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In all, the game will ship with four scenarios, with each consisting of five overall acts. Those first four acts will have players moving from safehouse to safehouse, and maybe discovering some more powerful weapons if they dare to explore the environment, while the fifth has them defending their position until a getaway vehicle arrives. Faliszek noted that more weapons and maps will follow the game's release, with Valve, as always, planning to distribute them on the PC for free.
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If you're a fan of zombies and co-op and find yourself inescapably gleeful at the prospect of combining one with the other, you've probably watched the development of Valve's Left 4 Dead with great anticipation. I'm right there with you. And like me, your expectations might be extremely--even unfairly--high. But the experience itself is so thoroughly realized, so well composed, that once you get your hands on Left 4 Dead you'll wonder how we ever put up with anything less.
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Having peeked at an impressions post or two, I had an idea of what to expect from Left 4 Dead's ground-up cooperative design, but it's an altogether different experience when sampled firsthand. An embodiment of the Valve design philosophy, almost every element of gameplay is geared towards emphasis of teamwork, though none is so tailored as the interplay between the human players and the walking dead that hunt them. While a single human player can handle a sizable group of zombies well enough alone, the real risk of breaking away from the pack is coming face to face with a "boss" zombie, the consequences of which was our first hard lesson in Left 4 Dead. Just a single level in, the rules of the game were clear: Stay together to stay alive.
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Cooperative play has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years, but no game has refined and developed the experience so completely as we've seen in this early build of Left 4 Dead. The foundation for an unforgettable experience is definitely there. Though the game is still very unfinished--animation and sound bugs, and the occasional curious gameplay quirk, pop up from time to time--the hardest work, building that memorable experience, is already done.
Left 4 Dead preview
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