Jul 15, 201614 min read

Left 4 Dead

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For the franchise, see Left 4 Dead (series).Left 4 Dead

Cover art for Left 4 DeadDeveloper(s)Valve South [1]Publisher(s)Valve CorporationDistributor(s)Electronic Arts Designer(s)Mike BoothWriter(s)Chet Faliszek Composer(s)Mike MoraskySeriesLeft 4 Dead Engine Source Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, OS XRelease date(s)

November 17, 2008

[show]Genre(s)First-person shooter, survival horrorMode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Left 4 Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter video game with survival horror elements, developed by Valve South and published by Valve Corporation. The game uses Valve’s proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and OS X. Development on the game was completed on November 13, 2008, and two versions were released digitally: A downloadable digital version, released on November 17, 2008, and a digital retail disc version, with a release date determined by region. The digital retail disc version was released in North America and Australia on November 18, 2008; and in Europe on November 21, 2008. Set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, the game pits its four protagonists—dubbed the “Survivors”—against hordes of the infected. There are four game modes: a single-player mode in which allied characters are controlled by AI; a four-player, co-op campaign mode; an eight-player online versus mode; and a four-player survival mode. In all modes, an artificial intelligence (AI), dubbed the “Director“, controls level pacing and item placements, in an attempt to create a dynamic experience and increase replay value. Left 4 Dead was well received by the industry media upon its release, with praise given for its replay value, focus on cooperative play, and movie-like experience. Several criticisms were aimed at limited level selection and the lack of a narrative. The game has won several publication awards, as well as distinctions from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and British Academy of Film and Television Arts. As was done with Team Fortress 2, Valve supplemented the game with free downloadable content. The first, called the “Survival Pack”, was released on April 21, 2009. The second piece of DLC was charged for on Xbox Live and came in the form of a new Campaign entitled “Crash Course,” released for both the PC and Xbox 360 on September 29, 2009. Left 4 Dead was released for the Mac on October 28, 2010. The popularity of the game led to the development of a sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, which was released on November 17, 2009. A new map for both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, called “The Sacrifice”, was released on October 5, 2010. In July 2012, all Left 4 Dead campaigns were ported over to Left 4 Dead 2, with cross-platform mutliplayer support between Windows and Mac versions of the game.

Plot

Pennsylvania suffers an outbreak of “Green Flu”; a highly contagious pathogen causing extreme aggression, mutation to the body cells, and loss of higher brain functions. Two weeks after the first infection four immune survivors—William “Bill” Overbeck, a Vietnam veteran; Zoey, a college student; Louis, an IT analyst, and Francis, an outlaw biker—make their way through the city of Fairfield, only to discover that the infection is creating 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 roof by a passing helicopter. Fighting their way through the city’s streets, subway and sewers, they are rescued from the hospital’s roof by the pilot, only to discover he is infected. With Zoey forced to kill him, the helicopter crash lands in an industrial district outside the city. Finding an armored delivery truck, the group uses it to make their way to the town of Riverside. However, they find the road blocked, and travel the rest of the way on foot. After an encounter with an infected lunatic in the local church, they discover that the town is overrun, and decide to head to a nearby boathouse for 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. 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 see that in an attempt to contain the infection, the military had bombed the airport while infected pilots crash planes in an attempt to land; the runway however is largely intact, allowing the survivors to fuel up and escape in a waiting C-130. Despite this apparent rescue, it crashes as well, and 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 Echo, supposedly the only uninfected area not yet overrun. Instead, they are kept at a military installation and informed that even though they are immune, they still carry the infection. They are temporarily held by the military before the base is overrun with infected. The four escape via train and travel south at Bill’s insistence; Bill believes that they can find long-term safety from the infected on the islands of the Florida Keys. At the portside town of Rayford, they find a boat but must raise an old rusty bridge powered by an aging generator to get the boat into open waters, assured that the machinery noise will alert a large horde. However, the generator gives out. Bill sacrifices himself in order to restart it, so that the others may reach safety. After waiting for the horde to disperse, the three then encounter four more survivors. They move the boat to the other side of the bridge and help them re-lower the bridge so they can cross in their car. Afterwards, Louis, Zoey, and Francis head back to the boat and set course to the Keys.

