Left 4 Dead

THE GOOD:
-I have never seen this kind of Zombie Survival game before. It feels fresh.
-The four characters mesh well together.
-There are three game modes that are all intensely fun.
-The replay value is off the charts.
-The game features achievements, which are very fun to try and achieve with friends.

THE BAD:
-There are only six guns to use, and multiple explosives, making your arsenal relatively weak.
-There is very little story development.

SUMMARY:
Valve added yet another game to run on their prized Source engine in November of 2008. This addition is titled Left 4 Dead. The game throws you into an apocalyptic world where an insane infection has turned what seems like the majority of the world’s population into cannibalistic zombie killing machines. Four characters manage to be free of the infection, and it is their job to stay that way.
These four characters are the center of the action. They are Louis,...

Overview and Opening Thoughts
Well, this holiday season, some big games were released on the PC. Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty World at War, and Left 4 Dead. One of these titles sticks out; Left 4 Dead. It’s the only one of these games that is actually it’s own game, not banking on success of prior games to get sold. Granted, it’s run on an overused game engine, and the most notable engine probably in gaming history, the Source engine. But the Source engine has never powered a dud, the Source engine has mods that are more popular then some full games out there. Note worthy games powered by Source: Half Life 2, that won numerous game of the year awards, as did Portal, for the puzzle genre, and Counter-Strike, one of the best and most known first person shooters ever. So Valve, the game’s developer, isn’t really a lightweight or new to creating great games.

But, never...

THE GOOD:
- Stylishly produced, stylistic down-to-earth-and-then-some zombie shooter.
- Immensely fun to play, while it's still interesting.
- Nice to computer hardware.
- Range of environments and textures.
- Incredibly realistic zombie physics; hundreds of death animations.
- 4 playable humans and 4 playable zombies. Yes! Playable zombies!
- Range of weapons.
- Replay value, due to a number of features. This will be examined below.
- Co-op, in the truest, most forced sense of the word.
- Excellent atmosphere, due in part to the awesome soundtrack.

THE BAD:
- In direct conflict with one of the above points: limited replayability. Don't worry, I'll explain this later.
- Zero depth; no storyline.
- The graphics, though okay, won't impress you.
- There are a few connection problems with online co-op, though I'm sure Valve will patch this up in the near future with their continuous Steam updates.