Left 4 Dead

In the spirit of Halloween season, I decided a few days ago that this would be my next game to check off. The premise is simple. You control one of four human survivors after a zombie apocalypse, and must find your way to rescue. There are four campaigns included in the game, and each is under an hour in length once you get the hang of the game. I finished the fourth and final one earlier tonight. All in all, the game is a very typical shooter. There's nothing spectacular about it, although the amount of cooperation required is pretty unprecedented. It really is a game best enjoyed with friends. At least, you would think so. Allow me to explain why I was better off alone. You see, after I completed the first mission on my own, I invited two apartmentmates to join in on the fun. We partied up and the three of us set out to vanquish the second campaign. We made it to the final act in relative harmony, and then very late in the game it all went to shit. One friend found himself nearly dead and without any first aid kits to use upon himself. Another was in good health and held a health pack in his inventory. Naturally, it was expected that the health pack would be used upon the dying comrade. Only, it didn't happen that way. An enormous horde of zombies ambushed us just as the rescue boat was arriving. I was low in health myself, and also lacked health packs. Naturally, I sprinted toward that rescue boat, hoping that once I reached it, the level would end. But it didn't. My weak and dying friend was still several hundred feet away getting ambushed by zombies. My friend with the medical pack now had a tough decision on his hands; should he risk his own life to go back and deliver that health pack? Or would he be better off joining me on the ship and leaving our hopeless ally to fend for himself? While I can't say what I would have done in his situation, I can say what he did. He lived up to the game's titular phrase and left our ambushed friend for dead. Excuse me, "4 dead." Our friend died, and the two of us sailed off on the boat as little "Achievement earned!" messages flashed up on our screen for surviving the level. No such achievement was given to our poor martyred roommate. There was an awkward silence, followed by a curt, "Yeah, I'm done with this game," from the victim. And who could blame him? I apologized for the situation, but in a half-hearted way. (This was, after all, only a video game.) I also tried not to throw our other apartmentmate under the bus, even though he had clearly been the one who could have been the savior. Flash forward. It's just the two of us now, at the end of the third campaign. The rescue plane has landed, and it's time to board it. We're both in good health and great shape, and my roommate gets on the plane with ease. Suddenly though, a horde of zombies appears and just absolutely begins to destroy me. I'm wading through the mob, slowly but surely, approaching the plane. All my roommate needs to do is leave the plane and shoot some of these guys off of me. It's even easier than running back and giving a fallen ally medical assistance. I'm literally standing on the plane's loading ramp, inches away from ending the level, when I die. Our roommate has done it again. "Yeah, I'm done with this game," I mutter. At least, done playing with our self-interested roommate after he sat back and allowed one of us to fail to complete the level for the second consecutive game. But again, it's just a game. It's no big deal. I wasn't playing Left 4 Dead to earn achievements, dear readers; I was playing it to beat it. Nothing more. You play to win the game, folks. You play to win the game. Anyway, a few hours later I lone-wolfed the final campaign and it went more swimmingly than any of the previous ones. So much for cooperative multiplayer. Ultimately, I can't say I disliked or hated Left 4 Dead, but nothing about it struck me as amazing. Halloween aside, part of the reason I wanted to play and beat this game was that its sequel is due out in a month or so. The thing is, having played through it, I really don't crave the next installment in this series. I suppose the game is essentially just like the typical zombie movies it tries to emulate: quick, fun, simple, and totally forgettable.