Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is a fast paced zombie shooter with an emphasis on teamwork. While the game does feature four decent campaigns with 5 sections, or clips, this review will focus on the versus mode (PC Only). I choose to focus this on versus as it is what will keep you playing after a few days.
In versus, as well as campaign mode, there is a team of 4 survivors. Unlike the campaign mode, there are also 4 infected players who play as the stronger, less frequent, zombies. The object is basic - blast your way to a safe room through a treacherous path or prevent the survivors from doing so. Each team has the opportunity to play in both roles. Scores are handed out based on distance traveled, health, number of survivors and map difficulty. At the end of all 5 sections the team with the highest score is the winner.
The infected have the following units:
A boomer victim being attacked by a horde of zombies
- Boomer, spews zombie aphrodisiac onto survivors
- Hunter, leaps large distances to pounce and tear flesh
- Smoker, pulls survivors towards themselves with a long tongue either causing strangulation or a beat down
- Tank, the “boss” of the game, only unit able to go toe to toe with the survivors and fight directly
The teamwork aspect of this game is very refreshing and forces everyone to work together or fail. Three of the four infected units are able to incapacitate a survivor with little effort, once this happens their only hope is for a teammate to save them. Sticking together is not optional, it’s required.
The first few times through a movie it is really intense, whether accidentally hitting off a car alarm or getting chased by a tank, it really gets the adrenaline going. Even though you can pretty much kill a zombie hitting them anywhere, I still get a kick out of trying to head shot them all, there is just something about a mini explosion of brains that gets me into the game.
Playing with friends or fellow mic users the game can be great as you really take advantage of everything it has to offer. Unfortunately 95% of your games will contain at least one newb, or otherwise incompetent player, which sways the balance for one team. Regardless if you are on the winning team, it becomes frustrating. Waiting for disgruntled players who left to be replaced or mindlessly mowing down the horde of zombies because the infected team can’t mount a semi coordinated attack feels like a waste of time.
This brings me to my largest issue with the game, pathetic game matching. Although claiming to find a match “appropriate for your skill level”, it’s nothing more then the first open slot the system finds. If it does actually base it on some stats, the system is in desperate need of a rewrite. In a game based largely on team play an excellent match making system should be at the top of the list.
One of the key features that attracted me to this game was the “it’s always different” each time through a level, aka “AI Director”. Well technically it may be different, it sure as hell feels nearly identically. Just because a zombie is two feet to the left and your health pack spawned in a different predefined spot does not constitute a refreshingly different experience.
I was excited to see the depth of the maps, mainly the doors it could hopefully open to strategic play. Again I must admit disappointment. The maps are extremely linear, have standard events and very few areas you feel apprehensive about entering. They are not terrible, just nothing special.
The main reason I wanted to bring up the last couple points was discredit the constant euphoria around the officially proclaimed features:
- AI Director ensures dynamic re-playability.
- 4 deep cinematic ‘movie’ campaigns.
- Matchmaking, stats, and achievements.
The first two are weak at best with only the last delivering any real substance, and that is the achievements. Stats? End of round stats are expected, hardly a feature. At the very least give some persistent tracking if it’s going to be spewed as a selling point.
A recently vomited on survivor has a hard time seeing
Overall the depth of the game is very shallow, from the limited weapon types, to the linear maps and lack of any unique bosses. Even playing against unpredictable opponents you’ll almost never have to adjust your strategy. As survivors you basically stay close, try not to team wound, help out whenever someone gets knocked down, and spam melee in a corner when getting swarmed. As an infected (which does seem to require more skill to pull off) you basically need to get your team attacking at the same time. Generally the boomer in first to blind/cause a horde, have the hunters pounce two and a smoker pull one back. Of course there are variations but effectively this is all you will do.
Don’t get me wrong, the game is very fun for a few days and with the release of new content on the way it can only get better. I’d recommend buying this game only if you don’t mind paying 50 bucks for 15-20 hours of solid fun - which is still a really good deal.
7/10
I thought I’d write something different then a review today. In games such as Starcraft and Warcraft 3 and most other RTS’s, with a good map editor, the custom maps often become more popular then the original game itself. I would love to see more extensions to map creator community, some of these maps are just amazing but due to being 3rd party, have a really hard time organizing a real community around the map.
Even popular maps like DoTA (War3) still have a really poor community, unless of course you get into the “elusive” leagues. I’ve never been an elitist so to me this doesn’t count as 90% of the players will never experience this level of play.
What I’d love to see is more flexibilty in the entire setup, maps which prove to be of good quality can take it to the next step and release a game plugin. I don’t mean launching a seperate game or anything like that, simply being able to switch which mode you’d like to play while logged in and have access to all the great server side support. This can range from stat tracking to leaderboards to automatic matchs.
