Left 4 Dead | a Review
originally published on 13/12/2024;
Hello everyone, I am the perpetually infected yet simultaneously immune G.E.M.Simov, a special zombie that walks and talks, and I will be talking at you about “Left 4 Dead”.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
Left 4 Dead, henceforth just L4D, is a First Person Shooter. The Player takes control of one of four Characters, who have no gameplay related differences between one another, and another three Players take control of the other three Characters. This game is a multi-player only experience, balanced and designed around there being four Players.
There is a single-player option, in which the Characters who are left without Players to control them can be taken control of AI (Bots) who will suffice as replacements for real people for half of the difficulties the game offers.
So, already we have a very specific requirement - the game is always online due to the fact that it requires four Players to be experienced properly and is designed around four Players working in conjunction and knowing what to do, whilst also doing the right thing. As stated, Bots can replace a Player on the lower difficulties, but the higher difficulties need real Players to be tackled.
More on difficulty later. First things first, what is this game? The Player takes control of a Character and is given an objective - that objective is to reach a location in the game world by following a generally linear path through a set of levels (the set of levels is referred to as a campaign, with the levels being referred to as chapters) filled with enemies. The enemies in L4 are all zombies (infected) and are relatively dangerous, so they need to be killed.
For that task, the Player is given the pistol, which can fire up to 15 times before needing to be reloaded, and can be reloaded an infinite number of times. Additionally, if the Player discovers another pistol in the game world (during a campaign) they can start wielding two pistols at once, increasing the number of times they can fire before needing to reload to 30.
On top of that, the Player is provided with a number of options, depending on the campaign they are playing - those options range from Pump Shotguns and Submachine Guns to Hunting and Assault Rifles. Each of these weapons - which are treated as Primary Weapons - has a certain amount of ammunition, which can be depleted, at which point the weapon can no longer be reloaded.
These additional weapons are better than the basic pistol in one or more regards - in the case of the Shotgun, it does around 8 times more damage than the pistol. In the case of the Submachine Gun, it fires way faster. When it comes to the Assault Rifle, it both does more damage and fires faster. The selection of possible weapons is not very rich - with there being 5 in total, excluding the pistol which everyone has by default - however they are vital to the success of the Players in completing a campaign.
Though already there is room for great improvement - the weapons have stats associated with them, such as how much damage they do per shot - but that information is nowhere to be found. It is completely inaccessible by the Player, even though it is important and would be vital in determining whether or not to take a new weapon. It is also incredibly difficult to gage whether or not a weapon does more damage than another weapon, due to the fact that there are very rarely situations in which a target can be left to one Player at a time.
Now, this comes in the form of “common” infected and “special” infected. On the easy difficulty, common infected die in a single shot from a pistol, though they sometimes do not die from a single pistol shot. They also sometimes die from a single Submachine Gun shot, but then sometimes they do not. This could be attributed to the “headshot” system, which allows for a precise shot to do a lot more damage, but then many of the single shots that kill common infected are not headshots.
Thus, shooting a common infected is not a good means of gauging how much damage a weapon does - but then finding a special infected, which have more health than the common infected - and being left alone with it is very difficult - in part due to the fact that the mechanics surrounding the special infected require at least two Players to deal with, in part due to the fact that the four Players are strongly encouraged to stick together and to target the special infected, leading into situations that feature more than one Player shooting a special infected and thus not allowing for a measurement of how many shots it takes to kill the enemy with a certain weapon so that it can then be compared to another.
In short, the Player is left with no information that should have been made accessible, seeing as the higher difficulties require the application of “min-maxing”, which relies upon knowing everything there is to know about the game so as to get the highest possible value out of the items that one has in their possession.
Aside from the weapons that are at the Players’ disposal, when it comes to killing the infected, there are also explosives - which come in the form of either Molotov Cocktails that set a large area on fire for a certain duration, doing large amounts of damage to anything in it, and pipe bombs, which are essentially grenades that attract common infected and then explode to deal massive damage to targets in an area.
