Left 4 Dead

About Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead is a co-op action horror game from Valve, released in 2008. Four survivors of an outbreak try to reach rescue through campaigns the game calls movies, each made of several large maps: city rooftops, rural ghost towns, pitch-black forests. One to four people can play, with computer-controlled teammates filling any empty place.

What makes it tense is the AI Director, which decides when the horde comes and how hard, based on how the team is doing. A quiet street can turn into a rush of infected in seconds, and the mutant monsters among the horde are far more dangerous than the ordinary infected. The game stresses team strategy: you get through by sticking together and helping each other up.

Besides the campaigns there is Versus, four against four, where one team plays the zombie boss monsters, and a Survival mode where you hold out as long as you can. The Sacrifice campaign is included. It is horror played as a loud team shooter rather than slow dread, and it suits groups of friends who want frights they can laugh about afterwards.

How to play Left 4 Dead

1. Buy Left 4 Dead on Steam and start a campaign alone with computer teammates or online with friends.
2. Pick up weapons, health kits and pills in the safe room before leaving it.
3. Move through each map together toward the next safe room, fighting off the horde as it comes.
4. Help teammates who are under attack or down, and keep the group together.
5. Hold out at the finale of each campaign until the rescue arrives.

Tips

• Stay close to your team; a survivor alone is easy prey.
• Listen for the sounds that warn of a horde or a boss monster before it arrives.
• Save health kits for teammates who need them more than you do.

Questions