 |
| Logo |
Game Overview
Left 4 dead is a survival horror game set in an apocalyptic viral pandemic world. It is a cooperative first person shooter game using Valves Source Engine. The players are known as the survivors and must navigate through each level by reaching the safe houses between each chapter all the while fighting off hoards of infected and special infected and ultimately escaping (or not) after a grand finally. The game consists of 4 Levels that vary in style from dense cities were survivors will use alley ways, sewers and roof tops to open forests, cornfields and rural areas.
The A.I. in the game is known as the director and it controls the pacing of the level and item spawns allowing for a totally different experience ever time you replay a level adding to a high replay value.
Game Play
Left 4 dead is a First person shooter. Players take control of one of the four survivors and if you have no friends you get to play (loose) with the AI and you fight your way through each level fighting off the masses of infected.
The main focus of left 4 dead is team based game play. You are able to monitor the actions of the other survivors, if they are in danger there body will grow red. Colors outlines of you partners indicate their condition and current action. Green means good health, orange, mid way and red means to watch out for this player. Survivors will have to work together to progress through levels, if a survivor is incapacitated he will only be able to give ground fire until a teammate revives him. You can only e incapped and revived two times on the second revive the player will see in black and white, next knock down is fatal until that survivor can be healed, if a player dies the will have to wait to be rescued later on in the level. If being attacked by a special infected one will have to wait until the team shoots or knocks the infected off. Players can share pain pills( which temporally restore health) or medical kits and can carry one explosive device( pipe bomb or Molotov cocktail). All items and ammo are positioned around the levels in different locations each time due to the AI director and can be used as the survivors see fit. Just don't miss with the cocktail and burn your teammates.
Survivors/Special Infected
The survivors: Bill, Louis, Zoey, Francis
Left 4 dead has 4 playable characters and 4 special infected to play as (in verses mode). Though the survivors all have the same speed, accuracy, reload time and so on, the 4 special infected have different playing styles.
Survivors
Bill: Bill is a aging Green Beret and Vietnam Veteran with a never ending cigarette.
Francis: Tattooed covered biker, screams like a girl
Louis: A Junior systems analyst in his company's IT department, usually startling the witch, stealing my pain pills or leaving me
for dead.
Zoey: College student and fan of horror films, that character nobody ever wants to play as.
Special Infected
Hunter: A fast and nimble infected uses pounce attack to pin survivors down and claw out their chests. tends to defy gravity and ruin any chance you had at running away from a fight.
Smoker: Apparently if you smoked a lot and became infected this is what happens. Make a distanced coughing sound and are surrounded by a smoke aura. Attacks survivors with wicked long tongue that can pull you a great distance where you will be constricted and pummeled to death.
Boomer: The most hated of the infected, a fat blob of retched bile. Main attack is to sneak up on survivors with amazing skill and agility(despite being 400 pounds) and barfing bile all over the survivors in which attracts every common infected in the area to your position.
Tank: The tank likes to come along every so often when the game thinks you are doing just a bit too well basically is the game telling you " you aren't winning this time." It is a steroid induced raging beast of a zombie that will falcon punch you across the map when it catches up to you. There is no out running a tank every survivor must gang up on it but most of the time everyone runs in fear of being crushed to death or have large chunks of concrete tossed at them with perfect accuracy.
Witch: Doesn't look like much. A female infected who sits alone and cry's doesn't attack survivors as long as she is left alone but if you do alert her god help you as she chases you down and rips you apart. Not a playable infected during verses mode.
A.I. Director
The Artificial intelligence in L4D uses a dynamic system that controls the dramatics, pacing and difficulty of the game using what has been dubbed the "Director" which suits the game with its horror film-like setting. The director promises a different experience ever time you replay a level by deciding where to place items, weapons and health based on the players current situation, status, skill and location. A player that is easily busting through a level killing everything coming his way and leaving his teammates behind will have more zombies focusing on him with raised skill levels forcing this player to fall back to his teammates or a player who is having a run of bad luck will have the director take focus on him causing infected to target the other players. In early test runs of the game they found that players could memorize spawn points for the infected and where easily clearing through levels. With the director they took away fixed spawn points and allowed it to decide what to throw at the players and when. The Director also creates mood and tension with emotional cues, such as visual effects, dynamic music, and character communication. At different points of a game depending on the situation a players "senses" will heighten and the levels will light up slightly or if a situation is getting scary a light grainy film style layer will cover the screen.
[[http://www.l4d.com/home.html]]
- label
- full source reference
[[/bibliography]]