Left4Dead Demo Impressions - Misfit410

So I finally put enough time into the pre-release demo of Left4Dead to discuss in some pretty good detail what to expect from the game. The Demo consists of just two parts of the first chapter called "No Mercy". The basic flow of the game is the survivors spawning together and needing to work their way to a "Safe Room" At the spawn you have two weapon choices, ammo and a medkit. The starter weapons are a pistol and a choice of either a shotgun or uzi. The main weapon has ammo limits but the pistol never runs out of ammo. You can also use the medpack as a melee weapon if needed.

The Zombies in this game are pretty wild, I'd put them as a cross between the "28 Days Later" infected and the "Dawn of the Dead Remake" zombies. They look and act more like DOTD but I put in the 28 days reference as they are just "infected" and will go down by being shot and do not require that the bullet be to the brain like most movies. In L4D you take them down easier with head shots but it is not required. The zombies pretty much just roam around and don't typically come after you until you startle them into doing so, loud noises and flashing lights tend to attract them so you spend your time being careful not to set off any car alarms. To keep you on your toes you have the AI director, it kind of watches over the game and spawns "Hordes" so that the game is not too easy for you.. basically when this happens some opening will just start gushing out zombies in large numbers making it so you have to really play smart to get through.

Another thing that REALLY keeps it interest and also makes the versus gameplay fun are the boss zombies. I have encountered quite a bit of them and they really shake things up. You will regularly need to be on the lookout for Hunters, Smokers and Boomers. They make unique noises so you tend to know they are near. Smokers are really sneaky and will usually wait for a hectic time to grab one of your team members with it's long tongue and pull them into a crowd of zombies, the only way for you to get free once he grabs you is for a team member to kill him. Hunters are fast and have the ability to leap very far,they basically just jump on someone and try to rip them to pieces, team members can free you by either knocking him off you with melee and then killing him, or just shooting him(it is preferred to use melee so you cut how much damage he does if you are close enough to do so). The Boomer is just a really fat guy who vomits a thick,sticky mucus like substance at you, this substance will also get splatted on you if you are too close to him when you kill him. The substance is like crack to zombies and it will make them all flock to you if you get coated, it's tough because while coated your vision is very blurred by the slime.

The Other two Boss Zombie types are much, much more serious to encounter. The Tank is basically like getting into a rumble with the Incredible hulk.. he is huge, strong, tough to kill and will hurl large objects at you. The other "Try to Avoid" type of Boss is the "Witch", you will know her because you hear her crying. When you hear crying turn off your flashlights and just try to avoid her, if you startle her she will mess your entire team up. If she is unavoidable you want to use a Molotov cocktail or explosive to take her down as quickly and easily as possible. If she is not in your way, you just do a lights out and sneak by.

Left4Dead is truly gaming perfection IMO, the need to work together has never been seen this strong in any game I've ever experienced, you really do have to get over your lone wolf instincts and learn to watch each others back. It's really one of those games that someone being stupid can get the entire team killed in a hurry.

Now I have only one issue with the game thus far, the Game Lobby. What is in place right now is kind of an Xbox live type interface where you make a lobby or join one, you see your friends and join them, but for PC we have Dedicated servers, so from the lobby you are trucked to a Dedicated server, right now there is a lack of servers due to it being just a demo.. and it was a real headache for the first few days. As PC gamers we prefer being able to join the server of our choice, and I am told that will be as I want in the final product. It's a minor gripe but PC gamers come to expect much more especially from Valve.

So my final word is that this game is every bit as good as you have heard, it's creepy, it's intense and it's made to be played on Expert with the lights out. It is getting a bit old playing the same two maps over and over again.. but the game will have 20 when it ships next week, and user made content is already being put together (someone got DE_DUST from Counterstrike Source working on it with zombies already).

I will have to wait for the final product, if it's as solid across the board as the demo gameplay wise that is a solid 10/10 from me.. if the game matching does not change between now and then, I will lower that considerably.

and so I don't forget, L4D is also the premier for "Steam Cloud" where your settings and save games are stored on valves servers and wherever you log in your controls and save games are intact.