It’s 11:34PM, I’m staring at the clock below my TV and considering my options.  A voice in my ear (another writer here on Gametopius, Scott) and my room mate (Justin) are prodding me.  I was the only survivor of our last venture in which Justin fell off the top of the building we were on, and Scott was severely molested by a horde right before entering the helicopter.  I ran my ass off and survived with little health remaining.  I left my man behind. The other two were a bit aggravated because they died, and then we all laughed, and the two of them wanted to do it again.

            I have to get up for work at 7:30 in the morning. Do I play another campaign, which lasts bare minimum of 45 minutes to an hour, or play it safe so I can be awake and alert for work?  I played and it was another amazing experience. None of us made it out alive by 12:30, and that’s when the hand of responsibility swayed and I had to go to bed.

            Left 4 Dead is another hit by Valve, simply, exquisitely, and amazingly.  Valve outdoes themselves with their latest smash, which really is saying a lot considering their fantastic line up(Counter Strike, Half Life, Portal, and Team Fortress 2).  This company has an extremely interesting way of creating games, creating wholly single player or multi player experiences,never combining the two.

            Left 4 Dead as many of you know pits you as one of four interesting avatars in a group of your friends, random people, or AI which actually proves to be both helpful and/or intelligent against a horde of insane zombies.  The 4 avatars are Francis (who Scott played), Zoey (Played by my room mate), Louis (played by yours truly), and Bill.  Each of the avatars have a personality, and technically they have a history though that means little in the game.  From the start I wanted to play as Louis (mainly because he wears a tie and seemed businesslike) and then he turned out to be an analyst for an IT company which sealed the deal in terms of awesome for me (guess what I do for a living). There’s Bill, a Vietnam veteran that reminds me of that crazy uncle everyone has.  Zoey, the college girl with a horror movie fangirl-ism.  Then there’s Francis, the biker guy who is the asshole with a heart of gold.  This unlikely medley of people is phenomenal just for the sheer fact that, hell, if the zombie apocalypse happens, you know you’re joining up with whatever survivors you can.

Bill was our friendly AI last night, usually ended up with the most head shots, and practically kissed Scott's ass, healing him constantly while my room mate playing as Zoey is practically bleeding out.

Left 4 Dead is a game that’s –meant-to be played with friends, no ifs ands or butts about it. You have the option to play it alone, but honestly, you probably wouldn’t have nearly half as much fun.  Even when getting screwed, molested,surrounded by zombies there is absolutely no way to not have fun with your friends.  The game strongly promotes teamwork, good team cohesion, understanding, and strategic movement and weapons for people to use.

I do have a few small complaints about the game.  I do wish there was more leniency with configuring the controls. The only joystick options they have are normal and southpaw (No Legacy?!) and the button layout has 4 pre-configured options you can choose from.  Additionally there was no customization of any avatars and only the four options.  While I won’t complain heavily on that considering the characters are good with pretty decent dialog, it would have been nice to open the breadth of options there. A last complaint is there are only 4 campaign scenarios, but this is hardly an issue because Valve has said there will most likely be down loadable content in the future.  None of these complaints are worth really purporting any further then slightly voicing it because lets face facts, this game was just incredible.

With constant change ups happening in game between zombie locations, ammo placement, an ingenious “re spawn”system, and the ambient noise of the “boss” zombies this game hardly gets boring and hardly ever disappoints or gives a moments rest.  When I was first introduced to writing for this site I never thought about writing a game review because by the time I’d get to one there would be another 101 reviews already, but this has been one of the most entertaining and unique experiences I’ve had in a very long time for a video game.  Do not pass this game up for the love of all that is right in the world, if you don’t have a 360, get it for the PC.  If you don’t have a PC, steal one.  This game is a must for anyone that calls themselves a gamer.

Oh, and on one last note, although the zombies known as Tanks are a big problem in the game, I still hate those damned Witches the most.  When you hear one crying, be careful.  Now go my friends, kill zombies as God intended and save the whole damned world – or at least save your own asses from becoming grub and get to the Chopper.