US, August 20, 2008 - Gabe Newell, president of Valve, was on hand at the German Games Convention to give the press demos of the company's next release. Though we've seen the game plenty of times in the past, we dropped by to see if we could glean any new bits of info from the house that brought us Half-Life Team Fortress.:clap:
Left 4 Dead is Valve's attempt at making a game that combines the success it has had in single and multiplayer only games. The game puts you and several friends in a quest for survival. The world has been overrun by zombies, some nastier than others, and your guns and each other are all you have. In its most basic essence, Left 4 Dead is a survival horror game with a co-op bent, but that is leaving out all of the juicy bits.
The game has an AI overlord that Valve calls the "director." This entity watches how well you're doing and then scripts future encounters based on the info it gathers. If you're doing swimmingly against the hordes of mindless and slow moving basic zombie, it might throw a Boomer at you. These guys puke on your face, the stench of which then attracts tons of other zombies. Or you might be faces with a Hunter, a fast moving beast that can pin you down and rip at your flesh. No matter what boss is sent your way, you can bet you're going to need your friend's help. If you see one being attacked, it's definitely in your best interest to go help him or her out.
Teamwork is key in this bloodbath, made particularly so by the way that you get revived if you're taken out. One of your friends will have to search for a closet farther along in the level to free you. In the demo we watched, a witch took out Gabe Newell and he had to sit and watch while another player looked for him. With the numbers down and the zombies still coming full steam, things got a little too close for comfort for a while.
Of course, you don't have to play as a team. Valve has made a new matchmaking system for the co-op game, but you can also play a versus game where some take the role of boss zombies and hunt humans. Newell also spoke about how the game will support split-screen gaming and have a script to allow AI to take over for players when they walk away from the game.
Though we didn't see any new areas, Gabe Newell did talk a bit about the future of both this game and Valve as a whole. He told us that the company no longer views games as a boxed item that is done when you ship it. Valve now sees games as a service, with the expectation of a ton of post release content. Just like we've seen with Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead will see lots of extra goodies long after it comes out. Expect to see new weapons, levels, and even boss zombies in the months after Left 4 Dead ships.
Left 4 Dead releases this November on Xbox 360 and PC and will have playable demos available on both platforms so that you can try before you buy.
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Don't know sources. .read on a gaming website
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