You've got to raise at least one eyebrow when Valve's buddies at Turtle Rock Studios claim that with Left 4 Dead, they're out to beat Counter-Strike - but that's exactly what they're planning on doing. They're adamant that with their four-way zombie co-op survival horror extravaganza they can supersede the most widely played online shooter on the planet, and having flown to Valve, taken part in the undead slaughter and relished the sort of interdependent gameplay so rarely seen in PC games, I can say that Turtle Rock Studios have a good chance of doing just that.
With one foot on the back of Valve's tried-and-tested Source engine, and another on the head of Mike Booth, master bot AI designer who earned his stripes developing Counter-Strike's dead-eyed CPU foes, Turtle Rock are peeking over the wall of potential, and into the garden of wondrous, original co-op fun. Left 4 Dead is what they see.
ROLL CALL I take my place in front of the playtesting PC with Valve writer (and Old Man Murray alumnus) Chet Faliszek by my side, as one of Left 4 Dead's four campaigns is loaded and players from throughout Valve's Bellevue offices begin to fill the server.
I am one of the four human survivors, a John Everyman business type who's found himself in the middle of a zombie virus outbreak without even a suit for comfort. To my left and right, stocking up on guns and ammo from a handy weapons cache on the rooftop we've started on, are the other survivors. There's a big biker-looking chap, a war veteran probably secretly loving the opportunity to shoot things, and a 'pick me to make people want to give you their med-packs' pretty rich girl who, at odds with her appearance, knows how to blast holes in zombie torsos. In practice, of course, they're all just different player models and voice-samples. The only real choice is in what you grab from the table of weapons.
To make a total player count of eight, four other players have spawned as four special zombies who live happily among the ravenous hordes. The Boomer, a fat flesh-balloon filled with explosive gases and zombie-attracting vomit. The Hunter, a quick and agile zombie who jumps out of dark corners. The Smoker, with his 50-foot prehensile tongue. And The Hulk, who is not unlike his greener namesake. As the survivors make their way through the level, it's these infected players who must stop them with their particular zombie powers. Helpfully, they've got infinite lives, so they won't be worried about being a tad gung-ho.
ALL OUTTA GUM The weapons on offer aren't terribly interesting. I grab a pistol and a shotgun, rationalising that shotguns are always the best choice where zombies are concerned. A grenade slips into my inventory, and I forego the submachine gun and the molotovs. You could describe the available weapons as either mundane or classic, depending on your outlook, but they won't be the reason people play Left 4 Dead. The game is about co-operative teamplay - and not the sort of teamplay you find in Battlefield where it'd barely be noticed if you logged off to eat some bourbon biscuits, but the kind of teamplay in which everything you do directly affects your three compadres. It's precisely because the team is so small that this dependency on teamwork exists, and on every level of gameplay you're encouraged to help each other out.
Generously, my team-mates allow me to take the lead, as we make our way down through the apartment building. It's not long before I have my first encounter with the infected. The AI-controlled undead on show here are staggeringly well animated. They spill out of doorways in their droves, at times at least 20 of them on screen at once. They sprint down streets towards you at high speed, climbing over burnt-out cars, leaning into corners as they run - there's something terrifyingly purposeful about how they come at you.
When shot, they stumble to the ground mid-sprint, their faltering a mix of animation and physics, Faliszek informs me. Oh yes, these are good zombies, these are running zombies from 28 Days Later (count how many times this game will get associated with that movie), and they feel great to kill.
SMOKING KILLS A few dozen undead corpses in and we come across the first of the four player-controlled infected. In Left 4 Dead, the four humans appear through walls as yellow silhouettes when not directly visible, meaning team-mates can always tell where the rest of their team is, even from rooms away. It also means the infected players can ambush the humans simply by waiting around corners.
