Para preencher minha mente esvaziada pela complexidade dos sistemas vazios de Tears of The Kingdom, que já vinha jogando há mais de um mês, eu precisava de um jogo "no brainer" pra desligar o cérebro e atirar com a @cellerepe.
Em Left 4 Dead, encontrei o que queria, e mais.

Zeramos rápido, mas as noites de jogatina foram revitalizadoras. O que eu pensava que era um jogo muito divertido com um design maestro típico da Valve e criador de tendências, se mostrou mais genial ainda quando compreendi os sistemas de randomização e como cada coisinha faz os jogadores agirem como o jogo quer sem perceberem. Nós já jogamos Back 4 Bçood, e aquele foi nosso Skywalker Saga pro The Complete Saga que é esse jogo.
Inteligente e divertido.

The definition of a classic zombie game.

Left 4 dead was a big part of my time growing up and playing video games. I feel like it's been sort of forgotten about by many, but this was one of the definitive Co-op zombie games that really took off and started the big zombie craze in gaming.

There's so much I could say about this now, somewhat dead franchise but it's something you really have to experience. Basically, this is a first-person co-op shooter game set in a zombie apocalypse. It has horror, humor and action segments. The campaign mode can be played co-op or single player with AI and involves you traveling from safe room to safe room in cities, woods, suburbs and more. The infected run at full speed and swarm you fast so it's best to be on your toes constantly and watch out for different infected types. The different zombie types are all unique and actually fun to traverse and deal with where I feel like often modern games get them all wrong. The Tank is a roided out Hulk zombie, The Hunter crawls around and pounces on you. The smoker has a tongue that grabs and pulls you in, the boomer explodes green slime that blinds your vision and attracts the horde, and everyone's favorite is the witch. She acts as almost a banshee, crying to attract attention and then once disturbed unleashes all hell on you like some type of demon. All fun designs here with a lot of great memories. The different levels of the game all act like the continuation of the same story of survivors getting from point A to point B with them having their own unique movie poster and fun end credits that calls to your gamer tags as the actors playing the 4 main characters. The characters Zoe, Francis, Bill and Louis are all unique and fun to get to know as you play. The voice acting for the cast is pretty well done all around, along with an incredibly memorable sound design I still remember to this day. There is a story to follow here that continues to the DLC that carries onto L4D2, but it isn't incredibly deep. A lot of the replay ability comes from the co-op and Verses modes where you face other players as survivors or become infected with the ability to attack other teammates. Though this first game is a classic and very memorable there really isn't much reason to play this first one because almost everything in this game including all levels and characters are added to LFD2 as DLC. There are some level, enemy and weapon changes they made in LFD2 so it is a bit of a different experience from the original but still great and probably a better version of the game, but this is still a classic.

9.5/10

Were there not a sequel, this may very well had been my favorite zombie game. Sorry Dead Rising, you’re a close runner-up. Everything about this 2008 arcade-y classic brings me back to a simpler time. Even though I didn’t play this entry as much as its sequel, it still blast-from-the-past jettisons me to that cozy mood of ever-present melancholy.

What’s weird is that I’m not typically a fan of Valve’s shooting mechanics. I’m one of the few people that just didn’t click with Counterstrike’s shooting and movement scheme. It felt clunky, odd, and unfit for first-person PvP gameplay. But for Left 4 Dead, it can’t feel more natural. The lack of aiming doesn’t bother me, the crouching for increased accuracy doesn’t frustrate me, and there being no running is simply incidental. I really think a large part of that difference lies in the transition from PvP to PvE, as well as the fact that these enemies don’t shoot back at you. The moderately fast run speed and the enemies running right up to you makes it perfect for both fast-paced speedruns or wait-back hunker down playstyles. Just don’t be too terribly slow or you’ll face quite a few AFK hordes.

Delightfully, this meat-and-potatoes design philosophy also extends to every other aspect of the game. All you have is a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, a healing item, a throwable explosive, and your wits. No esoteric perks, unique traits, or numerically ranked gear. Just run and shoot. Nothing but prime meat-grinder gameplay. Which brings me to my next adulation, the map design. Left 4 Dead proved all the way back in 2008 that you don’t need hand-holding to get across a map. Every corridor, stairwell, and alleyway flows so naturally into the next setpiece. It’s almost impossible to get lost. More importantly, it doesn’t come at the cost of contrived design choices made to baby-proof progression. I mean it when I say every aspect of this game is tightly designed to a T.

The narrative elements are sparse, with every new kernel acquired by safe-room writings, environmental storytelling, or voice lines by the characters you’re playing. All you need to know is a zombie outbreak just started (who would have thought?), and you’re rushing with your ragtag group of colorful survivors to reach the nearest safe haven. A task easier said than done judging by the number of missions in the game. As you could probably guess, I’m a big fan of this minimalistic style. We’ve all seen a million zombie stories. So when Left 4 Dead says let’s forgo the traditional song-and-dance and get right into the action I’m more than happy to oblige. Especially if I can play as my favorite cranky geriatric veteran Bill.

