Left 4 Dead (disingkat L4D) adalah sebuah koperasi multiplayer/horor FPS game yang dikembangkan oleh Valve Corporation. Permainan ini dibangun dengan menggunakan mesin Source dan tersedia pada PC dan Xbox 360. Selama perkembangan awal, judul kerjanya adalah "Teror Strike."
Permainan menempatkan empat manusia-dimainkan atau dikendalikan AI yang selamat dari sebuah pandemi apokaliptik terhadap yang terinfeksi. Biasa Terinfeksi dikontrol oleh permainan AI, sedangkan pemain manusia dapat mengendalikan hingga empat bermutasi Terinfeksi Khusus dengan kemampuan khusus dalam modus Versus. Tujuan dari Left 4 Dead untuk manusia adalah untuk saling membantu mencapai ruang keselamatan. Pemain terinfeksi harus bekerja sama untuk menghentikan mereka.
Left 4 Dead dirilis pada 18 November 2008 di Amerika Serikat dan 21 November di Eropa. Permainan ini pertama kali terungkap dalam publikasi Christmas 2006 PC Gamer Inggris dengan enam artikel halaman yang menggambarkan playthrough di markas Valve. Sebuah penggoda dirilis dengan The Orange Box. Permainan ini pertama kali dimainkan di 2007 Showdown LAN di San Jose dan di QuakeCon 2007. Sebuah demo, awalnya akan dirilis pada 6 November 2008 diundur sampai tanggal 11 November 2008.
Pada Juli 2009, Left 4 Dead memiliki 89 dari 100 dari Metacritic.
Edisi-200 Majalah Game Informer peringkat Left 4 Dead sebagai # 82 di atas 200 permainan dari semua waktu, inilah yang mereka katakan: "Zombies telah muncul dalam permainan video dalam berbagai bentuk, tapi tidak ada yang pernah dipaku penuh-on zombie apocalypse sampai Valve's Left 4 Dead. Intensitas empat pemain online dalam pengalaman koperasi dimanfaatkan dinamis oleh "Direktur AI" untuk mengatur serangan Terinfeksi sesuai dengan kinerja pemain. Dengan tambahan dalam karakter yang mengesankan, cerita plot menarik, dan secara online versus mode.
Gameplay dasar tidak pernah berubah dari peta ke peta, sehingga pemain akan belajar cara mereka sekitar cukup cepat. Direktur membuat segalanya untuk tidak monoton, bagaimanapun, dengan melemparkan di berbagai tantangan di setiap level. Tidak ada dua playthroughs yang persis sama.
(bahasa Inggirs)
Left 4 Dead begins in Pennsylvania, following an outbreak of so-called "Green Flu", a highly contagious virus causing extreme aggression and loss of higher brain functions. Two weeks after the infection of Patient Zero, four immune survivors of the outbreak (Francis, Zoey, Bill, and Louis) make their way through the city of Fairfield, only to discover that the virus is creating new, even more dangerous mutations. After narrowly avoiding these new infected, along with hordes of others, the survivors are alerted to the presence of an evacuation point at the nearby Mercy Hospital by a passing news helicopter. Fighting their way through the city's streets, subway and sewers, the survivors are rescued from the hospital's roof by the pilot, only to discover that he is succumbing to the infection. ("No Mercy") With Zoey forced to kill the pilot, the helicopter crash lands in an industrial district outside the city. Finding a delivery truck that has been armored by other survivors, the group decides to use it to make their way to the town of Riverside ("Crash Course"). Before arriving in the town however, they find the road blocked, and are forced to travel the rest of the way on foot. Following an encounter with an infected madman in the local church, they discover that the town is overrun, and decide to head to a nearby boathouse for possible rescue. Contacting a small fishing vessel, they manage to reach the city of Newburg on the other side of the river, only to find much of it in flames ("Death Toll").
