Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead (abbreviated L4D) is a singleplayer and multiplayer cooperative survival horror FPS game developed by Valve Corporation. The game was built using Source engine and is available on PC and Xbox 360. During early development, its working title was "Terror Strike."

The game puts four human playable or AI-controlled Survivors of an apocalyptic pandemic against hordes of the Infected. Regular Infected are controlled by the game AI, while human players can control up to four mutated Special Infected with special abilities in Versus mode. The goal of Left 4 Dead for the Survivors is to help each other make it through a level to safety. Infected players must cooperate to stop them.

Left 4 Dead was released on November 18, 2008 in the United States, and November 21st in Europe and Japan. The game was first revealed in the Christmas 2006 publication of PC Gamer UK with a six-page article describing a playthrough at Valve's headquarters. A teaser was released with The Orange Box. The game was first playable at the Showdown 2007 LAN in San Jose and at QuakeCon 2007. A demo, initially to be released on November 6, 2008 to people who pre-ordered the game, was publicly released on November 11, 2008.

As of January 24, 2010, Left 4 Dead has an 89 out of 100 from Metacritic. Regarding information about the updates for Left 4 Dead, see Updates.

The 200th issue of Game Informer Magazine ranked Left 4 Dead as #82 in the top 200 games of all time, this is what they had to say: "Zombies have appeared in video games in many forms, but nobody ever nailed the full-on zombie apocalypse until Valve's Left 4 Dead. The intense four-player online co-op experience utilized a dynamic 'AI Director' to adjust the undead onslaught according to player performance. Toss in memorable characters, an intriguingly sparse plot, and an online versus mode, and you had the penultimate test of mettle for any zombie-crusader worth their salt."

The basic gameplay never changes from map to map, so players will learn their way around fairly quickly. The Director keeps things from getting monotonous, however, by throwing in different challenges in every level. No two playthroughs are exactly alike.

Plot
Left 4 Dead begins in Pennsylvania, following an outbreak of the so-called Green Flu, a highly transmittable virus which manifests itself as massively increased aggression and the loss of many higher brain functions within its victim.

Two weeks after the infection of Patient Zero, four immune Survivors of the outbreak make their way through the city of Fairfield, only to discover that the virus is creating new, even more dangerous mutations. After narrowly avoiding these new Infected, along with hordes of others, the Survivors are alerted to the presence of an evacuation point at the nearby Mercy Hospital by a passing news helicopter. Fighting their way through the city's streets, subway and sewers, the Survivors are rescued from the hospital's roof by the pilot, only to discover that he is succumbing to the infection. ("No Mercy") With Zoey forced to kill the pilot, the helicopter crash lands in an industrial district outside the city. Finding a delivery truck that has been armored by other Survivors, the group decides to use it to make their way to the town of Riverside ("Crash Course"). Before arriving in the town, however, they find the road blocked, and are forced to travel the rest of the way on foot. Following an encounter with an infected madman in the local church, they discover that the town is overrun, and decide to head to a nearby boathouse for possible rescue. Contacting a small fishing vessel, they manage to reach the city of Newburg on the other side of the river, only to find much of it in flames ("Death Toll").

Seeking cover in a large greenhouse, their rest is interrupted when a military C-130 Hercules passes overhead, leading the Survivors to travel through the city's business district towards Metro International Airport. Upon arrival, the group is shocked to see that in an attempt to contain the infection, the military had bombed the airport; the runway, however, is largely intact, allowing the Survivors to fuel up and escape in the waiting C-130 ("Dead Air"). Despite this apparent rescue, the Survivors once again find themselves alone on the outskirts of Allegheny National Forest. Following a series of train tracks through the area, the group find themselves at a functioning but abandoned military outpost. After answering a radio transmission, the Survivors make their final stand against hordes of Infected, before a military APC arrives to transport them to Northeast Safe Zone, supposedly the only location in the area yet to be overrun ("Blood Harvest").

Afterwards, instead of being taken to Echo Safe Zone, the survivors are taken to a Military base called Millhaven with orders to capture and test "Tango Mikes" as the military refers to them. It is then revealed that the survivors are Carriers of the virus, and while show no signs, they can still infect others. Meanwhile, second-in-command Lt. Mora sounds the evacuation call (a loud siren) and relieves Major Everly of command. Infected are attracted to the sound of the alarm and the four survivors, along with 3 new companions, begin an escape from the doomed outpost. During the course of the escape Lt. Mora and Major Everly are both killed. The remaining troops fall back to a holdout point, while the original survivors hotwire a train to escape south. The military is being overrun while they escape, and while being begged to stop, Bill keeps driving the train leaving all to die. ("The Sacrifice comic").

