Official Left 4 Dead Thread (Parts 1 & 2)
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Not much is available as far as media currently, but the details alone should warrant your interest. It seems to have been very quietly announced (the latest Games For Windows podcast talks about it, which seems to be the first real attention its been given), but Left 4 Dead is a new online multiplayer game from Valve and Turtle Rock Studios (the guys who've taken over Counter-Strike development since Source).
So yeah, the game is basically about doing for co-op what Counter-Strike did for versus. It's four-player, online, zombies vs. humans; four players control humans, sharing weapons, splitting up limited ammo and supplies to survive, healing each other, and helping each other if one slips from a ledge, or is "downed" (think Gears of War), etc. The game isn't randomly generated or anything (though the enemies are); it is a full-on single player-style experience --but made specifically for four player co-op.
Zombies are of more the 28 Days Later variety, as opposed to the Resident Evil/Dead Rising kind, and the game throws them at you in much greater numbers than have been seen in any other Source game (apparently in the neighborhood of 20-40 at any given time). At the same time, four other players can take on some kind of zombie-hybrid "boss" type characters, which are relatively weak health-wise, but have very interesting abilities.
The Hunter, for example, has stealth abilities, and can lunge great distances, making it good for preying on human players who are trying to heal their team mates. Another is the Smoker, which has a 40 foot tongue (that can be used as a noose from above, if timed right), and lets out a tear gas as it takes damage, blurring human players' vision. A third is the Boomer, which is a huge, fat piece of shit that projectile vomits, and when a human is doused in the bile, it then produces a pheromone that attracts zombies to that player. It also blows up when killed. A fourth is the Tank, which is essentially the Hulk, and can pick up cars and huge objects and toss them across the area, and knock out girders from under platforms that humans may be walking on, etc.
This is coming out in like March, apparently.
Sounds fuckin' awesome. :tu: :tu: :tu:
