news 28 Posted November 8, 2008 Hi all, We have just published our first impressions of the *Left4Dead demo* - if you could post a link on your site that would be very much appreciated. *Link:* http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2008/11/08/left4dead-first-impressions/1 *Picture:* http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/11/left4dead-first-impressions/fp_img.jpg *Quote: */Unfortunately, Left4Dead isn't without flaws. There are small graphical bugs that are noticeable when the view switches to third person that really stand out, such as when you try to heal someone who is too far away and end up watching your character bandaging mid-air. Our main concern though at the moment is the levels themselves are quite small -- a restriction of the Source engine that's been there ever since the beginning and is being further impinged on by the fact that the game has to run on the Xbox 360 too. The levels are so small in fact that we've even seen people able to run through the entire demo, which is roughly one and a half levels in length, in less than two minutes. We've seen some early versions of the later levels too and know that they too aren't quite as long as we'd want. To some degree though that's countered by the fact that Valve has designed Left4Dead as a replayable game, not necessarily a very long game. You're supposed to play the levels over and over, taking different routes and facing different challenges. If you play the demo once and damn it for being too short then you're missing out on something truly essential about the game -- simply crank up the difficulty and try again -- you'll find it much more challenging. Besides, this is a Valve-made game built on a newly revamped and great looking version of the Source engine. Do you really think there won't be community maps? You've also got to take into account the fact that we've only got one mode on offer here -- and barely more than a fifth of a campaign. There's still the Versus mode, which lets players take on the roles of certain Boss zombies, to be unveiled in the final version of the game. Left4Dead isn't perfect -- we can see that much from the demo already -- but it's a whole ton of fun. Still, if Valve can fix the server browsing and bring the LAN options more in line with gamer expectations and if the community gets behind the game as fast as we expect them too then Left4Dead looks to be an utter stonker of a game. And now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to go play it again. And again. And again. /* *Cheers guys! Tim Smalley www.bit-tech.net Share this post Link to post
