Sorry I Can’t Help You, I’m Covered In Zombies.

Ah Left 4 Dead, you are indeed a great game. My “Game Of The Year” for 2008. What could make me an article about this game again? As you may have heard, the new DLC “Survival Pack” is out, and it’s free. You heard me correctly. I said Free. And like my dear old pa used to say “If it’s free, it’s for me.”

Let’s start with the new versus player maps. Not too much to talk about here. Right now all four of the “campaign” maps are available for Versus, rather than the original two. However, I find them quite disappointing. The original two maps were perfectly balanced and they had a great number of places for the infected to hide. The new maps are somewhat uninteresting to play as an Infected. It just seems like Valve didn’t try hard enough to make additional places for the infected in the new “versus” maps. Quite a few people have claimed to find bugs in the DLC maps, though in my time playing, I haven’t come across any. Don’t get me wrong, the game is still outrageously fun, and I love it more then my first born child (I have no children).

Onto the second note, the “Survival” mode. You basically have an excessive amount of health and ammo packs, and you’re just holed up in one of 16 maps. One of those maps was made specifically for Survivor mode, while the others are just the areas where you alert the horde in the normal maps. You and your three friends try and, you guessed it, survive. The hordes of zombies are endless.

Survival mode is fun, there’s no arguing that. However, I find it to be demoralizing after the first few rounds. Unlike the “Horde” mode in Gears of War 2, where you know you’re making progress, because there is only 50 rounds, there IS no end to Survival mode in L4D. You just go until you die. You can’t win. The whole purpose of this is just “play until you die.” There are brief lulls in the waves, for you to heal up and recollect ammo, but the breaks aren’t so long that they take you out of the experience. I really don’t like that style of play. You know you’re gonna lose from the start. Yeah, you just lost the game.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m just pointing out some flaws. The game is still a lot of fun. I just found the DLC not up to par with the original content. However, the DLC still makes the game a better value. So all things being considered, if you STILL haven’t picked up Left 4 Dead, this DLC should give the push you’ve been waiting for. Though, there are plans to release a “Game Of The Year Edition” of the game, with the DLC on the disc. But really, who wants to wait that long? The DLC is free anyway. Happy zombie-slaying.