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Now, this is a game I can get behind. I've been looking and hoping for a good Zombie-related game since Dead Rising gave me my first Next Gen experience. Now, I loved Dead Rising, but I felt that something was missing from the game. A good co-op mode. Well, something agreed with me, and I'm not sure yet if it was divine intervention, or a tricky form of temptation. No matter what it was, it's what has given us Left 4 Dead.

The concept is easy, you a one of four survivors in a post Zombi-geddon scenario, none of which are really more or less effective in the situation, which is nice since there is no other incentive to play a certain character other than you like how he or she looks. The game offers four different Campaigns for the players, No Mercy which takes you through a city to a hospital, Blood Harvest which takes you through some train depots to a farm house, Dead Air which is similar to No Mercy in the fashion that it takes you through a city to an Air Port, and finally, Death Toll which is a small town on the bank of a river. Each campaign is genuinely unique feeling in their own rights, so far I'm a fan of Blood Harvest and No Mercy.

There isn't much story outside of getting from point A to point B without dying, which is perfectly fine, this is the type of game where a complicated story would take away from the game. Each campaign is short (about 45 minutes long) so a story is not only unnecessary to the game, but would also damage the Zombie-movie feel that they have captured so wonderfully.

The gameplay for this title is very well tuned, there hasn't been a moment where I have found myself battling the controls. The guns feel nice and useful, and the fact that you can only carry up to two pistols, one large firearm is nice. Also, when healthy, your character is nice and quick, but as you get hurt you slow down and become more vulnerable. They have also utilized the "Last Stand" technique from CoD4 if you get incapacitated by the undead where you can fend off the undead while one of your associates get to you to revive you. As it stands right now, you have limited ammo for your large firearm, but you have unlimited for your pistols, I know why they did this but for me, it kinda takes away from the games total experience. I would have much rather have seen limited ammo for the pistols, but a melee system using baseball bats, axes, and other blunt weapons. You can hit the undead with your firearms, but they hardly do any damage.

Visually, the game looks great, the atmosphere is perfect, the maps are gritty, and diverse, you never feel like you're walking though the same building over and over again, and the undead look nice and creepy. Valve also has a fair amount of undead skins so that it keeps the zombies somewhat diverse. They've also been using the wall graffiti to throw some dark humor into the game (similar to what they've been doing in other games).

Now for the undead themselves, I will start by saying that zombies in this game are not the classical type zombie, they aren't slow, stupid, or sluggish. These are the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon-type zombies that we've seen in movies like 28 Days Later and the remake of Dawn of the Dead. These bastards are fast, and if you aren't careful, they will surround you quickly. You will mainly run into those zombies, however, there are a few other types that you will encounter during your many runs in this game, these are called Boss Infected, the types of undead that make up this group are the Tanks (strong, and hard to kill), Witches (fast, and lethal, however also usually avoidable), Smokers (have long tongues and explode into toxic gas when killed), Hunters (fast and will pin you down to maim you), and Boomers (fat bastards who throw up or explode goo all over you that draw normal undead directly to you).

The combination of these monsters make the game very challenging, you have to constantly monitor your health (some of these bastards will take you down fast), you also have to make sure you stick with your team and depend on them. This right here, as well as the fact that every time you play, things will be different give the game a tremendous amount of replay value.

There are a couple of draw backs, as I mentioned, there is a lack of effective melee which would have been nice. Also, the game is fairly short, four campaigns that average out to 45 minutes each only gives us a 5 hour game, granted, each level is almost infinitely replayable, I would have liked to see a couple more campaigns. I suppose that's what DLC is for, and I'm sure Valve will have some.

If I had to summarize this game in one sentence, it'd be "Fun as Hell!".

This game is a must have for the holidays if you have a 360 or a PC that can run it.

Left 4 Dead: 9/10

Live, BTW, be sure to add BunnyMan Return.

εїз¤ I Love this game!!! i play it on pc thou ¤εїз

You can also play co-op with a friend and play with 2 other people online.

God, I haven't been on in days..

What's funny is that people are hesitant on buying the game thinking that it is scary when really it is broad daylight practically and they attack you. Not MUCH gore but some with the shotgun or sniper rifle.

Quick question:
Can anyone help me with Versus mode achievements, I suck as Infected!