Feel free to comment your thoughts!
A Captain and his loyal parrot.
Pirates, Vikings and Knights II is a Half-life 2 mod based off of the original Half-life mod. It is based around, you guessed it, pirates, vikings and knights. A large part of the game is sword combat and this is what originally caught my attention.
While I can’t say I’ve played the original mod, I can say I have played PVK2 on and off for nearly 2 years. The game today features 6 classes, 2 per team, showcasing various arsenals of weaponry you’d expect to find on their historic counterparts. Yes, there may not have been a time in history when these three went at it head to head but we can look the other way on this minor detail.
The highlight of the game is undoubtedly the melee combat system. While easy to learn, close quarters combat is certainly difficult to master. While it is possible to block any sword attack so long as you have a shield or sword, not everyone can “perfect parry” an attack. Perfect parrying in the game involves blocking an opponents attack while moving in the opposite direction your opponent was moving when beginning their attack. Successfully pulling off a pp, as it’s often called, requires a keen sense of awareness. It’s one thing to get one here and there, it’s another to do so at will. There is a catch of course, you must have as many hands or more on your weapon as the attacker to stun and quickly counter-attack. Perfect parring, or simply parrying in the wrong direction, still serves a purpose by reducing either larger or slightly the amount of damage you take respectively.
Chasing down an archer
This is where things get real interesting, the pirates do not carry any two handed weapons and resort to alternative tactics. This comes in the form of harassment and annoyance. The skirmishers carry both a pistol and an explosive keg, captains a shotgun and parrot. While this may sound fun, the skirmishers near uncatchable speed make them the easiest and often best class in the game, situation permitting.
Viking berserker’s wield either dual hatchets or a single large axe. Their counterparts, the huscarl bring with them a sword and shield combination, a very similar large axe, and throwing hatchets. While throwing axes deal the most damage of the fast-fire primary ranged weapons they are also the most limited, a max of 8 with a spawn of 5. They are also harder to aim due to the slower velocity then other ranged weapons. Overall the vikings bring exactly what you’d expect from vikings, powerful and simplistic weaponry and the highest pain tolerance in the game.
The heavily armored knight
Knights naturally have the heavily armored knight with a large European sword. The highest dealing weapon in the game is limited only by is painfully slow attack speed. Of course a knight couldn’t be considered a knight without a shield, it is used in conjunction with a small sword dealing very little damage. The other class in the castle dwellers is the standard archer. Equipped with a crossbow, long bow and small sword they are able to pick up kills from a far relatively easily.
Unfortunately of the different game modes, all tend to resort to a glorified team death match. There is very little incentive to win, outside of bragging rights for the 5 seconds at the end of the round. This causes a few problems, most of which is you often waste your time trying to achieve an objective only to find out nobody really cares. Another problem the death match feel brings to the entire game is you’ll constantly be chased around by a pirate taking pot shots at you with their pistol and simply running when confronted only to return moments later. While there are situations and maps that make this difficult, overall a skilled pirate can easily wreck havoc on players.
Perhaps the most disappointing part of the game play is exactly what makes it sound so appealing at first, the variety. For some reason a large amount of knight players feel the need to play an archer, which would almost be fine except the majority of players can’t hit anything more often then on occasion. Which again, is fine unless your trying to win an objective playing as the lacking and essential heavy knight. Don’t get me wrong, there are a few good archers and they do help tremendously but overall they are nothing but an annoyance that forces other players to waste time chasing them or are simply ignored.
Pirates, with their pistols and parrots and lack of equally strong close combat weapons, also spend most of their time running. In this cat and mouse game, the lone knight and vikings play the unfortunate role of cat. If you happen to be playing one of these three classes, you will find yourself wishing the skirmisher would turn around and fight or the archer would forget the exact location of, the all too numerous, food supplies while pitifully trying to hit you.
The official mod maps have been done very well and fit in with the theme perfectly, it is obvious a lot of attention to detail is put into this mod. This can be seen all over the place from sudden death destruction to the, oddly small, yet perfectly nestled castle.
Sudden death in the team death match mode on this map causes bird to attack players and lava to rise up.
I often find myself wishing there was a little more depth to the arcade style combat. Something as simple as a leg hit slowing movement for several seconds, a war cry temporarily disorienting opponents with fear or a stamina system. I can’t complain too much though, after all it is a mod and nobody is making it rich from this title. I can respect that and the unique little game they have crafted and look forward to future releases, which judging from the official website should improve on some of these issues. If some of the fundamental annoyances of the game could be solved the player base would surely remain strong months after new releases, not slowly decline into a mediocre amount of players consisting mostly of new folks trying it out for the first time.
