A city of agony, peaceful citizens turned into horrific mutants by a terrible virus, and in the middle of it all, four survivors who did not ask anyone ... This is a short pitch of Left 4 Dead, the last production of Valve, which after many months of delay, finally arrives on PC and Xbox 360. A production that his publisher would win well for the holiday season, perhaps even dethrone the similar Counter-Strike. Valve ambitious? It must be said that the confrontation survivors infected, the four campaigns planned for the occasion and memorable fashion versus weigh very heavily on the balance!
"Chronicle of survivors"
As we have noted in the introduction, the pitch at the base of Left 4 Dead is quite simple and takes the concept introduced by some directors such as George A. Romero. Four survivors were actually "lost" in the midst of hordes of zombies who want to bring them into pieces. At the beginning of the game, the player must choose what he wishes to embody survivor: this is Zoey, the young woman in the group, Francis, the biker, through Bill, the veteran of all wars, and Louis, the indispensable Black service. The characters meet own stereotypes and gender of the horror film series B and it falls fairly well since the four campaigns devised by developers may be taken as shorts horrific.
Built on the same simple outline, the campaigns are taken immediately
Entitled 'No thank you', 'Stop death', 'air holes' and' Sanglante harvest ', these campaigns always begin in a relatively protected place from which one must first be full of equipment: a weapon heavy (pump gun, assault or precision ...), a handgun, a kit of care and the explosive ... You should know remain light to escape zombies! In solo mode, the player controls a single character, but others are interpreted by artificial intelligence so that, whatever the game mode, the team of survivors is always full. The "full" made, it is possible to embark on an adventure and through the five chapters that each campaign to the point of extraction.
Until then, nothing exceptionally well, but the interest of Left 4 Dead is the conduct of these five chapters per campaign. The action is effectively controlled skilfully by developers who, using intelligent scripts and developing artificial intelligence perfectly calibrated, we completely immerse in the bath (blood). Solo, the result is up to the expectations provided of course that the player chooses a level of difficulty in relation to its powers. The increase is a pure happiness that alternates between moments of stress when we hear the sound of hunters or the cry of the witch and pure action sequences where the waves rush zombies whole!
Witch hunters and mean nothing to you? We must clarify that alongside the classic zombie a few bullets adjusted to eliminate enough, there are special creatures. Thus, the zombie hunter is a fast, able to pounce on its prey at the most unexpected and inflicting extensive damage. The witch is a wound that tends to react to light. In its presence, should play the "wall pass" because it is as powerful as strong. The zombies can also count on the boomer, a huge imbalance that we shot, but that explodes in dying, injuring anything nearby. This lump in addition to spit bile which is ideal for attracting zombies all around!
Finally, the zombies have in their ranks the smoker and the tank. The first is a sneaky hideout which to better catch the survivors with his tongue and bring him up to do their dirty spend a quarter of an hour. The tank is the burly of the band. Kind of boss end level, it has a remarkable and a strike force without equal: the survivors have interest in front together to defeat it without leaving their skin. You will note in passing the clever transition to talk about the specificity that is part of the charm of Left 4 Dead: the cooperative mode. Very fashionable at the moment, this option simply to join the services of three other humans to the campaigns gaming.
"What's in your head?"
Suddenly, the words "mutual" and "assistance" take their full meaning with this type of game that invites players to really play as a team. A survivor who began alone in the adventure has absolutely no chance of escape risk and especially to wake zombies while the other group members were not ready. It should then play quietly and in "strategic" to defeat attacking zombies in "smart" and varied according to the parties. So, one can not repeat the campaigns the same way. Players must provide assistance when, for example, one tomb of a ridge (it should then lift) or points of life come to miss (you can use its unique Medik to treat a friend rather than oneself).
In this cooperative mode, Left 4 Dead really takes an exceptional and the fans will be surprised to play for hours without interruption, but the strongest yet to come with the versus mode, real icing on a cake already very tasty. It is in this mode that Left 4 Dead begins to compete with the famous Counter-Strike. Indeed, a team of players took over the survivors while a second team enters the skin of zombies for clashes with reversal of roles at regular intervals. We of course regret that only two of the four campaigns are available in this mode, but the quality levels and the atmosphere is such that there was little doubt about life: just as if it was limited best cards just Counter-Strike.
On the side of the survivors, the deal does not really mode versus, say simply that controlled by real players, the zombies become simply evil and it is very difficult to move a bit through the levels. So we try to do its best to garner maximum points before taking his revenge in the skin of zombies. Here, we begin as spectators, the game tells us what we embody zombie The goal is to find the best location to appear while remaining relatively far from survivors and outside their field of vision. The place found adequate, it may appear and embark on the poor people. All the subtlety of the thing lies in the use of special powers of zombies.
In one against one, they do not address the long survivors, but by combining the bile of a boomer and bonds of a hunter, you can easily put them out of harm. The round ends as soon as the four survivors were ashore and the score can be calculated and compared to the previous round's score to see which of the two teams wins. It is both remarkable simplicity and effectiveness fearful, a bit like Counter-Strike in short! Technically, we should not expect miracles, Left 4 Dead operates a slightly revised version of the Source engine and offers friendly environments, characters very well modeled, but without this being particularly impressive.
If the graphics is correct, the part of the soundtrack, things are much more successful. The sound effects are there to put in the atmosphere and music, although very quiet, underscores the most hot. Therefore nothing wrong except some small lags and some very slight worry in multiplayer, but knowing the reactivity of Valve (observed on Team Fortress 2 in particular), things will only get better. It can also certainly say the same content. Developers have already indicated on several occasions that they did not stop at the basic content and even if it is sufficient to play countless hours, we can expect news in the coming weeks.
Conclusion
Apart from the small reservation against the number of campaigns versus mode (two only), there is little to criticize this Left 4 Dead. Valve sign once again a great game that fully meets our expectations and should date. In single player mode, the duration of each campaign (thirty to forty minutes) is just a little, but the replayability is to go and, even if the game lies in its multiplayer modes. The cooperative is a happiness at all times and versus is even better. The acquisition of a microphone / headset is virtually mandatory unless you have the chance to play eight in the same room! A title not to miss ... at least in its PC version. On Xbox 360, the same happiness is present every minute of the game, but the sum requested by Valve seems a bit exaggerated (unfortunately it is a habit) for a game that might not receive the same monitoring.