In this situation, the Smoker has been waiting for us, perched at the edge of a hole in the floor above, looking down into the room we're about to enter. The first clue that there's a Smoker nearby is, well, the smoke. It fills rooms and makes it difficult to notice a long black tongue snake downwards and wrap around your team-mate's neck before lifting him 4ft off the floor. Once he's trapped in the fleshy noose, he'll uselessly dangle there like a frequently parodied ex-dictator, with only a few precious seconds of life left. It takes the quick-thinking trigger finger of another team-mate to persuade the Smoker to let go. Score one point for the survivors.
These are the times when the game comes into its own. Whether they're trapped under a Hunter, lying wounded on the floor or just perilously clinging to a ledge after being punched out of a window by a Hulk, saving a team-mate is a brilliant feeling, and it creates countless unscripted moments of fear (and subsequent relief). Small touches like the ability to lock doors as well as shoot holes in them add some spice to the proceedings, while the so-called AI Director works silently in the background to orchestrate the flow of zombie hordes.
INFECTED What this means is that sometimes you'll be tentatively making your way down a deserted alleyway, while other times you'll be overrun by enemies. Play through the same section a second time and the locations and strengths of each wave of brain-hungry foes will be different. It keeps you on edge, and when playing as one of the infected four you'll be waiting for the humans to be defending themselves from the AI before you attack.
Actually taking control of the infected turns Left 4 Dead into a means of seemingly trying to ruin somebody else's fun. What we played was still a little rough, but the basics are sound.
As a Boomer you hide around corners before leaping into the middle of the survivors and belching your juices on them. As a Hunter you wait until you hear somebody reporting the fact that they're reloading before pouncing on them and eating their head. As a Smoker you lock on to humans before launching your tongue at them, and as the Hulk you chuck cars and debris about like lego. It's simple, brutal, and in essence quite easy.
Our campaign had us heading for a rooftop helipad across the city, from which we were to radio for a helicopter. Left 4 Dead will ship with four campaigns (with extra campaigns planned for release at a later stage), some of which will take place in rural areas as well as the typical urban settings. Broken into five separate maps, the campaign I was playing took about 40 minutes to beat. Could that be too much of a time commitment for random online co-op?
It remains to be seen how the ducks will take to this particular water, and whether this will be played more by groups of friends than random strangers, but Left 4 Dead has enough to keep most players captivated for a full campaign. In between maps you're presented with a scoreboard listing your achievements in that round, as well as your failures. Handing over a health pack to a needier player earns an achievement, as do things like rescuing a team-mate and exploding a Boomer at a time when it didn't harm anybody. Meanwhile, deliberate pot-shots at friends and selfish use of resources puts a big embarrassing mark next to your name. Serves you right too.
PUDDING So while this isn't immediately similar to any iteration of Counter-Strike, it's apparent that inside its decaying veins flows the same congealing blood. The sort of blood that contains a careful measure of teamplay and fun. Yes, Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead might be distant cousins - and the latter might also be the kick in the arse Counter-Strike players need to stop playing the increasingly stale but defiantly popular shooter, and start playing something infinitely more interesting.
Don't colour us convinced just yet however, as Left 4 Dead's proof will be found nowhere else but in the online pudding. Minimally multiplayer online gaming might just be the way forward.
Finally, a multiplayer game with something that's a little different. It certainly sounds good, and the small squads and tense atmosphere a nice change.
40 minutes per round might sound like a bit much, but if you consider the average duration of a game of (for instance) Battlefield 2, it's really not that much longer.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20961&start=0 Game play videos, a far deeper preview and a small preview are all linked to...
Download and have a watch of this weeks/months The 1UP SHow. It has a very good preview of the game along with some video. The animations and graphics suit the game perfectly. I can't wait. Valve and it's affiliates have some storming games coming out soon. Episode 2, TF2, Portal, this and The Crossing all look superb!
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Phew, thank f**k I bought PCZ just for the GW pet otherwise I'd be slightly peeved that I've just read an article that was in a magazine I bought at the weekend.
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