Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)

Reviewed by Tom on October 9th, 2009

the best zombie shooter ever! This game can be great any way you play it because in the single player (not online) its great but the single player (online) is insane where you can play as the survivors or as one of the four infected with all their tricks like the boomer vomit or the smokers tongue that can pull the survivors up to 50 feet or the hunter pounce or even the brute force of the mighty tank that can send the survivors flying of roof tops. The co-op is fun as well where you can beat the campaigns with a mate or more if you play online. And it gets better because of the brand new DLC crash course that links No Mercy and Death toll together and there may be even more DLCs coming out that link the other campaigns together.

I strongly suggest you buy this game if you enjoy mindless zombie killing.

the Second game should be even better than this one. so if you would rather wait and get the second one go for it because of all the new features such as the melee weapons like the chainsaw and there is also new playable infected which are so far the spiters that spit acid or the chargers that pick up the survivors and smash them against the ground.

Reviewed by Tom on July 29th, 2009

On of the best fps games out its a consistent stream of the living dead coming at you in hoards but lucky you have a pipe bomb handy and bang 500 down 1000000 to go this is the basic premise of l4d it features 4 epic campings (6 with a free xbox live download) and is most enjoyed with a mate (on xbox live gold)

Reviewed by Oliver on June 17th, 2009

This game has been out for less than a year and it has already had so much done to it. Survival Mode has to be my favorite. The updates (there are some glitches that I wish they didn't fix). You'll be walking through the forest always at the ready, searching the forest for any zombie that might jump you and then suddenly a Moment.... you hear a Horde coming.... but from where? This is just one of the things that makes this game so repayable, honestly I have replayed some of the campaigns in this game a zillion times and it just doesn't get old.

The Verses mode is near perfect, but the respawn times for the special Infected is way too slow.

This is one game that I will be playing for ages to come...... or at least until Left 4 Dead 2 comes out November 20th 2009.

If it wasn't for Xbox 360's dumb live which will only allow a 360 game to connect to Microsoft and other Xbox 360 consoles running the same game. I would say that Valve should release an update which would let Xbox 360 gamers to play User created content for L4D.

Overall it's an awesome game with a 10 out of 5 for replayability and 10 out of 5 for always keeping you on your feet (not literally of course). Can't wait until L4D2 comes out with all new weapons, characters and AI Director Version 2.0 which will not only change the density of the hordes but will also be able to change the weather and move objects around on the map (more than just Pills, weapons, Grenades etc...)

Reviewed by Oliver on June 16th, 2009

Plot: Zombies. Guns. Shoot said zombies with said guns. Get rescued. Repeat. In a nutshell.

Not in a nutshell, you have four stereotypical characters. The Badass biker who is badass with a shotgun, President Obama...I mean a black office worker (Who was originally designed as a ganster) and a Vietnam veteran, who seems to kill anything no one else does. Or sees. Each campaign takes place in a different environment, and you are supposed to get to...oh wait, I forgot a character. A college girl who watched way to many old horror B-Movies. Anyway, you are supposed to be rescued. That's basically it for the story. You do hear a few things from the characters that somewhat describe them, but nothing amazing. The only parts that give anything about the story is during the in between scenes, where you are in safe-rooms. Messages have been written on the wall from people to other people, Infected kill scores, helpful (Not really) information and someone missing the Internet.

Gameplay: A lot of games are pretty good sinle-player, but sometimes much better when playing with others. Nothing says Multiplayer bigger than Left 4 Dead. A zombie FPS. An interesting cross over, which I thought was gonna be way to easy, until I found out the zombies run...which means when you set off a single car alarm, and are playing on hard, consider yourself royally boned. The game plays like a standard FPS, quite similar to that of Half-Life, that might have something to do with it being made by Valve, most popular known for their epic game, Portal. You get about 8 or so different weapons. Pistols, rifles, hunting rifles, shotguns and molotovs and pipe bombs. Your normal zombies are easy to kill by shooting them anywhere. There are also special zombies. The Hunter is a guy dressed like a shop lifter that will leap from great distances to tear at your nipples, whilst screaming like a loon. The Boomer is a giant fat guy that throws up on you, summoning more Infected to eat your face. Don't shoot him when you're too close, or he'll explode on you, calling even more face eaters. The Smoker has a giant tongue, which grabs you from afar and then tears at your shoulders, very kinky looking.

