The game also makes use of a "three strikes and you're out" rule for handling deaths. Knocked down three times? You had best not expect to come back to life after that. Players will go into a spectator mode until one of a few things happen: They can either be found in a closet somewhere down the line by their teammates and allowed to jump back into the action, or if all of their teammates die before such a time, then the round is over and the Infected can tack on another victory.

Left 4 Dead is also a thinking man's game. Each level does require a fair bit of strategy. Who will lead the way and who will cover the rear? What weapons will everyone carry into the next section? There is a Boomer and a fresh wave of AI Infected both headed your way, which poses the greatest threat and should be eliminated first?

[ad]A Brief Overview of the Gameplay (continued)
At the end of each section within a scenario, you're presented with a report card. Each player is given an overview of their team's stats on a player by player basis. Questions such as "who has the most kills" or "who wounded their teammates the most" will be answered here.

These stats will provide a number of interesting "achievements" that tell each player some notable events that they accomplished in that last area. You should already be familiar with how the Steam achievements work for the Orange Box. These are not those types of achievements, but they do provide the same type of instant feedback to the player. Keep in mind, not every "achievement" will be a positive one. A colored ranking (green, yellow, or red) will be how achievements are broken down. Try to keep most of your accomplishments in the green, alright? The last I heard, these end of the section achievements may, or may not tie into the actual Steam achievements that will be included for Left 4 Dead.

See, you just thought this was going to be another run and gun online title. Boy, is your face red!

The Story
The simplest way to describe this story would be to tell you that it's a spin on the 28 Days Later story. Four humans are fighting for their survival after a new strain of the rabies virus is unleashed on an unsuspecting world population. As you expect, you're one of the few who are immune to the virus but you've unfortunately found yourself going against thousands of your Infected brethren.

Set throughout a number of locations in the United States, you'll constantly fight for your survival with each scenario ending in a tense and dramatic standoff while you await your rescue.

The What, Where, and When
Left 4 Dead consists of a number of scenarios, each broken up by different areas. Each scenario plays out with its own separate story that has no bearing on the success or failure of other scenarios you play. They will find you fighting the good fight in cornfields and rural areas, to the confined hallways of hospitals and urban city streets. I personally only played through most of one scenario, an urban venture to a hospital rooftop that actually offered up much in the way of scenery and locations.

Each level is broken up by safe zones where you load the next area, take a breather, and examine your team's stats, much like the end of a round of any multiplayer title. Players will stock up on additional ammunition, or swap out their weapons for other weapons strewn about a table. You must select your armaments carefully. Have a feeling that the next area will consist mainly of cramped areas? Pick up that shotgun and put it to good use. Teammates already loaded to the gills with shotguns? Then you should pick up that assault rifle or scoped rifle to add a little distance to the team's effectiveness.

These safe zones will also allow the human player to pick up health packs here for immediate use, or save them for later when you, or a teammate, need them more. The weapons found in these safe areas, while packing a punch, pale in comparison to those weapons you may find in the heat of the battle. Sometimes, it might just be best to stick with that weapon you picked up in the middle of the last level. It's served you quite well so far, right?

The Good...
Bill, Louis, Zoey, and Francis. Meet your four survivors and the only hope you, as a human, have against the Infected. Bill is the hardened Vietnam vet (far right). Louis was happily minding his own business as an employee in an electronics store (far left). Zoey, the only female of the group, who also happens to be the youngest, comes from a rather spoiled upbringing. That leaves us with Francis, the biker with arms full of tattoos and a fistfull of boomstick. (The character background information comes courtesy of the Left 4 Dead 411 FAQ (http://www.left4dead411.com/left-4-dead-information#Q25).)

Don't get me wrong, you don't always play as these humans striving for survival, you will play the opposite end of the spectrum and assume the role of the infected bosses as well. Unfortunately, I was not able to play on this side, so I was only able to see things through the eyes of a survivor. Or rather, through the eyes of a very hopeful survivor.

[ad]...The Bad, and the Ugly
Boomer, Hunter, Smoker, and Tank. No, these are not the names of characters from the Matrix, these are the names given to the Infected bosses that you'll get to either play as, or attempt to take down with your wits and a barrage of gun fire.

The Boomer lives up to his name sake. Weighing in at, what I assume to be a metric tonne, the Boomer is fat, deformed beast of an adversary. He's slow, he is a large target for the survivors, but he is not to be underestimated. His main attack consists primarily of vomiting on you, which will act as a beacon for the AI Infected. They will tend to ignore all over teammates and focus solely on attacking you, so you had best be prepared to find a spot to hunker down in until the effect wears off.

When the Boomer is killed, he doesn't go out with a whimper, but a bang. His gaseous body explodes, and all those caught in his fleshy blast zone will suffer considerable damage.

The Hunter is the fastest and most agile of the player controlled Infected bosses. He's able to camouflage himself against walls, only being detected when he moves or a Survivor somehow aims directly at the Hunter. The Hunter has the ability to dart from wall to wall, the ability to climb up buildings and tall structures, and isn't afraid to get a little up close and personal. His main attack involves him knocking your player around and to the ground while he slashes at you relentlessly. If you find yourself in this position, the only way to escape is to have a teammate kill the hunter.