In closing I’d like to say that perhaps my time with the game has made me a little more critical then the average first timer. Regardless of this, the game is a lot of fun and should be experienced by any sheer gamer! It’s free, what do you have to lose?
7.5/10
For download information and everything else you could possibly want to know about the game visit http://www.pvkii.com.
Frontlines: Fuel of War
FFoW is set in the not to distance future with two rival factions (US/EU - Russia/China) fighting over depleting energy reserves. This review will be based solely on path 1.2.0 and the multiplayer experience.
One of the first things you will notice when joining an action packed server is the atmosphere. Whether it’s the sound of a jet screeching by, anti-aircraft shells exploding in the distance or a cluster bomb whipping out a group of tanks, there’s always something which really gives you that war feel. Best of all there are very little sound bits that try to mimic this, its all real players.
Prior to jumping into the middle of everything you select your role and load out, it can be a combination of any of the 4 for each. Each combination has its special role to play determined mainly by the map you are currently on, larger vehicle based maps such as Solar Farm, have a high use for emp technicians, and anti-vehicle load outs. Smaller maps with light vehicle usage are where the different setups can really shine, drone technicians, while being almost useless on a larger map, serve a valuable role on maps like village.
Action is never far away.
The game revolves around trading capture points along the current front line, easily indicated both on screen and on the mini map. I really enjoyed the idea of a front line stretching across the entire battle field but it really does nothing other then give you hopes of something more. The game without this front line would be identical in every aspect of play. It would have been interesting to see some perks or penalties based on your position to the front line.
When you manage to get into a battle that has evenly balanced teams it can be very satisfying capturing that next point. I say manage because a good chunk of my games have been one sided ending in under 10 minutes. I am unsure if there was an improvement in the latest patch but it does seem to happen less as more stats are recorded.
Overall the graphics are great, explosions and near death effects have been done very well. This combined with the sound mentioned earlier really get you into the game quickly. Game play is average having been done way to many times before. I will say I prefer this over Battlefield, but then again I always thought Battlefield was missing a lot as well.
A drone piloted remotely spoting an enemy infantry member, the red triangle is visible to other players in the area.
I would have liked to of seen a better squad system, currently squads are practically useless with the 3 basic commands that the leader has. Worst of all you need to be actually looking at what you’d like to attack or defend, move slightly off and clip a hill and you will tell your entire squad to attack a spot 200 feet in the wrong direction. Not that this matters though since very rarely anyone will try to work as a squad. A simple map over view pinpointing the location of your squad members, their status/load out/role and ability to give directions there would have made it much better. As a reward for the minor inconvenience of joining a squad (which pops up directly in the middle of your screen, taking your mouse input) is if you happen to cap a point with a fellow squad member near by you get a few extra points.
There are currently 3 aircraft, a jet, attack helicopter and transport helicopter. The attack helicopter handles very well and packs a nice punch. The jet is way to fast for the relatively tiny maps and you’ll spend 90% of your time turning in circles. The transport is terrible simple for the fact that your more likely to get killed from a terrible pilot then you are from an anti-aircraft weapon.
Easily out gunned this soldier runs for cover.
Communication in the game is non-existent, no voice communication and a tiny chat box crammed with battlefield updates in the top left, you sometimes feel as if you are in the single player mode. Why a game featuring team and squad based combat would not implement some sort of in-game voice is astonishing. This might almost be acceptable if the squad commands were done in a way that was usable or it was the late 90’s. On top of this you are unable to chat while dead, respawning or between maps, this is about the only time I actually want to type something while emeresed in the game.
This could not be a true review without a brief mentioning of the numerous bugs which really had to of been known about prior to launch. Kaos marketing its first product obviously had deadlines, I can sympathyize with not being able to get some of these bugs in time.. it’s unfortuante all companies were not as successful as blizzard and lived by the “it’s ready when its ready” rule.
Perhaps some of the things I mentioned about communications and squad management were on the drawing board but dropped from time constraints. I for one am hoping for a few more patches or a sequel which really polishes off all of the minor annoyances.
In closing I’d like to say I really enjoy the game, it’s the little things that are missing which degrade the otherwise great experience. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes an action packed online FPS with vehicles. I have yet to play a game of this type which I have enjoyed more then FFoW.
7/10
For all the role/map/vehicle information you could want on the game check out http://www.frontlineswar.com/ or the offical site at http://www.frontlines.com/ where you can watch the trailer and view offical screen shots.
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