Seeking cover in a large greenhouse, their rest is interrupted when a military C-130 Hercules passes overhead, leading the survivors to travel through the city's business district towards Metro International Airport. Upon arrival, the group is shocked to see that in an attempt to contain the infection, the military had bombed the airport; the runway however is largely intact, allowing the survivors to fuel up and escape in the waiting C-130 ("Dead Air"). Despite this apparent rescue, a second crash occurs, and the survivors once again find themselves alone on the outskirts of Allegheny National Forest. Following a series of train tracks through the area, the group find themselves at a functioning, but abandoned, military outpost. After answering a radio transmission, the survivors make their final stand against hordes of infected, before a military APC arrives to transport them to Northeast Safe Zone Echo, supposedly the only uninfected area yet to be overrun ("Blood Harvest"). Instead they are kept at a military installation and informed that even though they are immune, they still carry the virus. They are temporarily held by the military before the base is overrun with infected. The four escape via train and travel south at Bill's insistence; Bill believes that they can find long-term safety from the infected on the islands of the Florida Keys. (The Sacrifice comic) At the portside town of Rayford, they find a boat but must raise an old rusty bridge powered by an aging generator to get the boat into open waters, assured that the machinery noise will alert a large horde. When Louis is injured and unable to move quickly, Bill sacrifices himself against the horde to make sure the generator keeps running and allowing the three to stay clear of the horde.("The Sacrifice") After waiting for the horde to disperse, the three remaining survivors are taking time to mourn Bill's death when they encounter the four survivors from Left 4 Dead 2, who need to cross the bridge to continue to the west. ("The Passing") Zoey, Louis, and Francis help the four to get across and fend off another horde as they lower the bridge, and then set sail for the Keys.
Left 4 Dead is a first-person shooter. In campaign mode, the player takes control of one of the survivors; if four human players are not available, then the remaining survivors are AI-controlled bots. They play through the levels fighting off the infected—living humans who have been infected with a rabies-like virus that causes psychosis, to which the survivors are immune.[6][7]
The game is focused on cooperation and team play and thus eschews some "realism" conventions usual in most FPS games of the wider genre; colored outlines of teammates are visible through walls to help players stick together and coordinate their movement. If a survivor falls off a ledge, then they may automatically hang onto it and can only be helped up by another survivor. If a survivor's health is depleted, then they become incapacitated and can only be revived by another survivor, at which point they continue playing with a low amount of health that decreases over time. If a survivor has been incapacitated and revived twice without tending to their wounds, then they will experience distorted black-and-white vision, and the next incapacitation will kill the character. If a survivor takes enough damage while incapacitated, or is not eventually helped up by teammates, then the incapacitated character will die. During "Campaign" mode, if a survivor is killed, then they will respawn in a closet or other enclosed space after a period of time (except during key points in the scenario), but must be freed by another survivor to rejoin the team. Otherwise, the player must wait until the next level.[8] However, if all human player survivors are killed or incapacitated, players will have to restart from the last checkpoint. Survivors can share first-aid kits and pain pills and help each other heal. Left 4 Dead has friendly fire (which causes no damage on the easy difficulty mode), increasing the need for caution around other survivors.
The survivors communicate by voice commands that are accessed by quick menus, and some may sound off automatically when performing actions such as reloading or spotting infected.[9] Over 1,000 unique lines have been recorded for each survivor.[10] Additional communication of player actions is conveyed through character lights. Also, weapon-mounted flashlights and muzzle flashes help the players in determining whether their companions are shooting, performing melee attacks, reloading or moving. Due to control issues and the likelihood of players using a headset, the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead omits the quick phrases feature.[11]
The game is experienced through five campaigns that take place in various urban and rural locales. Multiple visual in-game hints—including license plates, park signs, markings on airport equipment, and lines of dialogue spoken by the survivors—suggest that these locations are in Pennsylvania,[12] and similarly a memorial wall giving names of those who have died in the infection (actually names of the game's development team) along with their dates of birth and death suggests that the game takes place in October 2009.[13] Each campaign is divided into five chapters (except Crash Course, which has two chapters) marked by safe rooms, which are checkpoints where players can heal, re-arm and revive characters who were killed.[14] Specifically, the four campaigns are: "No Mercy", an urban setting culminating in a hospital skyscraper; "Death Toll", a small-town and countryside setting; "Dead Air", an airport setting; and "Blood Harvest", a woodland and farm setting. A two-level campaign, "Crash Course", was released on September 29, and is set in the outskirts of a small industrial town. The levels have distinct beginnings and ends, but there are a number of alternate routes to follow with more supplies, helping to create a sense of non-linearity.[15] In the final chapter of each campaign, the players must defend a position from an onslaught of infected until rescue arrives.[10] Each campaign typically lasts between 20 and 75 minutes depending on the difficulty level. Both platform versions of the game utilize an achievement system.[16]
