As some of my very few readers may know, I have an epic hard on for all things zombie. Movies, books, games. Doesn't matter. I eat that shit up. My infatuation with the genre started after seeing Night of the Living Dead when I was kid and has only grown over the years. The Resident Evil series has provided a decent filler for my gaming needs, though game companies seem to avoid the zombie genre more often than not. Dead Rising is a very excellent attempt of a free-form zombie game but left me wanting more. More as in, cooperative game play. A group of survivors playing together and working together to survive against the horde of undead. A few years back, the RE series tried it with their Outbreak series on the PS2, which I never got to play but I heard was not that well done. According to the wiki page, Capcom shut down its multiplayer servers some time ago. Either way, it was the step I was hoping a zombie game would take.
About a year ago or so, I heard about Left 4 Dead and instantly added it to my gamer radar. The idea is basic enough, but it is also what I have been hoping for. The game is all about the cooperative play. You pick the role of one of four survivors, join up with the other three and together you must make it through 5 different maps to beat the scenario. According to various interviews over at Gametrailers.com these scenarios will take about an hour to finish, but no promises that all of the four players will be alive at the end. Its so damned sexy, I can't begin to describe it. Not only will you be playing with a small group, you are also able to play as the big nasty bosses. Four types of bigger, nastier and vicious zombies with special powers and their only purpose is to ruin the day of the survivors.
What makes this even hotter, though, is the GM AI the developer is putting in the game. The entire purpose is to make sure that no two games are ever played exactly the same way. This GM AI will spawn zombies at random places, at random times and in random numbers. One play through may have you facing a horde coming from inside a house and the next, the house is empty and you have to face a horde coming in. It sounds sweet and looks sweet from the gameplay videos in the above link. It is also stated that friendly fire is active and varying in the amount of damage done based on the difficulty, so watching your fire is going to be a key to surviving a rushing horde of undead. The entire idea is that at no point are you, or your fellow survivors, safe. It also keys on team work. Rushing off on your own and expecting to survive is a bad idea. There are trackers put into the game so you know who you can trust based on previous play. Someone is all about team killing? You can boot em. Find someone who heals alot but maybe shoots you to often? Tough choice. In a gamer world filled with douche bags, jack asses and fucktards, you have to wonder how often you will find players who hurt your chances of survival rather than help.
So I will keep my eye on this game over the coming months. release dates have been pushed back a few times and right now the best time is "some day in 2008", which is great but we still have a good chunk of 2008 to get through. Of course, I would rather wait longer for a polished version than play it now when its not done.
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