The Tank is a giant version of Hulk Hogan crossed with The Terminator...and then made bigger and slightly less attractive. It will smash anything out of its way just to get to you, hit you in the face and send you flying across the map. If too far away, it will tear a chunk of ground up and hurl it at you. And now for my favorite...The Witch. She sits in corners, or in the middle of your path and cries. She cries and cries and cries and then tears you apart if you disturb her from her crying. Seriously, stay away from her. Don't fire at her, don't point your light at her and DO NOT MAKE EMO JOKES! Witches take as much damage, if not more, than the Tank.

Another feature of the game is the AI Director. A program that takes into account how you play, and then decides where to place zombies Infected, and the specials. And the weapons. And health. In fact, everything but you is placed where-ever by the Director. The Director tries to make the game much more replayable by placing different things in different places all the time. If you saw a shotgun near the beginning, don't go there. there will only remain a witch, which spells "MY INTESTINES". To complete a chapter, you must get from the beginning of a level to the end, where a safe-room awaits filled with ammo, health and creepy written messages. There are five chapters in a campaign, with the ending involving holding up in a small area with nothing but you, your gun, a large amount of Infected and a number of Tanks.

Graphics: Left 4 Dead, when played by ones self on a screen looks amazing. You can see cities on fire far off in the distance, and you can see nametags on the dead bodies of all the nurses you just shot in the hospital. If you've played Half-Life and Portal before, you're not going to be that excited with the physics engine, as A: it's all been done before and B: You're going to spend more time worrying where the Infected are rather than how that mailbox didn't move when you ran into it, but a bigger box did. The sound is pretty awesome, and does creep you out at moments, even if the music sounds like it's years old. However, when played in split-screen mode, the game almost seems to lose a large portion of it's looks.

Overall: This game is much better played with others, because the friendly AI seems to like shooting normal infected than saving you from a Smoker. But no matter how many people you play this with, eventually it will get tiring, seeing as how you can complete the entire game (4 campaigns) in about four/five hours. That doesn't mean you will stop playing it, you just won't be playing it ALL the time like when you first got it. The game does have a pretty decent replayability, in the sense of things are different each time you play, but eventually you will realize you are still just running the same paces, with your normal shoot and kill strategy still working. Then again, you will ignore that for a while as you get the Achievements, some of which are fun. Like setting a Witch, or a Tank, on fire. Or trying to shoot a Witch in the head and killing her with a single shot.

Reviewed by Crossley on April 14th, 2009

Left 4 dead offers hour of zombie killing fun.
left 4 dead's 4 campaigns and online multiplayer allow 4 endless replayability and 100s of hour of fun but this is definitely not a game 4 the the faint of heart, It is one of the goriest games out there. The one thing that lets left 4 dead down is that it is only really 4 people with xbox live if you don't have live I'm afraid this game is destined to 1 time use followed by a long wait in in the pile of games at the back of you cupboard, so consider that if your thinking of buy.

Reviewed by Dhruv on April 9th, 2009

Left 4 Dead is a must-have for any first person shooter fan on the xbox 360. The other reviewers have covered all the points pretty well but it is important to emphasize that you will reap the greatest reward from the game if you have xbox live and/or a good friend circle. While there is a bot option it is nowhere near as fun as it is playing with real friends either online or offline.

Reviewed by Mark on March 8th, 2009

Left 4 Dead is awesome alot of zombie games just get boring but this game wont as you can have endless fun playing online and even playing it split-screen with a mate the whole gameplay works well with split-screen and i have this is a must buy for anyone who like setting a zombie on fire and watch them burn

Reviewed by Ashley on February 26th, 2009

awesome game for those who love to blow apart zombies, like gore, and running away from some big enemies that take a lot of bullets to kill or burn it with a few Molotov cocktails. it is a really good multiplayer game (providing you have a decent internet connection). story is awesome across the 4 campaign levels. The zombies come from no where, if you wait for too long, zombies will hunt you down and try to take you out.

Reviewed by Ethan on February 24th, 2009

I really want to give this game a four and a half... This game is awesome, one minute it is completely quiet, the next your being rushed by hordes upon hordes of zombies. The gameplay is easy to remember and the controls are simple.

One thing I didn't realize when buying this game was that you could play as the special infected and when I went to play versus I was thinking it would be gimmicky and stupid but in actual fact it works beautifully and it was been done well. If only there was a campaign made for the special infected.

