G l i t c h y G o b l i n !

I’m back again for another Tried and True, so let’s get started.  Valve has always been a company that delivers on content, though their releases are few and far between.  They created my favorite game, Half-Life 2, and also spawned the amazingly fun games of today’s review:  the Left 4 Dead series.  Perhaps the only game series to get zombie survival right so far in terms of atmosphere and intensity, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 are endlessly fun multiplayer games that ooze from the brains with content.

This is frantic gameplay at its finest, with moderately fast-style zombies coming at you from all directions.  These FPSs also mix in “special” zombies that are capable of pouncing, grabbing, and even bowling over everyone on your team.  In addition, the end of each multi-mission campaign has a “finale,” a sequence in which everyone defends a location from wave after wave of both normal and special zombies while waiting for a rescue vehicle to arrive.

If you have this on PC, all the dlc is free! Microsoft charges owners of the xbox360 edition to get more campaigns, but not so for Steam users.  Imagine a couple of games where every little bit of time you and your friends can come back and play more levels for free.  Even more than this, there is a level creator in which authors (maybe even you) can create their own levels for others to download and enjoy.  These two games provide hours upon hours of addictive enjoyment which will have you talking to other people about your in-game experiences long after the game has been turned off.

If you have a not-so-up-to-date PC, there’s no need to worry. The first game still looks pretty good at moderately low settings, and the second game probably will still be playable at the lowest settings.  The graphics aren’t really the point.  It’s the ability to have a completely different experience every time even though you’re playing something secretly really repetitive.  This coupled with new additions every once in a while and a community-based level creation system makes everything fresh just when you think all the freshness has run out.

The new dlc for Left 4 Dead 2 has just come out.  It links the two games’ main characters together.  Along with the upcoming dlc for the first Left 4 Dead (yes, they’re still providing content for that as well), new stuff is right around the corner.  Steam, the Valve-created PC (and soon-to-be MAC as well!) software where the games are distributed, has tons of deals and sales.  You can probably get the first game for like $10 or something, and, because of the 4-player aspect, the games have special deals if you buy 4 games at the same time!

This series should not be missed by zombie lovers, FPS lovers, survival lovers, or any combination.  If you don’t like any of those things then you still might like it anyway.  If you can find the first one ridiculously cheap, pick it up and try it out.  Or you can download the demos for both games to get a little taste of the big picture.  Of brains.