Lastly, there are also objects in the world that can be interacted with. There are Propane tanks that can be picked up and carried around, as well as thrown forward. Shooting a propane tank makes it explode in a manner similar to that of a pipe bomb. Then there are Gas cans, which function like Propane tanks, but shooting them creates the same effect as throwing a Molotov Cocktail does. There are also Oxygen tanks (propane tanks that explode after a duration) and explosive barrels, which cannot be carried.
The most interesting, but unfortunately least useful out of all of those, is the machine gun - which is a stationary weapon that can be interacted with and fired for a very long time, with an incredibly high rate of fire, though it features very limited aiming (a cone in front of its location that’s at slightly less than 180 degrees) and gets overheated, becoming unusable for a period of time.
With all those offensive options, it would appear that the Players are set for a good time - and, indeed, on the lower difficulties that is so. On the higher difficulties, though, things start getting a bit more dicey. No longer is it enough to just move around with the WASD keys and occasionally jump with the Spacebar onto elevated platforms. The infected start coming closer to killing the Players, on account of their increased health pools and heightened amounts of damage dealt.
Thus, they need to make use of the remainder of the options provided to them. They can use the Right Mouse Button to push enemies away - this does not do damage, but does push enemies away, leaving some breathing room. It is incredibly useful, as not only does it knock back common infected, it also can prevent a number of the things that the special infected do.
In addition to the push, the Players get access to Medkits and Pills. Medkits restore the Health of a Player up to 80, but take a decent amount of time to use, during which the Player can not act, while Pills temporarily restore 50 Health, which disappears over time, but can be used almost instantly.
So, that’s pretty much all the Player’s have at their disposal, with a few things I have not mentioned - such as opening and closing doors. They get some guns and start running through a hand-crafted level (a chapter), looking for either a safe-room or a location at which they will need to hold out for a number of minutes until some new area (like the inside of a truck or a boat’s deck) becomes available.
What’s so hard about that, though? Well, there are loads of common infected everywhere, and they want to kill the Player Characters (PCs). They run at the PCs, they climb over fences or up walls. They do very little damage when they attack a PC, but there are many of them and it can start piling up. The main thing that common infected do is slow the PCs down while they are attacking it, or are in range to attack it, and that they act as cannon fodder for the special infected.
Now, special infected - those are the main obstacles that the Players will have to face. There are Smokers, who can grab a PC from afar and start dragging them towards themselves, during which the PC cannot act. This dragging can be ended if the Smoker is killed or if the PC being dragged is pushed by another PC. When killed a Smoker releases a big cloud of smoke that drastically limits the Player’s vision.
There are Hunters, who jump around at high speeds and have the ability to pounce on a PC, stunning it indefinitely and doing decent amounts of damage every few moments. This can be prevented entirely if the Player who is being pounced on times their push properly, pushing the Hunter and stopping it from being able to finish the pounce, or by killing the Hunter before they reach their target. Alternatively, the stun can be ended by killing the Hunter or by pushing it.
There are Boomers, who fire projectiles that do no damage, but cover the PCs in bile, which attracts common infected. That means that common infected will start spawning just outside of the Players’ fields of view and will charge at the PC that is covered in bile. When killed, the Boomer explodes in bile, covering any nearby PCs in it.
Lastly, there are the Tank and the Witch. The Witch is unique in the sense that it can be entirely bypassed, so long as the Players are smart about their approach. The Witch is sensitive to light - which means that this is the only instance in the game that requires light management. By default, the Players have flashlights which are turned on, and so they should be turned off when a Witch is nearby, so as to avoid startling the Witch.
If a Witch is startled, she will start running towards the Player that startled her at a speed greater than that of the PC, and will attack frantically. One strike from the Witch is enough to incapacitate a PC, and she has enough health to take a decent beating. Thus, not startling her can allow the Players to either walk past her or set up to kill her before she can attack them.
