22:39
Craig Mcbeth
Grab your med kits, barricade the doors and hope to dear god that you have some god damn heavy artillery, as we venture into the zombie-ridden world of Left 4 Dead! I hope everyone remembered their chainsaws!
You kids have been very good to us, so good that we have decided to spoil you with a double-feature review of both left 4 dead and left 4 dead 2, don’t say we don’t treat you well! You’re welcome…
The good folks at Valve (Creators of classics such as the inspiring Half-life series and the ever so addictive counter strike) have brought us the ‘new-wave’ of survival-horror; making teamwork and co-operation the primary fundamentals to survival. Both games were brought out within one year of each other, an idea not amazingly respected by a few fans of the gaming community, resulting in boycotting groups apposing the release of L4D2. Although this controversy plagued the Internet, very little came of it… In fact, fudge all happened. But it was very funny looking at statuses of all the members of the boycott group and seeing “currently playing L4D2”, Hippo-crates.
Right, best actually talk about the games.
Storylines are not really a strong point for the original L4D, let’s be honest; go somewhere, end of level, repeat 4 times until we get to some kind of vehicle and leave with a big “The survivors escaped” message at the end. Or if you’re like me, a long list of befallen teammates… I like to shoot things, it doesn’t make me a bad man… I found it strange that none of the campaigns interlinked, not even slightly, one moment you’re in a helicopter escaping, next you’re on an abandoned throughway, littered with cars and debris… I mean WTF, what happened? Did we get bored of being safe and think ‘Bugger this, I’d rather take my chances in that dark forest with nothing but a pistol and a med-pack’.
Left 4 Dead 2 on the other is a completely different story, thank god. Each campaign links in to the last with an amusing little back-story that we get from the characters. Although they seem to have the worse luck imaginable with each mode of escape, this brief dialogue gives us some explanation as to what happened and why we are there. Most importantly, this gives the game a STORYLINE; you hear that? Left 4 dead? Huh? However, it will be said that both games end ultimately in a similar way, by being rescued by the military and not much is said afterward; guess the world just remains littered with zombies, I can see how you would stop noticing it after a week or so…
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The characters were key to the success of left 4 dead, seriously, without the personalities and witty remarks of the characters, this would be as interesting as a lecture on ontological empiricism. We have: the girl next door, the haggard, old, war vet, the rebellious biker and the modern sassy black guy. This is such fantastic character design, it teeters over the edge of sheer genius! You would assume most developers would make the characters similar, but valve have understood the opportunities they have to create interesting and hilarious conversations that four, random strangers, with nothing in common (except for survival) may have. What we have is enough dialogue and witty banter to make it through each campaign without ever wanting to put down the pad or even stop to use the bathroom.
However, the same cannot be said about the cast of L4D2. Yes the characters have their own banter, which is funny and amusing but it lacks the qualities the original had. These characters start as strangers and end as strangers. Unlike the first game, these guys never seem to bond or come off as real ‘friends’ in the end, which personally distanced me from believing in the potential realism of the characters. Take Rochelle; the girl doesn’t say much throughout the campaign and lacks any sense of personality. I really couldn’t care if she died, she didn’t entertain me enough to want to save her, sad that I judge people like that but this is video game, I can be a cold hearted bastard if I want to! I personally preferred Nick out of everyone; he wasn’t an exciting character or immensely hilarious, like Ellis, but he seemed the most ‘realistic’ guy in the squad and a bit of a dick. At least he wasn’t a one-track pony like coach, who just rattled off line after line of food related jokes… We get it, he’s fat… big fudging whoop…
Now we criticise level design, go! The environments in L4D1 vary ridiculously, from spooky, zombie-infested forests to spooky zombie-infested hospitals. But all joking aside, the environments valve have created are very cleverly done, lots of corners, obstructions to vision, dark scenery and the potential of danger from almost every direction. We never get told the location of any of the campaigns within the game, maybe the occasional ‘riverside’, but no names of cities or towns, either fictional or non-fictional. You never really feel scared by this game, well not by the zombies or environments; we do however, feel a slight sense of angst and panic when we hear particular music in specific locations of the map. For example: narrow corridor, low health, teammates are dead, low ammo and no med-pack (a bad situation regardless of location) and all of a sudden we hear the violent blast from the horns and we instantly know what’s coming… TANKKKK!!!! You know you’re going to die and there’s nothing you can do, but you run… You run and you whimper like a small child down the headset, letting all your friends hear your excited squeals of delight and the fear of being called a knob for dying so close to the safe room. I’m sure the game knows when you are hanging out of your arse and clinging to a prayer to finish the level; it will instantly decide to screw you over by firing a horde, a couple of special infected and a tank your way, just so you can prove how amazing you are at failing miserably to handle all that crap.