Survivor characters
here are four playable human characters in the game:[17] Francis, a stereotypical biker (voiced by Vince Valenzuela); Bill, a Vietnam Veteran (voiced by Jim French); Zoey, a university student (voiced by Jen Taylor); and Louis, a district Account Manager (voiced by Earl Alexander).[18] Louis' profession is now listed as a Junior Systems Analyst in the IT department for Franklin Brothers in Philadelphia, keeping in line with the comic released for "The Sacrifice" DLC.[19][20][21][22] Early plans were for players to be randomly assigned to characters but in the final release, players can choose any character—provided that the character has not already been selected—or be randomly assigned an unselected character.[10] Aside from appearances, all of the characters have identical abilities in-game.Weapons
Survivors are armed with various firearms. Each player starts the game with a semiautomatic pistol.[23] It may be reloaded an unlimited number of times and is the only weapon that the survivor can use when they are incapacitated. When a second pistol is found, the player can dual wield them. At the beginning of each campaign, the player can choose between a submachine gun and a pump-action shotgun. As the survivors progress through a campaign, more powerful weapons can be found: the fully automatic assault rifle (an upgrade to the submachine gun), a semi-automatic shotgun (an upgrade to the pump-action shotgun), and a scoped hunting rifle. A flashlight that can be toggled on and off is mounted on each firearm, with the exception of additional pistols. In addition to firearms, a player can also carry three other items in their inventory: improvised grenades (either a Molotov cocktail or a pipe bomb modified with an attached smoke alarm designed to attract the infected to it before it explodes);[23] a first aid kit, which can be used to heal any survivor and pain pills, which provide temporary health that depletes gradually and quicker with damage from infected, and can be handed to teammates for later use. Regardless of what weapon or item a player is using, a melee attack can be used to shove away any infected within reach. Also available are environmental weapons, such as gas cans, propane cylinders, and oxygen tanks, all of which explode when shot. These environmental weapons can be picked up, moved, and used as a melee weapon by the survivors, but while carrying an object they cannot use their weapons or health items. Strategically placed minigun turrets are also encountered at various locations throughout the different maps.
Infected Characters
The infected (voiced by experimental musician Mike Patton and voice actor Fred Tatasciore)[24] are the survivors' foes in Left 4 Dead, and they appear to be partly inspired by the infected from several modern films, including Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, or Quarantine.[25][26] An important distinction from the former is that while the infected do resemble traditional undead zombies, they are, as cited in the game's manual, living humans infected with a rabies-like pathogen, very much like the infected in the latter two films. While they are never seen eating human flesh or brains, multiple 'survivors' who have been killed by the infected appear throughout the game, and appear to have been partially eaten. In The Sacrifice comic, Zoey's mother is bitten in the face. She then begins to attack the rest of her family. One such victim can be heard saying "I can't believe he bit me!" before being encountered later on, fully infected. In an interview with 1Up.com, Mike Booth commented on the concept of using a pathogen as an inspiration for the setting:
| “ | Even though we obviously pushed well beyond the realm of believability with many of our "boss" infected, the core idea of a mind-destroying, civilization-collapsing pathogen is more horrifying to me than magically animated corpses, precisely because it is plausible. Rabies is a good example of a pathogen that can turn a loyal, friendly, protective family pet into a slavering attack machine. It is a virus that reprograms the behaviors of a complex animal – a mammal, in fact. What if something similar happened to humans? Left 4 Dead is one possible answer.[6] | ” |
In addition to the common infected, there are five "special" or "boss" infected whose mutations grant them special attacks that make them far more dangerous. Each of the special infected, as well as approaching hordes, have a distinctive sound or a timely musical cue, making their presence easily recognizable by players. There are five special infected in Left 4 Dead.[28]
- The Boomer is a bloated infected that can spit vision-impairing bile on the Survivors that attract hordes of infected, and explodes on death, spewing more bile in the immediate area. They emit sounds that is similar to a person with a deep voice in pain (presumably due to their bloated state) and burping sounds as well when close by.
- The Hunter is an agile foe that can jump and pounce on a survivor, and then tear at his victim until he is knocked off, kills his prey or is killed. A hunter emits animal like screeches or light roars when close by and roars when they jump (Either when they are going to pound a Survivor or to hasten travel).
