After hearing the hype for months on end I finally got my chance to play Left 4 Dead by Valve Software on the XBox 360. The opening cinematic kicks in and sucks you into the theme of the game. Kill zombies. Lots of zombies. As fast as possible. While running away. Fast.

I’ve only played the game for a few hours but my impressions so far are very good. This is a solid FPS focus squarely on one thing. Teamwork. The only possible way to survive the onslaught of the zombie hoard is to watch each others back and save one another’s ass. Best of all, the game is very aware of these situations and awards you accordingly. Gameplay overtakes realism for the better, notifying the players when one of their teammates is in dire straights. You can share supplies with one another, heal each other and if someone is taken out you can help them back on their feet. If someone is busy reloading you get bonus points for taking out zombies that are trying to jump your helpless comrade. If someone is unfortunate enough to be vomited on by a “Boomer” zombie, everyone is warned to protect that person as 50+ zombies swarm that single individual.

Speaking of zombies, lest I forget, this game is pure hardcore zombie slaying action. The first time a stream of zombies rushes you after you haplessly set off a car alarm will take your breath away. These aren’t the slow and sluggish zombies of bygone ages. These are the fleet footed, completely insane psycopathic undead that will throw themselves at you, dying by the hundreds under a stream of bullets. You’ll find yourself picking your way through wide open streets and fields, fighting throngs at a time. You’ll also find yourself picking through creepy, dark buildings with flashlight in hand, barely able to see where the Zeds are coming from.

You might suspect that fighting hundreds of zombies at once could be a frustrating experience but Left 4 Dead manages to balance the game well enough to keep the game fun. Your band of heroes is surprisingly resilient, able to withstand quite a few zombie bites before going down. If you managed to get pinned there is sufficient time for the other players to save you, but not so much time that they can dawdle. Run out of ammo, no problem, just hit the left trigger and push the clumsy zombies away from you to gain a few seconds respite. The game also manages to constantly push you, never letting you rest too long before more zeds show up. You can’t clear an area and linger, nor can you trust that where you just came from is a safe place to retreat. Zombies climb over fences and rubble to replace those you just took out.

Despite all that I love about this game, not all is not perfect in this land of the undead. When I first started the game I was immediately confused about how to actually get a game going. Choosing “Play Campaign”, normally something reserved to the single player experience, is actually purely focused on online co-op. It took a bit of poking around until I saw that the single player game was actually further down the screen. Once there you setup the game much like you would an on-line server. This felt a bit clumsy and awkward to me as I wasn’t quite sure where I was supposed to start. Which chapter did I want to play? Which scenario? What’s the difference? It’s obvious that this is a game meant to be played on-line and they focused on that aspect of it. Once you get the hang of it, it’s really no big deal but it’s confusing at first.

Unfortunately it’s that online play that is both a boon and a burden to the game. After getting the gist of the gameplay down during single player I decided to try my luck with an online match. With a game focused so heavily on cooperatively teamwork and a few months of gameplay under everyone’s belts I had hoped that the jackasses might not be so prolific online. I was wrong. I constantly found myself being shot by my teammates just for the hell of it. People running off and attracting a horde of zombies just because they thought it was funny. In a lot of games this can be ignored pretty easily but with a game that requires one another to cover each others back it can be devestating.

I also found that the competitive matches were frustrating. Being able to play as a zombie sounded exciting at first. Then I was killed with a single shot and had to wait 30 seconds before I could play again. Finally I respawned. I was immediately annihilated. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

With the right group of friends this game is an amazing experience. A random group. Not so much. This isn’t the games fault. It’s pretty much a given that the internet is full of jerks. It’s a pity they can ruin such a great game.