Gameplay

In Left 4 Dead, the four survivors must fight off infected humans while trying to escape or make their way to a safe house.

Left 4 Dead is a first-person shooter in which the player takes control of one of four survivors; if human players are not available, then the remaining survivors are AI-controlled bots. They play through the levels fighting off the infected—living humans who have been infected with a rabies-like virus that causes psychosis. Although the survivors are carriers of the disease they do not show signs of any symptoms.[2][3] The game focuses on cooperation and teamwork and thus eschews some “realism” conventions usual in most FPS games of the wider genre; colored outlines of teammates are visible through walls to help players stick together and coordinate their movement. If a survivor falls off a ledge, then they may automatically hang onto it and can only be helped up by another survivor. If a survivor’s health is depleted, then they become incapacitated and can only be revived by another survivor, at which point they continue playing with a low amount of health that decreases over time. If a survivor has been incapacitated and revived twice without tending to their wounds, then they will experience distorted black-and-white vision, and the next incapacitation will kill the character. If a survivor takes enough damage while incapacitated, or is not eventually helped up by teammates, then the incapacitated character will die. During “Campaign” mode, if a survivor is killed, then they will respawn in a closet or other enclosed space after a period of time (except during key points in the scenario), but must be freed by another survivor to rejoin the team. Otherwise, the player must wait until the next level.[4] However, if all human player survivors are killed or incapacitated, players will have to restart from the last checkpoint. Survivors can share first-aid kits and pain pills and help each other heal. Left 4 Dead has friendly fire (which causes no damage on the easy difficulty mode), increasing the need for caution around other survivors. The survivors communicate by voice commands that are accessed by quick menus, and some may sound off automatically when performing actions such as reloading or spotting infected.[5] Over 1,000 unique lines have been recorded for each survivor.[6] Additional communication of player actions is conveyed through character lights. Also, weapon-mounted flashlights and muzzle flashes help the players in determining whether their companions are shooting, performing melee attacks, reloading or moving. Due to control issues and the likelihood of players using a headset, the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead omits the quick phrases feature.[7] The game is experienced through five campaigns that take place in various urban and rural locales. Multiple visual in-game hints—including license plates, park signs, markings on airport equipment, and lines of dialogue spoken by the survivors—suggest that these locations are in Pennsylvania,[8] and similarly a memorial wall giving names of those who have died in the infection (actually names of the game’s development team) along with their dates of birth and death suggests that the game takes place in October 2009.[9] Each campaign is divided into five chapters (except Crash Course, which has two chapters) marked by safe rooms, which are checkpoints where players can heal, re-arm and revive characters who were killed.[10] Specifically, the four campaigns are: “No Mercy”, an urban setting culminating in a hospital skyscraper; “Death Toll”, a small-town and countryside setting; “Dead Air”, an airport setting; and “Blood Harvest”, a woodland and farm setting. A two-level campaign, “Crash Course”, was released on September 29, and is set in the outskirts of a small industrial town. The levels have distinct beginnings and ends, but there are a number of alternate routes to follow with more supplies, helping to create a sense of non-linearity.[11] In the final chapter of each campaign, the players must defend a position from an onslaught of infected until rescue arrives.[6] Each campaign typically lasts between 20 and 75 minutes depending on the difficulty level. Both platform versions of the game utilize an achievement system.[12]

Survivor characters

The final design of the survivors, shown on the poster for the “No Mercy” campaign. Left to right: Francis, Bill, Zoey, Louis

There are four playable human characters in the game: Francis, an outlaw biker (voiced by Vince Valenzuela), Bill, a Vietnam Veteran (voiced by Jim French), Zoey, a university student (voiced by Jen Taylor) and Louis, a district Account Manager (voiced by Earl Alexander).[13] Early plans were for players to be randomly assigned to characters but in the final release, players can choose any character—provided that the character has not already been selected—or be randomly assigned an unselected character.[6] Aside from appearances, all of the characters play exactly the same in-game.

