Why I love and hate this game. Or, I'm glad I waited a week to write this.

User Rating: 6.5 | Left 4 Dead X360
By cog77 | Review Date:
Damn you Valve. When I opened this game and placed it into my 360, I got a rush like you wouldn't believe. My knuckles were white, I was gripping the controller like a crackhead clinging to his pipe. I watched enthralled as the introduction played. This was going to be it. This was going to be the game. I played the first campaign, too quick to notice anything. Not caring. Off I went. It was fast paced. It was brutal, friendly AI was good. Zombies were plentiful. I was in love. When I reached the end of the campaign the first shock hit. WTF? Why am I back to the menu? Where's the next campaign? Suddenly I realized that I wasn't playing a single player game I was simply playing this game on a server with bots. I felt cheated. I felt betrayed. I felt like the joy of the last hour was nothing but an empty feeling built on something I thought was there but wasn't.

And that's when I realized that you bastards got me to pay 60 bucks for this when it's nothing more than Counterstrike (something that costs what, like 10 bucks?) with Zombies instead of Terrorists. And what's worse? I bought it for the 360, so I'll have to pay every time you make a new map or campaign.

The gameplay is solid. The graphics are solid. Almost everything is so freaking rock solid that I was almost rock solid. But it's all empty, isn't it? It's all a lie. That fine lady I just brought home is, in fact, not a lady.

Now for some less airy complaints. The game seems to freeze up A LOT when I enter a safehouse. I replayed the second campaign about 4 times before being able to get to the end. It's happened on the fourth campaign (entering the last safehouse) twice and at once on both the other campaigns. It seems to happen whenever there are still Zombies around when I close the door. The special infected make no sense. They're just there to be there. Infected often time pop into the game right in front of you (including the swarms). Squad AI when playing alone is very limited. They will not use grenades or trigger events. Zombie swarms make no sense. They just happen. It isn't because you make noise, or go into the wrong room at the wrong time - they just happen cause you're moving to slow. I can shoot a zombie in the head and the other zombies around it don't seem to react. That strikes me as weird, especially if these are infected and not undead.

I started out writing this review with a score of 7.5 (a solid good by Gamespot standards) but as I wrote this, I felt compelled to lower the score down twice. And FWIW, just in case anyone from MS happens by, I will never buy a Valve game on a console for as long as I live.

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