left 4 dead - preview
I need you to keep in mind that what I played was a fairly early build of the game. There were tons of optimizations yet to be made, and a lot of additional work that still had to go into knocking out the bugs I saw (and hopefully all of those that I didn't see). I'll be up front and say that the load times for the maps, even on the beefy computers I played on in a LAN environment, were extremely long. The Tank's massive body was also seen clipping through a few walls here and there during my romp.
I was assured that these issues would all be ironed out before its release, whenever that may be.
Running on the latest build of the Source engine, Left 4 Dead will undoubtedly contain a familiar feel for fans of Half-Life 2 or any of the more recent releases. Even at this stage, the graphics looked fantastic, but maybe not up there with Episode 2 levels. At least they aren't up there yet. Blame it on the art assets still being in the early stages, but there's still plenty of time left before its release. It has the potential to be better looking than anything else running on the Source engine currently, with the exception of the unique style of Team Fortress 2.
Not to be completely negative here, I throughly enjoyed just how dark and gritty the environment feels. A lot of work has already gone into the stages I played through, and it shows. The area was a rundown section of town. Buildings have been abandoned in the wake of the attack, and cars appear burned and destroyed. Fires are scattered here and there amongst debris from fallen walls. Little details like derailed subway cars add choices for the player as to how they want to approach a situation. Walk through the car, hop on top of it, or move along side of it while your teammates cover another route.
A very notable (and welcome) change is the addition of your character's legs and torso being viewable in first person! If you've played Dark Messiah of Might and Magic you already knew that this feat was possible within the Source engine. At first, you'll just sort of wonder why they added it into this game and nothing else like Counter-Strike or even into Half-Life 2. The answer is simple: Your character will get knocked down to the ground by your foes. On the ground, you see your lower torso and it really helps to push forth the idea that you're one of these characters. You are a living entity in this world, and this addition really helps to give you some perspective on the situation.
The Infected, not including the bosses in this, have a look that gets the job done. Flesh is rotting off of their very pale looking bodies. Dead, vacant eyes compliment a very muted color palette that manges to both let the Infected stand out against their environment in parts and conceal them in others. It's almost as if the textures for the Infected were dipped in a layer of gray color that just pushes home that they're void of any humanity or rational thoughts.
Their animations are quite fluid and almost beautiful when you see them in motion. They really won't stop for anybody or anything in their way in trying to get to their next meal, and their actions show this nicely. They'll run, climb, and lunge with animations that blended together without a noticeable hitch. When hit with a melee attack, they'll stagger back before regaining their composure and lunging again. Keep in mind that the melee attack can also be used to kindly push aside your teammates that are standing in your way. No harm will come to them.
You are able to blow off their limbs at various spots on their bodies. A shotgun hit to either arm will blow off those appendages and keep the bad guys coming at you as best as they can. Locational damage is a blast, and should really make its way into more Source titles after I've seen it in action here.
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