Weapons

Survivors are armed with various firearms. Each player starts the game with a semiautomatic pistol.[14] It may be reloaded an unlimited number of times and is the only weapon that the survivor can use when they are incapacitated. When a second pistol is found, the player can dual wield them, also with unlimited ammo. At the beginning of each campaign, the player can choose between a submachine gun and a pump-action shotgun. As the survivors progress through a campaign, more powerful weapons can be found: the fully automatic assault rifle (an upgrade to the submachine gun), a semi-automatic shotgun (an upgrade to the pump-action shotgun), and a scoped hunting rifle. A flashlight that can be toggled on and off is mounted on each firearm, with the exception of additional pistols. In addition to firearms, a player can also carry three other items in their inventory: improvised grenades (either a Molotov cocktail or a pipe bomb modified with an attached smoke alarm designed to attract the infected to it before it explodes);[14] a first aid kit, which can be used to heal any survivor and pain pills, which provide temporary health that depletes gradually and quicker with damage from infected, and can be handed to teammates for later use. Regardless of what weapon or item a player is using, a melee attack can be used to shove away any infected within reach. Also available are environmental weapons, such as gas cans, propane cylinders, and oxygen tanks, all of which explode when shot. These environmental weapons can be picked up, moved, and used as a melee weapon by the survivors, but while carrying an object they cannot use their weapons or health items. Strategically placed minigun turrets are also encountered at various locations throughout the different maps.

Infected characters

The infected (voiced by experimental musician Mike Patton and voice actor Fred Tatasciore)[15] are the survivors’ foes in Left 4 Dead, and they appear to be partly inspired by the infected from several modern films, including Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, and Quarantine.[16][17] An important distinction from the former is that while the infected do resemble traditional undead zombies, they are, as cited in the game’s manual, living humans infected with a rabies-like pathogen, very much like the infected in the later two films. While they are never seen eating human flesh or brains, multiple ‘survivors’ who have been killed by the infected appear throughout the game, and appear to have been partially eaten. In The Sacrifice comic, Zoey’s mother is bitten in the face. She then begins to attack the rest of her family. One such victim can be heard saying “I can’t believe he bit me!” before being encountered later on, fully infected. In an interview with 1Up.com, Mike Booth commented on the concept of using a pathogen as an inspiration for the setting: “Even though we obviously pushed well beyond the realm of believability with many of our “boss” infected, the core idea of a mind-destroying, civilization-collapsing pathogen is more horrifying to me than magically animated corpses, precisely because it is plausible. Rabies is a good example of a pathogen that can turn a loyal, friendly, protective family pet into a slavering attack machine. It is a virus that reprograms the behaviors of a complex animal – a mammal, in fact. What if something similar happened to humans? Left 4 Dead is one possible answer.[2] ”

The common infected encountered during the game are fast and agile, weak individually, but may be overwhelming in numbers. They display a special attraction to high-pitched alarm-type sounds, such as the beeping device attached to pipe bombs and car alarms. Common infected will often chase down the source of these noises while ignoring lower-pitched, but much louder sounds such as gunfire. They occasionally attack in masses referred to in-game as a “horde”.[18] In addition to the common infected, there are five “special” or “boss” infected whose mutations grant them special attacks that make them far more dangerous. Each of the special infected, as well as approaching hordes, have a distinctive sound or a timely musical cue, making their presence easily recognizable by players. There are five special infected in Left 4 Dead.[18]

