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Left 4 Dead

Something strange is in the air…and it’s making people angry and aggressive. So aggressive that they are looking at you without a shred of humanity. They want to destroy you and tear you to shreds. This is the enemy in the upcoming Valve/EA game, Left 4 Dead.

This game will be one of the first of its kind, one that could help you in the event of an actual outbreak. The fundamental part of the gameplay here is cooperation. The ONLY way to win (survive) is to cooperate with your fellow gamers (human). there are certain attacks that will render you completely helpless and if your friends are not there for you, you are dead.

The AI is placed in the game based on certain criteria as opposed to randomly placed. This means that you can play the game over and over and, in theory, have a completely different experience depending on how you play the game. Even the music will be unique per player. One player may be in a calm portion of the game – like the hallway path they are searching is clear – and another player may be surrounded by zombies and the music will be as chaotic as the zombies trying to eat him are. They have added a lot of visual aspects to the game as well, such as color correction – high saturation to make the reds (blood) pop, vignetting – which darkens the edge of your screen for a claustrophobic effect, film grain, and more. The feel of the game will be as if you and your friends are playing within a real horror movie. Many games have a melee attack, where when you press a particular button, your character punches the enemy in the face or uses the butt of his gun to knock out or kill the enemy. Left 4 Dead has a melee attack that is said to be crucial to the game – one hit can send a few zombies flying back, giving you just enough time to equip your shot gun and let them know who is boss. Additional content is planned after the game’s release as well, ensuring many more hours of gameplay.

There is a Player vs Player mode, and yes, you can play a zombie! I was a little nervous about the idea that this game is purely co-op. I don’t play online very often, if at all. I do have a great group of people on my friend’s list, so I’m less concerned about it than I was when I first got my 360. However, one thing that seems rather awesome is that Left 4 Dead has a great way to deal with some of the assholes you might meet up with online. We all know who and what I’m talking about too. The game is really more about trust vs, the zombies. You will need to trust your teammates, and they will need to trust you. (Just watch the Tongue Torture video and you will know what I mean). If you get matched up with some asshole who decides to go off on his own because you are going to slow or not the direction he wants to go…the game will correct him, usually with a swarm of zombies that tear him to shreds. As stated in the EA3 Interview, if you are a selfish player, the game will correct this. There are even voting mechanisms where you can vote players out of your game. There are only 4 players in the game – you will know who the jerks are.

The game ships on November 4th for both the PC and the Xbox 360.

You can check out all the game videos and interviews at the Gametrailers.com Left 4 Dead page. Don’t forget to check out the Tongue Torture video!

Tags: co-op, cooperative gameplay, EA, Left 4 Dead, PC, Valve, video games, Xbox 360, zombies