Just when I thought I had kicked the habit. I hadn’t been playing Halo 3 on XBOX at all, and I haven’t played through any PC games (save Portal and company) for like 2 years, which was my real obsession. I only rarely indulged in Wii on a drinking night. I hardly ever played Desktop Tower Defense anymore, even in class. My spouts of addiction to random physics based games liked The Fantastic Contraption, Armadillo Run and Splitter had long subsided.
But noooooo, along comes Left 4 Dead in all it’s gory beauty. Damn you Valve.
I love zombies. I love killing zombies, so therefore, I love Left 4 Dead.
A lot has been said about how zombies cannot run. While I tend to agree with Simon’s position, when you add slow moving zombies to a first-person-shooter, you get a big steaming pile of boring. So this was part of my original justification to try it out, along with the fact that Valve was involved.
My verdict: bloody good. The best part is re-playability. Every time you play through a new campaign, it’s different. Random crowds of zombies will come at a different points each time. Boss zombies will be in new spots, sometimes…
Also, the concept behind the campaigns is solid. There is no back story, just four players (usually human in an online world) in a situation trying to get to an extraction point. Surrounded by zombies. Oh, you also get guns, ammo, health items and grenade items, but you need to get the hell out of there.
Each campaign ends with a huge fight as you wait for rescue, these can be intense and rewarding. I remember one time fighting at the riverfront, waiting for a boat. We see the boat coming it’s just three of us now running for the dock. Of course I run the slowest being a woman the most damaged and I get knocked to the ground 10 feet from the boat. One guy covers me while another helps me up as we watch a Tank boss (aka the Hulk) comes crashing towards us. We made it out with less than a second to spare. A great moment in gaming. You had to be there I guess.
To PC or not to PC: PC vs. XBOX
I have played both PC and XBOX versions of Left 4 Dead, and they are both fine. I enjoy mouse and keyboard a lot so I tend to like PC. However, I do like how much more reliable XBOX Live seems to be over the PC online play, and the split screen is awesome, especially with some brews.
So yes, I will be online, playing this game.
And I don’t think I will be quitting anytime soon. So hit me up on Steam as mstrymn or XBOX as Cheezsticks.