"Guys, go without me," I shout. The crowd presses me to the ground, I desperately shoot back, trying to help my partner, who was grabbed by the tongue-tied creature. A stray bullet interrupts a long tongue, a comrade runs to the shelter - there they are already waiting for him, preparing to close the door. Norman, brute, I think, he always runs away. As they beat me, the shelter door slams shut. "DIE, VILIOUS ZOMBIES !!!" Game over. Yes, the game. And then you probably thought that I was filming an action movie of the eighties, heroically sacrificing myself so that others could live ... In Left 4 Dead, this happens.
It's a completely new way to play with your friends. You and three companions fight your way through one of four apocalyptic scenarios to get to safety ... and what wonderful stories you can tell about your experiences! Four against thousands - we go on one despair, on saving first-aid kits and cartridges, on luck, finally.
At the beginning, there are always four characters in the game: you can choose a biker, a pretty girl, an office worker or an old man. There is no difference between the characters - if only they were different from the zombies. The choice of equipment is small: a pistol, a first aid kit and either a shotgun, or a rifle, or a machine gun.
On the way, we find bonuses: Molotov cocktails, special "bombs" ... You also need to creatively use the encountered gasoline cans. You can also play alone, with three "AI partners", but I would advise you to try the co-op. It is more interesting to play even with one live partner, and even with three friends the game is great without any exaggeration.
It's interesting to play because you can call for help and guys with weapons will come running. Co-op is not just a game on the same server, you need to help each other and keep in touch all the time.
Have you seen a lot of games where four very nervous players would make their way through an abandoned hospital, methodically cleaning rooms, keeping an eye on each other's health and ammunition, and where the two in the front would walk, crouched so that the two in the back could shoot them over their heads? If someone lags behind, the whole team stops. If someone goes too far ahead, ask them to be careful. In Left 4 Dead, it all depends on who's around. You should have people you can rely on.
All events unfold at night, and in the game there are so many quotes from the movies that on loading screens we are shown posters, and in the end credits it is reported how many zombies were "injured during the filming of this movie." The time for completing each mission is from one to four hours, depending on the difficulty level. We make our way through the hospital, forest, airport and farm. We hide in huts, crawl along the sewers, jump on roofs, fight in offices ... we stand to our death, to the last fighter.
There is no plot in the game, except for the graffiti on the walls: warnings from those who walked here before us, messages to relatives and friends, the number of killed zombies, conspiracy theories. After the opening cutscene, Valve uses the same technique as in Portal and Half-Life 2: scraps of inscriptions make up a dark picture of what is happening. The decorations are the most everyday, but at the same time stained with blood, littered with corpses. There are many dark corners where zombies and bosses "respawn". Formally, these are not zombies, but people infected with a virus, who become enraged at the sight of normal players. At the hospital, they are dressed in hospital robes, at the airport - in reflective vests. There are zombies in camouflage, zombies in police uniforms, zombie housewives and zombie managers. They are generously scattered across the levels - they stand gloomily, rest their heads against the wall, cry ... It is very easy to kill a single zombie with a few shots. One player with a gun can easily put five or six infected. But that's not the point. Zombies are coming IN WAVES.You will not know when they will attack you (unless, of course, make noise and mess with bosses who know how to summon armies). No, suddenly a beep sounds - and seemingly harmless zombies PUMP. It is impossible to stop them. Climb on the bus - they will climb from all sides. Enemies break doors and walls and they don't waddle ... they run! They rush towards you with faces distorted with rage, and when they run up, they begin to beat and tear apart. You are surrounded by a brutal crowd, seeking to knock down and trample to death. The difficulty lies in the number of zombies, in the unpredictability of their attacks. The zombie is controlled by "AI Director", thanks to which four short levels can be played over and over again. In co-op, the director determines the frequency of zombie attacks, as well as the appearance of bosses and bonuses. He observes how you play, and plans further developments: if it is difficult for you, then there will be a respite, if there are too many cartridges, there will be a nightmare attack. If the team starts to panic, the director will understand this and stop the attacks for a while. If the zombies are piled on, you have two options. You can shoot and hope that you will be able to knock down enough enemies to make room for maneuver. Or fight back by clicking on the right mouse button - to thrash the zombies with everything that comes to hand, including first aid kits. It is necessary, again, to clear the place. If the team is reliable, it's time to scream and hope that your teammates will help. If you are too far from colleagues or you do not have a microphone, then the character will scream himself, automatically, and the partners will be warned about this by text. It's good if they read everything carefully! To cope with the crowd, you can throw a squeaky "bomb" - a little comical weapon that distracts the zombies on themselves. The infected will definitely rush after the bomb and will trample it for a long time and enthusiastically. Left 4 Dead has a lot of audio and visual information. The icons indicate the location of bonuses and ammunition, alarms (if triggered, a crowd will run), bosses. If the player is out of sight, then even through the walls you can see his shimmering silhouette. The silhouette can be used to judge the health and condition of the partner. Finally, the appearance of bosses is accompanied by characteristic sounds so that you can prepare for an attack. For example, you will very quickly learn to recognize the ominous bubbling "Boomer" ... In the game you must constantly stick together