Everyone loves zombies — or at least that seems to be true judging by the huge number of movies, TV shows, and video games based on zombies.
Let’s take popular titles in the early to mid-2000s for example. This time period is a contender for peak Zombie Love, with popular shows and movies including The Walking Dead and Zombieland. Games were also having a huge boom in zombie media with titles like Dead Island, Call of Duty zombies, and the Left for Dead duology. In some ways Left for Dead is like a zombie that doesn’t die — in a good way.
Left for Dead is a co-op action horror zombie game that focuses on teamwork and cooperation to survive the many unique campaigns and living dead that want to take out the survivors. The first and second games feature a unique and recognizable cast of characters, which are called survivors in the game. The game also has a cool cast of playable characters in the versus mode that adds to the fun. The team has to get through a map filled with obstacles and help each other defend from the hordes of zombies while also managing resources and weapons.
Left for Dead started as a mod for Counter-Strike, a popular FPS game series with tons of players and modifications. Turtle Rock Studios was making the mod alongside Valve, who are game developers and the creators of the Steam game store, where users can purchase games. The mod started development around 2005, but things picked up when the number of people working on the game expanded to over 100. Eventually, the game was released in 2008 to great success, followed by a sequel in 2009 which was even more successful.
The game is considered a classic by its fans, leading to the question of what has made it an unstoppable force almost 15 years after its original release. I can say it’s a combination of many things the developers did right. Valve has continued to support the game and keep the servers up and running, in addition to always having sales on the game making it very affordable for many people.
The game is unique and doesn’t have a rival. Left for Dead started an entire genre of games focused heavily on teamwork and communication to survive the harsh world of zombies and chaos. No game has even come close to the success of the Left for Dead duology.
Straight up the game is fun. Playing with friends is a blast and allows for many funny moments. Not only can it be played with friends, but it can also be modded like crazy. Left for Dead has access to the Steam Workshop, which is a place where people create mods and upload them for others to download and use in the game. This allows people to play custom maps, replace models of zombies with Minecraft zombies, replace the Smoker special infected model with a model of Slenderman, and a lot more thanks to the workshop. These replaced models function the same as they would normally. The game also supports a lot of gameplay options, but none more popular than the versus mode.
In Versus, a team of four survivors goes head to head against a team of four special infected being controlled by other players. Players can pilot all of the infected including the Boomer, Spitter, Hunter, Smoker, Jockey, Charger, and the Tank. The teams compete to see who gets farther into the level with the most survivors alive. The more distance you make the more points you get.
Teamwork is even more vital to surviving, and even when playing infected, teamwork is still heavily encouraged because of how many infected abilities build off of each other. An example of this is the Hunter pouncing on someone, holding them in place, while the Spitter spits the corrosive goop on the pinned survivor, inflicting a large amount of damage. Versus is a fun game mode to play with friends and that is a large component of why the game has lasted longer than many others of the same genre.
Some games have tried to copy Left for Dead and have failed because they lack its special sauce. Back for Blood is the most famous competitor, developed by developers who worked on the original game. You would think that the game would be better, having been developed later and with some of the original team, but the game doesn’t hold up in comparison. A lot of the features are missing, such as the amount of game modes, the memorable characters, and the distinguishable maps. The game also includes a large amount of DLC and micro-transactions which were never in the Left for Dead games. All of the Left for Dead DLCs were free for everyone to enjoy. Back for Blood was promising but ended up falling flat — which is a shame, because many people are wishing for a sequel to the amazing duology.
Left for Dead is an amazing duology. Whether you play it by yourself or with friends, the game is a classic and won’t ever really go away. The community keeps the game alive with user-created content for people to enjoy, along with the game modes still being played to this day. Until a worthy successor arrives, Left for Dead will remain king of zombie games.