Shacknews Left 4 Dead preview - 5/1/07

Chris Remo over at Shacknews took a trip to Valve to play Left 4 Dead and just posted a preview. 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.