24. September 2010 17:37
by richard
… is a question we’ve been asked a lot when we’ve been at trade shows over the Summer, in addition to, “When is the R.A.T.9 out?”, “Do you have a left-handed version?” and “What about Mac support?” Followers of our comments threads will know that the answers to those questions are; soon, not at the moment and we’re working on it.
The answer to the game question though is very easy – Valve’s modern multiplayer classic, Left 4 Dead 2. Its many positives were all nicely summed up by Jason at Gameshark last year but this has a fair number of us in the office glued to our monitors every lunchtime (and evenings too). Its genius is in two things: firstly that even though there are only a few campaigns to play through, each and every time you play will be different thanks to the A.I. Director that monitors how you’re playing. If you’re playing well, it will pour hordes of infected onto you as if it was raining zombies; play badly and it will lay off for a bit to give you a chance to recover. Secondly, never has a game encouraged cooperation to this extent. There truly is no place for lone wolves here – go off on your own and you’ll just get pounced by a Hunter, strung up by a Smoker or pounded by a Charger. It’s also the first game ever where I’ve actually been happy to give away my health pack to make sure someone can make it to the end of the level – definitely an achievement in itself.
Add in the Survival, Scavenge and Versus modes (the latter two effectively being a ‘legalised’ form of griefing, as four of you get to play as the special infected and team up on four of your friends to really ruin their day – great fun) and it’s truly the game that keeps on giving.
Much in that same ‘giving’ vein, Valve continue to keep adding to the game, with an extra chapter being released in the Summer and another due to arrive in the next couple of weeks. As part of the build up to that release they’re serialising an online comic detailing the events that lead up this new chapter. It’s an excellent read – parts one and two are up now, with the remaining two to be published in the run up to the release of the new chapter.
So if you’ve never given it a try then head on over to Steam to get hold of it (assuming you’re over 18 – hey, we’ve got to be responsible and point out that it’s a mature-rated game). Let us know what you think in the comments thread and also which games are currently hogging your time.
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