Being "Dead" Wrong. - nyisles16's Blog

nyisles16's Blog

Being "Dead" Wrong.

Posted on November 25, 2008 at 04:10 PM.

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Well, I must say - kudos Valve!

Why am I saying this? Because, in a simple word, I was wrong ("dead" wrong as it were) about their most recently released title - Left 4 Dead. I was able to play the beta of the game (thanks to a good friend), and my first impressions were that, for all intents and purposes - the game stunk. Usually, I have an open mind about games and give them their due (see MLB 2k8 - thanks to the save to hard drive feature, the game seems reborn to me) and not often do I ever say it one is bad.

But to me, I couldn't at first get the "pistol has unlimited ammo" feature. I like games that make you try to get more ammo, like the CoD games. I figured "this is got to be a mistake". That right there put a damper on my spirits. Another item that got me thinking negatively about the game was the graphics. At first, they seems to be a little washed out, and a little sub-par to what we "next gen-er's" want out of our games (again, I refer to the CoD games). But a strange thing happened to me - I ended up getting the game after all (god bless trade ins

).

Each day, I would scour the different websites trying to get as much information as I could. It also doesn't hurt when your friends keep hyping the game up. So I said "what the heck", and into GameStop I walked. I was soooo wrong about the game. I first started out on single player, and the graphics seemed to be better in the retail copy of the game. And soon enough, I found out the reason why the pistols need to have unlimited ammo. Running out of machine gun bullets fighting a nasty horde of zombies is, well, not fun - and often leads to that other great message - "you died". Trust me - I am grateful for that feature now.

But what really "seals the deal" on the game is the multiplayer system. To be honest, all I have played is the co-op side, but after that - is there a reason to try any other mode? Valve did such an amazing job with details -- often my other buddies and I spend time in the safehouses just reading the comments left on the walls, and they often make for some funny reading. But also we have discovered that no game is the same. Each time you play, the placement of the zombies and other "creatures" change. I love this fact. How boring would it be if each time the game started, you would face the same thing in the same places?

I thank my friends for providing some great reviews, and getting me interested in the game. I would say to anyone "on the fence", that this has to be one of the best non sports games I have played in a while.

Go grab it, and if you want, look me up for some co-op zombie shooting!