Despite an average single player mode with friends or online it's a superb game requiring a lot of team work
+Lots of fun online
+Doesn't get boring
+Fun to play with freinds
Negatives
-Single player mode isn't as fun
Welcome to my review for Left 4 dead on the Xbox 360, it's a game based in an apocolyptic situation in which there has been an outbreak of a virus/infection and people have turned into zombies.
The story is centred around 4 characters, 3 males and 1 female, they all have different personalities, you have the WW2 Veteran soldier, the teenage girl, the black business man and the biker guy.
Left 4 dead has several different ways of playing.
First is campaign- so far there are 4 campaign levels (each with 5 stages) but be prepared for more levels as Valve have anounced they will be making more.
Levels involve getting to saftey some how and include getting to the airport, a farm or a hospital.
When your ofline you can choose one of the four characters and the other 3 will be bots- who aren't bad- they shoot well and use med pacs when they should.
Online you will be placed with up to 3 other players- when you create a game you have a choice of what level and what stage of the level you wish to choose.
Levels certainly get better as they go along- this adds a great atmospheric build up to the final stage- but if you wish you can start a game on the final stage straight away.
There's also 'versus mode' when you go through one campaign and the survivors try to reach the end of the stage whilst trailed by zombies (the special zombies are controlled by players to) after they finsih the level (or all die) the sides then swap, the survivors become and zombies and you go on the same level again.
This is a fun mode- playing as zombies is a lot of fun despite the 20 second respawn time and the fact you can die very quickly.
The people who go of alone are truly destined to die in Left 4 dead- there are currently 5 types of special undead- and Valve have also anounced there to be more.
Hunters- these pick of the lone wolves and pine them down to the floor causing massive damage- to stop it killing you a team mate has to help by shooting it or using melee to get it off.
The smokers use their long tounges to trap and survivor and eat it- a fellow survivor also has to help.
I really like these 2 of the special infected because they encourage the group to stick together- and when one does appear it creates a panic amongst the group and depending on how well they work together the results can be varied.
There's also boomers- massive undead who throw up and can hit several of the group with their vomit- this causes the horde (loads of regular zombies) to charge towards them in a frenzy.
Then there are tanks- these are also massive and can thrw objects at the survivors- they cause a lot of damage and have ahigh amount of health- the team must use all they have to take them down.
Witches are the last one- and maybe the most dangerous, they're found randomly through out stages crying on the floor- if you have your flash light on and look it at it will attack you in a frenzy, it's better to sneak quietly past them as they cause a lot of damage.
You can play as all of them but a witch in versus mode.
There is a limited choice of weapons, I was dissapointed to only have use of pistols, sub machine guns, shot guns and a sniper rifle.
All the shotguns,machine gus, pistols and snipers feel the same despite looking different, all together the shooting does feel good in the end though using the counter strike source engine.
There's also med pacs and pills which can be picked up in stages, pills give a temporary health boost and med pacs recover health.
Over all I reccomend Left 4 dead if you have acess to LIVE with several freinds to play with.
I don't really reccomend it with no online- it's definetely not the same with bots and you can't play as zombies :(
Thanks for reading, hope this review has helped!