Left 4 Dead

Don't you love screenshots? I do.

Aaah, Left 4 Dead.... a game involving zombies and a group of survivors. This game has it all. It has teamwork, zombie killing, apocalypse, SHOTGUNS and most important: Zombie Killing. I've always loved zombie themed games, such as the ever famous Resident Evil franchise which has the whole game based on zombies, a bit like this. One of the most well known things about Resident Evil zombies is that, while scary as hell, they were as slow as an elephant riding to the supermarket on a unicycle on sunday, which made them a lot less scary than they probably were meant to be.

The whole story about Resident Evil is about a virus known as the T-Virus that infected people and turned them into your happy everyday zombie, while every now and then you'd get some freak who'd mutate into an even bigger freak. No, not George Clooney, I'm talking about the massive Tyrant like things which were named, wait I already said it - never mind. They were named Tyrants and had the massive hand-like thing on their hand.... A claw! Yeah, thats right, a claw and bulging eyes and looked generally very ugly. Kind of like a person with a rather bad hangover after drinking too much camel urine the night before. Err.... wait, what am I reviewing again?

Ah yes! Left 4 Dead, sorry about that folks.

Now, Resident Evil had a lot of zombies, but does Left 4 Dead match up to the slow, shuffling, mumbling wonders that made Resident Evil so popular? Short answer: yes, long answer: yes indeedlio it does and then some. Forget about those slow zombies you've known and loved, because the new generation of 'zombies' has taken over. These new zombies are fast. They're really fast, probably faster than you and would not hesitate to serve you for dinner over a blazing hot fire - if they knew how to use one.

Think 28 days later for those who have seen it and for those who haven't seen it - think kenyans on steroids. These guys are quick and you have to deal with it. This pushes up the pressure and tension immensely, teamwork is vital to succeed, so people who don't work well with other people aren't going to find this game very good and should go home and be a family man/woman.

Now, as you know Left 4 Dead is a game involving zombies, lots and lots of zombies. There are 4 survivors that you can choose to play as in this game, hence the name 'Left 4 Dead' and they all have the same abilities like: "Open Door" and "Pick Up Pills" so there is no difference as to what character you pick, it's all down to personal choice. First you have the old war veteran: Bill who is kind of old but does the job, then you have Francis - the trigger happy biker dude wearing a leather jacket. A LEATHER JACKET. Need I say more? Then there's Zoey, a university student who spent a little too much time watching horror films and Louis, the underpaid employee who you probably won't care about.

Now, along with the regular infected, the game includes 5 'Special infected' that have had special mutations which has made them a LOT more threatening than your average dead joe. Each one of them has their distinctive sounds or musical cues so you know exactly when each one appears, the problem is how to deal with them. 

First of all we have the Hunter - deadly and quick, these hooded freaks can get you from healthy to dead as fast as you can eat a crisp through your nose. Don't try it though. These special infected are arguably one of the most dangerous, you can hear their screams and growls when they're nearby and can so prepare for them... assuming you don't die of course.

Next is the Smoker, a fellow with a rather long tongue and can pull apart the group of survivors with ease from a safe distance. He's also quite dangerous, especially with that silly long tongue, but like every other special infected there are signs so you know when there is a smoker about, but I'll let you play the game and find out.

Another special infected is what is known as the Boomer, is as fat as a whale with morbid obesity and moves as fast as one, but does not appear to be very dangerous. BUT. Appearances can and will be deceiving, while he doesn't do much on his own, once you find out what the Boomer does you'll be looking for him as soon as you hear the bloated noises he makes.

...I can't be bothered to describe the rest. Find out on your own.

Hordes and hordes of regular infected topped off with the seasoning of 5 special infected makes this cake very appealing no? Indeed it does, the first time you encounter each special infected you'll know exactly what their sounds and music are like so you can prepare your good ol' shotgun to launch mind hugging shells into their face.... or anywhere else you wish to shoot them.

There are two main modes of gameplay in this game spread out over 4 different campaigns. This game likes its 4's I know but the two main modes are as follows: Campaign and Versus.

In Campaign mode you play with 3 of your friends (or with 3 bots if you don't have any friends) trying to get to the end of the campaign and get rescued all happy an dandy, there are varying difficulties; for those who want a challenge, expert will make you scream for your Grandmother in California, while for those who want an easier time -  easy is like a stroll through the park. Full of zombies. but don't worry, the Tank will be there to hold your hand as you trudge through the painfully EASY trip, which you could probably get through by rolling your face across the keyboard/controller.

Versus mode on the other hand, is quite different. Instead of trying to get to the end, the players must reach the end and then attempt to stop the opposing team from doing the same. A whopping 8, thats right, 8 people play together on one server with 4 on each team trying to rip the eyeballs out of the other team. Want to know why? On Versus mode you get to PLAY as the infected that you love so much and completely destroy the enemy. Oh Versus mode is fun, so fun indeed...

You may think that with only 4 Campaigns the game would quickly get boring. Well, you're right. This game was meant to be played in short bursts, every now and then to relieve your stressful day of hard work. There's nothing better than coming home and then imagining Adrian's face from the office on a zombie as you blow him from here to Africa with your trusty shotgun.

This game was meant for replayability, so play it again, leave it for a while and play it again. Thats what its here for.

So if I were to sum up this game in a few words I'd say:

"Bloody hell, there's zombies in this game!". And thats that.