Zombie Games: Left 4 Dead

Right! I got my Coffee and my music, the plan is to make posts about zombie games. So many games, so little time! So let's get this started and hope there isn't a zombie horde waiting for me outside when I'm done!

We've all loved a good zombie movie or TV show, just look at The walking dead; great show and a great game!

But zombie games, we hate them, we love them! We have games that make you a zombie, we have games where you're the survivors. Who doesn't love a great story about a group trying to fight their way through a horde of zombies, praying to whatever gods they believe in to help them reach the safe zone/house/room. Even when the chances are slim that they will survive the oncoming slaughter.

But since I'm a co-op person, I'll be talking about the games with multiplayer/co-op.

Let's start with one of my favorites:

LEFT 4 DEAD

Made by Turtle Rock Studios, Valve bought them during development. Thanks to that it's using the Source engine we all love so much.

"Pennsylvania suffers an outbreak of 'Green Flu'; a highly contagious virus causing extreme aggression, mutation to the body cells, and loss of higher bran functions.

Two weeks after the first infection four immune survivors---Bill, a Vietnam veteran; Zoey, a college student; Louis, an IT analyst, and Francis, an outlaw biker---make their way through the city of Fairfield, only to discover that the virus is creating more dangerous mutations. After narrowly avoiding these new infected, along with horde of others, the survivors are alerted to the presence of an evacuation point at the nearby Mercy Hospital roof by a passing helicopter. Fighting their way through the city's streets, subway and sewers." 

You can read more about it here, although i recommend you to play it rather than reading the wiki and to spoil the story about it all.

What makes this a good game is the mechanic and story, how the co-op works together as you can knock off zombies that's trying to feast on your friend, to even work as a team to take down a huge zombie called 'TANK'. Not only that, the Characters you even have conversation with each other as you were just sitting there watching a movie.

The gamemodes:

Campaign (Singleplayer) - It's self explanatory really, you play all alone but with AI characters who follow you around, they might be stupid but they have the reaction of a snake! The only issues with the AI is how stupid they are when they see a Witch and could get a lockdown on trying to run around her by running in circles (atleast that's what happened to me!)

Campaign (Co-op)  - The cooperative campaign consists of up to four human-controlled survivors who attempt to make their way between safe rooms and eventually to rescue. In this mode, the special infected are controlled by the AI.

Versus - A versus campaign, each team of one to four players plays each chapter of the campaign as both survivor and infected, swapping sides once per chapter. Unlike campaign mode, dead survivors do not respawn. If at least one player-controlled survivor finishes the level, the survivor team earns 100 points as well as bonus points based on their health and the health items in their inventory. These points are then multiplied by the chapter's difficulty level, and the number of survivors who finished. If all player-controlled survivors are killed, the survivor team only earns points according to their average progress through the chapter and the difficulty multiplier.

Survival mode - This is a timed challenge where players try to survive as long as possible against a never-ending flood of the infected. (added in April 2009 in the Survival Pack downloadable content.)

When you've finished all the missions, you can check out the comic.
I do recommend you play it before you read. 
!SPOILERS! THE SACRIFICE !SPOILERS!

LEFT 4 DEAD 2

This is the Sequel of the famous  FPS shooter LEFT FOR DEAD, but now it's about 4 others that have survived the pandemic of an infectious disease that rapidly transforms humans into zombie-like creatures and mutated forms that demonstrate extreme aggression towards non-infected.

"Few humans are immune to the disease, still carrying the infection but showing no symptoms. The Civil emergency and Defence Agency (CEDA) and the U.S. military create safe zone to attempt to evacuate as many American survivors as possible.

Left 4 Dead 2 introduces four new survivors---Nick, Ellis, Coach, and Rochelle, who are immune to the disease and have individual back stories that are provided through character dialogue. While the game is intended as a continuation of the original, occurring one week after the first game begins, Valve decided to create a new group of Survivors because of the change in location."

You can find more about the story here

Now let's talk about the gameplay; they have learned from the bad things from L4D (if there is any!) new weapons and they also implemented melee weapons for those who like to see the heads and body parts fly.

The gamemodes:

Campaign (Singleplayer) - This one is the same as the first game, you play alone with AI  characters that will help you if you get grabbed by any special infected, but they will move so fast you can't even blink before they are trying to save your butt, compared to the first game AI has been improved.

Campaign (Co-op)  - You and 3 other friends fight your way through the infested city to reach the safe zone. With this you will fight AI special infected, from difficulty easy to expert. Easy is too, well, easy! But 

Campaign (Co-op) Realism - Realism is meant for people who play frequently together online. By this it gives the friends a huge challenge on almost everything! You will not respawn (unless your friends have a defibrillator), head shots are instant kills, outlines on friends are gone, the Witch will KILL any survivor they hit, regardless of the difficulty (not on easy).

Versus - Up to four other human players take control of various Special Infected to try and prevent the Survivors from completing a stage. Special Infected are randomly assigned to Infected players; they cannot control the Witch or any Common Infected. Occasionally, as determined by the "AI Director", players will become the Tank. The two teams swap sides once per stage, and are scored based on their stage progress as Survivors. If both teams make it to the safe room with all four Survivors, a 25-point tiebreaker is awarded to the team that dealt the most combined damage as Special Infected.

Survival - A timed challenge where the Survivors are trapped in a section of the campaign map, and try to survive as long as possible against an unending onslaught of infected. This is a great training of communicating with your friends.

Scavenge - A new 4-on-4 mode that requires the Survivor players to collect and use as many fuel cans scattered about a level to fill up a power generator, while the Infected players attempt to stop them

The Zombie genre is one of my favorites, as long as they have co-op in it. Mostly because I like to work together with friends to beat a game, or just to have fun and maybe some scary moments with them! Not only that, I do love the typical zombie apocalypse theme where we're all lost and you have to trust the ones around you to survive.

Yes, you guys are probably mad because I haven't added DayZ to this post, but relax! I will make a huge one about that, just you wait! If not... I bet it wont be zombies by my door, but DayZ fans! (Ha! I'm funny...)