When the demo for Left 4 Dead came out, there were a lot of people who loved it for just how awesome it was, but there were a few others who found time to complain about what was essentially hours of free entertainment. The game didn’t run on their computer, they said, until someone pointed out to them you can’t run Left 4 Dead on coal. There’s this bug, they said, leading to Valve amazingly patching the demo about five gazillion times. It’s far too easy, they said… And that’s where the silence came. There’s no doubting that Left 4 Dead isn’t going to be the next Megaman, but I felt like I had to address all those who were completely dismissing the game because they felt they could play it blindfolded. You’re wrong. It’s not easy. And here’s why.
You’re playing on normal
Ok, seriously, just don’t play Left 4 Dead on normal. I admit myself that if you play that difficulty you’re not even going to bat an eyelid if a horde of zombies come at you, because the chances are they’ll just knock off a grand total of one health. No, to get the true sense of challenge and enjoyment out of Left 4 Dead, you need to be playing on advanced or expert. It’s only then will you get the blind panic that comes from a massive attack, and you will begin to fear for your own safety and (In extreme cases) sanity. Comradeship will be tested to the brink, and you’ll curse and laugh as that shotgun shell flies straight into a friendly chest. Go down to normal, and that sense of panic, anger and (Most importantly) enjoyment is greatly diminished. So do yourself a favor, and kick it up a notch!
You’re playing a demo
Let us get this straight - The demo is one and a half levels from the very beginning of the game. The importance of this fact is twofold - One, there’s no way that the first levels are ever going to blow open all the surprises and challenges you can expect to see, otherwise you’d just need the demo and wouldn’t have to splash out on the full game. And two, there’s no doubting that the challenges you’ll face on later levels are absolutely massive. While I’m afraid to say I don’t have the game yet, that doesn’t stop me from devouring every live feed of someone playing the game that I can. From this, I can tell you that you’re in for a tricky time - I saw one level which seemed to go down a road, into a tunnel, then onto another road into a trainyard, then down yet another long road for a last standoff at a church. That’s one level, with the refuge of a safehouse and the health and ammo it contains being a distant hope when you’re being slain by a tank at the very beginning.
The final decider? There’s an achievement for completing all four campaigns on expert, and I sincerely doubt that millions of people will be bragging about getting it. It’s something for the elite few, and they didn’t get it on a cake walk.
It is highly likely this could be you! Although maybe more zombies will be involved…
You had a good team
A lot of people have said that they stormed through the demo on expert in minutes with a few friends. Part of me wishes they would add “We all knew how each other played and communicated to make awesome strategy”, because that aspect seems to always get forgotten. I’ll accept that the game might get easy when you’re storming through it with a bunch of close friends, but which game doesn’t? We’ve already seen the effectiveness of clan stacking on Team Fortress 2, and most clans are just a bunch of friends who are annoying arrogant and hyper competitive… Yet I digress. Surely some of the fun behind Left 4 Dead is going to come from randomly selecting a game, going along for the ride, and just seeing what the outcome is? I know that some of my favourite games on the demo have actually come from people who I didn’t know and weren’t the best at playing the game, because that hyped up the tension and laughter tenfold. That was, in part, because it made the game harder. We should all be embracing this idea with open arms, and not hiding in a private server all the time flawlessly picking off zombie after zombie.
After all, if there was a real zombie apocalypse, you’d want your friends around to help you survive… Wouldn’t you?
You haven’t played versus
Zombie AI has its limits. At the core of it, every zombie in the game is basically controlled by the director and has the sole purpose of trying to mess up your pretty little face. They can’t really co-operate with teamwork, set up traps, or make your life a misery via unexpected attacks… But a team of human controlled zombies can. When you increase the boss zombie count by a stupidly large amount, it’s highly feasible that you could be getting mutilated by a hunter, and no-one can help you because one team member is constricted and the other two are covered in Boomer bile. To make it to the safehouse against a good human team will undoubtably take a superhuman effort, so even if single player does prove too simple for you, your challeges are far from over.
So, yeah. Left 4 Dead is an easy game? I severely doubt that’s true.