Then there is the Tank. The Tank is a massive enemy with a ludicrous amount of Health, who either throws massive rocks at the Players from afar, which rocks do a substantial amount of damage and knock the PCs down momentarily, causing a loss of control. The rocks can be destroyed if they are hit by enough bullets, but it is wisest to avoid them and instead shoot the Tank. Alternatively, the Tank will rush at the PCs and swing wildly, his movement speed far exceeding that of the Players, making escape impossible.
In addition to that, every hit from the Tank does a large amount of damage and momentarily stuns the PC for as long as the Tank needs to wind up another attack. Tanks are just that - big, meaty enemies that act as bosses who need to be targeted by all four Players at once.
With that, the enemies present in L4D are exhausted, as are all hazards, with the exception of car alarms, though those are minor enough to not warrant a mention… Yet, at the same time, the car alarms are a most fascinating thing. Car alarms trigger ONLY when a PC bumps into the car - not when a PC shoots a car, not when an infected bumps into it, not when the PC shoots next to a car - only when the PC walks into the car. It’s quite odd that it is so, because in almost every situation featuring a car that has an alarm that can go off, it does not go off.
Lastly, we should mention fail-states. As was previously stated, when a PC’s health runs out, they become incapacitated. While incapacitated, they gain 300 temporary health points and can somewhat crawl around on their back, but their movement speed is so slow that it doesn’t really feel as though they are moving. During incapacitation, the PC will swap to their pistol(s) and will be able to shoot. Other PCs can walk up to the incapacitated PC and revive them, which makes the PC that is reviving incapable of performing other actions for a duration about as long as the application of a Medkit.
That’s almost all there is to the game. Complete every campaign, potentially on higher difficulties (up to Expert), though there is little to no point in doing that - there is no new story, there are no new enemies, there are no new levels. Difficulty changes only make the game harder to beat, though they do not provide with themselves any sort of good reason to go through them.
Already, the Player is weak - and is only able to complete the campaigns thanks to the fact that there are three others like him. Making the Players weaker for the sake of introducing replayability, which replayability is rooted in just doing the same levels over and over again for no reward aside from a potential achievement is very bothersome.
In fact, completing the six campaigns once is all the Player needs to do to experience everything L4D has to offer. The rest is just busy work that might yield an achievement. If there was some kind of progression system, or a leveling system, which provided cosmetic rewards or even gameplay bonuses, there would be a far greater incentive to actually play through every campaign on the different difficulties.
However, as it stands, the only reason to play the expert campaigns is, as mentioned, to get the achievements. The gameplay itself is not exceedingly fun, as it might depend on some skill on the part of the Player - such as benign able to time a push properly so as to prevent a Hunter from pouncing on you - but the incredible dependence on a team happens to undermine that ability to enjoy the game off of one’s own ability.
In short, this game suffers from a profound lack of replayability and also from an incredible lack of reason to engage with the rest of it, since the gameplay is designed around being enjoyable for four Players working in conjunction, which can be fun but only when a person gets three friends of a similar skill level. The conditions to making this game enjoyable are very high, whereas the reward is nowhere near as high.
That comes from the fact that there is no room for skill expression aside from pushing properly. Yes, one could become very accurate and get a high number of headshots, but that’s not very satisfying when there’s an infinite number of constantly respawning enemies. There’s something that’s sorely missing from L4D that makes it a bother to play following a single play-through of the 6 campaigns.
There are some extra game modes that attempt to fix this problem, but there is no progression tied to them either, and the entire point of one of them is that Players also get to control the special infected, while the other one is a potentially endless mode - thus it is just more of the same.
I want to award this game great accolades, because there’s something about it I think I should like, but then actually playing it is not nearly as enjoyable as it apparently should be. The movement is a bit floaty, the gunplay is great and features superb hit feedback sometimes, then other times it features no hit feedback, but it really is just missing something. It is passable, but it is not incredible. 2/3
Presentation
While it would be proper to start off by informing the reader that this game is a First Person Shooter and, as such, presents the Player with a 3D world to look at and explore, the things that I would like to start with are some very noticeable faults - so noticeable, in fact, that they really undermine the otherwise impressive Presentation.