The one thing that I think makes the game a 4.5 out of 5 is the fact that there is only 20 maps in total In which you go from point A to point B but this will be fixed soon because there will be Download content that will include a new mode called survival, which I'm presuming will mean you will have to survive for as long as possibly before you get overwhelmed.

Buy this game you will not regret it. : )

Reviewed by Lorenzo on February 3rd, 2009

Left 4 Dead is hands down the best co-op experience ever. The game may be short but it is so replayable you won't care if you play the same campaign 10 times over and the finales at the end of each campaign are just awesome. As long as you have xbox live or friends available to play this is a fantastic game.

Reviewed by Lucas on February 1st, 2009

Developer VALVE have made a variety of games that are a great success but since their Zombie FPS creation they have achieved a great length for Zombie Carnage lovers out there. Left 4 Dead spans over 4 Campaigns that provide onslaughts of mayhem and well set terrain from city to woodland that sets the scenic reality we live in, also enhancing the experience of Left 4 Dead is the 4 player co-operative system over Xbox Live provided through top notch Dedicated Servers gets you more into the game as if it's reality itself. But nothing can compare to the Online Competitive Matches Where you can experience the fun of playing as the Infected themselves, if your not mauling online victims with a Hunter or Spewing bile with a Boomer your Constricting victims with your tongue as a Smoker or smashing anything that moves as the Tank. This game is a riot of fun.

Reviewed by Liam on January 31st, 2009

This game has a really fun and incredibly large amount of zombies to shoot and some interesting weapons to use. I like the auto shotgun it kicks zombies really well and not to mention the dual pistols with unlimited ammo to shoot unlimited zombies. I like the fact that you can pick up and throw things like petrol tanks and gas canisters then you shoot them and kill more zombies.

Basically if you enjoy killing zombies this is the game to get cos there's heaps of zombies to kill.

Reviewed by Andryo on January 19th, 2009

Although this game is costly and has some or many glitches, and has a shallow story and single player, this game makes it up in the multiplayer which is guaranteed to get your money's worth. I got about 2 weeks of solid entertainment from this game.

If you want a game you can keep playing this game is for you as it has a pretty good for replaying time and time again.

Reviewed by Bradley on January 16th, 2009

I played this once at a friends house, and immediately decided it must be mine. The online will not disappoint, that is for sure. Even though at present there are a lack of maps to play on, I think DLC maps are the way to go and valves consumer model will most likely mean that DLC packs are free. Anyway, at present the two maps that are included will keep me busy for a month of online play or so, until I achieve all the achievements (say what you like, but I am an 'achievement whore') that I can.
A MUST BUY FOR BORED HALO 3/ COD PLAYERS!!!

Reviewed by Gary on January 5th, 2009

I'm writing this at 2am after another long evening of online Left 4 Dead. This game is mind blowingly (is that even a word?) awesome!

I have always been a fan of online co-op play. But most in most co-op games in can be hard to have fun when most people tend to play for themselves and not as a team. I was pleasantly surprised to find 90% of players in L4D are extremely "co-operative". In this game people want to stick together. If you wonder off you will almost surely die.

This game is awesome, but there are some flaws. Single-player is rather boring. Bots tend to just follow the leader (you). And there are only 4 levels. Alot of time and thought has obviously gone into each level but they do get repetitive. Its a good idea to boost the difficulty level at this point, to breathe new life into the game. I am sure additional levels will be released later.

Overall, this game will keep you entertained for hours upon hours when playing online. And you can't put a price tag on that! Buy now!

Reviewed by Grant on December 9th, 2008

Left 4 Dead is easily the best zombie game out there, ever. its graphics are great, gameplay is easy, characters are great and the stages to play in are so well made you'll want to explore every single alley way, house or shop.

But some people have been saying how horribly short this game is, four levels, around an hour each. That's why you should never purchase this game if you're never going to play online, as great as it is to play through each stage over and over again alone on single player or on couch coop, it can get boring.

Online modes (coop campaign and versus) are great fun, especially versus mode, where you can choose to play as the infected.

Easily 5/5, but just don't pay a whole $100 for this game if you're only getting it for single player.

Reviewed by Sam on December 3rd, 2008

Left 4 dead is a fun game to play split screen coop, with the thousands of zombies running at you from all directions and awesome visuals even people like myself who aren't really into this style of game will love it!