Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead

Turtle Rock Studios is developing a new Zombie survival game called Left 4 Dead, and it looks really rad. Left 4 Dead is meant for online play, and the coolest part about it is the face that you can play as either a survivor or one of the infected!

Similar to Chuck Palahniuk’s novel “Rant”, a highly virulent strain of ravies has spread through the population. As is the case in any survival horror movie, your job is simply to survive by any means necessary. You’ll need to use teamwork, covering your friends, and reviving them when they fall (think Counter-Strike against Zombies). As an infected, you are driven to bite and kill any survivor you see. Through either sheer force or teamwork with your infected brethren, you must get to the survivors.

Not a lot of information has been released yet, but there is a gameplay video thanks to the PC Gamer Video Podcast.

The graphics look really decent, and the player animations are really well done as well. One to eight players can join in on the game –too bad, a more battlefield2-ish 64 players would have been totally amazing– with 20 maps in the initial game release (via Steam). Turtle Rock found the completely open level design to be too frustrating and hard (just staying alive in this game is said to be next to impossible) so the levels are instead of a ‘structured’ linear design.

The only melee attack is a shove move with your weapon, which is said to be a critical skill to use, but leaves me wanting a better selection of melee weapons (knife, hatchet, katana…). Still, Left 4 Dead looks like it may become a LAN party favorite. We’ll have to wait and see. Left 4 Dead will be relased some time later this year.

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