I just played the full version of Left 4 Dead last night. It was quite the rush and I’m glad to say that the full game does not disappoint. I had some misgivings when playing the Left 4 Dead demo. It was only two levels and only allowed 4 player coop mode vs. AI zombies. I admit to thinking that, while it was fun, it could get old fast. Especially since the full game has only 20 maps and a handful of different guns.

After 2 full hours of nonstop playing on the full version I’m happy to say that I won’t get bored of this game anytime soon. I decided to try out the game mode that wasn’t in the demo – 4 v 4 versus mode. The mode has 4 players playing the part of the human survivors while the 4 players on the other side play the infected zombie bosses.

The humans have to make their way to the safehouse without getting killed while the zombies do their best to stop them. After the humans survive (or not) the teams switch sides. The game awards points to the team playing the humans for distance traveled from the start point to the end point, where the end point is either the safe room or the point where the last human dies. The game also awards point multipliers for each surviving human. Both teams are thus playing to see “who can survive best”.

The zombie side gets to spawn as one of 4 zombie bosses. The smoker is named for his wheezing and coughing and the choking smoke he emits when killed. His primary attack is to capture and choke humans with his long tongue, and has claws for a secondary attack. The hunter can jump over long distances and heights to pounce right onto an unsuspecting human. Once there he bitch slaps you to death until either he or you are killed. His secondary attack is also with claws. The boomer is a bile engorged zombie who lumbers around spitting up on humans. His spit-up obscures his target’s vision temporarily and also draws a zombie horde right to the target. Finally, the tank, which is basically The Hulk as a zombie. His blows will knock you back a few feet and he can pick up large objects and throw them at you.

The zombie players can walk around the level and choose where they want to spawn. The only restriction is that they can’t spawn in view of a human player. Anywhere else, including just around the corner or behind a closed door, is ok. Once spawned they have to wait for their primary attack to “charge up”, as indicated by a meter on the lower left side of the screen. As fitting their “zombieness” the zombie players do not lose health from falling. The zombie team also has “zombie vision”. As long as one zombie (AI or player controlled) can see a human, then all zombie players can see that human. In addition the zombie team can see an aura around each human indicating the relative health left, thereby letting them pick off the weakest link. And finally, their zombie vision shows them pipes or other surfaces which they can climb in order to get on a roof and pounce on their prey. The scoring mechanic in versus mode does not penalize the zombie players for dying; encouraging the zombie team to keep up the pressure on the humans. However, the zombie team still has to work together and with the AI in order to be most effective. Especially since the survivors have the advantage of firepower.

The game pacing is just right and captures the quiet lows and panicked highs of a horror movie quite well. It says something about a game where even losing was fun. And our team lost quit a bit as we were still trying to work together as either the zombies or humans. Playing versus mode itself is like eating popcorn, a quick and tasty snack that just leaves you wanting to eat more. I had to pry myself away from the computer last night so I could have at least some sleep before working the next day. Its that good.