What’s that? More RPGs? Alright, alright… I’ve got more RPGs for yah. Sit back, relax and prepare for some good ones!

Etrian Odyssey 1 & 2

I’m not gonna lie to you. If you want a challenge, if you want a serious RPG, then this is the game for you. There aren’t flashy graphics, there are only stats, items, monsters and a very cool map-making system. You and your party of adventurers goes down into a dungeon few go into to find the treasure. You can pick classes, have as many members as you want. but can only carry a few around. The monsters get viciously difficult to kill very quickly. The battle system is your standard turns based on speed/surprise factor. Lots of fun, but I’m warning you now: Almost as addictive as an MMO(but so much cheaper!). I thoroughly enjoyed them, even if the god damn F.O.E.s obliterated me for days.
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So Left 4 Dead has been out for a while now and I’ve noticed that there’s a severe lack of teamwork and skill amongst the XBOX LIVE! community. Every game I have entered I have won. It’s a good feeling to win constantly but sometimes I just feel bad for the other team. Therefore this article will be about all the dos and don’ts of Left 4 Dead’s versus mode.
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Hey there, and welcome to the first The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Generally, in reviews I’ve read, they don’t pick apart games and point out the bad things like they should. They mention what’s good if it’s a good game, and what’s bad when it’s a bad game, but not vice-versa, and that’s what I aim to do.

I’m going to take a look at Left 4 Dead for the PC, but it’s also available for the 360.

The Good (or, what I liked)

• Multi player is a blast, which is the entire focus of the game, so it’d be pretty pointless if the multi player was bad. Most people complain about the “matchmaking” the game does for you, which is what consoles use – it will search for servers based on your specifications, and then put you in a game automatically that fits what you looked for, not allowing you to pick the server on your own. I don’t understand what’s bad about this – it works without a problem, it puts you in the game and it never sticks you in the wrong server. If it can’t find one with your exact specifications (level, scenario, difficulty), it will open one for you. It’s a fantastic system and it works great. Of course, there’s  the chance you’ll get a douche player that will intentionally sabotage the team, but that’s a risk you take with any game that allows friendly fire.
• Director AI (on scenario mode) is a beautiful system that adds unbelievable amounts of replay value to the game. Anything can change each time you play each level. The terrain never changes – buildings will always be in the same place, along with cars, safe houses, and so on. But everything else can, like the location of weapons, location of enemies, what enemies you’ll face, how many… all of it. Two games will NEVER be exactly the same, which keeps you on your toes no matter how many times you blast zombies on each level.
• Versus mode is fantastic for those that get bored of playing as the survivors. It isn’t without it’s faults, of course, which you can see down below under The Bad. In Versus mode, there are two teams of players. Four people playing the survivors and four playing the “special” zombies (smoker, hunter, boomer and occasionally the tank, if it spawns). The survivors, naturally, must survive and make it to the safe house, like any other scenario, while the zombie players must stop them. Players are awarded points based on three things: Average distance (percentage), health bonus (one point for every two health, total of 200) and survivor multiplier (a whopping x1 multiplier for each survivor in the safe room at the end). Once one team makes it to the end (or dies horribly, of course), the teams switch, and the players that were playing as the zombies now much fight off the infected to get to the end. Players with the most points after all five levels win.
• Expert difficulty really holds up to it’s name. It is hard. Very hard. You and your team will die a lot, and that’s what makes it fun. Normal zombies do about 20 damage a hit (out of 100 of your health), hunters will incapacitate you in about five seconds from full health, and smokers will actually wait until you’re separated to attack instead of pulling suicide runs like on lower difficulties. Tanks will knock you down in one hit and kill you off fully in two more. Witches are automatic death in one hit. Don’t expect to just play through the game without problems, you WILL die and restart levels many times.