Firstly, this game is loud. Not simply loud in one aspect, it is loud in every single one of its aspects. The Sound Effects, while very well placed and appropriately picked, are far too loud - especially when it comes to the guns being fired. The Sound Effects that play whenever something happens that is not recognized in a diegetic manner - such as whenever a Player protects another Player, or a Player earns an achievement - are also ludicrously loud, even if, were they quieter, they would have sounded very crisp and pleasant to the ear.
The same could be argued to apply to the voice-lines of the Characters and the many screeches and roars of the enemies, but those are a lot quieter than the Sound Effects - so much so that, without the presence of subtitles (which are oddly off by default, and then they sometimes don’t even match up with what is being said) the things said by the Characters can remain misunderstood or unheard.
Fortunately, or not, most of what is being said is just a large number of action-movie-esque one-liners and quips that could be completely forgotten. There are some call-outs - such as indications that a certain type of enemy is present or that there is an item that can be picked up - but those, by merit of their incredible simplicity, do not get lost in the cacophony of music, gunshots and screams. Lastly, the most unfortunate element of the voices being so drowned out by the Sound Effects is found in the fact that any lore that might be presented - and there is not a lot, so it is precious - is also presented through those same voice lines.
The only thing that is not so mind-bogglingly loud is the music, which is, actually, afflicted with a different issue. Sometimes it does not play when it should, or it plays but is so quiet that it is barely legible - this occurs mostly whenever a Tank is barreling towards the Players. However, it must be noted that the music that has been implemented in L4D is quite good - especially the tune that sounds whenever the Player is close to a Witch, as well as the ditty that signifies the successful completion of a chapter or even a campaign.
The issue is that it is all far too loud. By default, it hurt my ears. Then, when lowered by 50%, it was manageable, but it was still exceedingly loud, which was very odd and unpleasant.
However, what was, arguably, far more unpleasant - as volume can be solved via both in-game settings and out of game settings - was the fact that this game was DARK. No, not was - it IS dark.
This game features a huge number of hand-crafted levels (the chapters), filled with details that the Player might want to discover - especially considering that a decent amount of the storytelling that occurs in L4D happens through environmental storytelling - and yet the game is so dark that such a thing is definitely not enjoyable enough to warrant going through.
Even at external settings raising the screen’s brightness to the maximum, it was still too dark. Couple with that the fact that unless the game is running in Fullscreen (not my preferred method of play and also a performance hazard) its brightness cannot be altered, and the result is a dark mess that dissuades the Player from straying off the critical path by making it nearly impossible to see anything off of it.
Opening doors only to reveal a pitch black room, or rounding a corner and having it be so dark that even the flashlight - which is just a circle in the middle of the screen that pierces the darkness - does almost nothing and even serves as a means of confusing the Player, rather than allowing them to orient themselves.
This darkness also gets in the way of spotting enemies, which is even more problematic when one considers that half the special enemies take away the Player’s control - because being unable to react to the thing that stops you from doing anything at all and then gets you killed is not fun.
Aside from that, though, everything is quite good. As mentioned, the music and sound effects are good, the voice acting is really entertaining, the visuals are good, courtesy of the immense attention to detail that has gone into this game. Hand crafted levels often-times come with other goodies, and I would be willing to attribute a decent amount of those to the opportunities provided by the Source Engine.
As mentioned, the critical path is very well conveyed - be it through illumination, through bright colors that stand out but also make sense, thus making the highlighted objects diegetic, or through straight up signs (in the case of building interiors that are mandated to have such extras). In addition to that, enemies are distinct enough to where it is very difficult to mess up - ordinary zombies are such and such, whereas the special zombies are clearly others.
The only issues might arise with the Smokers, who are just slightly taller, but that is mitigated with green particles orbiting them, or with the Hunters, who are closest in appearance to ordinary zombies, though their animations and movements are very distinct.
I must, however, strongly reprimand L4D due to the fact it entirely lacks a tutorial. There are some tool tips that occasionally appear, some of which are reminiscent of what a tutorial would be expected to feature, others being guide stones for progression through the chapters. In addition to that, there is no manual provided with this game, meaning that the Player is just meant to look at the controls and figure things out (though even so the interface is not good enough).
Overall, Left 4 Dead presents itself quite well, but it has some major issues that really bog it down. 2/3
Story
L4D has some kind of story, but then, at the same time, it almost has no story. It starts off with this neat cinematic that shows off the Characters and their personalities, though only barely, as each gets a couple of lines of dialogue, which cinematic sets things up as well - the premise, the setting, the circumstances - and then the Characters are let loose upon the world.
During the campaigns - of which there are six - the Characters have a few interactions, but almost all of them are performed relative to a location being reached (such as announcing that there is something in a certain direction) or a reaction to the appearance of a special enemy, or even an exclamation relating to the discovery of an item.
There are very few interactions that the Characters have with one another - everything else is just them exclaiming and announcing things, and then those few times that they do interact with one another, half of the interactions are interchangeable. It was a common occurrence for me to be playing Character A, who gets healed by Character B, and then thanks Character B, but Character B’s response is directed towards Character C, as though it was Character C who got healed, not Character A, the one I am playing.
The meat of this issue is that there are four interesting, unique Characters, who have vibrant personalities and are incredibly endearing, especially considering the circumstances, but then almost nothing appears to happen between them. There are some very, very rare exceptions - at the very start of each Campaign, the Characters can have a small chat - usually two or three lines - exchanged between them.
Unfortunately, to get all of them, one would need to repeatedly start the campaign an unreasonable number of times. This is not good, but there is, at least, something going on between the Characters, some dynamic that can be observed and enjoyed… Though, alas, it is hidden behind endless restarts.
That same thing occurs in relation to the story, though this time there is no hidden story that can be discovered via countless restarting - it is very simple, very bare-bones. The quartet of Characters goes from points A to B, blasting thousands of zombies, hoping to get rescued, but things keep failing to go their way until, at last, things manage to go their way. Spoilers, though, one of the quartet makes a sacrifice so that the other three can escape.
The world of L4D is interesting, because of the aforementioned environmental story-telling. Every safehouse visited allows for the reading of many messages written on the walls, which can range from funny jokes to somewhat realistic reactions to things. There are also tidbits of information about the infected that are shared through this medium, as well as which places in the USA have been overrun by the zombies.
It is interesting, but there is definitely not enough of it. On top of that, there is no great Character development that can be observed, aside from the one who makes the sacrifice, but then it can also be argued that it only makes sense for that particular Character to trade one life for three others.
Something is missing from the story, not only in regards to presentation, but also almost every other aspect. Thus, the only things that are present here are a set of interesting Characters and an interesting world. Everything else is incredibly basic and unsatisfying. 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time?
I almost caught myself considering it, due to the fact that it had a massive cultural impact on the internet. The music, the quips delivered by some of the Characters, the fact that SFM and Gmod can make use of the models and audio from L4D - this is all fantastic, and those are the things that have somehow cemented Francis and Lewis in my mind as phenomenal entities.
Alas, though, that is not the game. The game itself is… Well, it’s something to do with friends, but there’s so much that feels as though it is missing from it that I can’t, in good conscience, consider it legendary. So no, Left 4 Dead does not get the Legendary Point. 0/1
Conclusion
5/10. Left 4 Dead is a perfectly average game that’s slightly on the unimpressive side of the scale. Naturally, it is completely obsolete by now, since it is entirely playable through Left 4 Dead 2, and again there is no one I could recommend it to, as any fans of Horde Shooters have heard of and probably played Left 4 Dead. Still, aside from those folks, I truly can’t think of someone to whom I would recommend Left 4 Dead.
In the bag of mediocrity it goes, making me feel all kinds of odd. Maybe it will come back from the dead, maybe it will gather so much dust I will forget about it entirely.