After the end of the line in Rayford, Georgia, a city located not to far away from Atlanta, the group begins looking for a sailboat to take them to the Florida Keys where there are thought to be no infected. Things are strained as Zoey still feels anger toward Bill for his actions whilst leaving Millhaven, and their relationship is strained. They fight their way through the docks, a brick factory, and a derailed military biohazard train containing a captured tank. They reach the lift bridge, and locate the sailboat One4All, which is on the wrong side of the bridge. The group activates 3 generators,and fights off a horde and multiple tanks until the bridge lowers. Once they begin to raise it, a generator dies trapping the survivors too low to the ground to be safe. Bill jumps off the bridge and restarts the generator, saving the other three, but pays the ultimate price in doing so. Francis, Louis, and Zoey are trapped on the bridge until the horde disperses. ("The Sacrifice" campaign and comic)

After Bill's sacrifice the group encounters 4 new survivors heading for New Orleans. When the new group reaches the other end of the bridge, all 7 fight the horde while the new group fills a generator with fuel. Once it is full, the original group lowers the bridge for them, and they proceed onto New Orleans. Sometime later, after Louis's wounds have healed, the three get to the sailboat and are last seen near an island in the keys, safe at last, because of the sacrifice of one of their own. ("The Passing" and "The Sacrifice" comic ending)

The Cover


Valve says the cover represents the title of the game, due to the hand being the "left" hand while only having "4" fingers while also being "dead," making up the title (Left 4 Dead).

Also, others have speculated that the hand has some sort of significance to what transpired during the first two weeks, as another image of this hand being x-rayed can be seen in The Hospital level in No Mercy and is in the very first scene of the intro cutscene.

A thumb was added in the German and Japanese version for censorship reasons.

The hand on the cover is also the hand seen in the trailer seen in the beginning.



The Survivors
There are four playable human characters in the game. Every Survivor has his or her own unique appearance, personality, and background, though all Survivors are equal in speed, strength, rate of fire and health, etc. There is no "strongest" Survivor, so character choice is purely player preference.

The Infected
In addition to the Common Infected, there are five different types of Special Infected in the game. Only four are usable by players in Versus Mode. Each Infected has its own unique attacks and method of use, but all attempt to work in tandem to defeat the Survivors before they complete the level.

Levels
Each of the 5 campaigns has the player(s) follow a generic path of going from point A to point B with a few different routes and awards stating who took the least damage, etc.

PC System requirements
Minimum:

Supported OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Vista64

Processor: Pentium 4 3.0GHz

Memory: 1 GB

Graphics: 128 MB, Shader model 2.0, ATI 9600, NVidia 6600 or better

Recommended:

Supported OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Vista64 / Windows 7 Beta

Processor: Intel core 2 duo 2.4GHz

Memory: 1 GB

Graphics: Shader model 3.0, NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better

Hard Drive: At least 7.5 GB of free space

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Notice:

The game has been tested on a laptop running on Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1) with 1GB of RAM on GeForce Go 6150. The game would work smoothly given that video settings would be set to minimal. On the other hand, when tested using a GeForce FX 5500 video card (accompanied by 1GB of RAM), graphics were distorted and the game was deemed unplayable.

Engine
See: Source (game engine)

Left 4 Dead uses the latest version of Valve's Source engine, with improvements such as multi-core processor support and physics-based animation to more realistically portray hair and clothing.

Many kinds of post processing cinematic visual effects have been added to the game, each intended to elicit responses from players and guide them through the game. These include situational color correction, contrast and sharpening, film grain and vignetting.

Dry surfaces and fog are used to create mood.

Other games that use the Source Engine include:
 * Counter-Strike: Source
 * GoldenEye: Source
 * Garry's Mod
 * The Orange Box (Team Fortress 2, Portal and Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two)
 * Half-Life: Source is a straight port of the original Half-Life game to the Source engine.
 * Vindictus
 * Postal III
 * Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
 * Zeno Clash
 * Sin Episodes Emergence
 * Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
 * Portal 2
 * Left 4 Dead 2
 * Day of Defeat: Source
 * Alien Swarm

Controls
These are the default controls of Left 4 Dead for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions.

Context sensitive controls

 * The X button is used to interact with other things. Using it, you can pick up objects, open doors, or help other Survivors to their feet.
 * Select the first aid kit, target a teammate and press and hold LT to heal them. It has the same effect as them healing themselves. (It will therefore take 5 seconds and heal damage depending on the current hp of the person)
 * Select the pain pills, target a teammate, press and hold LT to give the pills to them.

Refer to health for further tips. Make sure your teammates know how to revive you and give first aid kits and/or pain pills to you. The Survivors need to watch out for each other.

DLC
The Survival Pack

Crash Course Campaign

The Sacrifice Campaign