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Preview Feature: Mark Lincoln casts his beady eye over Turtle Rock's upcoming game 'Left 4 Dead'
Pirates, Ninjas, Zombies. What do they all have in common? They all make awesome computer games! There’s no denying it; Monkey Island, Ninja Gaiden, and now Left 4 Dead. Left 4 Dead comes from Turtle Rock Studios, the people who produced the ever popular Counter Strike Source and have been heavily involved in developing the AI in these games. These people are AI pioneers some might say, producing almost uncannily realistic bots in this game that are better than most players. "Left 4 Dead" their latest project - slated for release on both the PC and Xbox 360 - is looking like one of the most ambitious and promising games we've seen so far this year. The premise is simple. You play one of four ‘immunes’ these are a band of people who are naturally unaffected by an advanced strain of rabies which has infected the remainder of the general population. The goal is to get your team of four immunes from Point A, to Point B which is a helicopter extraction point like running some deranged gladiator gauntlet. As I say, simple, but, between these two points - which sometimes can be miles away - are dynamically created hordes of zombies, and we ain't talking Dead Rising style zombies, all sluggish and un-threatening, no, we’re talking 28 days later style zombies, full speed savage monsters which won't let up once they've got your scent. You're going to have to despatch them as quickly and as efficiently as possible if you plan on staying alive! 
Now as I said, these undead hordes are dynamically created, which means that there are no game play ‘triggers’ that tell the zombies were to come from and when. The game uses a system called Director, which works out the best places and times to send an onslaught of zombies your way! This Director system is programmed to give the players just the right amount of anxiety and intensity without them getting under or overwhelmed. As you will probably realise this gives rise to an endless amount of gameplay possibilities for four people playing over the internet.
Co-Op is the main focus of Left 4 Dead, sure you can play single player with three bots, but where is the fun in that? No, this game is meant for the online space and I feel it could make a massive impact too. Co-Operative game play seems to becoming a must have feature in games of late, but seldom do many titles do this well. Gears of War and Rainbow Six Vegas are examples of OK to good Co-Op implementation, but others such as Ghost Recon tend to have players making themselves Rambo and going it alone, and usually it doesn’t really matter as there’s no great focus on teamwork and sticking together. This is the big difference between these titles and Left 4 Dead, the game promises that if anyone ever gets ahead of themselves and wants to play solo, they will end up being the ones to get struck out.
Communication is key, if you're not talking you're not going to be living. This is certain. So certain that Turtle Rock has recorded over 1000 lines of dialogue for each of the four characters to compliment the game play. For example, when a player is reloading in a high pressure environment, he will shout out ‘RELOADING!’ and you'll need to watch his back until he’s fully loaded again. Little things like this, when you’re in a tough situation and concentrating hard, really bring home the game's reality which will demand you remain aware of what’s going on around you at all times.
In addition to all of these very smart design choices, Turtle Rock has made some very interesting game play choices. One of my personal favourites is the down, not out feature. This is when your body has been bitten/shredded up/amputated (delete as appropriate!) by zombies and can still lay on the floor plugging any zombies that come into your sights, until you either get healed and helped up, or you are overrun and eaten alive! If you do unfortunately get munched on and die, you will be re-spawned in cupboards and other hiding spaces at set checkpoints so you can quickly get back into the action. Also, if you’re lucky enough to escape with just a bite, you can actually carry on walking and shooting albeit with hindered vision and mobility. But hey! At least you’re still alive!
As I mentioned you can play up to four players as the survivors, but if you choose so, you can have four other people take the role of four zombies with special powers, which range from self exploding (think the bubbly flood from halo 2) and one which sprays acid on you and makes you the main target for all other zombies in the area. This, as you can imagine, dictates that all sorts of tactics and strategy skills will be required in play throughout the game.
In my opinion, this game is the thing dreams are made of. Fully co-operative game play, intense calculated action and complete re-playability.
Forget Marcus and his obviously genetically mutated soldier chums from Sera fighting the Locust; bring on four everyday people shooting the crap out of zombies in a fight for survival! Left 4 Dead is coming to PC this Summer and should be with us by Christmas on the Xbox 360 produced by Valve and published by Electronic Arts Discuss this preview article on the Forums Readers have left 4 comments. Quote(1) Look it's Mik!27-04-2007 13:45:16 There in the last picture! Bloody hell Mik you didn't say you were appearing in a video game mate?! Quote(2) Untitled28-04-2007 12:32:26 Eerie isnt it.. they actually made me join fat fighters to slim down enough to fit on the screen.
28 days later, the videogame.. nice. Quote(3) Untitled29-04-2007 16:37:11 Very nice writeup Mark... I've cooled off buying FPS games now, but this looks almost like a definate purchase. Lets hope they don't screw it up Quote(4) Untitled30-04-2007 12:38:30 WoW, WOW, WOW!
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