[Dark_Oppressor]

Left 4 Dead: General Information

Do you have questions about Left 4 Dead? Do you just want to discuss the weapons, the zombies, or Francis' tattoos? Then how about starting a thread right here? It's easy!



Overview
This lovely little post should serve as a nice introduction to Left 4 Dead. The history of Left 4 Dead is somewhat unique, in that two different developers actually worked on the game before it was released. Left 4 Dead began as a project by Turtle Rock Studios, in cooperation with Valve Software. Later, Valve actually bought the studio, and thus the game ultimately ended up being worked on by a number of talented developers. If you have read the excellent information post that Mr. Q wrote for us on Team Fortress 2, then you should be able to find your way about the remainder of this post quite easily. Now, on with the show:

As was mentioned above, Left 4 Dead is a game. In fact, Left 4 Dead is best categorized as a cooperative first person shooter (with zombies!). Before reading on, you might want to check out the intro movie. Ok, you've watched it? You're ready to move on? Excellent.

I suppose now is as good a time as any to lay out a nice succinct list of the game's primary features:

• Full audio support for five languages (English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian), and subtitle support for twelve others.
  
• 58 Steam achievements
  
• Four edge-of-your-seat, soil-yourself campaigns that will make you think you've fallen right into a horror movie.
  
• Singleplayer, cooperative multiplayer, and even a versus mode allow you to play any way you want!
  
• Stats are recorded as you play, so you can keep track of all your greatest moments.
  
• Controller enabled
  
• And more!

Game Details
Left 4 Dead is a game that plays like a movie, with the players as its stars. There are four such playable "stars" in Left 4 Dead: Louis, Francis, Zoey, and Bill. You can read more about the cast (collectively known as the Survivors) at the official Left 4 Dead site.

In each of the game's four campaigns, you and your fellow survivors, be they humans or computer players, must make your way to some means of escape. The only things standing between you and this goal are zombies. Unfortunately for you, there are a lot of them.

The focus of the game is on the cooperative Campaign mode. In this mode, you team up with three other players and attempt to reach the end of the campaign. Each campaign is made up of five maps, and in between each of these maps is a safe room, where you and your teammates (if you have any left) can heal up, reload on ammunition and take a break. While the game focuses on four human players working together, you can supplement your team with computer players if you can't find anyone else to play with.

In addition to the Campaign mode, there are two other modes of play. First is Versus mode, in which one team plays as survivors and the other controls various boss zombies. For each map, the two teams take turns playing as either the survivors or the zombies. Aside from these important differences, Versus mode plays very much like Campaign mode.

There is also Survival mode, which involves an endless swarm of zombies that the players must fend off for as long as they can. At certain set intervals, the team earns bronze, silver, and gold awards, respectively.

As I mentioned previously, there are four campaigns that you can play through. These can be found here. In case you are too lazy to click that link, or perhaps are simply not in the mood, here is a quick rundown of each campaign:

No Mercy
Fight your way to the top of a nearby hospital, and catch a helicopter ride out of town.

Death Toll
Head down the turnpike and into a suburban neighborhood, fighting your way to the river for a watery escape.

Dead Air
Make your way through the city, battling the undead in an office complex. Finally, make your way to the airport to catch the last plane out of town (hopefully).

Blood Harvest
Fight through acres and acres of country farmland, and hold out against the undead in an abandoned farmhouse.

Oh, and if you have an older machine and are wondering how well it will run Left 4 Dead, wonder no more:

Technical Information
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360

Minimum System Requirements:

• 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
  
• Hard Drive: At least 7.5 GB of free space
  
• Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Recommended System Requirements:

• Supported OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Vista64
  
• Processor: Intel core 2 duo 2.4GHz
  
• Memory: 1 GB
  
• Graphics: Shader model 3.0, NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better