Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)

...me. I'd quite literally been left for dead. I can't blame them. I would have done exactly the same.

And reverse...

The survivors are half way through the level and doing well. If we don't formulate a plan quick, they all escape alive. I'm allocated the Smoker this time. I hate the Smoker. While I look for a place to spawn again, I ask the guys on my team what we should do. They all agree we need to strike simultaneously. ...
...online gaming, the concept of Left 4 Dead really should excite you. It's part twitch-shooter, part class-based co-operative multiplayer, part zombie B-Movie. And it's entirely great.

Anyone who knows anything about the gaming industry will tell you that Valve know their way around a shooter. Left 4 Dead has been released to coincide with the ten-year anniversary of the release of their Magnum Opus, Half Life, but takes more cues from ... more

We've nearly made it to the safe room, back-peddling and guns blazing. I can hear the onrushing infected, so I throw down a defensive Molotov at the mouth of the bridge. I'm injured and without a medpack, so they'll easily chase me down. Through the flames dozens of the horde emerge, alight but still standing. Surely we'll make it now. One of my team mates is pounced on by a Hunter; I beat it off and pump three shotgun rounds into its chest. I haul my downed comrade up and we continue the long limp to the safe room. 100 yards to go. The ground starts to tremble. Our opposition have a Tank - surely not - we're so close. Through the flames the Tank stomps - a tonne of oversized torso and raw aggression. We all panic fire, but he's gaining on us fast. 50 yards to go. Disaster strikes. In the confusion we missed the other Hunter lurking by the safe room. I'm pinned down, its claws thrashing at my chest. I need help. The Hunter is killed by a volley of Uzi fire, but I'm wounded to the point I can't get up unaided. There's no time. Looking toward the safe room in vain, I see my team mates continue on, throwing another Molotov down between me and safety, sealing my fate. The infected mob me. I'd quite literally been left for dead. I can't blame them. I would have done exactly the same.

And reverse...

The survivors are half way through the level and doing well. If we don't formulate a plan quick, they all escape alive. I'm allocated the Smoker this time. I hate the Smoker. While I look for a place to spawn again, I ask the guys on my team what we should do. They all agree we need to strike simultaneously. I can hear a Witch sobbing nearby; we can use that to our advantage. I ask the others to meet me outside a shop front; two Hunters and a Boomer arrive. The Boomer stands in front of the Witch around the corner, while the two Hunters lay in wait behind an abandoned truck. I scale a wall to the rooftop of the shop and crouch out of view. The survivors are approaching, sticking close together and picking off the infected. They'll be expecting an ambush. They turn the corner. Carnage ensues. The Boomer projects his bile onto three of the survivors; this will attract hundreds of infected. The commotion has also startled the Witch into life - just as we'd planned - and she springs up with a shriek to maul the offending survivor. The Hunters now pounce from the shadows, pinning two down to the floor. Before the only standing player has time to rescue his team, I launch my Smokers' enormous tongue down like some mutated Repunzel and snare him. Checkmate.

Two scenarios. Two different perspectives. Two slices of fried gaming gold. Eight people in hysterics.

If you're an adrenaline junkie and enjoy online gaming, the concept of Left 4 Dead really should excite you. It's part twitch-shooter, part class-based co-operative multiplayer, part zombie B-Movie. And it's entirely great.

Anyone who knows anything about the gaming industry will tell you that Valve know their way around a shooter. Left 4 Dead has been released to coincide with the ten-year anniversary of the release of their Magnum Opus, Half Life, but takes more cues from their splendid Team Fortress than anything else. The hunter/hunted premise is simple: get four survivors from one safe room to the next sustaining the least damage possible, or stop them. The objectives don't change from chapter to chapter, even though the terrain and setting might. There are no power weapons, no outlandish sci-fi shields and no gimmicky chainsaws to maintain your attention. It's just you, your choice of tactics, and each other who will see you through.

The last portion of that paragraph is key: each other. Never has a game necessitated the immediacy of an Xbox Live communicator so much. No matter your skill level or reaction times, anything but watertight team play will result in defeat. While the environments and mechanics are straightforward and narrow, (some would incorrectly say to the game's detriment) the longevity stems from that all important human element. As a survivor, Left 4 Dead encourages the self-preservation instinct to fight the key principals of interdependence. Getting it right is always hard to judge. Emotive players will readily and heroically leave a safe room to mount suicidal rescue missions, even if it flies in the face of point scoring logic. Conversely, the results orientated among us will leave an injured man to his death if he's slowing the group down and of no further use. When playing as the infected, your comparative physical vulnerability must be addressed with cunning, as it's still possible to lose a game with just two survivors remaining unless you coordinate your attacks precisely.

It matters not which angle you critique this game from, the balance is always there. The gameplay is perfectly weighted; you can never leave a lobby feeling as if fate dealt you a bad hand or the mechanics were unbalanced. You or your team were always to blame - whether it was a poorly executed dash across open ground, a misplaced Molotov, or a simple case of being separated and outthought by the opposition. Where other developers try to awe gamers with grand vistas to fight across and bazookas the size of scud missiles which fire molten piranhas through mountainsides, Left 4 Dead confidently and understatedly delivers its experience with subtlety, stripping away such destabilising influences.

Despite the lack of environments no two games ever feel similar, and that leaves all the triple-A multiplayer FPS titles staring at their expensive shoes and feeling a little embarrassed. Granted, it doesn't have the pyrotechnics of Call of Duty, it can't compete with the graphical fidelity of Gears of War, and it doesn't have the complicated matchmaking algorithms and game variants of Halo. Yet in my opinion, it manages to outshine all these games as an Xbox Live experience because of that mythical property: near-perfect balance. It's scissors paper stone dressed up in ripped clothes and covered in haemoglobin. It's chess drenched in stomach bile and making disturbing gurgling noises. It's 28 Days Later with a sense of humour and more chaos. It's what Xbox Live has been crying out for.

Yes, it has to be said that at the typical £39.99 Valve are taking liberties given the sparse amount of content and limited single player component. Yet the amount of time you can plough into learning the nuances of each level and the best way to snare your quarry more than finds equilibrium with the asking price. With the promise of more downloadable content on the way, possibly at a price I should resentfully add, Left 4 Dead can and will maintain interest from the Live community for many months to come. Of course, if you are offline this is difficult to recommend, as minus the hilarious ineptitude of human input the scope for enjoyment narrows significantly.

But then, who wants to fight alone anyway?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NyF5fZHhriY

(This has some swearing but it kind of captures the essense) 

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