The Boomer is a bloated infected that can spit vision-impairing bile on the Survivors, attracting hordes of infected, and explodes on death, spewing more bile in the immediate area. They emit burping and vomiting like sounds when close by. A 5-note double bass cue plays to signal Boomer.
The Hunter is an agile foe that can jump and pounce on a survivor, and then tear at his victim until he is knocked off, kills his prey or is killed. A hunter emits animal like screeches or light roars when close by, and a snarling growl can be heard when in close proximity. The Hunter is signaled by a startling high pitched piano cue.
The Smoker is a boil-covered creature with six long tongues that it uses to ensnare and drag a survivor back to himself. It may then either attack the survivor directly, allow the horde to attack him, or leave the survivor suspended over a cliff or roof-edge. The Smoker only releases its victim if a teammate shoves the ensnared survivor, if the tongue is shot, the survivor is killed, or upon the Smoker’s death, which results in an explosion that leaves a vision-obscuring cloud. Smokers have raspy voices and frequently wheeze and cough, presuming that they may have been an avid smoker before becoming an Infected. A 2-note low piano cue signals the Smoker.
The Tank is a gigantic, muscular infected that has the ability to swipe at survivors, knocking them off their feet and incapacitating them; it can also throw rocks and knock cars and other debris into the survivors. The Tank looks like its lower jaw is missing, but it’s actually hidden in its neck muscle. The Tank is the most durable of all the special infected, and requires the full support of all of the survivors in order to be killed. The Tank is accompanied by a booming orchestral score to signal his appearance.
The Witch is a female infected with long claws that stays crying in one spot. Survivors can often avoid the Witch but if they disturb her with light, loud noises or gunfire, she will become aggressive and charge at the one who “startled” her. Along with crying, an eerie choir tune plays when she is near. The Witch has the strongest attack of the infected in the game; able to kill a survivor outright with one blow on the hardest difficulty. As such she is not playable by human players in Versus mode.

In versus mode, four additional players can take control of the special infected—apart from the witch, who remains computer-controlled. Each infected player is randomly assigned a class of special infected when they enter a spawn mode. While in spawn mode, the infected can quickly roam around the map in search of an appropriate place in which to spawn. This location must be sufficiently distant from any survivor, out of the line of sight of any survivor, and outside restricted areas such as safe rooms. Upon death, the infected player must wait up to 10–25 seconds before re-entering spawn mode, depending on how many players are on the infected team. When a tank is spawned in the game, infected players receive a message indicating which player will control it. The human-controlled infected can see their teammates’ outlines through walls similar to the survivors, but can also see each survivor’s outline, which is colored according to the survivor’s health and fades out if the survivor refrains from attacking, running and vocalizing. Vertical pathways exclusive to the infected, such as pipes and vines, are marked with animated symbols for the infected players. These can be climbed and used for ambushes. Another special character, the “Screamer” was an infected tied to a strait jacket and heard by its maniacal cackling. He would not attack, but would run away if spotted and when he found a safe hiding place, he would emit a scream that would attract a horde of zombies to attack the survivors. The directors soon found him to be stressful, especially if he was in a crowd, so they removed him from the game. His horde-attracting power later turned into the Boomer’s vomit attack, which they found to be fitting due to the Boomer’s obese image.

AI Director

Game modes

Left 4 Dead contains four game modes: campaign, versus, survival, and single-player. The cooperative campaign consists of up to four human-controlled survivors who attempt to make their way between safe rooms and eventually to rescue. In this mode, the special infected are controlled by the AI. In a versus campaign, each team of one to four players plays each chapter of the campaign as both survivor and infected, swapping sides once per chapter.[23] Unlike campaign mode, dead survivors do not respawn. If at least one player-controlled survivor finishes the level, the survivor team earns 100 points as well as bonus points based on their health and the health items in their inventory. These points are then multiplied by the chapter’s difficulty level, and the number of survivors who finished. If all player-controlled survivors are killed, the survivor team only earns points according to their average progress through the chapter and the difficulty multiplier.[24] Survival mode consists of a timed challenge where players try to survive as long as possible against a never-ending flood of the infected, added in April 2009 in the Survival Pack downloadable content.[25] Single-player mode is similar to campaign mode, but played offline with three AI-controlled bots as the other survivors. On Xbox 360, other players can join in on the same console to turn single player into an offline co-op game. The game can also be played through a system link, or local area network. Players have also discovered a way to do splitscreen co-op play with the PC version.[26]

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead

Contents

Plot

Gameplay

Survivor characters

Weapons

Infected characters

AI Director

Game modes

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