Duude, this is gonna rock! Fighting zombies online with a group of friend?? AWESOMENESS!!!!
Left 4 Dead Q&A - First Details
Turtle Rock Studios is working on a new game powered by Half-Life 2's Source engine. We get the first details.
You might not think about team-based online multiplayer going hand-in-hand with "survival horror" games--games like the Resident Evil series that give you only limited resources while pitting you against legions of horrible monsters, often in cramped confines. After all, classic survival horror games are usually single-player experiences because they're about your character being all alone in a hostile, zombie-filled world. But Turtle Rock Studios, a developer with credits that include Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and the Xbox version of Counter-Strike, is doing just that with Left 4 Dead. This new team-based game for the PC and Xbox 360 pits small teams of humans against "the infected," which are hordes of ordinary people transformed into mindless killing machines by a mysterious virus that has spread throughout the game's various environments. We sat down with Turtle Rock's Michael Booth to get the first details.
GameSpot: What exactly is Left 4 Dead? We understand that it has survival horror elements, but what else is there to the game? How would you describe it?
Michael Booth: Left 4 Dead is a cooperative survivor horror game where four survivors must work together to escape a city teeming with an overwhelming number of the infected. If you work together, you have a chance. If you run off on your own, you will die.
GS: What's the setting? Is it contemporary America, in the vein of something like Dead Rising? Or is this a postapocalyptic future we're talking about? What sort of environments will we see?
MB: Left 4 Dead is set contemporary America. Although we've pushed the fiction a bit for the sake of gameplay (such as including the "boss infected"), the basic idea of a catastrophic pandemic and the collapse of civilization makes for great survival horror because it is quite plausible. We wanted our environments to remind you of home--but a horribly changed and tortured version of home.
The initial four campaigns of Left 4 Dead include both urban areas and rural areas, with lots of dense architecture and challenging landscapes. Each campaign also ends with an elaborate "finale" where the survivors must make a stand while waiting for a rescue vehicle to arrive and take them to apparent safety.
GS: Who's who in the game? Who are the main characters, what are they trying to do, and what exactly are the infected?
MB: The four survivors include Bill, a Vietnam veteran with combat skills that have helped keep him alive; Louis, an assistant manager at a local retail electronics chain store; Zoey, the teenage daughter of a wealthy family; and Francis, who is big, loud, and rough, but always has your back.
Imagine that you live in a major city during a time when a new and highly virulent strain of the rabies virus emerges and begins spreading rapidly among the human population. Those infected become dangerously psychotic and attack all noninfected on sight. You are one of the lucky few who seem to be immune to the virus, but are trapped in a city teeming with thousands of extremely violent infected. Banding together with a few other survivors, you try to escape.
GS: It seems safe to say that Left 4 Dead is a class-based game, considering Turtle Rock's previous work on Counter-Strike: Source, and judging from the early graphic showing the four heroes, each carrying a different type of weapon. What are the classes in the game, and how do they complement one another?
MB: From the survivor standpoint, Left 4 Dead is a cooperative game in which success is based upon the skills of each member and the team's ability to work together as a unit. As such, the four survivors have the same weaponry available to them and begin with the same skills.
On the infected side, however, the characters available to human players (the boomer, smoker, hunter, and tank) have very specific skills.
216 comments
Love the Source Engine, Love Valve, as Turtle rock have just been bought by Valve i have high hopes for this game.
it seems pretty good seems a little bit more exciting than resident evil i will have to see this unfold a bit more
This game looks pretty awesome, it's gonna be like the zombie maps on CS Source, except better. I'm gonna get all my friends who have Xbox360 to buy it. But I have a PC so I'll own them all. Mouse and Keyboard is the way to go!!
it would be cool if they made another orange box and this came with half life 3 and some other stuff
Anything with Zombies is awesome, a co-op game with them is just another take on other games, come on people a true free-roam survival-horror game would be nice people, something just a wee bit better than dead rising. This looks good, but it's nothing special.
I'm ecstatic abou this game. I love the zombie survival franchise and to finally be able to play online with you friends in such a game is simply awesome.
This Game osunds awsum. hopefully its not just online. if its just for online it wouldnt be worth getting.
i don't think that playing solo would be good cos your ai buddies will most likely keep getting themselves killed hopfully you will be able to heal them like on gears but this doesn't seem that interesting as other horrors like jerchio or evil 5 which has more lone gunner or shooter aspects then runaway and escape aspects
Sounds awesome, can't wait. The fact that they plan to improve on it after the release is even better!