Next up we have the Smoker. This baddie sports a tongue that would make Gene Simmons jealous. That's right, the Smoker's tongue is his primary weapon. It's able to wrap itself around your neck from considerable distances, or hang you like a noose should he get above you, the only chance you have to survive this attack is to shoot his tongue before you're strangled or pulled to your demise. While it's wrapped around your neck, the Smoker will slowly pull you towards him. You can move slightly left and right while this is happening, in hopes you'll be able to get a clear shot at the slimy appendage. Upon his death, the Smoker releases a thick cloud of smoke that will obscure your view. Not necessarily the best situation to be in when your eyes are your best tool.

The Tank is the fourth playable boss Infected at your disposal. With a look and an attitude that resembles "Mr. Hyde" from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Tank is muscle upon muscle. This charming fellow has the ability to smash through walls, pick up cars and other objects to use them as deadly, thrown projectiles, and will just beat the ever loving crap out of the Survivors. It takes a lot of firepower to bring one of these guys down, and given how much he loves to get up close and personal with the Survivors, you had better keep your ears open for his unique sounds that signal he is near.

One more Infected is thrown into the mix, the Witch. Murmuring to herself as you tiptoe past, hoping not to cause a stir. Able to kill you in just one hit, you should make damn sure you don't fire your weapon at or near her, you do not shine a light on her, and you do not move faster than a walk by her. Trust me, if you don't do this, you're dead. What makes the Witch even more unique is the fact that out of all of the Infected bosses, she is the only one you cannot play as. She is entirely controlled by the AI.

Last, and most certainly not least, are the hoards of Infected themselves, the ones that are not the bosses, nor the Witch, but are entirely AI controlled. Spawns for the Infected will differ from previous play throughs thanks to the new system set up in the game to control the frequency and location of enemies. "The Director" that is in place for this title makes sure that the action never becomes too dull or becomes excessively frustrating, and will also take into consideration the difficulty level chosen. This new system dynamically creates Infected spawn points depending on how well the team is progressing.

[ad]Graphics
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.

The human characters all looked sharp, and obviously were all visually unique. They all were animated very similar to one another though, but this just means there are no advantages or disadvantages to playing as one character over another. A good choice by the game developers to prevent people from dropping because they couldn't get so and so as a character.

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.

[ad]Graphics (continued)
One area where the visuals sort of yank you back to reality, is that weapons, items, and even your teammates will have a glowing aura around them. Teammates will only have this white, glowing outline around them when their bodies are around a corner or behind a wall. This is a necessity as you do not have a radar in the game. The aura, when used on items helps to better identify items of importance even during the chaos of battle. It helps to bring to your attention various weapons that are strewn about the game world, to identify health cabinets in the safe zones, and to show you where you can find some pain pills.

The dark and dangerous atmosphere of the scenario I played through was apparent from the start. The night skies seemed almost tranquil when set against smoldering ruins of destroyed and abandoned buildings, burnt out cars, and overturned furniture. From tranquil to foreboding, each map offers up a little bit of everything. However, ambiance cannot rely on just visuals alone.

Sound
Alone, a single Infected grunts and groans with the best of them. As a pack, however, the combined sound will keep you constantly on edge just waiting for the pack to round that corner ahead of you.

The bosses have unique sounds, especially when it comes to the Boomer and the Tank. The Tank can be heard from a rather substantial distance given how fast and furious he moves, hitting the ground with his fists to keep his balance, you'll hear him well before he ever slaps you upside the head with his meaty fists. As noted, the Witch utters and cries softly to herself. It's probably the most unnerving thing to hear in this game as these times tend to be the most tense when you run across a Witch. No sounds, no lights, and slow walking past a clearly troubled foe.

Weapons sound powerful enough already. There's really nothing outstanding here for the weapon sounds. The character voice acting were a treat to hear given how each of them actually sounds unique, something that would be quite the welcome change to Counter-Strike.

Little details like the sound of vomit spewing out from a Boomer, the slick organic sound of the Smoker's tongue as it wraps around your person, and even the metallic groan of the doors as the Infected pound away at them all add up to provide a treat for your ears.

As of my testing, there was no way of telling just how many of these sounds were final versions, or just place holders.

Controls
There really is not too much to say here for the controls and the handling of the inventory. You're limited to just a primary weapon, a pistol (or duel-wielded pistols if you find a second one later), and some form of explosives. Cycling through the weapons is the same as any other FPS, and can obviously be customized to your own liking.

Again, all typical fare with the controls here, so do not expect any surprises. The only unique addition to the title is the number of dialog options your characters will have available to them. There are multiple lines of recorded dialog that can be said with one of the three voice comm menus (think of Counter-Strike or Team Fortress 2's Z, X, and C key uses).

I did not have any hands on time as the Infected bosses, so there's nothing to report on just how well that crew controls. Given the special abilities of the Infected bosses, I would imagine there are some additional idiosyncrasies there that the players will have to contend with.

To Be Continued
Okay, now that we've gotten a few of the basics out of the way, it's almost time for round two. Next up, I'll re-live every detail still stuck in my mind from my hands-on time with Left 4 Dead. Don't worry; the second part won't take another three months to appear.

Ready to take a little trip into my mind to see what I thought about Left 4 Dead? Well, the second part of the article (http://www.csnation.net/articles.php/241/) is now ready and waiting!