Left 4 Dead
| Left 4 Dead | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Studio |
 Valve
|
||
| Publisher |
Valve (Steam) Electronic Arts ( Retail ) |
||
| composer | Mike Morasky | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Windows November 18, 2008 ( Steam ) November 18, 2008 (retail) November 21, 2008 (retail) Xbox 360 November 18, 2008 November 21, 2008 |
||
| platform | Windows , Xbox 360 , macOS | ||
| Game engine | Source Engine | ||
| genre | Survival horror , first person shooter | ||
| Game mode | Single player , co-op multiplayer | ||
| control | Keyboard and mouse , alternatively other game controllers possible (PC), gamepad (Xbox 360) | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
2.4 GHz CPU; 1 GB RAM; DirectX 9.0 graphics card; 56k modem | ||
| medium | DVD-ROM , download | ||
| language | Multilingual | ||
| copy protection | Steamworks | ||
| Age rating |
|
||
| information | German version cut (USK 18), Austrian and Swiss version uncut. | ||
Left 4 Dead (German in the context: " Left for death / left behind") is a mostly cooperatively played first-person shooter by Valve . It was released worldwide on November 21, 2008. The game had previously been released on November 18, 2008 on the Steam gaming platform . Although cut, only a version from 18 years is available in German stores. Valve announced before the release that it would expand the game with the help of updates.
The aim of the game is to leave a city or area in a group of four survivors, depending on the campaign, whose population has mutated into aggressive zombies due to an infection .
The game
action
The four survivors Francis, Zoey, Louis and Bill try to escape from a city overcrowded with zombies, whereby depending on the scenario they advance into other areas. They are attacked by so-called infected people . Depending on the state of health, attacks by the horde are triggered by the AI director (or by interaction of the players with the environment) , with the infected attacking in large numbers from all conceivable directions. In the levels you can find insights into the background story in the form of graffiti and notices.
The survivors' journey is divided into so-called campaigns, which consist of several maps. They each have a destination where the rescue is waiting. However, this repeatedly fails because, for example, the rescue worker is infected.
Overview of the campaigns in chronological order
| German title | Original title | Number of cards | publication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercy Hospital | No Mercy | 5 | Nov 2008 |
| Crash course | Crash Course | 2 | Sep 2009 |
| Death zone | Death great | 5 | Nov 2008 |
| Flight to hell | Dead Air | 5 | Nov 2008 |
| Thirst for blood | Blood Harvest | 5 | Nov 2008 |
| The sacrifice | The sacrifice | 3 | Oct 2010 |
| Does not fit chronology. Survival mode only | |||
| Last stand | The Last Stand | 1 | Apr. 2009 |
Infected
The infected people in the game can first be divided into common and special infected people ( common infected , CI ; special infected , SI ). Ordinary infected people can only attack in close combat and do relatively little damage. Alone in large numbers, the so-called horde , they are dangerous. The horde is triggered by certain events. The particular infected, of which there are five different types, are more devastating. Except for the boomer , they all have significantly more life points than normal infected people. The smokers can use their long tongues to tie up survivors over long distances and draw them towards them. A shackled survivor can defend himself briefly before his only chance is to be freed by another. When they die, they release a cloud of smoke. Boomers explode when they die (from guns or the like). Then or when they get close enough to the survivors, they distribute their bile ( boomer bile ) to the survivors, which means that they can see poorly and represent the preferred target of the infected, and a horde is called out. The hunter is an infected person who can jump over great distances and by jumping on a survivor throws him to the ground so that he can no longer defend himself. Then he tears it up with his claws. The Witch can be recognized from afar by her childlike and pitiful crying and sobbing. As long as you don't startle it with noise, light, touch or attacks, it does nothing. If you startle a witch, you will be pursued by her and she tries to throw the survivor to the ground. If she has managed that, she will cause him great damage, and he can only defend himself to a limited extent. The tank is a boss monster that has a lot of life and does a lot of damage. In addition, the tank can throw pieces of wall or throw objects lying around, such as wrecked cars or dumpsters, by hitting the said objects.
