Each week before playing a different game, my friends Jamie, Shadey and I have been playing Left 4 Dead one or two levels at a time. Developed and published by Valve with their Source engine back in 2008 with a sequel the following year, the game is starting to show its age and become a bit of classic. Despite some initial misgivings, I found it a nice change of pace from the other games I am playing right now and as ever I enjoyed simply playing a game with friends. While I suppose you could play through the game single player, it’s designed to be a co-op first person shooter, supporting up to 4 people to play as one of the protagonists available.
As I was playing I remembered that there is a StarCraft 2 custom map published by Blizzard Entertainment back in 2011 called Left 2 Die which is a sort of RTS (Real Time Strategy) spin off of Left 4 Dead. The objective being to fight off waves of undead with special enemies which have similar names and abilities to the zombies in Left 4 Dead. It even has the similar title card below. The whole thing was to show off their latest custom map editor which, to be honest, is a great way to get into game development. It is after all how games like League of Legends and Dota 2 were born. Which in turn started the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game genre.
I am also reminded of when I played through Aliens: Fireteam Elite back in 2021. Don’t get me wrong, for the most part they’re completely different games. But they are both designed to be played cooperatively. It’s a shame that back then I wasn’t able to play through it with a friend or two, it could have been so much more fun.
After around a total of 17 hours play time, we completed Left 4 Dead on ‘normal’ difficulty last weekend. This means that the criteria has been met for it to go on my list of completed games. Technically speaking, we completed the the first Left 4 Dead game as well as Left 4 Dead 2, but I will feel better combining the two games. Especially as I should admit that there was an element of being carried, especially at the beginning. Towards the end however I would like to think I was holding my own, barely.
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