I've been always been big fan of Source Engine snice its first came out. Honestly, I rather Source over Unreal 3 engine cuz it run faster and amazing detail and always can add more layer to their faces and phys. movements. More real and been strong loyality to ATI, which Valve and ATI is one of my 10 top favorite companies... ATI, Valve, Bungie, Microsoft, XBOX system (1st and 360), HD DVD, Universal Studios, Infinity Ward, Steam, Weinstein Company/Dragon Dynasty and Turtle Rock Studio. They all make some amazing products and rarely let me down. But I trust this game will be as amazing as Half-Life 2 : Orange Box for XBOX 360. I'm also gonna get Team Fortess 2 and Partol for my steam account. Can't wait for new ATI 2600 XT GDDR4 graphic card will rock this Source Engine cuz it run fast and smooth than other graphic engin cuz this run almost like nothing can slow it down on ATI graphic cards of mid-range and high-end card. Valve didn't like the way PS3 degin and in the magazine... the Valve co. owner said they need start all over again cuz their design and programs for PS3 suck! I ain't lying, it is the FACT and the TRUTH! Check it out yourself. I'm not being fanboy... just like their products and what Valve and Source Engine including Microsoft have done to us so far!
finally!!! a horror survival that comes to the PC. RE: outbreak was fun, but this is gotta be much better.
Yes, i've played Killing Floor, one of the best co-op zombie games ever. Although, its less about the teamwork than it is about killing the zombies to get money for better weapons.
This looks like it could be a fairly good game. But if you have a pc and UT2004 I would suggest Killing Floor 2.0 while you wait. Killing Floor is the best multiplayer experience I've ever had. IMO, it easily beats halo2, Gears of War and Company of Heroes in terms of multiplayer gameplay. Left4Dead is pretty much a mix between Killing Floor, Zombie Panic and maybe No More Room In Hell. Personally, I'll look forward to playing No More Room In Hell for the source engine than this.
cool, I love the source engine! :D The characters look way more real that any other engine I ever saw ( not graphically but for the emotions their face can show ) :D Only bad thing about source, at least in HL2 was the non-stop loadiing, without this, it's the best! :D
awesome. i cannot wait. finally a game that ive been dreaming about and by people who i completely trust developing it.
I think if people dont hop around like morons in a lot of games(if there is a hop withc there probablly be)it could be an exiting game. For once this sounds like something that may be a challange. If they make a lot of items avalible,even ordinary house hold objects,like knifes for throwing,places to hide,and things like that the survivors will always have to be ready and find new ways to survive. As for playing as the infected, The smoke one sounds like my kind of charcter :D If people play well with infected and don`t act like retards, It may even turn out as exciting as the silent hill series,though thats hard to beat after all,They have some of the freakiest things i`ve ever seen,or thought of. -=-Waiting for a demo and more!
Some people have said something about subscriptions... I can promise you they won't charge per month, just a one time fee to buy the game, similar to how EVERY other Valve game is. This game better stand out from the already existing [and free] zombie mods for CS:S.
cool this games gonna be sweeet. but it really needs good online play. zombie games have a lot of potential but the games never seem to use it. for example they should have zombie games where players get to be zombies and humans and they need to defend a base for a given amount of time or escape... zombies vs. humans.... gotta love it
I love my Zombie games based on the Half Life and HL2 engine, but I think this game borrowed some ideas from Zombie Panic, however I still buy this for the Xbox 360.
well one thing is for sure if it run 's on the source engine it wont have bad graphics!
"a new and highly virulent strain of the rabies virus emerges and begins spreading rapidly among the human population" If anyone has ever read the book "Jurassic Park" which is much different from the movie, Lewis Dodgson the man you see talking to Dennis in the movie(ok that parts the same) is famous for creating a highly contagious airborne strain of rabies and unleashing it in Africa. I wonder if thats where they got the idea
wow great but developers should not missuse of this good game engine like ubi dark messiah its a bug full game giltiches more more....... but this game looking goood if single player sequence is also good like mp its a good one in pc gaming
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Game Info
- Release Date: Nov 21, 2008 (EU)
- PEGI: 18+
- Release Date: Nov 21, 2008 (EU)
- PEGI: 18+
- Release Date: Oct 27, 2010 (EU)
- PEGI: 18+
Left 4 Dead
- Publisher(s): Electronic Arts
- Developer(s): Valve Software
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- PEGI: 18+
Left 4 Dead Navigation
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