Not just a mod

Left4dead is the most recent release from Valve, in which you three other players are given the seemingly simple task of survival. With 4 classes of weaponry, 2 types of healing items, and 3 other companions, it seems like an easy task, eh? Determined to give us a hard time, Left4Dead employs the AI Director, an omnipotent artificial intelligence God who gauges how well you and your partners happen to be doing and changes the environment from there. From the placement of ammo, weapons and health, to the number and level of zombies bring throw your way. The normal zombies can sidle their way towards you like the original Night of the Living Dead zombies, or the extremely fast zombies of the remake of Dawn of the dead, and they swarm over you with twice the ferocity. Every so often the AI director will place "boss zombies", which are essentially like the uber zombies of the Resident Evil series, each with their own quirks and specialties. And make no mistake, if you seem to be doing better than you should, the Director isn't averse to cheating as they'll have zombies break through the drywall or bosses explode from the ceiling if they have to.

It's precisely this feature that sets Left4Dead apart from the rest of the competition, in that it is completely unpredictable, and every play through will be unbearably different. To vary it even more, you have the four different characters, with the possibility of four player online cooperative, or 2 player local play. And this is where the game shines, playing a game with 3 other strangers. You begin to take on the characters yourself, and your choices have far more weight here than in games like Fable II, which tout that ability as a main gameplay aspect. If you don't give the health to Bill, he might not be able to help you fight against the Tank. Will that shotgun come in handy against the hordes, or is the M-16 the last word in zombie eradication? When it comes down to four people asking these questions, it becomes an interesting experience, to say the least.

But of course, if you don't have any friends, the AI for the survivors is still great. The only problem here is that your comrades can and will fluctuate heroic leads, to brainless zombies themselves. Despite this, they're generally helpful (if not a little too passive), and will rush to save and help you when the need be. They actually remind me of my dog from Fable II, or maybe even Epona from Ocarina of time.

I also dabbled in multiplayer, but it still follows the same formula as the campaign, except now you have the ability to play as the boss zombies as well. There are two teams, each trying complete their campaign, and then stop the opposite team from doing the same. It goes in a pattern of playing one level as the survivors, and one as the zombies. I'll admit, that it is engaging and interesting at first, but I'll honestly not play it again after this.

My biggest issue is that there are only 4 campaigns in co-op (only two levels available for multiplayer), and though varied and interesting, still become a little stale after a few play-throughs. I'm sure we'll see some new DLC soon, but I would have liked at least 6 different campaigns to start. I'm also not wild about the audio. The voice overs are great, actually, but get boring after some extended play. Also, I've never been crazy about Valve's choice of music, which is admittedly better than the techno-nonsense in the Half-Life series, but not great enough to compel me not to turn on custom soundtracks.

Besides all this, I highly recommend the game to all Xbox and PC gamers, and I personally think it's a wonderful game to bring your girlfriends (or boyfriends) into video gaming, if not also a great party game. Take Gears II out of the disc tray for a moment, and give this a try, you won't be dissapointed.