Thursday, March 5, 2009

Left 4 Dead Review

If ID Software ever remakes Doom II - Hell on Earth, they should take a lesson or two from Valve Software. Left 4 Dead is the way that games should be made. The maps are simple, and the game play is real simple - run, shoot zombies, reload, run, shoot zombies, reload, repeat.

Unlike a lot of maps in the games made by ID Software, there is no backtracking. Its a simple play through design that was started with Half-Life 1.

There are 4 human classes, and 4 zombie classes - but one of those zombies is the tank and he does not appear in every level. So most of the time its just 3 classes of human controlled zombies fighting against the humans. Besides the human controlled zombies, there are thousands of computer controlled basic zombie.

The survivors have 6 weapons - uzi pistol, pump shotgun, auto shotgun, hunting rifle, M4 carbine and pistols. It would have been nice if the developers at Valve would have brought over the AK-47 from Counter-Strike, but for some reason that did not happen.

Besides the weapons, humans have two types of bombs they can find and pick up. One is a fire bomb and the other is a pipe bomb. The pipe bomb has something on it that makes the zombies run towards the bomb - and then KaBoom, all the zombies are dead.

Overall, left 4 dead is an outstanding game that is truly fun to play.

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