Now I know I’ve been gushing uncontrollably thus far, but why stop now. The lighting. Me likey. One of the biggest differences between Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 is the lighting, and with that, the mood. Though I think Left 4 Dead 2 improves on 1 in almost every facet, the dark, moody lighting in this game reigns supreme. It’s just so creepy and dreary, exactly how I’d like to imagine the end of the world would be. Gimme that overcast, week-late-on-the-electric-bill apocalypse all day every day. The very first chapter is a prime example of this, setting a thematically bleak tone for the rest of the game.

To add a hint of flavor and strategy the game, Left 4 Dead also introduces Special Infected, stronger, scarier, and dangerously enhanced zombies with their own gimmicks. Beyond having iconic designs, they also serve to address certain playstyles and challenge the player to switch tactics up when the situation allows for it. For example the Boomer punishes survivors who funnel hordes into point-blank kill-corridors, and the Hunter punishes survivors who go to far ahead of their teammates. Coupled with crescendo events — environmental interactions that causes an extra large horde to come after you— these touches of character help break up the potential monotony of just having the normal infected.

Bottom line being: try the game. With friends, alone, with the homeless man down the street. You’d have to be trying pretty hard to not have a fun time with this treat. There’s even a huge modding community. But don’t just take my word, there’s a reason the game has such a lively community 15 years later, and it’s not because Bill is just so damn charming.

Damn fun game. Pity I needed the Hard Drive space and my internet isn't the best, but it was well worth it just for the fun to go around killing zombies. Not to mention it's fun when you get to play as the zombies.

Edit: Had quite a bit of fun with this game whilst playing it. The way the AI director adjusts things is so interesting as the items are not in the same location and then the special infected like Witches and that are often placed in new and different locations where no two sessions are the same.

this is game 24/71 of my backlog.

i played this game exclusively in singleplayer, so that's what i'll be talking about, but i did try out multiplayer for a bit, and it just wasn't much fun because 1) teammates are very bad, 2) lag was unbearable.

This game is great! the campaigns themselves are not too much to write home about in terms of narrative, there IS lore but it's just kinda lame and not worth caring about, but level design it's a MASTERPIECE, everywhere you go feels like somewhere you wouldn't be able to go to in normal day-to-day life, and that you're perhaps going the wrong way, but somehow you just always get funneled right into the right path, and that isn't to say that the levels are all linear, more so that they somehow managed to make so that every unexplored path feels like the right path.

One weird thing i noticed is that there's just a lot of... empty room, no loot, no furniture, just empty, i'm not sure why or perhaps it's an rng thing but i saw a lot of those during my playthrough.

In regards to the weapons, the choices are a bit boring, i almost always went with the autoshotgun when i could, it just seems to do way more damage than anything else, and since it's a shotgun i don't have to care about spread fucking me over like the other weapons, but at the same time i wish i felt more of a reason to use the other ones.

This game is also very buggy, like zombies clipping through doors, or trying to scale up ceilings but getting offset weirdly and failing to, some things are just a bit clunky, but considering how ambitious the zombie AI (and their reactions to gunshots) i can let it slip, after all they made the very act of just shooting zombies very fun and weighty.

pretty good game, but with the sequel being a thing, i wonder if there's any point still playing this.

There's an argument to be had that Left 4 Dead is still worth playing, even though it's basically been recreated in its entirety in Left 4 Dead 2. L4D1 is much stronger as a tonal piece - no melee weapons means you have little in the way of comfortable fallback options, and you have to be conscious of every bullet. When you run into a Witch, you're making a much harder decision about how to handle her here. Less variation in gameplay modes means you're simply running for longer stretches of time from set piece to set piece, which adds that tasteful wearying sort of experience you want out of a straight horror game. These are all subtle differences, and chances are good that you'd like both games if you like one. Personally, I find all the maps I've played across both titles much stronger in their L4D2 incarnations, but I can respect someone who holds the opposite opinion.

never cared a whit for versus or the competition that arises from it but the campaigns are so good. such good characterisation of its small cast so fast, each likable with dialogue that makes them bounce off each other easily, and good visual design too. the levels are, for the most part, well designed and interesting to go through. i think some of these levels blend it together quite a lot which is a shame as it takes away from some of the personality, but thats a pretty minor complaint. dead air is just like, amazing, even the individual levels within that campaign are good. the three special infected are all distinct and interesting, always fun to deal with. good great fun! playing this online and forking around will never not be funny

fun to go back to L4D2 after this and see the formula just improved upon with more item variety and special infected. gravy

This one, Left 4 Dead is an amazing Co-op survival zombie game. It constructed a solid co-op experience from the start and up till now L4D is still one of the greatest co-op survival zombie game you can experience right now and for a cheap price, especially during Steam sales. The story of L4D is very simple, just four survivors trying to get to a safe zone, or get rescued. However, the story may not be that great but what great is, is the character dialogue, the character dialogues in this game is good even for a game from 2007 the NPC felt real even if you are playing the single player mode. All of the interactions and cheeky jokes felt so real and that's what makes L4D's characters and story good. Overall. Left 4 Dead is a quite of an enjoyable experience and very fun especially with friends! The graphics ain't that bad for a 2007 game the only downside for me is that it lacks weapon choices, but we all know the sequel will make up to that. Left 4 Dead is a good game and 100% recommendable. PS bring friends.