Particularly infected people can be recognized by means of assigned music, which also warns of the horde.
weapons
Left 4 Dead's arsenal of weapons is manageable compared to other Valve games. However, the player can push away zombies around him with any weapon or object in his hands and, if necessary, kill them. As primary weapons, the survivors have either a submachine gun ( Uzi ), a manual or automatic shotgun , an assault rifle ( M16 ) or a semi-automatic carbine ( Ruger Mini-14 ) with a telescopic sight as a sniper weapon (in the game as a machine pistol , pump shotgun , automatic shotgun , assault rifle and hunting rifle ). As a secondary weapon there is only one type of pistol ( Colt M1911 ), of which players can use two at the same time if they can find a second one. The advantage here is the unlimited ammunition with an acceptable effect in the target. Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs are used as projectiles . When hit, the Molotov cocktails create a burning pool of gasoline that burns every ordinary infected person when passing and immediately puts them out of action; particularly infected people, on the other hand, can continue to act with fire. Before the explosion, the pipe bombs emit a beeping and blinking at shorter and shorter intervals, which attracts a large number of infected people. Molotovs are ideally suited for defensive actions due to the constant blocking effect of the gasoline pool, while pipe bombs are better used offensively to clear an area or as a distraction. Furthermore, gas bottles and petrol cans can be found, which you carry with your hands and have to do without any firearms for as long. Players can only carry one primary weapon and one projectile at a time.
Tools
There are two useful tools for fighting the hordes. Bandages for permanent and a can of painkillers for a temporary cure. These tools can only be found at the starting point (saferoom) and randomly distributed at certain points in the level, which is why you should think carefully about when to use them. You can give pills to teammates if they need them and with the bandages you can either heal yourself or treat a teammate. The bandages are also the only aid that can heal a badly wounded player enough to survive being overwhelmed again. Many players mostly forego treating bots because of the few first aid packs provided that they are not important for progress in the level section, but the bots recognize the player's condition and use existing first aid packs or pills to help the player.
Gameplay
The players go as a closed group through a scenario, which in the game is divided into so-called films; each of the four included films consists of five levels. The group is attacked by different types of zombies on their way and must defend themselves against them together. Coordinated tactics and mutual support are required to win the game. The game offers the possibility to play in a group of up to four players as well as with bots in single player mode. In the Versus mode it is possible to play with eight players. Four of them take on the role of survivors, the other four play on the side of the infected.
The storyline, effects and background music are inspired by the cinema to reinforce the feeling of being “in a zombie film”. For example, an adjustable film grain effect contributes to this atmosphere. Furthermore, after a campaign, there are credits in which some facts (drug use, headshots, hit rate, etc.) are taken up. In the end, however, it always says that X Zombies were killed in this film to reinforce the zombie film feel.
successes
The game is equipped with the achievement system of Steam. Players are awarded achievements for their actions in the game - whether as infected or survivors. These titles can be viewed on their steam community profile page.
AI director
The AI -Director ensures that zombies, weapons and equipment are placed in different places in the game, so that parts of the course of the game differ in each run. Their number also depends on the equipment strength and health of the players. In this way, a battered, weak unit faces fewer opponents than a healthy, fully equipped force.
Versus mode
In versus mode, up to eight players can take part in a game. Two teams of four compete against each other. One team takes on the role of survivors, the other plays the role of the particularly infected. After the round has ended, the teams are swapped.
In contrast to the survivors, who are replenished by a bot (computer player) when a player leaves, the particular infected people are not taken over by the PC. In plain English, if a player leaves the infected person, only three are left in the game. Here, however, the respawn time is shortened (after death the player has to wait about 20 seconds until he spawns ).
Survival mode
On April 22nd, 2009 the survival pack for Left 4 Dead was released, which includes this new game mode. Survival mode is all about surviving as long as possible against never-ending waves of infected people. If he reaches certain times, medals are awarded to the player (bronze for 4 minutes, silver for 7 and gold for 10). The specialty of this mode compared to the crescendo events and the finals of the normal campaigns is that there are more boss zombies (for example, several tanks appear at once).
Differences between the PC and Xbox 360 version
The Left-4-Dead version for the Xbox 360 offers the option of playing with several people at the same time via split screen or SystemLink. The split-screen mode is also included in the PC version as an unofficial feature.