and know what is happening with your partners. If you lag behind the group, then the boss or the crowd will have to fight alone. If they are pinned down or knocked down, you cannot get out without the help of another player. But maybe one of the partners will risk themselves for the sake of saving the lost idiot ... So we got to the zombie bosses: "Boomer", "Smoker", "Hunter", "Tank" and "Witch". The first three spawn regularly and each has their own special attack. "Boomer" attacks from an ambush: zombies from all corners of the level run to his "vomit". The Hunter attacks from behind and pushes the player to the ground. And "Smoker" shoots out its tongue from a distance, does not allow movement, drains health and allows other zombies to attack. To cope with them, you need the help of friends. "Boomer" can vomit the entire screen, "Hunter" can only drive away another player, and if "Smoker" is not shot in time, he will squeeze the character's body until he dies. The last two bosses are rare. "Tank" - a mountain of muscles, hurling all in a row and knocking down with one blow. The Witch is the only boss that cannot be controlled in Versus mode and does not have to be fought. But if she notices you, she will come running, press you to the ground and tear you apart. Friends are needed to deal with both the "Witch" and the "Tank". Our group stumbled upon the Witch at the train tracks. There was no other way: I had to take a fight. Norman had a can of gasoline, the Witch had only one attack route. So Norman put the canister between the Witch and us, we shot her and when she darted towards us, we shot the canister.Fire shot up, the Witch jumped out of it, blazing ... We hit aimingly, and she fell down dead just a few meters from us. This was not a video, not a scripted scene planned by the developers. The next time we walked, the Witch was not in the same place. It happened... Left 4 Dead can be played in three ways: Single, Co-op, and Versus. The developers were silent about the last mode until the last, but in fact it is the most interesting, frightening and funny kind of the game. Versus adds four zombie players to the regular co-op. After the match, the teams change places, but points are awarded only for playing people. The goal is to survive better than the other team, to go further, to have more health, not to lose partners. When bosses are controlled by real people, it’s a completely different game. They can interact, set traps and help each other with special abilities much more efficiently than a computer. Smart monster players wait for zombies to pounce on people, and then attack themselves, snatching the players one by one. Boss fights are a lot of fun to play. At first, you can freely travel around the map and look for a place to "spawn" your character. It is very important to choose the correct spawn point. You can hide the Boomer around a corner, suddenly jump out and scare the group, vomit them all, or explode. The Smokers are ideal for taking out solo players at the most critical moment. Imagine that your friend is pinned down by the "Hunter": you need to drive away the monster. But while you are aiming, someone's long tongue grabs you from behind ... I saw how "Smoker" grabbed the player from the very helicopter. And then he died trying to save a friend ... The "tank" appears rarely, but a smart player can easily take out the whole team to them. The Tank Strike scatters the players to the sides, they cannot help each other, and they are very easy to kill. The most interesting thing happens when the bosses attack correctly and on time. My favorite moment happened when I died and was watching another player in camera mode. After being attacked by a crowd of zombies and several bosses, he desperately hobbled to the shelter and could, apparently, make it in time. Then a Boomer jumped out from behind and vomited at him. I turned the camera around and watched the player limp desperately, followed by a mass of zombies and the Hunter. We shouted into his microphones: “Faster! faster!" He ran to the shelter at the very last moment - a crowd of zombies howled in vain and scratched the closed door. You don't see this every day ... Even the boss is most fun to play in co-op. Alone, the enemy team will easily shoot you. There is nothing a hunter can do against two players. Need someone else to grab the Smoker, and Boomer summons an army of zombies. This game must be played in Versus mode. "Single" is no good, "co-op" is good, but it is in "Versus" that you have to keep track of how far the enemy team went during the last game. You will gladly go to certain death - if you manage to advance a little further than your opponents. Although, as a rule, a close-knit group wins, you can rush through the level at breakneck speed, trying to go the farthest. If you manage to run, it will be very funny. It's time to talk about the shortcomings. Although a small selection of weapons is conceptually justified, more firearms could be put into the hands of players. It is also a shame if nothing works out in Versus: the random appearance of different classes is annoying when you have to play with a boss you are new to, or when the “Tank” goes to someone else. There is no point in playing Left 4 Dead outside of co-op. The artificial intelligence of the computer is good, but your companions follow you like ducklings. They do not pull on living people ... However, the name of the game is not for nothing that the four is hidden! Make friends urgently. At launch, only the four scenarios I mentioned will be available, although "Versus" can only be played in the hospital and on the farm. But Valve will undoubtedly fix things with timely additions. In any case, you can play over and over again on the same map, because each passage of the level in Lett 4 Dead is unique and unique. Artificial intelligence never does the same action twice. Once I opened the door - and behind it the Boomer was waiting for me. During the second, third and fourth pass, there was no one outside the door. Since the "spawn points" are dynamic, not tied to the architecture of the level, Valve has a game that can be played endlessly. It turns out to be something like a desperate attack on "checkpoints" from Team Fortress 2 with Half-Life 2 level design and weapons from Counter-Strike. If the developers do not stop spreading new missions, you and many years later will spend hundreds of megabytes of traffic and tens of hours of personal time on Left 4 Dead. And be sure to ask for supplements ...
