trivard676
For the majority of my gaming-life, I didn’t play first-person games. At first, it was the simple fact that they would make me sick. Headache, nausea, a whole bunch of terribleness. When all of my friends could play Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, I had to settle for their third-person cousins. However as time wore on, more and more games headed the first-person route and I was in a bit of a bind so far as gaming was concerned. What initially was a legitimate complaint turned into plain stubbornness as the years went on. I actively shunned any game that was from the first-person perspective and proclaimed the industry was going to hell if all games were going to be like this. Awesome game after awesome game came and went and I wouldn’t give them a second glance if I found out they were first-person. While I hated it, for a while I feared that my gaming days would soon be over.
It wasn’t until rather recently that I changed my tune on the first-person perspective. I had just built an impressive gaming rig and the only games I had to show for it were Resident Evil 5, Fallout 3 with a handful of mods and Bejeweled. I also had Final Fantasy 8 – that I ran on my Pentium I 333MHz PC back in 1998.
Seifer was so much cooler back when liking him didn’t make me seem like a creepy adult with free candy
So to say the least, I wasn’t using that machine to its full capabilities. RE5 looked amazing and Fallout 3 was an incredible game all around, but I didn’t just build a thousand dollar machine to play two or three games. So when it came up for sale, my boyfriend was rather insistent that I give the Left 4 Dead series a try. Even if it meant that he was buying two copies for us to play, doubts still plagued my mind. What if it made me sick? What if he’d just blown $30 for something that was just going to sit on my computer and waste space? Even after I’d downloaded and installed it, I still waited a few weeks or so before I first started playing it, starting with (because I’m cool like that) Left 4 Dead 2. Since then, I haven’t looked back since. Not a headache or dizzy spell to be had, either!
There’s something about the Left 4 Dead series that has kept me hooked ever since I first started playing it. Even now, two years after I first started playing it, I’m still hooked. To be honest, I like Left 4 Dead 2 over the first game. Why? I really can’t say, but I can’t be the only one.
Once every couple of months I feel like shooting boat-loads of zombies and running through a couple of campaigns. When I do, I want to just keep playing it, even though I’m really not the greatest at it. It’s not even about getting any better, either. For me, it’s just about having a blast.
But why? Could it be…
Continued Support
Valve stands behind their games. The Left 4 Dead series is a couple of years old, but Valve has been pretty good about keeping the content updated. Whether it’s a couple of bug or glitch fixes to DLC campaigns, we can’t think of too many different developers who would push out free content over charging you for a whole new game. While the DLC comes at a cost to Xbox 360 owners, Valve is pretty generous to PC users, providing all DLC for free. Currently the team is working on a recent community mod known as Cold Stream, integrating it fully with the game, as well as Blood Harvest, Crash Course, Dead Air, Death Toll and No Mercy.
The Blocked List
Fun times are quickly ruined by folks griefing, raging or just being plain assholes. For those who hate all of those people, it’s soon to be rectified. It’s known as the Block List, and simply enough, it allows you to block people. Blocking people through the Steam Community page, Steam chats, or your Steam Friends list or in-game via the Steam overlay. It seems so simple, too, something that should already be in place, but Left 4 Dead is one of the first games that Valve is testing it on. Isolating yourself from assholes has never been so easy!
Furthermore, safety measures are put into place so that you’ll never have to game with that person ever again. The lists are private, so only you can see them, and if you block someone, you can easily unblock them should your attitudes towards one another change. Valve states that the plan is to add more games that use Steamworks matchmaking that supports the block list.
Mutations
The same old stuff tends to get boring after a while, but Left 4 Dead mixes it up. Mutations change it up on a weekly basis, with new game modes. Mutations are relatively new, being released alongside The Passing DLC in Left 4 Dead 2. The Mutations run for one week before they’re retired, but more often than not, they are voted by players to return as an encore mutation.
What kind of mutations are there? Realism Versus combines the best of two worlds with the effects of Realism thrown into a Versus multiplayer mode. The scales are tipped to favour the Infected, making a normally difficult game doubly so.
