Left 4 Dead
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ESRB:
Blood and Gore,Intense Violence,Language - Mild
Publisher: Valve Software Genre(s): Action Home Page: http://www.l4d.com/
Braaaiinnnss....Most of the enemies you blow away are your standard garden variety zombies. Easy to kill and slow until harassed. To liven things up, special zombies mix up the normal zombie horde and these guys can pull off some nasty tricks. Hunters can leap long distances and pin you down instantly, requiring help from others to free you. Smokers have a long tongue that can pull you away in a flash and strangle you until you are rescued. Boomers spray blinding vomit on you and if killed at point blank, will explode in a cloud of vomit. Not too bad, except for a small detail - the vomit attracts the main horde in massive numbers until it wears off. Just as your vision clears a bit and you can see something, you are mobbed by dozens of zombies who all want to chew on you - so much that they ignore all other survivors that are not covered with the stuff.
Then there are two special guest zombies - the Witch and the Tank. Witch is always found weeping and won't attack unless you startle her. You can slowly crawl up with flashlight turned off and skip the fight - but if one of you makes too much noise or points his flashlight at her, it's almost certain death for the poor soul. Witches take considerable punishment before dying and do terrible damage if they catch a survivor. Tank is a tough but slow monster zombie that will quickly maim the survivors in close quarters. It takes quite a while to kill a Tank and you need room to evade it. Just a Tank alone can spell doom to an unprepared team, but if combined with a bit of Boomer vomit or a team member or two pinned by other special zombies, it's quickly game over and back to the previous safe house. Best option is to light it up with a Molotov or a fuel can and run away until the flames take care of him. Each special zombie has it's own signature sound and you often hear them before you see them - this creates tons of atmosphere. When you hear a boomer burping or a witch weeping somewhere, every shadow that moves tends to freak you out. Additional panic is created through special events. In some places you have to trigger something to open a route to proceed - summon a lift, open a security door with an alarm or something like that. This trigger always causes a massive spawn of zombies from random directions and you have a nice fight for survival for a few minutes. Usually you can find fresh ammo and weapons at these locations, but it's still bad news if your team is badly injured and out of first aid kits. Sometimes there is a mounted minigun available to even the odds a bit, but even that comes with a disadvantage as the gunner has a limited field of fire and requires protection against zombies that get to his rear. It's important to note that the goal is not to kill all the zombies - it is to reach the next safe house or, in the last level of each campaign, get rescued at the end of the level. Proper zombie movie feeling comes from those heart-wrenching decisions where you see the door to a safe house and have to make the call - dash for safety or try to rescue your pinned friend? Sometimes that dash will end badly as you are pounced just as you thought you were safe, and there is nobody left to rescue you. Minimalistic Weaponry Waiting for a lift... Gun selection is somewhat limited and you are limited to a single main weapon. Each gun has it's use - early on you have a SMG and a shotgun, and later on you get to replace those with either an assault rifle, an automatic shotgun or a scoped hunting rifle. You can also carry a single first aid kit, single pack of pain medication (temporary health boost) and a single pipe bomb or Molotov. Molotovs are handy for area denial (zombies tend to burn nicely) or taking out Witches and Tanks. A pipe bomb has a jury-rigged beeper attached that draws the zombie horde to it - perfect for distracting large hordes. As all the loose zombies gather around the beeping thing about to go boom, you can make a fast dash past them. Molotovs and pipe bombs are hard to come by, so knowing when to toss your only one for maximum effect takes some skill. Everyone also carries a pistol with infinite ammunition and you can pick up an additional pistol for some akimbo action. Pistols are there to be used in a pinch and they are usable while pinned down to cover your mate who is trying to pull you back up. Limited ammunition is also used as a dramatic tool - you can replenish your ammo only at few select locations and ammo tends to run out just before you find a new one. When you are almost dead, close to the next safe house and your assault rifle goes "click", it's easy to panic and do silly things as endless piles of zombies pour towards you from every direction...
Related Stuff Games: Left 4 Dead
Games: Half-Life 2
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