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Left 4 Dead
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Left 4 Dead Progress Report
Blasting away at the undead swarms.
by Charles Onyett
September 5, 2007 - The PC version of Left 4 Dead was on the floor at an EA fall showcase event in Redwood City, California today, but unfortunately didn't show off any particularly new content. A cooperative first-person shooter, the game has snagged the attention of many since it lets players team up and mow down throngs of speedy zombies. In addition to playing as one of the four human gun-toting characters, you can also switch sides to play as 4 of the 5 special zombie types. This side of things underwent a relatively major overhaul recently, so it wasn't on display at the event.
Playable zombie monsters include the smoker, tank, hunter, and boomer. Players on the zombie side will be able to chat with each other and form strategies to stop the human advance through the multi-map campaigns. To rival human weapons, the special undead have unique abilities like the smoker's tongue, which wraps up humans and draws them in for attacks, and the hunter's ability to cloak and pounce on players, knocking them over and opening them up for furious claw swipes.
On the human side, you start out in safe rooms and stock up on weapons like shotguns, automatic shotguns, assault rifles, dual pistols, and hunting rifles. Pipe bombs and Molotov ****tails can be carried around as well, along with health packs to dress your wounds mid-battle. From the safe rooms players venture out into hostile territory and battle rampaging bands of zombies, who attack at different points in the level every time you play, says Valve. Eventually you reach another safe room to restock supplies, and proceed in this fashion through each of the four five-map campaigns. In most safe rooms we saw a door could be closed and locked once all the players were through, making further harassment difficult for any pursuing zombies.
We blasted our way through a full five-map campaign we'd seen already, which culminates in a rooftop defense against a pair of ultra-powerful tank zombies. The game's graphics definitely look cleaner than before, and the character animations in particular caught our attention. For instance, human characters low on health will don frightened expressions on their faces, to the point where you might even feel slightly sorry for them as they fire wildly into the ever advancing horde. With shotgun and bullets blasts it's also possible to stop a zombie short in its tracks, sending it crumbling to the floor and giving you a more satisfying sense of a successful kill.
In addition to firing weapons, there's a melee swipe when you've got a weapon drawn, something that's absolutely essential in close quarters. For instance, if a boomer barfs on you, as they tend to do, a sizable group of zombies will come screaming from the darkness to tear apart your face. Amidst the chaos of flailing undead limbs, you'll need the melee swipe to disable those close to you and knock them back to open up some breathing room. It's also a valuable attack while fighting in cramped corridors, since friendly fire is always on and, generally, you want to avoid embedding bullets in the back of teammates' necks.
For communication, the human characters have a variety of shouts to inform others of their current actions. Valve said each of the four characters have 700 to 900 lines of dialogue, which range from "reloading!" to status updates and alerts about enemy positions. Players can always see the status of their teammates through interface icons at the bottom of the screen. These display health and current status, like if they're ensnared by a smoker's tongue.
If you can't get four players together to fire through a campaign, bots can be substituted and will revive downed friendlies and exchange health packs like regular gamers would. The mechanics of how bots will be switched in and our as players join and leave campaigns has yet to be finalized. We were told they're currently working to make is so a departed player would be immediately replaced by a bot, and that slot could be filled any anyone else looking to join.
As of right now, Left 4 Dead is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2008 for PC and Xbox 360. There's no chance at this point of cross-platform play. The game will have persistent statistics viewable by others, so players trying to find a game will have a good idea of who's the most effective fighter and who likes to shoot their teammates. On PC, Valve said this game, along with Team Fortress 2, will have the statistics uploaded to users' Steam community pages.
Click the links to see the full game mechanics breakdown and impressions from this past QuakeCon. Keep your eyes peeled for new Left 4 Dead videos over the next day or two.
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Link To Zombies
DUDE!!! More zombie killing fun than we can shake a stick at!!! Oooooh, dude! I can't wait!!! Blinq... it's finally a game we can play again!! (I'm not touching GoW... I suck at it horribly now.)
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09-06-2007, 01:06 AM
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