L4D2 on the other hand has a very obvious and blatant theme; a New Orleans/ Mardi Gras vibe, which is evident through the campaign as most of the levels have key aspects and qualities as seen in New Orleans culture and the City itself. (No hurricanes though… Too soon?) But as always, different location: same old zombie infection. The zombies have received a fresh lick of paint and now look significantly detailed, if not completely different from L4D1 zombies. Again we see tanks, smokers, hunters, blah, blah, blah… Every infected from L4D1, with an additional three new special infected. One that enjoys raping and riding your face, a council estate mom who spits, and a farmer who enjoys his own company (if you catch my drift). They’re all right… nothing too special (pun intended); they piss us off as much as the original specials and fit in quite nicely with the cast. Also, it must be said that valve have gone to great lengths to improve the quality of the lighting, explosions and a handful of other supposedly important features to improve the quality of our gaming experience. How sweet…
Now for me, the key selling point and the most important feature of this game, is the multiplayer. Fair enough we can play this game on solo, be very anti-social and try grinding some of the achievements, but it does not provide any of enjoyment that the multiplayer offers. Multiplayer offers an endless supply of fun, hilarity, anger, frustration and much more from the rainbow of emotion. The social aspect of multiplayer makes this game; everything else, such as character design and level mapping are great and really help tie the game together, but the social side of this game is key, it is the cement which holds this wall together.
Both games rely heavily on this; we utilise real world traits, like trust, patience and co-operation to survive the waves of zombies; we act like it’s life or death, get way too emotional and get completely carried away and start yelling and screaming down the microphone like small children.
Never before has been so easy to go from being completely praised for killing a horde of zombies or saving someone from certain demise, to being totally ridiculed and disliked for accidentally blowing the back of your teammates skull clean off his shoulders. (Let’s be honest, the whiny bastard probably deserved it and they did just walk right in front of where we were shooting… Kind of asking for it to happen really!) If you unfortunately have that one friend (we all do) who is just terrible, I mean just god-awful, at this game, you will fall out with them faster than could fall out of chair. You may be the nicest guy in the world, give to charity, look after the elderly or whatever is classified as nice these days, but once you’ve played the same level… For the 17th time… And it’s always that guy… No one else is at fault, just that same… fucking… guy… You will kick small dogs and pregnant women just so he plays at a level appraisable by 5 year old's! That said, as much as we may get angry or start to abuse our friends (as much as they do deserve it sometimes), we always try to work together to get the job done; inventing new, obscure techniques and tactics to try beat a particular section or improve the chances of survival. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll just scan Youtube for the glitches… It’s still winning but without having to compete!
Score Breakdown:
Visuals – 9/10 The characters for both games are well designed, and with the exception of Rochelle, they also have wonderful and authentic personalities to match (Can you tell I hate her?). Visuals and Environments are not ground breaking in terms of resolution and clarity but they are well thought out, dark and dingy, like a good horror game should be and they suit the style of the animation used. I like.
Presentation – 8/10 Although there is a general lack of a continuous story line in L4D1, we do have several scenarios taken from our wildest, cinematographic wet dreams, I love them, they are so bad ass. The sequester is equally fantastic, with huge homage to New Orleans and the southern, North American culture.
Sound – 9/10 Sound plays a large part in this game, from making you ‘erection at a funeral’ uncomfortable to the amazing, upbeat music at the end of a campaigns; causing a simultaneous release of the death-grip you have on the pad and the tight clench of your buttocks, as you see that last tank hurl half of the pavement at you. Also the gun sounds are nice and crunchy; I like my bullets to feel weighty in an apocalypse.
Game play - 10/10 (+ 15 more) The undeniable, absolute most fun you can have with your friends on Xbox LIVE, very few games top this experience to me, not even a twenty kill streak on COD compares to this. I have yet to play a game where I have not experienced a surge of adrenaline coursing through my veins. Me and my friends could spend literal days squeaking down the mics to one-another, "Dave, there's a witch, watch out"..... BANG!.... Need a revive bro?"
Overall – 9.5/10 I love this game, I’ll say it again, I love it and no matter how much this game occasionally fucks me off; however many times this game may screw me over, I will always love it. The social side of this video game provides days upon weeks of game play, Never is any campaign experience the same. I believe Francis said it best, “You know what I don’t hate? I don’t hate this…”
-Craig
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