Left 4 Dead (Left For Dead)

D/L the demo last night and I was so impressed. The cut scene actually drew me in so much it was like watching a really good Zombie movie. The survival idea is classic and like GOW2 playing hord where you need to stay alive and revive other team members.

I highly recommend the lights out and volume turned up. These Zombies might look like Night of the Living Dead slow, but they can move like 28 days/weeks later. Some might argue that zombies shouldnt run, and although I tend to agree, in this instance it works like a charm and soon you'll fing yourself surrounded my chaos.

I havent even tried it with a mate yet, so 5* rating is well deserved already. Its 1.2GB on Xbox Live, so make some space for it.

I cant even imagine playing this on expert, at the same time I cant wait.

Markomac

Don't buy this game if you don't play online, though the single player element of the game is identical to the multiplayer you will find it a lonely experience,
L4D is all about multiplayer, this is how a Team based game should be, if you think you can go running off on your own to take out the Zombie infection then you are going to find that you will spend more time watching your team mates in camera mode and waiting to be rescued later in the level than playing the game. This is pure team work and to complete each chapter you need to work as an organised team or you just won't get anywhere.
There is also an 8 player mode where team 1 play the survivors that need to get to the next safe house, and team 2 play the Zombie Bosses trying to stop team 1 from completing the objective, at the end of the round the teams swap rolls and the game continues, Take note that this game doesn't have a epic story or in-depth characters, it's all about multiplayer teamwork and once you find a good team to play with you will find that you will lose all track of time when playing this,
I personally find the graphics great quality, sure not all the scenery is destructible and the cars may not have the same appearance of cars you would find in a driving game, but for the amount of Zombies you come across with heads and limbs exploding in a plumes of red blood, well I can over look such minor things,

The game turned up today and I played it for 1.5 hrs which allowed me to complete campaign 1 and as there are 4 I reckon 6hrs to complete the game and remember there is no online games a such.
The game can be played as a 4 player co-op or 1 player single campaign as well as a 4v4 versus mode where you can play the boss zombies which sounds cool.
Lets start with the graphics...next gen they are not but they still hold up well with excellent lighting when being attacked by tons of zombies at once.
Gameplay...is very linear with a couple of choices to get around or through each stage or area.
Weapons...there are only 5.The shottie,sniper assault rifle and sub machine gun as well as the pistols that have infinate ammo.The rest of the explosive weapons such as pipe bombs and molitovs etc are picked up in game.
AI...is not the worst but they tend to revive you at strange times and leave you stranded at other times but this game is designed for 4 player co-op end of story really.
So all in all the graphics,gameplay and weapons are nothing to shout about BUT its absolutely awesome to play.
The action is non stop shooting.There is nothing to collect or find(thank god lol) except for bombs and gas cannisters to use as bombs or petrol cans to use as bombs(you get the picture) so you can just shoot like hell and enjoy the 100s of attacking zombies and try to survive till you are picked up by a rescue vehicle ay the end of each campaign.
Original..No
Great story...no and it wont take long to finish either
Great graphics...not really
Fun to play ?....you bet its a real scream..!
And with the AI director it changes the zombie attacks each time you replay a level so you cannot memorise where the attacks are coming because its different every time(I played the first level 3 times and its really weird as you expect a Boome zombie to attack and instead its silent till you entre a dark room and bang the horde attack) Love shooting and killing Zombies the L4D is your game

This is how the game pans out;

Kill zombies, go to safe house, Kill zombies, go to safe house, Kill zombies, go to safe house, Kill zombies, get rescued

Do that 3 more times, and that's the game.

There is no storyline to it, or save feature, so if you want to get the achievements you have to complete a mission in one sitting (usually takes an hour and a bit).

Not recommended.

I don't play online so see other reviews for reaction to the online content. It could be argued that the game is designed primarily for online play, but since the publisher is happy to take offline players' money it's only right that they have access to reviews focused on what they'll experience.

I've been waiting for this game eagerly as a long-time survival horror fan and born-again FPS addict, but have become totally deflated by the very limited quantity of material in this package. Having spent approximately 6 hours playing I've already completed every stage and fought every type of enemy several times over. Repeated attempts at play have brought instant deja-vu. Despite internal arguments trying to justify this with the AI system, the fact is I'm bored rigid and want to replay Fallout 3 or Dead Space, not this.

The game looks and sounds brilliant, the survivors' AI is great as is the banter. The zombies are interesting and the different types work well. So what's the issue? For a start the vaunted AI system does not produce genuinely different play each time. There aren't enough enemy and weapon types or campaigns to keep it fresh or make it feel like a genuinely different experience. The AI may well tweak this and that behind the scenes, but it's not delivering anything noticeably better than a thoroughly scripted game, for me at least. Considering that this is apparently the justification for such limited campaigns, we have a problem here.

The locations are fairly large, but considering you're just charging from one end of the playing area to the next anything smaller would be ridiculous. Between six and eight campaigns of this size would be a realistic amount for a complete game, leaning heavily towards eight.

The five special zombie types could be split into mini-bosses (the tank and witch) and extras (hunter, smoker and boomer). They really do work well but you see relatively little of the two stronger variants for the bulk of the game. These are what would make the AI system deliver different experiences, and there just isn't enough variety. a further two (at least) more common varieties and another mini-boss type would have given gamers more of a chance to feel they're fighting a genuinely changing army of undead each time they play. The weapon selections are also underwhelming, what's there works well but it's a very limited arsenal.

The game consists of getting from A to B five times in a single campaign, during each stage progress is halted until a certain piece of machinery or other such thing is activated, causing an onslaught of zombies. The problem with these attacks is that they're identical. Bog-standard enemies pluther through every corridor, from overhead or wherever. If you're outside, zombies appear on roof-tops from out of nowhere and bounce down to ground level in an instant. There's no strategy apart from flinging a pipe bomb to thin their numbers or throwing a molotov which may or may not be in a 'hot-spot' where they spawn. Again, coupled with the sheer lack of variety these attacks very quickly become dull.

I am bitterly disappointed. The basic premise is a great one, a lot of love has gone into the game. The developers have somehow grossly misjudged how much content would be needed for a halfway convincing single-player experience. Waiting for a price drop will not change the fact that the game writes cheques that the experience can't cash.

If you aren't online enabled and haven't bought yet, for goodness sake rent first. I didn't think it was necessary but I'll be trading it in three days after it was released as punishment for that slip. Hopefully Valve will rectify this if a sequel is ever created.