Left 4 Dead

aka: L4D

Released

November 2008 on Windows

Releases by Date (by platform)

Publishers

Developers

Moby Score

8.5

#341 of 158K

Critics

88% (109)

Players

(92)

Ranking

#61 on Windows
#68 on Xbox 360

Collected By

263 players

Genre: Action
Perspective: 1st-person
Gameplay: Shooter
Interface: Direct control
Setting: Contemporary
North America
Narrative: Horror
Survival
Misc: Regional differences

Buy (updated 6/4 9:11 AM)

Macintosh
Steam
Windows
Amazon $7.53 used, $15.89 new at eBay Steam
Xbox 360
Amazon $10.00 used, $163.14 new at eBay

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Description official descriptions

In Left 4 Dead, four humans, Francis, Zoey, Bill, and Louis, had the bad luck to land in the middle of a zombie invested zone, are now trying to get to the evacuation point, and survive the apocalyptic pandemic. The game contains several scenarios which are all divided into several chapters with the goal to reach the save room and hundreds of zombies in-between.

The doors to the save rooms can't be opened by the infected once closed and they contain weapons (shotguns, sub-machine guns, etc.), medipacks, and ammo for the survivors to restock before the next part of the journey. The door of the save room can also be never opened again by the survivors once it's closed so the team needs to stay together or otherwise they will have to decide whether they leave a friend behind or fight a hopeless battle at the save room door.

If a survivor is too badly damaged, the character goes down but is neither dead immediately nor defenseless. The character still can shoot with a pistol at incoming zombies to make it easier for teammates to help the character up. This is especially important when one of the special zombies such as the Hunter, who can jump great distances and immediately downs his target, has a survivor in his grasp. If the zombie isn't killed in time, the teammate will be dead.

Other special zombies include the Tank, which is a huge mutated zombie that can take a few hundred bullets before it goes down and does a serious punch as well as the boomer which vomits on a survivor and immediately attracts dozens of new zombies. This also happens if a car burglar alarm goes of or something similar disturbs the night.

While the campaigns can be played either with AI controlled teammates or with other human players in co-op, the multiplayer also features an additional game mode called "Versus". The basic premise remains the same with four players needing to get safely to the save room but at the same time four other players are randomly assigned the roles of one of the special zombies with the obvious goal to help the normal, AI-controlled infected to get rid of the survivors. The zombie players have the advantage that they can spawn almost anywhere on the map if it's out of sight the survivors and see them through walls if they make a noise but are otherwise, except for the tank, easy to take down if noticed early.

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Credits (Windows version)

207 People (200 developers, 7 thanks) · View all

Development Team	Aaron Barber Aaron Halifax Aaron Kearly Aaron Seeler Adam Foster Adrian Finol Alden Kroll Alex Vlachos Alfred Reynolds Andrea Wicklund Andrew Burke Antoine Bourdon Ariel Diaz Arsenio N. Navarro II Augusta Butlin Bay Raitt Bianca Loomis Bill Fletcher Bill Van Buren Brandon Idol Brandon Reinhart Brian Jacobson Brenda L. Kennedy Bronwen Grimes Bryn Moslow
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Discussion

Subject	User	Date
L4D Valentines	xroox (3893)	2009-02-03 14:53:48

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Left 4 Dead appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Censored cover art

The Japanese cover art for the game is slightly censored.
In the Windows version, the hand's thumb (which is severed in the original cover art) is covered by a small label which says "Best of E3" on it. And in the Xbox 360 version, the thumb isn't missing, it's simply held down, hidden under the palm.
The German cover art for the game is also censored, as it usually is over there. However, the uncensored cover art can be found underneath the outer paper slipcover.

German version

Besides the cover art differences described above, there a number of other changes to the German version: * The intro misses the cut off thumb and some blood. There are additional cuts in the Xbox 360 version. * Other Survivors don't bleed when shooting them * All splatter effects (cut off limbs and exploding heads) were removed * Killed enemies disappear instantly * There are no special animations for burning enemies * Xbox 360 only: Blood was recoloured green (infected) respectively grey (survivors and other instances) and bleeding does no longer effect the textures of wall or floor.

A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).

Japanese release

Funnily enough, the Japanese PC version of the game is unrated. It does not have a CERO rating (unlike the XBox 360 version, which was rated Z, equivalent to the ESRB's Mature / Adults Only ratings, PEGI's 18+ rating, and the OLFC's 15+ rating).

References

One of the game's achievements, "Zombie Genocidest", asks the player to kill a total of 53,595 infected. This is a reference to the "Zombie Genocider" achievement in Dead Rising, which asks the player to kill 53,594 zombies. The Crash Course download campaign even adds a new achievement, "The Littlest Genocide", which tasks the player with killing 5,359 zombies on that particular campaign.

References to the game

Left 4 Dead was parodied in an episode of "Die Redaktion" (The Editorial Team), a monthly comedy video produced by the German gaming magazine GameStar. It was published on the DVD of issue 06/2009.

Recycled content

Left 4 Dead recycles a lot of content from previous Valve games. Examples: The sound indicating an incoming horde is from the "On a Rail" chapter of Half-Life. * Various weapon sounds are taken from similarly functioning weapons in Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life: Counter-Strike. * The gas can looks and functions like the way it did in Half-Life 2, with the exception that Half-Life 2's gas can didn't ignite the environment around it, only enemies. * Map props from assorted Counter-Strike: Source maps can easily be spot . * The Tank moves just like the way Dog does in Half-Life 2.*

Awards

GAME British Academy Video Games Awards
2009 - Multiplayer Game Award
GamePro (Germany)
February 26, 2009 - Best Console Multiplayer Game in 2008 (Reader's Voting)
GameSpy
- 2008 – #3 Game of the Year
- 2008 – #3 PC Game of the Year
- 2008 – #4 Xbox 360 Game of the Year
- 2008 – Multiplayer Game of the Year
- 2008 – Multiplayer Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- 2008 – PC Action Game of the Year
- 2011 – #11 Top PC Game of the 2000s
GameStar (Germany)
February 26, 2009 - Best PC Multiplayer Game in 2008 (Reader's Voting)
Golden Joystick Awards
2009 - Online Game of the Year