If you've been looking for a good, solid multiplayer game with zombies, you've probably been disappointed with what's been out there so far. Most horror games do have zombies, but few do it in some kind of online mode that's worth a damn. Sure, there was the rather disappointing Resident Evill: Outbreak that hit the PS2 several years back, and mods like Zombie Master for Half-Life 2 are slowly improving. But they're still not up to par with the quality of great zombie movies like 28 Days Later. At Quakecon 2007 I got the chance to play a bit of Left 4 Dead, the new teamplay-based, zombie-themed shooter from Valve Software and Turtle Rock Studios.
The Players
In Left 4 Dead, it's a four-on-four match where one side consists of the Survivors, humans trying to escape a classic zombie apocalypse and the opposition, collectively known as the Infected, not only directs hordes of stupid, AI-controlled zombies, but also gets to jump into the skins of some of the more evil, cunning, or downright brutish zombie bosses. The aim of the Survivors is simply to survive and escape, while the Infected are trying to wipe out the humans. And the fun is in the fight between powerful and tough humans with guns, and sneaky zombies who are ready to respawn after every death, lurking around just about every corner.
Since this demo had the Turtle Rock guys controlling the Infected and putting gamers and members of the press in the role of Infected, I'll focus specifically on the human side of things. You start off in a barricaded safe room with your buddies - the four stars are the young woman Zoey, the tough biker who is unfortunately named Francis, an African-American guy named Louis, and the grizzled older guy named Bill - and a small selection of weapons. You'll have a pistol and some Terminator-style pipebombs as backup weapons and then get to choose one (and only one!) primary gun. There's the submachine gun and a shotgun which are often available, and as you progress you'll also have access to a hunting rifle, automatic shotgun, or an assault rifle. If there's an extra pistol laying around, you can pick that up for some akimbo action for when you've got to pull the pistols out.
Living Ain't Easy
You're able to hold one first aid kit on your back and can stop to use it at anytime. You do literally have to stop, though, as it takes a few seconds in Left 4 Dead to apply a first aid kit and you've gotta stand still. If one of your buddies is getting really hurt, you can apply your kit to him instead, and there are other first aid kits and some pain pills (which give a small boost to health) around the levels as well. If you get hurt enough to go down, you're not quite out yet; while on the ground you are in a state of bleeding and someone needs to come to your rescue within about a minute or you'll really die. You'll have access to your pistols while on your back and can hold off light attacks until someone can come by and revive you, getting you back on your feet. But if this happens too many times without a first aid kit somewhere in there, then you'll start seeing a very grayish-colored vision and be warned that the next time you go down, you're going to be out for quite a while.
And that's exactly what happened to me. I often wound up getting mobbed by zombies while my buddies were trying to fend them off me, and every damn time it'd be me getting smashed in the face instead of one of my teammates. One nice feature is the ability to push what's in front of you with your weapon, and when you round that corner and see 15+ of the stupid variety of zombie just about on top of you, it's nice to have. You can create a domino effect with a push and send a bunch of them to the ground, although it also means risking taking a few hits to do it. Even when using the push I kept going down, though, and while my teammates were getting hurt just enough to make their first aid kit usages on themselves smart enough, I finally got the warning that the next time I get knocked out I'm going to just plain die. I still lasted another couple of minutes playing it carefully, but a Hunter zombie (more on that soon) finally snuck up on me and finished me off.
For about the next five minutes I was stuck in limbo and only able to observe my teammates with a chase camera. I was actually still able to help them by shouting out warnings of incoming zombie attacks, since I could see with a third-person view that you can't get when actually playing. It wasn't long before I got notice that I could be saved if my teammates were able to rescue me, and sure enough, they found my character locked in a closet. It's a little jarring for continuity's sake, as I did previously fall to the zombie hordes not ten minutes before, but it at least makes it a little more fun for those who get killed early or often.
The Gas Station
At one point about a third of the way through the demo we had our first death. We came in the back door of a gas station and were staring out of its front windows at a mess of Infected moving quickly into the parking lot, directly towards us. There were a couple of Hunters lurking in the back, too, slowly circling around to try and get behind us. The guy playing as Zoey said that if we wait to blow up the gas pumps - which were a somewhat safe 30 or so feet away - we could take out a ton of zombies at once. Unfortunately, Zoey crept a little too far out of the front door, towards the pumps, and a third Hunter leapt out. The guy controlling Zoey spun and fired - let's just say gas pumps exploded, Zoeys died, and there were many charred and crispy zombies that day. It was a while before we were able to rescue Zoey from a locked closet a few buildings away.
Bringing the Atmosphere
The graphics in Left 4 Dead definitely do resemble what we've seen in the scarier bits of Half-Life 2, but this does a better job of handling dark areas. And a lot of it really is in the dark, so you'll need to keep that flashlight button handy. It adds to a kind of tension that is just as powerful as in a single player horror-survival game, but here it's totally unique since you're forced to work together with other players. With tons of well-detailed zombies coming out at times, the game also looks good and the frame rate stayed pretty consistent when there were a dozen or more on-screen at once. Granted, the computers we played on were likely to be top-notch PCs, but I've got plenty of hope for older and slower computers when the Source engine is powering a game.
One of the more interesting aspects of Left 4 Dead is the way doors are handled. First off, you can close and lock doors behind you as you go. The developers seemed to include this to help make sure that the Survivors stay together, and it does help as the lowly, mindless Infected can't get through doors like this. Now, it turns out that the stronger ones most definitely can. But the fun part is that doors in this game are fully destructible. If you know there are a ton of zombies on the other side of a door you need to get through, you can grab a shotgun and just blow a hole right through it and then start firing into the horde while they still aren't able to get to you. Just be careful, as the stronger Infected can send a door flying right off its hinges.
