November 6, 2010
Left 4 Dead has a Narrative
Because I know the number of times I will play through The Passing is limited to maybe one or two more, I recently listened through all of the possible dialogs throughout the campaign. They’re fucking hilarious. I suggest you play The Passing like a million times or just watch the videos here.
It just amazes me how brilliant Valve is. Or at least, it did when I started listening to these clips. The Left 4 Dead maps don’t really change much, at least layout-wise, and you’re expected to be playing these maps over and over again. Putting in, seriously, this much dialog is such a great solution and, more importantly, builds a slightly different narrative each time. It creates the feeling of variation, and also makes the characters extremely strong.
Seriously, Valve has done a fantastic job of storytelling in Left 4 Dead. Do they get enough credit? I don’t know. But you’ve got very deep characters and a fairly cohesive narrative, even when all the players can do whatever stupid bullshit they want. The game is designed to create narrative high and low points, and it actually work. When you play it, it’s not just a game. It is a narrative. There’s sometimes narrative in, I dunno, Modern Warfare multiplayer, but it’s always meta-narrative. It’s always the player interacting with another player. In Left 4 Dead, this is often the case, but it is also, simultaneously, a narrative about the characters. Because the game is all about interaction between these four people, the player narrative becomes the in-game narrative. It works. It works damn well.
It’s something more multiplayer needs to do. It makes it way more engaging. Then again, it’s what makes Left 4 Dead so unique. Brer and I have talked about how to take Left 4 Dead into non-zombie genres. It would work. I would be quite enamored with it. Hopefully Valve can do it! Or someone, I suppose. One just assumes Valve because, you know. They’re Valve.