IainTo quote Gloria Gaynor, first I was afraid, I was petrified but unlike Miss Gaynor I was more concerned by the living dead eating my insides than a man walking out on me. But will I be able to survive with the new downloadable content that was released for Valve’s award winning Left 4 Dead?
April 21st, a date that zombie enthusiasts and co-op loving gamers alike have been waiting for. For those who haven’t played Left 4 Dead, the premise is simple. You play as one of four survivors (Zoey, Louis, Bill and Francis) of a zombie apocalypse, with the other characters being played by either AI, friends or random people online. There are 4 campaigns to choose from which are all unlocked from the start and feature the sort of locales you would expect to see in classic zombie flicks such as stand offs on a hospital roof, chases through cornfields and battles in a deserted airport. On paper, and indeed playing on your own, Left 4 Dead does get very repetitive but play through it with friends and L4D is endless fun.
And to think people used to worry about ants at their picnic...
Now onto the Downloadable Content. The first, and not so major, addition is the inclusion of the two previously omitted campaigns (Dead Air and Death Toll) in versus mode. While this addition adds a fair bit more variety to versus modes, it really should’ve been included on the disc. The best part of the DLC is an entirely new mode entitled “Survival”. This mode pits the four survivors against hordes of zombies in a constant stand-off at a variety of locations, including a new area that’s never been seen in L4D before. The pace is extremely hectic with only a few seconds between hordes to grab ammo or heal, special infected quickly build up until you find yourself facing two smokers, a hunter and a tank all wanting your brains for a midnight feast and on the whole matches only tend to last around 4 minutes. The emphasis on team play and communication in Survival mode is particularly strong compared to other rounds as you constantly have to watch each other’s backs for special infected. Overall the DLC is very good and as it’s free there’s no reason not to download it. The only thing I would’ve liked to see is achievement points for lasting certain amounts of time etc. but the lack of new achievements doesn’t detract in the slightest when you actually manage to last long enough to receive a medal.