There are mutations that cause the enemies to consist of only TAAANKS!
For those that don’t like playing with others, how about Bleed Out? The first-aid kits have been removed from maps and your health depletes as the game progresses. Pills, adrenaline and defib units are still around, but the Infected are harder – and your health literally disappears before your eyes.
Last Gnome on Earth, Fallow the Litre, Last Man on Earth, Chainsaw Massacre and Versus Survival…what’s not to love?
The Director
The Director controls the AI of Left 4 Dead. It features a dynamic system for game mechanics, pacing and difficulty. All in all, it ensures that every playthrough of a campaign is a unique one.
Instead of having spawn points for enemies, all of it is left up to the AI Director. Sometimes it’s particularly cruel as well, spawning Tanks and Witches in the ‘exact’ place you need to be, either in the middle of a hallway you need to get by, or right in the frigging Safe Room. There’s really no limit to what it can’t do in terms of spawning enemies and tools to make it through the map. It can determine by the length of time you’ve been playing the game what your skill level is at and altering the game accordingly.
In Left 4 Dead 2, the Director is capable of changing maps themselves, turning relatively straightforward maps into complex mazes. In the Survival Mode, the Director has the ability to punish players by spawning Spitter acid patches to anyone outside of the map or cheating, while being sensitive to players who contribute to the rest of the team.
All in all, the Director makes sure that each playthrough of Left 4 Dead is a unique one.
Shit My Character Says
For all the time that I’ve put into playing this game, there’s still stuff that I’ve missed. Whether it’s graffiti on Safe Room Walls or shit my character says, it’s always entertaining to find something new.
The game itself isn’t too serious in tone. Valve has a signature sense of humour that permeates most of their games, and Left 4 Dead is no exception. I took a look at the game files on my computer just to find out all the different stuff that one character said in a typical campaign. And to put it lightly, there’s a lot of shit that the characters say in this game. Keeps things fresh, no matter how many times you’ve played it.
The Wonderful World of Mods
What would PC gaming be without mods? I’m not talking about the stuff that makes your gun make a different sound, or a downloadable mode that makes everything naked (why?…WHY?!).
Some particularly dedicated people put some pretty intense effort into breathing new life into both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. New maps, even entirely new campaigns are created with original assets from the games themselves (voice acting, character likenesses).
There are a tonne of amazing campaigns and maps to choose from
Valve does their part in acknowledging the hard work that goes into making these mods and highlights them in the Left 4 Dead Blog and makes it easy for people to find and install them. The upcoming DLC campaign Cold Stream actually started its life as a community mod. I really hope that this is a continuing trend for Left 4 Dead – because there are a lot of mods available that deserve the same treatment.
If you’re interested in downloading some mods for yourself, check out the Left 4 Dead Maps. Left 4 Dead Maps is the biggest collection of custom maps and campaigns there is. To install a particular mod is pretty easy too. Just download your .apk file and put it in the appropriate folder.
steam>>steamapps>>common>>left4dead2>>left4dead2>>addons
Of course, you can do this with either Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2, the above is just an example of how to get the file to where you want it to. Additionally, when you download a mod, make sure it’s what you want it for. Not every mod works for every game mode.
Even looking at all of these things, there’s something else about it. Something that I can’t quite put my finger on that keeps me coming back to Left 4 Dead. Maybe it’s because it has zombies? Or maybe it’s about the Zombie Apocalypse? Or maybe it’s just because of the ‘not-too-serious’ feel of the game?
It’s something that makes me think about Left 4 Dead in ‘non’ Left 4 Dead situations. If I’m at work, I think about where I can find fuel or a health kit. What kind of things can be used as melee weapons against hordes of Common Infected? An hour before my work shift is over, the Tank theme sometimes plays throughout my head. What the hell is it?!
Whatever it is, I hereby dub it The Left 4 Dead Effect. It’ll probably come in handy during the Zombie Apocalypse.