The Bad (or, what I didn’t like)

• Director AI (on versus mode) unbalances the game. The point of versus mode is that you’re supposed to be playing the same level on the same scenario and encounter the same things as your opponents (with the exception of the special zombies which are controlled by the players), so it’s a fair match. The Director makes this entirely unfair. Medkits can spawn anywhere or not at all, giving the team that gets them a HUGE advantage. It’s also possible on some levels for one team to get the tier two weapons earlier, which is another pretty big advantage. Even more so when the zombie team may get a Tank to use against the other team, but when it’s their turn… nothing gets sent against them. Director is awesome for Scenario, when it isn’t a competition, but in versus, it gives teams huge advantages unfairly and really can kill the game for the losing team.
• Survivor AI is retarded. It is just about impossible to play the game if you have even one player being controlled by AI. They stand in the way of enemies and get knocked down, don’t move when things are coming right at them, and will run right in front of your line of fire. It’s usually better to just kill them yourself so they don’t get in the way. The survivor AI is completely and fully incompetent at everything. This shouldn’t really be a problem, since it’s very easy to find four players at any given time to fill up all the characters, but it can be a real hassle when someone leaves in the middle of a scenario, sticking you in the middle of a level with an AI player that you know is going to die, and soon. But, if you intend to play single player for the whole game… this isn’t the game for you.
• There is no sense of survival and rationing equipment and ammo. As I mentioned above, the game is difficult, sometimes brutally so, but if you can shoot straight you’ve got a pretty good chance of getting decently far into any given level. Ammo is never scarce like it should be in the post-apocalypse world, neither are medkits, pain pills, and home-made pipebombs that seem to just be lying around anywhere and all built exactly the same way. You can spray bullets around everywhere and almost never run out, because turn the corner and – boom – there’s an ammo stash just lying around.

The Ugly (or, aesthetic problems)

• The way you get new weapons and load up on ammo is stupid. It isn’t a game play problem, because I don’t care where the weapons are in the level, just how they’re displayed. On every single level (except one time in the Dead Air campaign and once in the No Mercy campaign), your new weapons and ammo will be just lying on a table, perfectly set up, just waiting for you to come grab them. Why? This is the post apocalypse world. People aren’t going to just leave weapons – high quality, expensive weapons – just lying on tables in the middle of zombie hordes, along with ammo for every gun imaginable. Medkits are (sometimes) held in first aid cabinets, so why can’t weapons be the same way? Maybe military caches that were dropped and not picked up, or, hell, even just lying on the ground next to bodies would be awesome, accomplish the same goals (get the players new weapons in the middle of the level and look realistic) and I wouldn’t need to complain about it, then.
• About four or five months before the game’s release, Valve redid the characters. This was dumb. Before, all the survivors looked like they had been fighting for their lives. They were dirty, they were visibly injured, they were covered in grime and blood and all sorts of nasty stuff that you’d get on you during the zombie apocalypse. Now they’re all clean and well taken care of. Louis is literally wearing a button up white shirt, and a TIE. A TIE! In the zombie apocalypse! What the hell? These people don’t look like they’ve been fighting ANYTHING, let alone surviving for as long as the story says they have. It’s purely cosmetic, since the characters themselves haven’t changed, just their clothing.
• Pipe bombs should look different depending on the location. This is a really small and stupid point to make, I’m sure you’re thinking. But again, it’s the atmosphere. In this game, pipebombs don’t simply explode. They beep and flash a light to get the zombies attention (how this pulls them away from you I don’t understand, but I get the concept) which is cool. Now, do you know how to build one? No? Well, apparently you’re in the minority. No matter where you go, in any location on any scenario, there will be masterfully constructed beeping, flashing, exploding pipebombs all built exactly the same way, just lying around built by someone else. This is retarded. How does everyone in this damn city know how to build pipebombs? My suggestion? Make them all look different but do the same thing. I get that people would learn how to distract them, that’s fine, and it’s cool. But not everyone will build identical pipe bombs on their own. It’s a minor point, but one that nags at me every time I find a pipebomb.

Left 4 Dead is an absolutely fantastic game for everyone at any experience level of gaming. It has amazingly fun game play and multi player is completely top-notch. You will not regret buying this game in any way, especially once they get some DLC rolling out. I had a few negative points, but the good completely outweighs them. If you don’t have this game, that’s terrible and you should feel terrible because you are missing out on a very good candidate for game of the year.

Overall, I’d give Left 4 Dead a 9 out of 10. It’s absolutely amazing, but there are a few negative points that take away from the game.