Left 4 Dead - Completed

Co-op gaming has been one of the many highlights for me this generation. This is due to two reasons firstly my co-op partner is now very good at games (if not better than me on some genres -watch his ego grow) & secondly that game developers are releasing more local co-op games.

So after having completed Halo Reach we needed another game. From the many on offer to play we opted for Left 4 Dead.

You are one of 4 survivors and the intro shows you climbing to a city building rooftop to escape the zombies.

From the rooftop you can choose your weapon be it Shotgun, Assault Rifle or stick with your trusted pistols which come with unlimited ammo. There is an achievement for finishing a scenario using just pistols but I have yet to do this because you have no choice but to use the trusted Assault Rifle to take care of the in-rushing horde of zombies.

I've managed to unlock some of the more difficult achievements like Man vs Tank in which you have to take down a tank single handly.

Each scenario can be completed in about an hour. So it's a short game that you can complete in about 4 to 5 hours. It offers replay in that you can replay the levels with online 4 player play & other online modes which I have not really played. It's a UGVM PMG game so I will no doubt be playing in 2011

Left 4 Dead 2 - Hard Rain

Because of Halo Reach I have not played this for a few weeks, I joined Phinlee, Tony & Buckskin to play the Hard Rain campaign. You are in a town called Ducatel, you have to travel through the town, sugar mill & fields to reach a gas station to get some diesel. Once you get the diesel then boy it's fun, the rain comes & with it a flood of zombies. You then need to get back to the boat to finish the level. There are lots of witches in this level, I startled a few with my wayward shooting, also a few chargers who always seemed to go for me. Playing on easy difficulty meant we had access to quite a few med packs which was good because we needed them. The last stage was very difficult to hold out waiting for the boat to arrive whilst trying to run away from the Tanks and flood of zombies. Once the boat arrive Buckskin & I just ran, turning around we saw Tony was down & Phinlee was trying to get him back up. Buckskin then went back to help but seeing how many zombies were around I carried on going for the boat. On the boat I could hear the distant screams of pain my colleagues were under but remembered a previous experience on Left 4 Dead 1 where I had made the evacuation point only to go back to help Buckskin & both of us died. So I stayed on the boat waiting for them all to die & the credits to roll :)

Next we tried Versus mode in which you have teams of 4 v 4 playing as the infected trying to stop the other team who are survivors getting to the safe house, then you switch to play the opposite side. Playing as the infected is difficult at first because you have to learn the attacks they can perform. Hunter I hated because I could never perform the jump but Spitter & Boomer were simple to play. In short we got creamed by the opposing team, they were very good at running for the safe houses whilst killing us off with our feeble attempts to stop them. In our defence for most of us it was our first attempt at playing Versus and hopefully next time we'll be better.

It was good to get a break from Halo Reach to play something else, tomorrow is Friday so ugvm Halo Reach night.

Left 4 Dead 2 - New Game

New Game, purchased this approx 6 months ago & only opened it yesterday to play DOH ! UGVM session with Sessile, Buskskin & Phinlee. If you have played the first then expect more of the same with only a few changes I have noticed so far, couple of different enemies like Charger (does what his name says), Spitter (spits acid) & Jockey (who is like the hunter except he tries to control your movement towards the zombies). Weapons are the same with extra melee weapons, great fun picking up the samurai sword & chopping the zombies down. I joined the session late so came in half way through the first campaign Dead Center, you have to make you way over to a mall & fuel up a stock car to evacuate. Only playing on easy I was surprised by how difficult last section of this campaign was, getting the fuel to fill the car up whilst fighting of hordes of zombies & tanks we all died twice before on the 3rd attempt Sessile managed to make it to the car and left us all to die :) I will have to go back and do this campaign again so I can get the achievement, I did however pick up a few other achievements Acid Reflux (Kill a spitter before she is able to spit) & A Ride Denied (Kill a Jockey within 2 seconds of jumping on a survivor)

After enjoying the first campaign we marched straight onto the second campaign 'Dark Carnival' you have to get through a theme park & make your way to a stage to start off a music & lights show. Hunters seem to have some serious love for Buckskin because they were not going for anyone else. I think that was probably because he was playing the role of the travel guide and telling us which way to go. Along the way you get some nice set pieces including having to walk a rollercoaster ride, I kept on going back to help Phinlee out who wanted to make sure no zombie was getting on the ride. He repaid that favour by saving me from a few Jockey's who wanted to ride me. Towards the end we lost Sessile who become infected and had to return back to RL (real life). We then went on to play Rock Band with the zombies, you can even use the guitars for Melee weapons. After a few hundred zombies and a couple of tanks the helicopter arrives to evacuate you. I found this campaign easier than the first maybe I got better at the game or just luck?