thoughts from gav & jof

Okay so I have a love of Zombies. I mean I like them in that they are both funny and scarey at the same time. It’s not as if I want a pet zombie like Bub in George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead.

From when I first watched Evil Dead and Dawn of the Dead I’ve loved zombies! But the new dawn of the dead movie is just wrong and scares the bejesus out of me – zombies should not be able to run. Especially once rigor mortis kicks in.

I often check out bad movie reviews over at: Bad Movies. and this is where I’ve found some real jewels. But more recently I was told about the excellent E4 series titled Dead Set. This 5 episode masterpiece centred around the big brother house during a zombie outbreak.

Anyway, with a renewed passion for all things zombie I recently downloaded a trial of Left 4 Dead by Value. Left 4 Dead or L4D as it’s called for short is a cooperative zombie survival horror title available for both PC and Xbox360. Not that I would recommend the 360 version, as you don’t have the use of a mouse & keyboard and all the power of a modern day gaming desktop.

Left 4 Dead Artwork

Since playing the demo (which was fun) a few of us in the Clan decided to take our changes on the full game. We figured with only 4 storys to play through totally in at 20 levels it would last us a few weeks to a month at most and would be a good laugh. How wrong we were – the game is so addictive I am constantly firing up Steam to see who’s up for a game. The random nature of the game keeps you on your toes while the familar layout of the levels gives you a small sense of security. Like when you think you’re going to be given some big weapons only to get a Tank instead. The reply value is far greater than any of us expected and with the promise of new levels soon, and user developed goodies further down the road I think we will be playing this game for some time to come.

Each of your “friends” has their own unique style of play and you soon find out who you’d like to be with when the zombies come knocking on your door. The other night as I limped to the safe room only to be nabbed by a smoker, it was only Jof who came straight out to save me while our other two teammates sat in the secure area saying “hurry up and get in”. Easier said than done when you on 12hp and a horde has you pinned.

Everyone has the favourite characters too. I prefer Bill as he looks and sounds funny, especially when saying “Zoe!”. One character that everyone seems to hate is Francis. No idea why…

L4D Comic from CTRL+ALT+DEL by Tim Buckley