Updated November 14, 2008

Left 4 Dead goes out of its way to create an interactive horror movie. The movie poster introducing the upcoming mission, the four horror movie archetypes forming the group of survivors, a city overrun with Infected presenting seemingly overwhelming odds, and enough darkened corners to make anyone trigger-happy. The maps are linear, designed to move the player forward without too much thought and keep players shooting at the Infected. Swarms of the Infected will appear as if from nowhere, at any time. There are no monster closets. They are everywhere. They will jump through windows. They will rush through hallways. They will pretend not to see you, and then all of a sudden a group of them is launching an attack. And then the Boomer shambles around the corner, and your party of four is suddenly fucked.

The Left 4 Dead demo went live for everyone yesterday. The pre-order crowd has been playing since Friday, myself included. Portions of the “No Mercy” mission were included in the demo, which pits the four person team against hordes of the Infected as they battle their way to a rescue location at Mercy Hospital, where other survivors are apparently gathering. The opening cinematic does a seamless lead-in to a rooftop gathering of the team where you drop into your selected avatar, grab a weapon and get ready to defend yourselves against the Infected.

First, a qualifier: I mostly played Single-player offline, as I initially had trouble getting a match going without a lot of re-connecting to games. There appeared to be an issue with the matchmaking service, and I was booted from three different lobbies after games had started before I finally gave up. I talked to a few users afterwards, and they appeared to be experiencing the same thing, and assumed it was lag and connection timeouts. An update to the demo went out on Monday to fix some of these issues, but even tonight I had problems connecting to a game. Obviously this will be fixed for the full version – or else this game just lost its entire reason for being. One thing that really irritated me is the lack of an actual server browser, something that all Valve games to this point have included as part of the Steam client. Why can’t I choose where I want to play? This handholding comes directly from the world of online console gaming, and I don’t like it. Just because Left 4 Dead is also being released for the Xbox 360 doesn’t mean you ignore what the PC gaming market has grown accustomed to. And being dumped into a lobby with random players who are more interested in plowing through the map for frag counts kind of ruins the effect of the game.

Before starting a game, you choose your character: Louis the office worker, Francis the tattoo-emblazoned biker, Bill the grizzled war veteran (or gun enthusiast?) and Zoey the…girl. Yes, a token girl wearing a red tracksuit jacket that favors the pistols. I liked the design of Alyx better; she looked like she could handle herself in a fight without being obvious about it. In Zoey’s case, there is nothing to discern her from the rest of the group. Bill has the dangling cigarette and gruff commentary, Louis is the office worker acting out every white collar slave’s fantasy, and Francis is, well, the embodiment of the biker stereotype, but we’d never want to say that to his face. In multiplayer mode, once dropped into a lobby you either have to make your claim on a character right away or else one will be assigned to you. Unless you’re really concerned about what you look like in-game, this really doesn’t make a difference.

And that’s one of the first exceptions I took with Left 4 Dead. Why a pre-made set of characters? There are no bonuses or specialties offered by any of them, and they aren’t “classes” like one might expect. Any character can take any weapon, though if you’re playing with the AI controlled characters they will pick certain types of weapons: for example Bill will always choose the Automatic weapons, and Francis will always choose the shotgun. I’m not asking for customizable characters, but adding a little depth to the avatars forced onto players would have been appreciated.

Left 4 Dead provides only the basic tools for Zombie invasion survival: a heavy weapon, a pistol, an explosive and a First Aid kit. Unfortunately, the weapons don’t feel very substantial or unique, though they do provide satisfying results. It doesn’t take much skill to launch an assault head on; simply firing the shotgun into a crowd of Infected usually gets the job done if you can manage reloading quickly. Even with a more conservative approach, the waves of Infected that constantly beset your group will use up most of your heavy weapon’s ammo. But then there’s always the pistol, which has unlimited bullets, is almost as effective as firing the submachine gun or automatic rifle, and provides similar accuracy.

For atmospherics, the darkened alleyways and closed-in rooms necessitate the use of the flashlight. Wandering around with your flashlight and gun in hand, wondering where that next Infected attack will come from was completely unnerving. Not in the way you need to install the Doom 3 duct-tape mod, but the I Am Legend, oh-my-god-don’t-look-into-those-shadows-I-don’t-want-to-know-what-is-lurking-there kind of feeling. Anyone who has disturbed the Witch doesn’t live to tell about it.