- The Smoker is boil-covered creature with a long tongue that it uses to ensnare and drag a survivor back to himself. It may then either attack the survivor directly, allow the horde to attack him, or leave the survivor suspended over a cliff or roof-edge. The Smoker only releases its victim once the tongue is shot, the survivor is killed, or upon the Smoker's death, which results in an explosion that leaves a vision-obscuring cloud lasting approximately 30 seconds. Smokers generally don't make any unique sound or that they sound like any other Common Infected making them very hard to spot, they only cough, presuming that they may have been an avid smoker before becoming an Infected.
- The Tank is a gigantic muscular infected that moves like a gorilla that has the ability to swipe at survivors, knocking them off their feet and incapacitating them; it can also knock cars and other debris into the survivors. The Tank is the strongest special infected of them all, and requires the full support of all of the survivors in order to be killed for the Tank's health is more than all of the Survivor's full health combined. The tank will be close by either when there aren't any other infected or with other Infected nearby and with the horror-themed music accompanied with the trembling with the ground (Which seems to stop when the Tank has been spotted)
- The Witch is a passive female infected with long nail-like claws that stays in one spot, crying. Survivors can often avoid the Witch, but if they disturb her with light, loud noises or attacking her, she will become aggressive and attack, incapacitating or killing the offending survivor, depending on the game's difficulty level. If not disturbed, she will ignore the Survivors. The Witch is the most deadly of all infected, being faster than the Survivors and able to kill with one hit on the highest difficulty level, as such is never playable by human players.
In versus mode, four additional players can take control of the special infected—apart from the witch, who remains computer-controlled. Each infected player is randomly assigned a class of special infected when they enter a spawn mode. While in spawn mode, the infected can quickly roam around the map in search of an appropriate place in which to spawn. This location must be sufficiently distant from any survivor, out of the line of sight of any survivor, and outside restricted areas such as safe rooms. Upon death, the infected player must wait up to 10–25 seconds before re-entering spawn mode, depending on how many players are on the infected team. When a tank is spawned in the game, infected players receive a message indicating which player will control it. The human-controlled infected can see their teammates' outlines through walls similar to the survivors, but can also see each survivor's outline, which is colored according to the survivor's health and fades out if the survivor refrains from attacking, running and vocalizing. Vertical pathways exclusive to the infected, such as pipes and vines, are marked with animated symbols for the infected players. These can be climbed and used for ambushes.
Production
Development on Left 4 Dead started in mid-2005.[37] Turtle Rock Studios aimed to create a horror film-inspired game that merges single player games' character-driven narrative structure with multiplayer games' social interaction and high replayability.[11] The game was first revealed in the Christmas 2006 publication of PC Gamer UK with a six-page article describing a playthrough at Turtle Rock Studios headquarters. A teaser was released with The Orange Box. The game was first playable at the Showdown 2007 LAN in San Jose and at QuakeCon 2007. Turtle Rock Studios announced Left 4 Dead on November 20, 2006,[38] and was acquired by Valve Corporation on January 10, 2008, because of the game and long-standing relationship between the companies.[39] The game opened up to pre-purchasing on Valve's Steam system on October 15, 2008.[40]To give Left 4 Dead significant exposure, Valve financed a $10-million marketing campaign for the game in the United States and Europe, with advertisements appearing on television, print, websites and outdoor placements in many cities. Valve also hosted photo contests called, "Dude, where's my thumb?" offering copies of Left 4 Dead to people who submitted the best picture involving zombies or the outdoor advertising.[41]
After release
