Left 4 Dead (abbreviated L4D) is a singleplayer and multiplayer co-operative survival horror FPS game developed by Valve Corporation. The game was built using Source engine and is available on PC and Xbox 360. During early development, its working title was "Terror Strike."
The game puts four human playable or AI-controlled Survivors of an apocalyptic pandemic against hordes of the Infected. Regular Infected are controlled by the game AI, while human players can control up to four mutated Special Infected with special abilities in Versus mode. The goal of Left 4 Dead for the Survivors is to help each other make it through a level to safety. Infected players must cooperate to stop them.
Left 4 Dead was released on November 18, 2008 in the United States and November 21st in Europe. The game was first revealed in the Christmas 2006 publication of PC Gamer UK with a six-page article describing a playthrough at Valve's 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. A demo, initially to be released on November 6, 2008 to people who pre-ordered the game, was publicly released on November 11, 2008.
As of January 24, 2010, Left 4 Dead has an 89 out of 100 from Metacritic. Regarding information about the updates for Left 4 Dead, see Updates.
The 200th issue of Game Informer Magazine ranked Left 4 Dead as #82 in the top 200 games of all time, this is what they had to say: "Zombies have appeared in video games in many forms, but nobody ever nailed the full-on zombie apocalypse until Valve's Left 4 Dead. The intense four-player online co-op experience utilized a dynamic "AI Director" to adjust the undead onslaught according to player performance. Toss in memorable characters, an intriguingly sparse plot, and an online versus mode, and you had the penultimate test of mettle for any zombie-crusader worth their salt."
The basic gameplay never changes from map to map, so players will learn their way around fairly quickly. The Director keeps things from getting monotonous, however, by throwing in different challenges in every level. No two playthroughs are exactly alike.