Supercop007’s Blog

So the new public demo of Left 4 Dead came out a few days ago and I finally got a chance to play it last night.  The hotly anticipated title from Valve Software is only a week away from release and I have to say, the hype is meeting my expectations so far.  I’d already ordered it off of Amazon.com months ago, but after hearing so many positive things about the game up to this point, I couldn’t resist waiting for the full version and gave it a go on my trusty PC (the demo is out on Xbox 360 as well, but as most of you know I have “problems” aiming with an analog stick).

Valve has done a great job again following the release of The Orange Box last year and have produced a stellar game that not only fills a hole in the co-op gaming spectrum, but highlights a trend that I hope continues for years to come.  In an age where first-person shooters have become generic and bland, Left 4 Dead is innovative.  Each time the experience is different due to the “AI Director” that they’ve implemented in the game.  Simply the Director knows when the group moves to a new area and determines the type, volume, and difficulty of enemies based on the skill and current health of the group.  Each time you play, the available weapons and health kits may be different as well.

Technically, Left 4 Dead is built on the Source engine which means hardware requirements scale all the way down to lower-end computers, but still looks great on the most powerful machines out there.  I found that even my mid-range desktop (Core 2 Duo @ 2.67ghz + ATI HD3870 OC) performed very well with all the details turned up.  Logistically it was easy to find buddies that were already playing and join their game in progress without needing to use a server browser all the time.  Overall the game boils down to the co-op gameplay which for the most part excellent.  When I could gather three other people to play with, I had a lot of fun even though I was playing through the same two levels every time (which I did probably 5 times).  I expect that the full experience (which launches on November 18th) will be even better with varying objectives and scenarios.