother/dog) down his mic at me because i didnt come and rescue him even tho a tank was busy stomping on my head... he then had the nerve to vote kick me out of the game. I stopped playing WoW because of the same kinda people.

Back on topic, i like L4D its what a zombie game should be (even tho it does get repetitve) but unfortunatly the people who lpay it ruin it for me

 

[The Legendary 23]

Left 4 Dead was entertaining for about the first month or so. Mind you that was with about 6 friends who I played online with. The game was great at first, but it just got dry as all hell. The feeling of having 3 tanks rape the house you were hiding out in was great fun, but once you found out an efficient method to survive, the game turned in wash, dry, and repeat.

I haven't even picked up the game for like have a year, and the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 at E3 this year sealed the deal. I lost a lot of faith in Valve, the announcement just showed that Left 4 Dead was nothing more than a test for a sequel. Not to mention that all of their promised updates either didn't come, or were complete shit.

 

[X]

Yeah I'm afraid my praise of this game may have been short-lived. Like everyone else here it seems, I too got tired of this game within about a week. After I had gone through every single player campaign, there was really no point in playing the game again. I'd love to play it online, but unfortunately the version I have is one of those wacky cracky type of deals and thus online play is disabled. Shame too because I'm sure online play with this game would actually be pretty damn fun. It'd have to be better than the ******ed AI that your teammates have in single player.

I still really enjoyed playing through the game the first time though. Not much replay value, but the levels were pretty badass and it played out exactly like some of the classic zombie movies I've grown up with, so it was fun to play. Without online though, there's really no point in playing it again after you've gone through it once.

I'll certainly play the sequel though. I know they aren't really adding much to the game, just a few levels and new characters/zombies/weapons, but that's all the motivation I really need to play it again. I trust Valve, always have. Not like I have to pay for the game

 

[The Legendary 23]

I'll certainly play the sequel though. I know they aren't really adding much to the game, just a few levels and new characters/zombies/weapons, but that's all the motivation I really need to play it again. I trust Valve, always have. Not like I have to pay for the game

I like Valve as much of the next guy, but I admittedly am not even going to consider buying the sequel. I only saw the teaser trailer at E3, and the characters seemed borderline insulting. An overweight black living in New Orleans narrated something to the effect of "Momma always told me to pray, and if it didn't work, to pray harder," in the trailer, and I personally think it's tasteless. (I understand I'm walking a thin line here, and apologize if I'm infracting the rules).

 

[Mister Zero]

I, like a few others here, picked this one up late. I've never really liked this genre, but I picked this one up. I absolutely loved it, especially when playing with two or three other friends. It plays out as more of a party game, no real storyline outside of "survive to the end of the act." Just kill as many zombies as you can.

The first time I played through there were several nightmare fuel moments. The swarms of zombies that could come out of nowhere, getting pounced on by the hunter who just flew in from God knows where, and the foreboding music when the witch was nearby...and then accidentally startling her. The makings of a hide-under-the-covers survival horror are there, but they are overshadowed by the replay value.

Sure, beating the game on increasing difficulty levels is OK, but it boils down to is you are beating the same levels over again. Once my friends and I beat it, there was nothing else to do, so we quickly went on to other games.

I'll probably pick up the sequel. If nothing else it will provide a few weeks of playing it single player or with a group of friends.