Next up on my reviews is going to be one of my favorite games out there. Left 4 Dead is Rated M for Mature and is a new zombie killer game made by Valve, creators of the Counter Strike and Half Life series. Already a legend among multiplayer game developers, Valve added to their library of games releasing Left 4 Dead in November 2008.

Faced with high expectations, Valve was careful not to slip up with Left 4 Dead. The game is filled with life-like graphics, detailed buildings and textures, and full sound effects that make this a very realistic shooter. The different zombie roles will keep you on your toes, keeping you coming back to play it again and again.

Left 4 Dead doesn’t shy from the zombie genre’s roots in motion pictures. Each campaign is a separate movie in which your party attempts to reach the end alive, complete with theater posters featuring each of the survivors, credits and all. The party consists of four strangers thrown together with only their fight for survival in common. Francis is an average American biker who looks and attempts to be the big bad man. Bill is an older war veteran, filled with knowledge and expertise of military tactics. Louis is an African American office worker, completely at odds with his new situation. Last, but certainly not least, is Zoey, the innocent women that just happened to land in the wrong place at the wrong time (or right place at the right time, depending on your point of view). Together they work to stay alive against seemingly unstoppable odds. Each playable character brings their own unique traits to the game.

The zombies in the game come off as simple and unimaginative at first, but if you underestimate them, you might find yourself in a situation you can’t get out of. A normal zombie will slash, bite, smash through doors, climb through windows, climb up buildings just to get to you. They are relentless and will keep coming, wave after wave. Though not difficult to kill they can overwhelm you if too many come at you. In addition to the normal zombies there are those special infected that exhibit more specialized characteristics. The four different classes of special infected play different roles in attacking the survivors. The Hunter can suprise you with a wicked pounce and then begins to tear the survivor apart. Smokers have a long range attack, in that they use their extra long tongue to strangle survivors and draw them to him. The Boomer is the nauseas one of the group, throwing up bile onto survivors, which attracks hordes of normal zombies to the feast. The Tank is an oversized, super strong zombie that can destroy the whole survivor party if he gets the jump on them. Last, but most certainly not least, is a special boss zombie, the Witch. The Witch lies in wait until survivors shine a light on her, awakening her into a deadly rage that quickly destroys anyone near her. Witches can, however be avoided by carefully listening to their cries and staying as far away as possible. Collectively, these zombie varieties provide a heavy challenge to the game.

The AI Director controls weapon placement during the campaign as well as zombie attacks. This ingenius bit of engineering provides the game with a high degree of replay ability. After playing through the campaigns mulitple times I can still go back in and the AI Director will throw new challenges at me that I haven’t seen before. There are four different campaigns (or movies) to play, on three different degrees of difficulty. Each campaign consists of five chapters that each end in a climactic fight against a large horde of enemies, holding out until rescue shows up.

The game also provides multiplayer options to gamers, allowing you to play online cooperative in the campaigns or in a four vs four Versus mode. In the Versus mode has teams of four play against each other in alternating roles as either infected or survivor. Players on the infected team get to choose one of the special zombies, excluding the Witch. The Versus mode is very fun and is something that can be played for hours at a time.

So to break it all down in a few words, this is the zombie shooter that doesn’t leave anything behind. It’s a game that you will pick up and always go back to, again and again. I give Left 4 Dead for the Xbox 360 a 10/10.