November 20, 2008
First Night of Survival…
So I got Left 4 Dead and I’ve had one solid night of trying it.
Holy crap. Seriously.
We only had 6 players, but with 8 players? It would be bliss. This is by far one of the best multiplayer games around. Hands. Down.
We started by playing the Campaign, of course. Four of us trying to beat No Mercy. Advanced is much harder than in the demo, it seems. We couldn’t beat it! Wave after wave… it was so very intense. And even though we kept dying, it was a ton of fun. Still, eventually we decided to try to see something else, and joined up with another couple of people, and played Versus mode.
Now, I wasn’t buying this game for the versus mode. I figured I wouldn’t like it much. Picking on people as the infected didn’t seem like fun, and I just wanted the co-operative teamwork of the campaign.
I was so very wrong.
Campaign mode is great, don’t get me wrong, but Versus mode is probably THE BEST competitive multiplayer experience I have been a part of. The sides are small enough to be intimate, and you are constantly working with each other and talking strategy on both sides of the equation. It plays different as the survivors because, with the increased special zombie count and knowing there are human players behind them, you really have to be careful about things like stopping to heal… anything. You have to clear rooms, check every one for an ambush. I mean, you do in the single player, to the extent, but knowing your opponents are scheming makes it even more intense.
And the Infected! Dammit, that was fun shit. I expected it to be boring, since you spend the majority of your time respawning. But now, you’re spending that time scheming with your fellow zombies and cheering them on when they manage to pounce someone or get a swarm after them. I thought it was going to be a more solo rogue experience, but you are just as co-ordinated and a team as the survivors, and when you catch them in a good trap, it’s fucking sweet. But that just makes you all the more nervous next round, knowing they’re trying to top it.
I am so high from… gods, what, three hours of gameplay? A versus match is an all night affair, but it is a FUCKING SWEET all night affair. I hope we can play so, so many more of these. And that’s just the first impression from ONE CAMPAIGN. I haven’t even tried the levels that weren’t in the demo yet.
Man, I can’t fucking wait.