Hands-On: Left 4 Dead

What needs work in Left 4 Dead:

Playing as the boss zombies is difficult. The premise of playable zombies brings to mind some really exciting scenarios. Unfortunately, we were left a little cold by Left 4 Dead's vision of playable boss zombies (four of which can face off against four humans in the online Versus mode). For starters, the zombie boss types have few direct attacks, only indirect ways of inconveniencing the humans. The Smoker can shoot his ribbon-like tongue to ensnare and slowly strangle an unsuspecting human; the Boomer can vomit goo to attract the weaker computer-controlled zombie hordes; the Hunter can pounce on and slowly maul a victim to death.

But we found was that the boss zombies can inflict relatively little damage, and die very easily compared to the (comparatively) tough humans. The Boomer, for example, looks like a big, fat, tough zombie...but one or two shots will blow him away, so he needs to stay concealed. The Hunter pounces on his victims, but there is apparently no way to cancel this time-consuming attack, which gives the other survivors plenty of time to kill the Hunter with a shot or two. The Smoker was more enjoyable to play, but we still found it difficult to aim and deploy his long tongue. Lengthy recharge times on most of these attacks will keep you waiting in the shadows in between volleys. You can also scratch humans with your zombie claws, but this slow attack inflicts minimal damage and tends to lead to a quick death.

Left 4 Dead

Long respawn times can frustrate: Waiting 30 seconds to respawn is an awfully long time for a modern FPS, especially compared to console kings like Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3. When playing as the boss zombies, we found ourselves waiting in respawn limbo more than actually playing the game. When respawning, you must navigate through the environment and choose your physical spawn point each time. Whether we were waiting to recharge our special attack, or waiting to respawn, we found ourselves waiting more than playing when controlling the boss zombies. This left us feeling frustrated at times and made us wish we were back playing as the uber-tough humans.

Steep learning curve for Versus. We found that the goals in the Versus mode were somewhat confusing, the zombie bosses were difficult to use, and the Counterstrike-style respawn times discouraged us from playing as the zombies. A tutorial or training mode would assist new players in learning the ins and outs of Left 4 Dead's unusual (but clever and progressive) play style, but unfortunately the game doesn't seem to include this feature. Left 4 Dead seems to be strongly influenced by Counter Strike -- if you mastered Counter Strike, you'll be better prepared for this difficult game.

Left 4 Dead

The single-player experience may be short. From what we've seen and experienced, there seems to be little in the way of a storyline mode for the game. If you play by yourself, you'll fight with three computer-controlled humans through five different levels, just like in the online co-op. This means that the game's longevity will come through in its online modes, particularly Versus. We suspect that the success of Versus will hinge on the patience of the players -- if you take the time to master the intricacies of Versus, we suspect it could be unique and enjoyable.

All in all, Left 4 Dead left us feeling a bit cold. Playing as the humans is good, gory fun; playing as the zombies is...well, it will take some practice. We were also hoping to see leaderboards or stat tracking on the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead, but those are not currently implemented (the PC version will have leaderboards). Nobody wants this game to do better than the zombie-loving folks here at GamePro, but without some frustration-reducing fine-tuning, we fear that the final product may leave us feeling... Left 4 Dead.

What do you think of Left 4 Dead? Chime in with your comments below.

Left 4 Dead

Comments [32]

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Jake016

I've gotta say, this game looks like it will be good, but like all Valve games, best on the PC. Also the think about boss zombies being bad, totally sucks.

James_Earl_Cash

I am a patient man, but half a minute is a long time to be waiting to respawn.

vongaurd

Interesting, but it sounds like there are a few things that need to be adjusted before it comes out.

LivingTheLegend

hopefully valve notices this and tweaks it to its best. They usually put out high quality games.

goofball

hopefully valve notices this and tweaks it to its best. They usually put out high quality games.

They always do. They are one of the best development houses in the business.

Sire

It seems like the positive out weigh any of the negative for sure. I'm really not interested in playing as a zombie so no big deal.

The short single player campaign is a bit distressing though, I am not a big multi-player guy unless I'm playing with close friends and that happens like 2X a month for me, so that sucks.

More and more games are going this "emphasis on multiplayer" and leaving us dinosaurs out on a lurch, and tossing us away like a used tampon.

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