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Name: Left 4 Dead

Co-operative play has become one of the greatest trends to take hold in this generation of gaming. With internet speeds getting so much faster and broadband being installed in more and more households, the technology has become available to get people standing side-by-side against whatever challenges a game developer decides to set. Left 4 Dead grasps this concept and brings it to its foundation. This is a game where four characters will have to work together to kill thousands of zombies. It's a concept that works, triumphantly.

The game contains four campaigns, all set in different environments with five scenarios each. The player can control one of four characters as you battle to the end, with a regrettably small selection of armaments to defend yourselves with. There are only shotguns and automatic weapons to use as primary weapons, and only come in two varieties. Pistols make up the only secondary weapons, but can be dual-wielded, and tertiary throwable weapons in the form of molotov cocktails and pipe bombs punctuate a meagre arsenal. The game can be played in single-player and in online multiplayer campaign, yet also including two more modes: Versus and, as a free add-on, Survival.

When playing the Campaign mode, the player controls one of the four Survivors as you try to find rescue from the zombie-plagued environments. Hundreds of these ordinary zombies, called the Common Infected, populate these areas and make such rescue an entertaining challenge. Their ferocity is evident in their numbers, being able to swarm and surround you, yet they take little punishment before they perish. This isn't quite the case with the Boss Infected, which have special abilities that make the journey to find rescue a harrowing one indeed. The most interesting part of these campaigns are the Finales, where all the players must stand firm against an onslaught of zombies for long enough to be rescued. These can be challenging, frustrating, tense and exciting all at the same time, and make up some of Left 4 Dead's greatest moments. Each campaign usually takes about an hour to finish, meaning that even if the player only has a short amount of time to play, a satisfying amount can be done. The environments are quite varied also, with venues changing from hospitals to warehouses to residential streets. Campaigns can be played in any form the player desires - straight through or on a scenario-by-scenario basis. This can be through single-player, playing as one Survivor with AI assistance from the others. The next method is online multiplayer, where three other players from anywhere in the world can face the horde together. Yet another option is available to Xbox 360 players - split-screen multiplayer, where two people can play through all the same scenarios on the same machine. There is a noticeable hit in performance when playing like this, however. It's nothing to the extent that it would ruin the experience, but the frame rate decreases can be quite apparent.

Versus supports up to eight players, with four being the survivors and four being a selection of Boss Infected. The first is called the Boomer, a rotundly shaped human that has zombie-attracting bile that he can spew on the Survivors as an attack or as a sacrificial explosion. The second is called the Smoker, who has a ridiculously long tongue that can entrap and drag wayward Survivors away. The third is the Hunter, of which two are present at any one time during Versus games. This creature is a stalker, with a great leaping attack that can pin any Survivor to the ground and tear at them relentlessly - unless quickly subdued by a nearby Survivor. There is a fourth wildcard Boss Infected that can be played called the Tank, where one player will get to control it for a short period of time. This is quite fortunate for the Survivors, because the Tank is obscenely powerful, able to deal devastating amounts of damage and withstand inglorious amounts of gunfire. This mode is starkly imbalanced in favour of the Survivors, who are equipped with powerful weapons and health packs. Since such a level of teamwork is evident with most Survivors, it is difficult for Smokers and Hunters to make good use of their abilities, which prey on players who leave the protection of the group. Also, each scenario must be played twice, with both teams alternating between each faction. Going through each Campaign can take about two hours each - quite a commitment to be demanding. It simply feels as though it takes too long to play through on Versus, which is something that should be improved in future instalments.

Survival Mode takes place on twelve maps taken from areas of the game's four campaigns, as well as an additional map called The Last Stand. In it, four players face a never-ending wave of Infected and try to survive as long as they can, and are awarded different medals depending on their success. However, therein lies the problem. With a never-ending wave of zombies attacking, there's no opportunity to take the time to heal your injuries or even to make a run to replenish your fast-depleting ammo. This mode would have been much better if they had incorporated a lull between waves, which is actually the case in the Finales of the normal campaign.

Gameplay modes aside, the most-touted aspect of the game is the AI Director. This is the program in place that changes the location and number of zombies each time you play through the game. It's quite an odd feeling, walking around an empty, quiet area, when last time you were attacked by a wave of Common Infected. While this certainly adds to the game's replay value, being able to have such different experiences each time you play a campaign, you are still playing through the same layout again. If the AI Director included diverging paths, where you could be forced to venture through the level a different way, or having multiple locations where the scenario-ending Safe Room could be placed would have hugely decreased the tedium that eventually takes hold as you walk down the same dreary corridors again. However, as it is, the game keeps things delightfully unexpected with its zombie attack patterns. There is simply no way to tell if you'll be meeting a Tank at the next corner or not.

Left 4 Dead runs on Valve's long-running Source engine, yet enough improvements have taken place that the game stands up visually with other games out there. Its art style takes homage from zombie movies of the past, even adding a film grain effect, yet ends up being an odd fusion of cartoonish and realistic styles. Textures are sharp, with many different effects, including well designed fire. Animation is impeccable, with Common Infected reacting to being shot in many different ways. Aurally, there's a lot going on, with many types of zombie groans and shouts, as well as music that adapts to events, with great crescendos taking place as zombies spill in to attack you. It's safe to say that the music plays a large part in setting the atmosphere, as fear washes through you as you hear the Tank's theme begin to play.

Being a multiplayer game at heart, narrative takes a backseat to the gameplay. This is to be expected to an extent, but it's surprising to see just how devoid of context the game actually is. While the Survivors have varied personalities, their back stories are never fleshed out and we simply know nothing about them. Short cut-scenes (which can be measured in seconds) are the only preamble set up at the beginning of each campaign, simply letting you know where you need to go. Nothing about the infection itself is ever explained, and the bulk of what can only loosely be called a story is told by the writings of other survivors written on the walls. While no one wants to sit through cut-scenes on a game designed with replaying in mind, more effort should have been taken to give the game a more-defined setting. Otherwise, it's just a game about four people killing loads of zombies. Some may feel that's enough, but it's not for me.

An issue that must be addressed is whether or not the amount of content released as part of the package is truly worth the charge being asked. Only four campaigns have been released, and all of the modes in the game simply take areas from these campaigns. For a full price game, no matter the number of modes using these areas, more content would have been desired. The PC version does have mod support, however, and the Left 4 Dead community has created many full campaigns already, but for Xbox 360 players, this is little consolation.

Left 4 Dead is a hard game to judge. It has many flaws, from its lack of narrative to its dearth of content, yet it cannot really be compared to anything else. It's the beginning of something new, and mistakes and oversights were probably inevitable with such an undertaking. It's a shame that such a fresh formula doesn't meet its full potential in this release, yet with a little refinement, it could really become extra special. As it stands, however, Left 4 Dead is a flawed masterwork. Nonetheless, its magnificent concepts are still able to shine through the blemishes that encase it, crafting an experience that is still wholly recommended.