Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead is a new game by Valve Software.  The guys that brought us Half Life 1 & 2, Portal, and Steam.   I've actually had this game for a while and just haven't written something up about it.

The premise of the game is that you and three others are trying to survice a zombie apocalypse.  How the zombies got there is essentially your Dawn of the Dead/Shaun of the Dead/World War Z sort of scenario.  The player and the other survivors have to slug their way through the undead hordes until they can be extracted safely by the military.

The game is interesting in that it is built to be played in co-op mode over the internet.  Sure you can play it as a single player, but honestly you'll get creamed at the end levels because the survivor AI just isn't quite good enough for you to survive.

First what do I like about this game? 

1. The graphics are pretty good, not great but good.  You won't confuse this for having hte latest and greatest graphics of the day, but it definitely is more than adequate.
2. The sound is great.  You get some real cool moody music, like you'd expect to hear in a tense zombie movie.  On top of that the weapons shooting is spot on, the survivers all have their own personalities and voices, and the zombies all make the appropriate moans, groans and screams to scare the crap out of you.  On top of that there are some specialty monsters that make unique and appropriate noises.  All in all the sound really contributes to the mood of the game.
3. The weapons really work in the game.  You only have a few weapons to choose from so you don't have to worry about swapping around a huge number of weapons.  They all kill great so you don't have to worry about playing a chess match to do the most damage.  There is no huge uber weapon that you can lug around, just normal guns like shotguns, pistols, and semi-automatic rifles.  On top of that the amount of ammo is believable.  If you're not careful you can run out and be stuck with just pistols.  Sure that sounds like it could be annoying, but it usually works out pretty well, and can add to the tense moments in the game when you start running low.
4. The gameplay is awesome.  You can quickly jump in, whack a slew of zombies and jump out.  On top of that they have a versus mode that is awesome to play.  You and the other team swap sides from human to zombie.  Sure the humans are more overpowered, but you get to play the zombie special monsters which is a lot of fun.  And its really satisfying to beat the humans and eat their brains.

So w hat don't I like about this game?  Really the only thing I don't like is that I actually wish there was more of a single player mode.  I generally like that sort of thing, and this could be a lot of fun to play as a single player.  The co-op is a lot of fun, but sometimes I don't have a lot of time to play.  When that happens I'll jump into a team do a level or two and have to leave them in a lurch.  Now its not the end of the world because the game servers will find another PC to drop into the game for the team I'm leaving, but I still feel bad about it.

All in all I highly re commend the game.