OSCAR COOPER
"I have friends that want to shoot everything first and pick up loot (Borderlands was fun) before everybody else and generally just annoy the hell out of everyone, Well there’s no place for this individual here."
Zombies were the new Nazi’s in the gaming world for a good couple of years; we witnessed an influx of undead related releases back in 2009. I myself welcomed this, as a self confessed zombie fanatic, I look forward to the impending invasion, where its every man for himself, marshal law is declared and the military can’t cope with the brain dead influx. My friends also share similar delight for this beckoning scenario, so much so that we have been known to go through the plan of action if it does all kick off. Things like best location, what to take with you, who we would rescue, what weapons would provide the optimum speed to power ratio given that automobiles would be obsolete and we’d be on foot (there’s the ‘cars do work’ scenario also). I have a few friends; I won’t mention their names, who have even hidden stashes of all manner of head cracking apparatus ready in-case we don’t get the chance to procure our infantry in time (military takeover, see 28 weeks later). So I’m pretty sure that qualifies me to comment on Valves stroke of genius that was Left 4 Dead.
I love Valve; Half-life doesn't need anything said about it as PC gamers haven’t stopped rattling on about it for nearly twenty years, but it’s all with good reason. As a console owner, Valve games were always an exclusive club that required a decent PC to enter. But they soon shared their fruits of labor with the rest of us and a few titles turned up on the 360, The Orange Box deserves its own page so I’m not going to harp on about that too much. PR is one of Valves strong points and creating hype around Left 4 Dead was no exception. We were treated to some developer footage early at one of the E3 shows and what we saw was alien to the usual zombie horror fest romp. It ran on the source engine so things had a quickness and a smooth playing speed associated with previous titles of the same engine, vibrant colours and a creepy shadow effect on the torch was the first thing I noticed and the abundance of other players. It was the church scene from one of the ‘last stand’ scenarios. I didn't actually see that many zombies, the tank, a special infected, was coursing all the havoc, the players had to jump around a cramped wooden room as it smashed through a door and butchered most of the team. It looked impressive; I remember liking the destruction and breakable environments, also fire, lots of fire although I wasn't sure where that was coming from, also the tank didn’t have any ‘f’s to give and that sort of behavior always attracts me to a boss. Back to the PR front, I also remember walking across Victoria Station late one evening, burger firmly in munching position and looked down to see the trade mark four fingered hand beneath my feet, it was a massive poster placed on the floor smack bang in the middle of the station and good example of Valves guerrilla marketing techniques.
So as things rolled on, a demo loomed, we all knew it was 4 player co-op so simultaneously downloaded it on the night of release for a sneak peek. Well, I am sitting up in my chair as I write this comment, Holy George A Romero they didn’t hold back with this demo, it was a whole act (only four acts featured in the entire full game) and included all the enemy types. The intro had us all wetting our pants as it featured the Tank from the E3 footage and a bunch of other frightening looking infected all beautifully rendered and going mental. Valve always does a stellar job with intro’s, like Blizzard, no budget is spared and this was one of the best I had ever seen. You got to see the characters in detail, their dialog was awesome, the grizzly Vietnam war vet, a biker and damsel, thrown in was a banker type city boy to mix it all up, what a cast, I still love all of them to this day. So… we all got our zombie killing hats on (actual real hats) and ventured forward, choosing a weapon was a tricky one, “we need variety” I belted to everyone, “we can’t all go down that staircase with shotguns” I’m the self proclaimed leader in these situations if you hadn’t noticed already. So two shotguns and two machine guns was the order of the day. And we headed down single file to a room at the bottom of a staircase. We all marveled at how quick the game ran, not a single glitch of slow down, and passing through another player was handled seamlessly and without bother, no one felt trapped, but this was about to get tested to its maximum.
I have friends that want to shoot everything first and pick up loot (Borderlands was fun) before everybody else and generally just annoy everyone to the point of distraction. Well there’s no place for this individual here. Without noticing we were slowly beginning to split up, some people had gone into bathrooms (looking for loot no less) another’s had sprinted on keen to get on with things; I was stood alone in a kitchen. What went through my head was the assembly of the zombie character models as they stood in the corners; they seemed slightly under done and rushed in their texture, shooting the small groups still looked satisfying, random blood spray physics worked their magic and rag doll behavior after a decapitation on a corpse was spot on, but I remember feeling under whelmed, was this really the new Valve flagship zombie game all critic’s were raving about?
"It looked like a giant singular creature of limbs, heads and bloodshot eyes roaring and spilling towards me like liquid death. I sprayed a magazine of bullets at head level into the front layer while rapidly moving back"
Well that’s when it happened, some music kicked in, film music, wtf I thought. I rallied the troops, “some things happening guys” I shout with my usual air of authority (what a dick, I know). “What’s that music all about” a few ask, “it sounds like when someone’s about to die in a horror film!” A friend replies. Get back to the kitchen I scream, because what I can only describe is around thirty plus zombies starting to pour through a single door in front of me at a pace I had never seen before in any video game on earth, it looked like a giant singular creature of limbs, heads and bloodshot eyes roaring and spilling towards me like liquid death. I sprayed a magazine of bullets at head level into the front layer while rapidly moving back, catching a good few of them square in the face, but they just fell and gave way to the mass behind them. I had backed into one of the bathrooms by fluke and slammed the door shut (thinking it was the reload button) but that wasn't stopping anything, with hands, heads and teeth popping through as I emptied clip after clip into the writhing army behind the shattered wood. This was our first experience of what the game calls ‘The Horde’ and good lord above, what a baptism of fire, my friends had entered the kitchen seconds later and mentioned that just about every square inch of the floor had a zombie occupying it, we cleared the room after some team work and then all vowed never to venture out ahead unattended again. During this whole incident by the way, the game never dropped a single frame, not one. AND THIS WAS JUST THE DEMO!!
That is the reason I suspect for the lack of intricate detail on The Horde and normal zombies as the game needs to cope with sometimes up to twenty plus on the screen at the same time, but this is a small price to pay for an amazing and fear inducing idea. The Horde make a direct nod to the 28days later zombies with the pace and ruthless unrelenting path they take straight in your direction, moving around as they pour towards you courses them all to mimic the same motion, it was a ground breaking moment for me when I first saw that behavior out in the open or the way they tackle fences and ladders, like a dripping doom spilling over an obstacle that’s in its way, it really does work incredibly and isn’t captured in anything else I have played.
The full game features four acts and special infected zombies that course all kinds of havoc when you are trying to stay together, pulling individuals away to throw pepper in the eyes of an organized plan. Scaring the daylights out of you in the form of a massive tank monster that’s soaks up bullets like Robocop, it’s also hell bent on killing the entire team. That brings me to my final point, the AI Director, yes a goddamn AI Director, the game watches your play style and pokes at your weakness to constantly mix things up, it throws varied infected types and horde rampages, which never stops you guessing, even some of the Acts have different map layouts depending on what mood HAL'S in that day. OK, I have said enough, I have had countless arguments with people about why this game stands head and shoulders above its competitors and my come back is normally, it’s made by Valve, end of conversation.
Many thanks in advance
Oscar