Hey, this is my first post/review on CAG, so, don't bash on me too hard please = ).
For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been struggling with whether to get Gears 2, or Left 4 Dead. The deciding factor was ultimately my friends, who all seemed to be getting Left 4 Dead. So, I spent my (semi) hard earned cash on that.
Now for the actual review: All in all, I'd consider it about a 7. It's worth the money, but overall, I was dissapointed.
Let's start off with the campaign. My one and only gripe with the otherwise stellar campaign is the "shortness". This really isn't a problem, because the replay value is apparently very high. But, after going through the campaign once(which only took about 3-4 hours), I feel like I know the 4 scenarios like the back of my hand, which deters me from wanting to go through it again. But, that very well may be just me. Another "problem" (though to myself, and many other horror movie fanatics is not a very big deal) is the lack of back story. I would like to know how the infection spread, and just who the survivors really are. Those two thing's aside, Id give the single player campaign experience a solid 8 out of 10.
Now to what I consider the game breaker. Normally, when a game has a short campaign, it is (usually) made up for by a great multiplayer. But here's the problem, both the co-op mode and the versus modes are virtually exactly the same as the single player campaign, plus the additive of fellow humans. So, when you feel like breaking the monotomy of the linear campaign, you can....go and play the campaign. Normally, playing co-op instead of single player is fun because you can play with someone else, but it doesn't feel very different because you have 3 teammates in the single player mode anyway.
Versus mode is a slightly different story. First of all, you can only play it on the first and last scenarios. For some reason, "Death Toll" and "Dead Air" aren't available, don't know why. But the big problem I have with it, is half the time, you're just playing the campaign. The other half the time, you are one of the games "special" zombies, trying to prevent the humans from getting to the safe room. Being a zombie is truly the only fun part of versus, because being the humans is exactly the same as the rest of the game. The scoring system is also pretty lackluster. The humans are scored based on how far they get horizontally. Zombies are scored based on(I'm guessing, the game doesn't tell you) how much damage you did to the survirors.
The game is fun though, worth the money.It's engine and combat system are a monument to Valve's continued success in the FPS genre. It is a constant heartpounder, and you'll sometimes find yourself holding your breath for an entire scenario.
Like I said in the beginning of my "review", I'll give it a 7. It's a great experience, but one gets tired of living the same experience dozens of times over.
For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been struggling with whether to get Gears 2, or Left 4 Dead. The deciding factor was ultimately my friends, who all seemed to be getting Left 4 Dead. So, I spent my (semi) hard earned cash on that.
Now for the actual review: All in all, I'd consider it about a 7. It's worth the money, but overall, I was dissapointed.
Let's start off with the campaign. My one and only gripe with the otherwise stellar campaign is the "shortness". This really isn't a problem, because the replay value is apparently very high. But, after going through the campaign once(which only took about 3-4 hours), I feel like I know the 4 scenarios like the back of my hand, which deters me from wanting to go through it again. But, that very well may be just me. Another "problem" (though to myself, and many other horror movie fanatics is not a very big deal) is the lack of back story. I would like to know how the infection spread, and just who the survivors really are. Those two thing's aside, Id give the single player campaign experience a solid 8 out of 10.
Now to what I consider the game breaker. Normally, when a game has a short campaign, it is (usually) made up for by a great multiplayer. But here's the problem, both the co-op mode and the versus modes are virtually exactly the same as the single player campaign, plus the additive of fellow humans. So, when you feel like breaking the monotomy of the linear campaign, you can....go and play the campaign. Normally, playing co-op instead of single player is fun because you can play with someone else, but it doesn't feel very different because you have 3 teammates in the single player mode anyway.
Versus mode is a slightly different story. First of all, you can only play it on the first and last scenarios. For some reason, "Death Toll" and "Dead Air" aren't available, don't know why. But the big problem I have with it, is half the time, you're just playing the campaign. The other half the time, you are one of the games "special" zombies, trying to prevent the humans from getting to the safe room. Being a zombie is truly the only fun part of versus, because being the humans is exactly the same as the rest of the game. The scoring system is also pretty lackluster. The humans are scored based on how far they get horizontally. Zombies are scored based on(I'm guessing, the game doesn't tell you) how much damage you did to the survirors.
The game is fun though, worth the money.It's engine and combat system are a monument to Valve's continued success in the FPS genre. It is a constant heartpounder, and you'll sometimes find yourself holding your breath for an entire scenario.
Like I said in the beginning of my "review", I'll give it a 7. It's a great experience, but one gets tired of living the same experience dozens of times over.
