On the Subject of Left 4 Dead

Kim Kardashian

So Left 4 Dead, the highly-anticipated, brand new game from Valve has just unlocked on Steam. I've played through a few single-player levels, and while I'm well-aware that the game is designed for multiplayer co-op rather than single-player, I still have a few early observations to make.

What concerns me is the rampant elitism that is already poisoning the forum scene when it comes to this game. Anyone who dares to suggest they find it difficult is immediately greeted by a chorus of self-important fucks falling over themselves to claim how easy it is, how it's only worth playing on the hardest difficulty, and how the person having trouble must obviously "suck".

The thing is, the game is primary designed for CO-OP. It seems that a lot of people have trouble understanding that concept and prefer to disregard it, instead using the game as an excuse for yet another competition. Another excuse to have a worthless pissing contest to try and find some reason for their own existence. "Well, I live in my parents' basement, and I have no job, and I dropped out of college because I was sickened by the whole rat-race, and not because I'm a fucking retard, honest, but at least I'm good at FPSes! You suck!"

And there's an even more common complaint, namely how it's hard to find "people who don't suck" to play with. Now, this is a subject I've examined in the past and I will reiterate my previous conclusion. If you find that every random group you play with is unsuccessful, perhaps that's because of you rather than the other players. After all, you were in every one of those groups. Furthermore, playing with random groups requires a different attitude and skill-set to playing with a static group of friends or a clan. The unpredictability should be part of the challenge, part of the fun essentially, and if you can't handle it perhaps you should consider not playing with random people. But then, if you were good enough to be in a clan, or if you actually had any friends, you wouldn't be PUG'ing, would you?

While the game seems to be fun, and would probably really shine played with a group of friends, I can't help but think it'll soon reach the stage where players get to "know" the levels and playing the game becomes quite mechanical and predictable. Rather like missions or dungeons in MMOs. The much-touted "AI Director" is all very well, but the more you play the more you start to see the ambushes coming, not to mention there's a great deal of potential for exploitation.

Anyway, it seems to be a pretty good, if one-dimensional, visceral action experience. I can't see it becoming a major feature of my gaming roster, at least unless I find a way to play with people who aren't self-aggrandising cunts.