For some reason, I bought Left 4 Dead about 6-8 months after it was released. I played it. It was alright, I guess. The atmosphere of the game was kind of cool, but the atmosphere can only go so far.
Everyone I knew went nuts over this game. It sold like crazy, Valve was being praised for making yet another great game. I played it.. I honestly didn't get it.
Left 4 Dead 2's demo came out, so I downloaded it and played it. The first thing I noticed were the new toys in the game, like melee weapons, new guns, new special infected, even new regular zombies. I thought "Wow, this is what they should have done with the first game".
The first Left 4 Dead had very little depth. There was literally 5 weapons you could use. 2 Shotguns, 2 Automatic Weapons and 1 Rifle weapon. Except, one shotgun and one automatic weapon are just plain better than the earlier ones, so there's no reason not to switch once you encounter them. And the Rifle sucks so much there's literally no reason to use it. So.. ok? That's basically 3 different weapons (only 2 of them are worth using), and you're forced to use the crappy versions of the weapons for the first half of every game. There's only a few special infected, and the campaigns really aren't memorable at all.. they're just extremely long hallways and you have to get to the end without dying. There's not even a story, other than "uhh, 4 people are in an infected city and they have to make it to an escape point..."
I played Left 4 Dead 2's demo and it expanded on the idea. There were even ammo and weapon upgrades. They also seemed to vary the battle circumstances quite a bit, too. But, still.. there's something missing.
I tried to explain the concept of the game to my wife, and she didn't get it. There's no story, no gameplay development or anything. It's just "people all are being attacked by zombies and they have to get to the end of the level". OK? I could barely explain it to somebody that's never played it. I basically boiled it down to "It's just a gaming concept", and realized that a game that's just a concept without much diversity in it's gameplay is really weak for today's standards.
Essentially, all of the Left 4 Dead series is that you're a human, your chances of surviving during any campaign are slim (and the word "campaign" basically means "level", in the same way that Super Mario Bros has world 1-1, 1-2, and then 1-3 was the castle.. almost the exact same setup, so it's not a campaign at all), and the entire time you're fighting TONS upon TONS of aggressive, deadly zombies. When a special infected gets you, you're helpless most of the time and might as well set your controller down until a teammate comes to help you, if they ever do. The path from start to finish is linear - very little decision-making or diversity in it's level design. Left 4 Dead 2 is basically Left 4 Dead with new stuff added and new characters. Even being the big tough guy and the 95-pound girl bring no difference in gameplay. The 95-pound girl can wield a chainsaw, a high-powered rifle or an axe and have the exact same effectiveness as any other character. If a 95-pound girl tried to fire most of the guns in this game, she'd get knocked on her butt!
So, I really don't get it. Is it the zombies? Is it shooting people and watching their mutilated bodies fall to the ground? Other games have done that and never had anywhere near the fanfare.
Left 4 Dead is one of the most frustrating games ever made. Getting progress is actually an accomplishment, and in versus mode if you die but you get just a little further than the other team, it's great (supposedly)!
Easily, the best part of the Left 4 Dead franchise is playing as the special infected and killing the humans. Your death means nothing, you respawn, and getting a lot of damage on people is great. Not to mention it's a lot of fun jumping off the top of a building and landing on some unsuspecting sucker, or vomiting on someone's face and watching the zombies bum-rush them. But, even in versus, you only get that mode half the time. So, it's half having to constantly watch over your shoulder and meticulously proceed through a long series of hallways, and it's half having fun and beating up on people.
So, where's the difference in playing as different characters and making it more class-based or even slightly more intricate at all? Where's the decision making regarding paths to take from start to finish? Where's the non-frustrating mode where you can play as zombies and wail on survivors?
I really don't get it. There's a lot of places they probably could have and should have gone with the game to make it more complete, but even as a concept, I don't see why people think it's so fun. It's kind of fun, I guess. But often times it's more frustrating than fun, and a lot more about micromanaging battle circumstances instead of running and gunning.
I... I just don't get it. Somebody please explain it to me.
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