Being attacked by a mob of Infected is not the same as your typical gunfight in other FPS titles. They will jump on you, they will claw you and push you to the ground. The action does not give players pause to breathe; the urgency of each sub-mission is palpable. When outnumbered in Left 4 Dead, there is a genuine feeling of hopelessness. Well, except for the pistols.

One of the game’s best features is how it integrates teamwork into the action. This isn’t a totally generic FPS where you happen to be playing alongside other humans; you have to watch out for your party. You can’t ignore them and just keep shooting, or they will be incapacitated by a Smoker or a Hunter and there’s one less gun in the fight. Either you or another party member must kill their assailant, or if they are completely incapacitated, you have to help them up similar to Gears of War. In another movie-like touch, you can still shoot while incapacitated, to provide covering fire while someone attempts the rescue.

At this point, Left 4 Dead sounds like an exciting multiplayer game that could have easily been created as a mod. There just isn’t enough depth to the core game. However, is it fair to criticize a game that’s sole purpose is assaulting the senses with a cavalcade of unlimited micro-crises? Absolutely. And I will tell you why: feeling fear in survival horror should be knowing you can’t game the system, there is no health pack waiting for you, you really are out of ammo, and it’s time to start shoving your way through the pack of Infected in front of you and make it into that abandoned building, because your last teammate died and you’re pretty much fucked if you don’t. Instead, I always get the feeling that there is a safehouse nearby, and while my main weapon’s ammo has run out there are always the pistols.

Left 4 Dead also doesn’t handle the concept of infection very well. With the amount of times I was clawed, mauled, (probably) bitten, blood spattered in my face and on my teammates, and the clouds of gore and brain particulate filling my immediate environment, it amazes me that none of us get sick. Either the game is following the convention of Zombie movies (in which you must be bitten), or it’s following the convention of say, 28 Days Later, where you have to ingest or come into contact with the blood of the Infected; I can’t figure out which. And the Zombies can run, which presents even more uncertainty.

You can also take a lot of punishment in this game. Even though I was only granted one health pack, it was rarely needed unless I was in the middle of an Infected swarm and couldn’t blast my way to safety. And because of this, the only reason I was going to die was if I took a lot of damage. There is no fear of getting bitten or Infected, just overpowered by the enemy. It ends up feeling kind of…trivial.

Since the demo only includes the introductory mission, there isn’t enough information presented to establish a storyline or purpose for the player’s actions aside from survival, so I’ll presume that delving further into the campaign may reveal some sinister government plot. Even though this may be a multiplayer game at heart, it isn’t deathmatching – Left 4 Dead could have incorporated some additional realism to make the experience more essential; as it is, it’s merely a shooter with lots and lots of Infected to splatter all over the street. Which can be fun, to a point.

A question that also needs answering is whether I will be able to save the game’s progress, or at least continue from the beginning of each sublevel. This is important to me and the people I’m playing with. I don’t want to have to start again because we have something more important to do.

In the face of these criticisms, I can’t help but think that Left 4 Dead has a certain charm. Co-operative play in this type of scenario isn’t new (Resident Evil: Outbreak and its sequel did it first with moderate success), but I think Left 4 Dead‘s primary function is to create an accessible adventure to be enjoyed with friends. Sure, the campaign mode can be played offline with AI controlled teammates, but fighting alongside them was like fighting with the rebels in Half Life 2. There was no character; they were disposable next to my prowess with a submachine gun. By focusing on the multiplayer elements of the game Valve lets players provide the character behind the avatars, and in the reactions to this game world, a new story can be created.

Update: I’ve managed to play more online multiplayer, and still think that this is a game you have you play with people you know, or at least people who can appreciate the pacing required for this kind of shooter. Naturally the action comes hard and fast while under attack by the Infected, but this isn’t a god damned race. Someone took the time to design these levels to make them creepy, at times claustrophobic, and appear ravaged by the clash of survivor versus infected. I’m not about to strike up a conversation in between firefights, but can we at least take a bit of time to regroup?

Ultimately, I think the demo is just too short to truly grasp what the game is capable of. I’m looking forward to playing the full version next week.