Cut version
To prevent the game from being indexed , Valve worked closely with the USK . The removal of the limb and head shooting has been removed, and zombies disappear in seconds after being fatally hit. The German Xbox 360 version was given green blood due to the earlier completion. In addition, the cover of the game has also been changed so that the thumb of the left hand is completely in place, rather than being torn off as is the case in the original. The uncut and the cut versions are fully compatible with each other.
An uncut German-language version is available in Austria and Switzerland. The cover of this version is also identical to the original version; instead of the USK seal, the PEGI seal (18+) is printed. This version is indexed in Germany and was temporarily included on List B of the media harmful to minors shortly after publication.
In addition, the game is sold in other European countries as a multi-language version, so that every game that is sold in Europe is in principle also an uncut German version.
development
Left 4 Dead was initially developed by the development team Turtle Rock Studios , which is related to Valve , and which had previously developed the Counter-Strike: Source bot. When developing the bots, the team recognized that it can be entertaining to defend oneself as a team against bots armed with knives, so that the idea was quickly born to develop a game in which “team against horde” was played should be. The game had been in development since 2006, in January 2008 Valve took over Turtle Rock Studios and helped with the completion.
Sales figures
According to the US website Shacknews.com , the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game sold a total of 1.8 million times in the first month and a half. According to the manufacturer, this figure only relates to retail sales by Electronic Arts and does not include sales in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in which the game is distributed by Akella . The sales via the manufacturer's own sales platform Steam are not known. In June 2009, Gabe Newell speaks of over 3 million Left-4-Dead customers, whether this refers to Steam or retail sales or the total of all units sold is not clear from the statement.
demo
On November 6th, Valve released a pre- demo version for Windows and Xbox 360 , in which only pre-orderers of the game and winners in various competitions were allowed to participate. On November 11th, the demo was made available to all interested parties; the demo was switched off for the release on November 18th.
The demo version contained the complete first level as well as the second level up to the crescendo event from the film No Mercy and was already playable online in co-op mode. The versus mode was not integrated. Valve used the beta phase to make final bug fixes on Steam and the game itself.
Ratings
Left 4 Dead received ratings between 87% and 90% consistently in computer magazines. GameStar described the game in its 01/2009 issue as "outrageously short" but with a "high replay value". Also PC Games recommends (issue 01/2009) "the developers [should] quick reloading; four campaigns are too few to captivate for months. "but confirms" Valve makes no mistakes ".
Custom maps
Some time ago Valve implemented the option of creating and playing maps that they had created themselves, so-called "Custom Maps". This mod was expected for a long time and after a short time there were many maps in circulation. With the help of this mod you can create your own campaigns, survival, and versus maps, as well as develop your own modes.
Left 4 Dead 2
Valve announced the second part "Left 4 Dead 2" for November 17, 2009 at E3 and kept this date accordingly. The sequel contains new weapons and enemies and takes place primarily in the southern United States . Contrary to what was originally expected, no version for the PlayStation 3 will be released.
Customers who pre-ordered the sequel via the Steam distribution platform could play the demo from October 27, 2009. In addition, they received a baseball bat as a melee weapon exclusively in the game. The demo was only available to all others from November 3rd (two weeks before the game was released) until the end of November.
synchronization
| figure | speaker |
|---|---|
| Francis | Holger Löwenberg |
| Zoey | Carina De Jesus |
| Louis | Robert Poerschke |
| Bill | Klaus-Dieter Klebsch |
swell
Web links
- Official website
- Left 4 Dead at MobyGames (English)
- Left 4 Dead Wiki (English)
- Overview of press reviews
- Section report of the German version in comparison with the international one
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steampowered Forums: Left 4 Dead Splitscreen on PC
- ↑ Retail sales: 1.8 million in 2008. February 4, 2009, accessed February 4, 2009 .
- ↑ Valve Responds To Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott, Vows Support For Original in kokatu (English)
- ↑ Left for Dead 2 announcement
- ↑ No Left 4 Dead 2 for PS3 on fudzilla.com (English)
- ↑ Pre-order now on Steam! at HLPortal.de
- ↑ HL-Portal: Bill is Dr House
- ↑ HL-Portal Forum: These are the German voice actors !!!
- ↑ Carina De Jesus Website: News