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[squerl]

http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2007/050107_left4d ead_1.x (http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2007/050107_left4dead_1.x)

Chris Remo over at Shacknews took a trip to Valve to play Left 4 Dead and just posted a preview. (http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2007/050107_left4dead_1.x) I strongly recommend reading this, it's really solid and very well done.

"Though Left 4 Dead is very much a twitchy action game at heart, the focus always remains on teamplay. Collapsed wounded teammates can be returned to decent health before they bleed out, if a teammate gives up his health pack and spends several stressful seconds patching things up. First aid kits and quick-fix pain pills can also be given directly from one player to another. With the risk of friendly fire, especially in the game's frequently confined spaces, players must become accustomed to allowing good line of sight to their teammates--when playing Left 4 Dead, Valve employees frequently form up into a rough two-rank formation, with the front line players kneeling to give the rear guard clear shots."

At the beginning of the preview, Remo cleared up the details of the relationship between Turtle Rock and Valve, saying that according to Valve, "Left 4 Dead marks the closest collaboration yet between the noted Half-Life developer and another studio." The very cool Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw from Valve are writing the dialogue. Also mentioned is "Mike Patton of Mr. Bungle and Faith No More, who recently recorded demonic voicework for Starbreeze's The Darkness, is providing the zombie sounds for Left 4 Dead."

Shack does a good job at stressing both the teamplay aspects and the twitchy and frantic feel of the game. Go read it. (http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2007/050107_left4dead_1.x)

[frogopus]

Very well done. Clear and concise. A couple important parts to look at:

Turtle Rock and Valve plan to support the game after launch with additional full-length free scenarios. By the time the game ships, work will already be well underway on the first of these downloadable scenarios, with the current plan to ship new content this year.

While Left 4 Dead's standard infected hordes are fairly single-minded, straightforward enemies, its five variety of boss infected exhibit much more variety. The Smoker, reminiscent of the trap-like Barnacles from Valve's own Half-Life games, is able to grab and drag players with his 50-foot tongue. Unlike his Half-Life counterpart, the Smoker can pull his victims in any direction--even down, given certain circumstances--which can be quite startling. The catlike Hunter is able to cloak himself, and can leap incredibly great distances with great speed and agility. The rotund, corpulent Boomer has a surprisingly long-ranged projectile bloody vomit attack which obscures his victim's screen and makes the player the primary target of all nearby zombies. The hulking Tank is simply extremely powerful; his melee attack does massive damage, and he is able to hurl cars and destroy walls, much like a zombie Kool-Aid Man might. Finally, the Witch tends to sit silently unless disturbed, at which point she unleashes hell.

[defth]

nothing you two guys haven't already made clear..but still cool preview =]

-cheers.

[KashMunni]

Damn that guy :( i wanna play L4D and tell people about it toooo :(

lol but it still wasnt as good as the preview here ;)

[squerl]

The one criticism I have is that he used 'undead' more than once, which the infected are not :P

[KashMunni]

o and i was wondering..

if u give ur team mate a ~Boom Head Shawt!~ will he/or zoey die?

and could the tanker really break through any wall?

[frogopus]

Squerl, thats a fight you'll never win. They'll always be zombies, undead, Infected, or whatever else people want to call them.

[KashMunni]

he should have said zombo or zombeh :D

[hooray for zombies]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the meaning of zombie something like "brain dead" or something along those lines? 'Cause if it is then the infected are still zombies.

[squerl]

Zombies are fine, but 'undead' they are not.

[hooray for zombies]

/agree

[XKhaosX]

Wonder how AI survivor is going to be like?

[MarxismIsOk]

They could be infected, AND undead.....like... the Undifected(I think this is a safe term until we all can agree) all died. So maybe they are undead and infected......FEAR THE UNDIFECTED.

[Sandman77]

Thanks for the preview news guys. :)

[ArsenaI]

Mike Patton....yay

love faith no more :D

Great review tbh. Makes it sounds realy 'twitchy' and intense

[squerl]

I thought so too Arsenal.

[Teknobry]

Again though, what concerns me is him describing the levels as STILL not finished :( which means more work needs doing on them... which means we have to wait and wait...

[ArsenaI]

He only got to play one level (the same level as every other playtest).

Im sure nearly everything will be looked at and tweaked before its released.

[Teknobry]

Yeah, agree with you.. I was just hoping they'd be almost ready for release, but it sounds like there is still work to do yet.

[ArsenaI]

I think its more of a , they've not 100% decided on things yet. so they dont get people to play them.

I dont think there will be alot of things they have to create from scratch for the game (sections of maps etc)

More than likely its just choosing the best thing for it, and then tweaking...

[Teknobry]

The 'tweaking' though can often take the longest... finishing touches to lighting, changing the texture of a wall, going through the levels with a fine toothcomb making sure its all up to scratch...

[cush]

At least at the end of their preview they say that the PC version is still supposed to be coming Summer 07. I really hope it comes out this summer so I have something to do :)

[Tobold]

alright preview, but didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know

[ArsenaI]

Yer non of these things realy will give us much new info, just keep us going, and hopefully get some more interested in the game.

Slowly building up the hype and media....*orgasms*

[KashMunni]

i soooo hope they let us play that old map they all got to play >.< i hope so i hope so i wouldnt care if they just took it away i'd be so happy if they give us 1 little weekend

[caboos]

lol i agree with him ../\
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