VillainTech: Zombiepocalypse – Left 4 Dead
Regular readers of Villaintech are familiar with my preoccupation with zombies. I’m particularly fond of the fast ones, ala Dawn of the Dead, or the rage-infected in 28 Days Later. Left 4 Dead, therefore, looks to be a very promising thriller of a game.
I am most intrigued by the set-up of the game. It is a four person multiplayer cooperative shooter, and the squad must fight its way through an army of running zombies. But the most interesting aspect of gameplay is the collection of four mutated zombies, each with their own particular brand of awesomeness. These four “super” zombies are also player controlled, which is unusual, but highly fabulous, especially for a zombie sympathizer such as myself.
A fansite for the game provided these very handy descriptions of the four zombie players:
The Hunter –
The Hunter is a normal looking infected that wears a dark, hooded sweatshirt and leaps from the shadows upon unsuspecting Survivors to maul them.
The Hunter is able to pounce great distances to land upon the Survivors and proceed to shred their flesh from bone. In order to do this attack, the Hunter must crouch or crawl until the pounce is charged up. The Survivor is held helpless and the Hunter cannot end this attack until the Survivor is killed or the Hunter is knocked off. The Hunter may also use this leap to barrel into a Survivor and knock them backwards, possibly off of a ledge. This attack has no cooldown.
The Hunter is able to wall jump to reach areas that would be otherwise unattainable.
The Hunter has the ability to regenerate health, allowing him to escape and rest up for another attack.
The Smoker –
The Smoker is an average sized boss infected covered in growths and boils and has a fifty foot long tongue as its primary weapon. He also releases clouds of smoke.
The Smoker’s tongue is fired at the head of a Survivor and wraps around their neck. The Smoker can choke its victim from above by hanging them from its tongue. A choking Survivor is unable to move or attack until another Survivor rescues them. During its tongue attack, the Smoker is helpless, even if it misses. This attack has a cooldown.
When at a more horizontal angle from the victim, the Smoker can use its tongue to pull a Survivor towards itself, moving the Survivor away from his or her team. Further, this action poisons the Survivor. The longer the Smoker pulls the Survivor, the more the Survivor’s health is poisoned. If the Smoker completely pulls the Survivor to itself, all of the Survivor’s health is poisoned. Poisoned health slowly ticks down until a medkit is used.
When the Smoker is shot he releases an obscuring cloud of smoke, limiting the Survivor’s vision. A smoke cloud is also released around the Smoker with every tongue attack.
The Tank –
The Tank is a giant beast with an abnormally muscular upper body who relies on his health and strength to pummel the Survivors and lob debris. It is only playable several times throughout a campaign, as this boss is considerably more powerful than the other infected.
The Tank uses its speed and large amount of health to close the distance and slam the Survivors with its massive fists, knocking them back and doing a lot of damage. If the Survivor is knocked down, the Tank can bash the Survivor until they are dead.
The Tank can smash cars to send them flying towards the Survivors. If there is no car around, the Tank will rip a chunk of earth from the ground and toss it.
The Tank is able to smash through certain areas in walls to surprise the Survivors.
When the Director chooses to spawn a Tank, a player is randomly chosen to play it. The Tank has a frustration meter that forces it to find the Survivors. If it does not find the Survivors in this time, the player loses control of the Tank and the computer takes over.
The Boomer –
The Boomer is an obese methane-filled boss infected covered with boils whose main form of attack is projectile vomit, but also explodes when shot.
The Boomer’s vomit is released in one large attack, and in the right circumstances can hit more than one target. The vomit obscures the vision of its victims, and also acts as a pheromone to both existing infected, and causes more to be spawned and attack the victims. This attack has a cooldown.
If the Boomer drops from a high enough height, it will “pop” and blood will spread to any Survivors in the immediate area, having the same effect as a vomit attack would.
When successfully shot at, the Boomer explodes which covers any nearby Survivors with puke.
(AWESOME.)
The story is your basic city-plagued-by-virus routine. You, along with three other uninfected survivors, must blast your way out of the city. The four survivors are Bill, veteran of the Vietnam war, Louis, an assistant manager at the local Circuit City (soon out of a job), Zoey, the teenage daughter of a wealthy family (who, judging from the preview clips, has the ability to kick a lot of ass, Buffy-style) and Francis, the tattooed biker dude.
Where are they headed? To the countryside? That is my favorite question to ask of this genre. In the remake of Dawn of the Dead, the survivors make for an island in the middle of a lake, only to find that the island inhabitants have been infected. While the survivors of Left 4 Dead do have guns and ammo, the real question is…where can they go?
The game is set for a November 18th release for PC. I’ll post a review as soon as I get the chance to play this baby.
About the Author:
Anna loves zombies. She also loves writing. Coincedence?
Check out more of her writings at VillainTech.com
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