Valve’s Left 4 Dead was a superb idea, an idea that has been horribly designed. Before I even started playing the game I had to deduct 1 point from the overall score. The point was lost because of Valve’s greed. They did not include a user’s manual with the game. Their version of the manual was a worthless paper wit the CD key and the very basic of controls on it, but they’ve made a very pretty strategy guide that sells for $20.

And that’s where the avalanche started. While the game works like just about every other shooter out there (W,A,S,D for movement, Ctrl for crouch, space bar to jump and the mouse buttons for primary and secondary attack), at the same time it is unlike any other shooter because of the vast amounts of zombies charging you. On a rough estimate I would say that each level has at least 500 zombies for you to kill. If that sounds exciting now I will almost guarantee it that after a few hours of gameplay you’ll be bored out of your mind. There is absolutely no strategy in fighting this game. You and 3 friends or AI controlled companions (for single player) start in a safe-house and have to fight your way to the rescue point.

And here is where the game takes a drastic turn or the worse: the zombies are not really zombies. Everyone knows that a zombie can only be killed by destroying the brain. Well, in this game you can shoot a zombie in the foot and kill it. When you are faced with the zombie horde charging you all you have to do is stay back to back with your buddy and you don’t even have to fire your weapon. Pistol-whipping somebody or using the butt of your riffle is way more effective in this game then a bullet can ever hope of being. I’ve killed hundreds of zombies using that strategy and not having to fire a single round. The AI is also terrible. And I’m not talking about the intelligence of the zombies (they’re supposed to be dumb); I’m talking about the intelligence of the designers. EVERY SINGLE TIME when the horde charges from one direction what I do is ignore the first wave (it is only a distraction) and I position myself with the back at that wave. The real wave always hits you from behind. Honestly, the only people that I can see enjoying Left 4 Dead are youngsters who just want to have a high kill count or all the people who were always dead-last on the Halflife or Conterstrike servers since no real shooter player will be in such a silly deathmatch for more then a couple of times. As a matter of fact the only fun part about multiplayer is the chance to play as a zombie for a change. Even the weapons are not to my liking. Since the game uses the zombie zerg to attack you they’ve changed the magazine count on most weapons to compensate for the zerg. For example, the M16 has a 50 round magazine now. You can only carry a primary, secondary and an explosive weapon. I’m sorry to say this but if I was stuck in a zombie infested world I would carry a hella-lot more then a pistol and a rifle with me. The unlimited pistol ammunition is also detrimental to the game. Instead of forcing you to focus and take aim at your target you can just be trigger happy all the time (sooner or later a bullet will hit the target). About the only time when I MIGHT enjoy playing this game is if I’m having a really bad day and I want to go postal. The only thing this game actually did for me was to make me want to reinstall C-Strike.