Left 4 Dead

Author: bit-tech Staff
Published: 20th November 2008
Comments (109) Stumble
However, the real key to Left 4 Dead’s continued replayability is the much talked about AI director, the software working in the background that decides when and where to spawn not just the common zombies, but also the boss infected, extra weapons, health kits, pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails.

Taking into account multiple factors such as the survivor’s current health, ammo and skill the director dynamically decides just what to throw at you to make the game both exciting and constantly different, as well as ratchetting up the tension whenever possible.

It works brilliantly well, and is suitably brash about throwing a whole ton of zombies and bosses at you if you’re doing too well while also going subtly easier on you when you’ve just had the snot beaten out of you.

What this means to the gameplay is that despite each campaign lasting on average around ninety minutes you’ll never ever play the same level twice.

Left 4 Dead Dawn of the Dead

The ebb and flow of enemies, the location of first aid and weapons, when and what boss zombies attack you - thanks to the director they’ll always be different no matter how many times you replay a campaign and it makes Left 4 Dead extraordinarily replayable on the same level as classic multiplayer games like Counter-Strike or Unreal Tournament. The maps might be the same, but the different experiences every single time you play keep you coming back for more.

The director is still tied into the overall difficulty of the campaign though and the four included difficulty presets comfortably cover the whole range of playing skill. Easy really is for casual gamers and is almost insultingly easy – even the Tank boss zombie can be taken down in seconds and the game immediately loses a lot of its tension and therefore fun. Normal, on the other hand, is enjoyable without being too brutal, advanced is genuinely challenging even for seasoned players and expert is brutally tough – completing even a couple of levels is an accomplishment.

Left 4 Dead Dawn of the Dead

There is a problem here though and it’s in the difficulty of the grand finale sequences at the end of each campaign. In these, the survivors radio for evacuation and must last a set period of time until rescue arrives whilst being constantly assaulted by wave after wave of infected, albeit with the help of a mounted Gatling gun.

The problem arises in the steep step up in difficulty between normal play and the unrelenting battering you’ll experience in the finale. Here in the office we play through campaigns on advanced, and are getting to be a pretty well organised unit capable of coping with even the biggest zombie swarms, yet upon reaching the finale we desperately struggled to cope with the continued attacks from all four boss infected and literally hundreds of common zombies. While we’re sure with a bit more practise we’ll improve, it was desperately frustrating to successfully play through a whole campaign only to be forced to drop the difficulty to finish it.

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