Valve intends to support the PC version of the game through free content updates and the Xbox 360 version with DLC.[71] On a podcast by Kotaku, writer Chet Faliszek divulged that an announcement regarding DLC for the PC and Xbox 360 would be released "very soon", and that the announcement was delayed by the holiday season. On February 5, 2009, Valve released details about the upcoming downloadable content pack. The two full campaigns of "Death Toll" and "Dead Air" for versus mode—which were previously unavailable—are included, as well as the survival game mode, where the survivors try to survive endless waves of the infected for as long as possible. On February 11, 2009, Valve announced that the downloadable content for the game would be free for both the Xbox 360 and PC;[72] and on April 21, it was released.[73] Survival mode shipped with 16 maps, 15 of them being modified portions of existing maps and one being a new lighthouse-themed level titled "The Last Stand".[35] A Game Of the Year Edition of Left 4 Dead was released on the PC and Xbox 360 on May 12, 2009, with updates and new content included on the disc.[74]On May 15, 2009, an open beta test for the Source Development Kit updated to support Left 4 Dead was started under the name of the "Left 4 Dead Authoring tools". This included a new set of plugins that allowed for users to import data from SketchUp, a free 3D modeling program, directly into the Hammer level editor for use in maps.[75] The beta was concluded on June 25, 2009, with the full release of the Left 4 Dead authoring tools and corresponding server and matchmaking update to support custom maps. The update included a command line tool for packaging custom Left 4 Dead campaigns to ease distribution.[76]
A sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, was announced at the 2009 E3 conference and was released November 17, 2009.[77] Addressing concerns voiced by fans, Gabe Newell responded to an email from Kotaku explaining that despite the upcoming sequel, Left 4 Dead would continue to be supported and more content is planned in the coming months.[78]
On August 4, 2009, Valve announced the second DLC pack. It contains a new campaign called Crash Course, set shortly after the events of the No Mercy campaign, where the Survivors try to get to a Truck Depot after the helicopter they were in crashed. It is available for co-op, versus and survival modes, with various tweaks to game mechanics, and containing new locations and character dialog.[79][80][81] The DLC was announced to be released on September 29, 2009,[82] on which date it was released for free for PC, but was accidentally released on Xbox Live for 800 Microsoft Points instead of the previously announced price of 560 Microsoft Points. The price was amended soon after, and all players who bought the DLC for 800 points were refunded 240 points.[83]
On November 9, 2009, a matchmaking update to allow for matchmaking between teams of four players in versus mode was released.[84][85]
An add-on campaign for Left 4 Dead 2, "The Passing", featured the Left 4 Dead survivors meeting the new cast as part of a full campaign. The Left 4 Dead 2 content was set for release in March 2010, however it was delayed until April 22, 2010. To connect the events in "The Passing" to that in Left 4 Dead, Valve released another add-on in October 2010 for both Left 4 Dead and its sequel, entitled "The Sacrifice"; the events of the add-on take place before "The Passing" and tells how the Left 4 Dead survivors come to encounter the group from Left 4 Dead 2, and how one sacrificed themselves for the safety of the others.[86][87][88]
Valve also announced a 190 page digital comic that has been revealed in four parts in the weeks leading up to the release of The Sacrifice.[89] Part one was released on September 14, 2010,[90] with a new part scheduled for release each week until The Sacrifice's October 5 release.[91] The comic is illustrated by Mike Oeming, the artist behind the Powers comic series,[92] and tells the stories of the original four survivors, as well as the events leading up to the infection. The comic begins with Bill, having just sacrificed himself to save the others, taking on three tanks while severely wounded. It then cuts to the finale of Blood Harvest, which is revealed to be one week earlier. In The Sacrifice DLC, any player, whether playing as Bill or not, can choose to sacrifice themselves to allow the other survivors to complete the campaign.
In March 2010, Valve announced that it would be bringing the Steam content platform to Mac OS X computers; along with it, they will be providing native versions of existing Valve games including Left 4 Dead and its sequel. The game was released for Mac OS X on October 27, 2010[93] Left 4 Dead support cross-platform play, allowing Mac players to play alongside PC players on the same servers, and is also part of the "Steam Play" cross-compatible and Steam Cloud titles, allowing a player that has purchased the game on one platform to download and play it on the other platform for free.[94]
Awards
Left 4 Dead received recognition as one of the best multiplayer and PC games of 2008 from various organizations and gaming publications. The game was named the Best Multiplayer Game of 2008 by IGN,[121][122] GameSpy,[123] Spike TV,[124] NoFrag[125] and BAFTA;[126] and as the Computer Game of the Year by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS),[127] Spike TV, and Bit-tech.[128] Other awards include Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay from the AIAS, Best Use of Sound for the PC[129] and Best Shooting[130] game overall from IGN, Father of All FPS from Nofrag, and the best Cooperative Multiplayer[131] and Shooter[132] of 2008 from GameSpot who also nominated it for Game of the Year.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar