Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead is a 2008 first-person shooter game developed by Valve South and published by Valve. It was originally released for Windows and Xbox 360 in November 2008 and for Mac OS X in October 2010, and is the first title in the Left 4 Dead series. Set during the aftermath of a zombie outbreak on the East Coast of the United States, the game pits its four protagonists, dubbed the “Survivors”, against hordes of the infected.

Description

Left 4 Dead is a first-person shooter in which the player takes control of one of four survivors; if human players are not available, the remaining survivors are filled by AI-controlled bots. They play through campaigns fighting off the infected—living humans who have been infected with a rabies-like virus that causes psychosis. The overarching goal is not to clear infected, but only to reach the next safe area alive. This is compounded by the presence of an “AI Director”, who tracks each player’s current situation, and will add or remove items and infected in response; with the goal of maintaining constant tension and creating a new experience with each playthrough.

While a shooter, the game focuses largely on cooperation and teamwork, and thus eschews some “realism” conventions usual in other FPS games. Colored outlines of teammates are visible through walls to help players stick together and coordinate their movement. If a survivor’s health is depleted, they become incapacitated and can only be helped by another survivor, after which they continue playing with lower health. If they are incapacitated twice without healing, the third incapacitation will kill them. During “Campaign” mode, if a survivor is killed, they will eventually respawn in a closet or small room, but must be freed by another survivor to rejoin the team. 

The AI will not open “respawn closets”, so if all human player survivors are incapacitated, the level will restart. Survivors can share first-aid kits and pain pills, and heal each other. Left 4 Dead has friendly fire, increasing the need for caution and coordination around other survivors. After narrowly avoiding the new types of infected, the survivors are alerted by a passing helicopter to an evacuation point at the roof of Mercy Hospital. Fighting their way through the city’s streets, subway, and sewers, they are rescued from the hospital’s roof by the pilot (voiced by Dennis Bateman), only to discover that he is infected.

Zoey is forced to kill him, causing the helicopter to crash in an industrial district outside the city. Finding an armored delivery truck, the group uses it to reach the small town of Riverside. After encountering a paranoid and delirious man (voiced by Nathan Vetterlein) in the local church, they discover that the town is overrun and head to a boathouse for rescue. Contacting a small fishing vessel (owner voiced by John Patrick Lowrie), they are kicked out of the boat at the city of Newburg across the river, finding much of it in flames.

Resting in a greenhouse, the survivors are interrupted by a military C-130 Hercules passing overhead, leading them to believe that it will land at the city’s airport. The U.S. military had bombed the airport in an attempt to contain the infection, though the runway is partially intact, allowing the survivors to fuel up and escape in the waiting C-130 (pilot voiced by Gary Schwartz). Via a quick menu, the survivors can communicate and organize with voice commands and callouts. Over 1,000 unique lines were recorded for each survivor. 

Additional communication of player actions is conveyed through lights; weapon-mounted flashlights and muzzle flashes help players determine when their companions are shooting, performing melee attacks, reloading or moving. (Due to control issues and the likelihood of players using a headset, the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead omits the quick phrases feature.) All original campaigns are divided into five levels, connected by safehouses; checkpoints where players can heal, re-arm and revive characters who were killed.

Some levels are broken up with “crescendo events”, which introduce a new obstacle before the survivors can continue moving. In the final chapter of each campaign, the players must defend a position from an onslaught of infected until rescue arrives. The four campaigns are: “No Mercy”, a city culminating in a hospital skyscraper; “Death Toll”, a small town and countryside; “Dead Air”, a bombed city and an airport; and “Blood Harvest”, a woodland and farm setting. An outbreak of a highly contagious pathogen nicknamed the “Green Flu” (which causes extreme aggression, mutation to the body cells, loss of higher brain functions, and essential zombification of those who catch it) begins in Pennsylvania.

Memorial walls—giving names and obituaries to those who have died in the infection—suggest that the game takes place in October 2009. Two weeks after the first infection, four immune survivors—Green Beret and Vietnam veteran William “Bill” Overbeck (voiced by Jim French), college student Zoey (voiced by Jen Taylor), district account manager Louis (voiced by Earl Alexander), and outlaw biker Francis (voiced by Vince Valenzuela)—make their way out of the city of Fairfield, only to discover that the infection is creating dangerous mutations in some of its hosts.