Left 4 Dead – It scares me!

Well the happy time has come again. Valve have released another blockbuster to keep the goats entertained. Obviously I’m talking about Left 4 Dead. A few years ago Valve gave me a Steam account to play with, and Left 4 Dead has just appeared on the list!

Since it’s release, I’ve been testing it quite a bit. For those who haven’t read, L4D is a Zombie bashing first person shooter. The game uses an advanced Source engine and is capable of effects that blow Half-Life 2 away. Some of the new shader effects are really neat. There’s a wide variety of opponents to fight too. Not every Zombie you’ll face is a normal Zombie. For example the Boomers can blur your vision with fancy pixel shader elegance. This makes fighting the Zombie hoarde a lot harder. Another type will send out a tentacle-like tongue to constrict you. Help!

The team co-operation is essential. Every now and then you’ll need your team-mates to come to your aid. Either by dispensing medicine or simple helping you up off the floor. Fortunatley, the characters have loads of charisma. I don’t know if it’s enough to save them from the invading forces of infected though…

You’ll find plenty of weapons, explosives and environments to battle through. Some situations are really quite creepy. Just be careful crossing that cornfield, okay?

Left 4 Dead is available in all good game shops now on Xbox 360 and PC formats. If you’re already a Steam user, then it’s probably better to buy it online.

Valve are also running a competition to win a copy for yourself. If you fancy your chances of winning a freebie, head over to here!

The demo for L4D is also available on Steam. You can download through your Steam Client, or alternativley visit Steampowered.com to pick it up. It’s rather a large demo -and will certainly give you a taste of the game.

Finally, I’d like to give a very big “thank you” to Valve Software and of course [FAP]Preacher for their continued support.

“I hate railyards!”