Zombies x Shotgun = Fun Fun Fun

So, my brother picked up this game, Left 4 Dead. It's your typical zombie apocalypse type game. It's actually...pretty fun, or at least I think so, despite the limited number of weapons and maps.

Basically, there are four characters, a.k.a. Survivors:

1. Zoey, a college stundet+horror movie enthusiast
2. Francis, the big, tattoeed biker
3. Bill, the old war veteran
4. Louis, the [only] black Systems Analyst

There are zombies, a.k.a. The Infected, and then six types of "special infected":

1. The Horde, which is a massive group of regular infected coming at you; 
2. Boomers, which are big fat dudes that vomit on you (the vomit attracts all the zombies to you)
3. Smokers, which use their long tongues to snatch onto you and drag you towards them, or just constrict you if there's an obstacle in the way
4. Hunters, which are the hooded, jumping folk, that leap towards you, and just beat you senseless 
5. Tanks, which are basically the juggernauts of the game (they have the most HP, are very powerful, but also, very fast)  - and finally, 
6. The Witch, which is the woman in fetal position scattered across the maps - she's harmless if you don't bother her...but when you do (ex fflashing a light to her, shooting at her, staring at her) she goes on a rampage, and chases you until you die (only the person who startled her).
   

Finally, there are.....let's see.....2....3...2..1. = 8 total weapons, 2 of which are just "grenades", divided into two tiers - First and Second (second being the better)

1. Pistol - 15 bullets/clip. You automatically start out with this and you never lose it.  This is the only one with unlimted ammo and you can find a second pistol later on for duel wield, also the only duel wield weapon.  One more thing - when you're "decapitated", which I'll talk about later, this is the only weapon you can use to defend yourself.
2. Pump-action shotgun (First) - 8 bullets/clip|128 max ammo.  This is the favourite - it blows the zombie's brains out - basically a one shot kill to anything but Tank, if you shoot it right. Great Short range damage/Bad for long range
3. Uzi/Submachine Gun (First) - 50 bullets/clip|480 max ammo.  This is the autogun of the game - great medium range weapon. Due to the high rate of fire, ammo depletes fast. (I use these, hah)
4. Hunting Rifle (Second) - 15 bullets/clip|180 max ammo.  This is the long range gun - it's the only one with a scope. Apparantly, it can shoot through several enemies at once - I don't use this much, only while I'm in the safe room and I need to clear the area outside it.
5. Auto-Shotgun (Second) - 10 bullets/clip|128 max ammo.  Basically, like the First tier shotgun - but faster.
6. Assault Rifle (Second) - 50 bullets/clip|360 max ammo. Basically, an upgraded submachine gun with lower max ammo.
7. Molotov Cocktail (grenade) - 1 use only. This is..just a bottle of [very] flammable liquid, with a lit up "wick" - when thown, it instantly makes an area of fire when it lands that burns the zombies. (Very effective against Tank and Witch + fun to see them on fire)
8. Pipebomb (grenade) - 1 use only. This bomb takes longer to detonate - but, it's LED lights, for some odd reason, attract the normal infected - and so when there's a horde of zombies coming after you, you can use this to both lure them away + kill them too.

*note: You can only have 1 grenade at a time - so you can't carry both.

So, I realized I've basically just been summarizing the game and some features, so I'll stop that now. But, since I told you earlier I'd talk about being "decaptiated" - I'll briefly go into it, then go on about my love for the game.

So, everyone starts out at 100 hp.  Once this reaches zero, you are considered "decapitated" - not dead, but not exactly...alive.  You basically fall to the ground, and you can only use your pistols - you're still alive in the sense that you can still kill with your pistol(s), but you're dead because you can't move or use any other weapon, even melee attacks.  This state also has it's own HP bar, in which I forgot what it starts at - but I know it's at least 300 hp. But, your defense is lower - so you get hit from more damage.  In this state, your hp drops at a fixed, medium slow rate - so, it's kinda like bleeding to death sort of.  While you're down, your teammates can come by to "revive" you, and then you start back up with 30hp.  If no one saves you by the time your hp hits zero, you finally become dead. Also, after so many revives, you only have "1 life left" (The characters actually tell you "One more fall, and you're done") and your screen turns greyscale. This is only until you find a medkit to heal yourself back up to normal hp.  But, once you become decapitated again, without having healed yourself, you become dead.  Once you're dead, if you aren't in the last stage, people can "find you" in closets scattered throughout the maps, and when you are found, your second tier weapons drop to first tier, you lose your second pistol, if you had it, and you start out with 50 hp.  And that's it for the conditions you can be in.

Moving on to my likeness for the games, I'll just list them:

• Scaring the Witch - even though you can easily just pass right past her, I find it fun to startle her and try to run away, because she is like....five times faster than you - so, it's just fun to try and run away and kill her at the same time.  On normal and advanced, once she hits you, you're decapitated, then she just claws at you til you die.  In expert, she one hit kills you. So, yeah...stil fun as heck though.  Also, since it's on XBox 360, you can get achievements.  Three I know of are "Witch Hunter" (no one gets hit by Witch), "Burn the Witch" (when you...burn.the.witch) and "Cr0wnd" (You kill the witch with a single headshot (which is hard as brick, but with a shotgun, it makes it "easier")
• Luring the Tank to the Saferoom - So, there are "checkpoints" in the game called Saferooms, which are...just safe rooms - it just transitions from map to map and kind like...rest stops on your ventures - you can restock on medkits (btw, you can only have 1 medkit at a time, which heals for 80% of lost health...so, you can't reach 100hp again), ammo, change weapon, and sometimes, get grenades.  Anyways - it's supposed to be the only room that infected can't break the wall down to. Every other room with a door, the infected can tear through.  But, if you're able to "outrun" the Tank - and lure it to the saferoom, especially on this one stage where the saferoom is like a train car, I run all the way to the other end of the car, and wait for the Tank to come, and I see it just break open the door, and I scream and I keep shooting it hoping it'd die before it reaches me. Which reminds me...I was playing Bill, and the Tank killed all the other Survivors, and the Tank just broke down the Saferoom door, so I just started shooting it with my shotgun, and right when it came within punching distance to me, it died, and fell right in front of me - and I ... just laughed hysterically out of joy - I thought we'd have to start the map over, since once both people (since I play co-op) are either dead or decaptitated, and no one can revive us, you restart from the last checkpoint.  SO, yeah, I just love luring the Tank to the saferoom.
• Running through stages on expert - I just love to run the whole stage, without actually planning and stalking and trying to kill al lthe zombies before they attack me.  It just fun to try and run past all the zombies, and out of nowhere, be snagged by the Hunter, or getting caught in the Smoker's tongue, and being dragged and constricted-  because you're so far ahead of everyone else, no one can save you, and so .. you just die.  ANd while that eems...like something a little kid would do to seem "cool" - I just love to do it anyways. Gwah!

So..Yeah, I guess it's just a "guy thing" or a "Guam thing" to enjoy this, and while some of you may not understand my joy in the game, I love it to bits.  I'm getting bored though - which I anticipated.  OOH one more thing!  - I also love how the spawn of the weapons and monsters are randomly generated. So, sometimes you get only 1 Tank in the map, but if you have to restart the map again, you may find yourself fighting 3 or 6! I've never encoutered more than 3 in an entire map, but who knows - mabye I'll get to fight 7 - Gwah! But yeah, that's about..it for my rant on Left 4 Dead.  I hope to record some of my gameplay videos and upload - let you guys see my reactions and twitches, hah. 

Peece - Owt, -ahem- Yoh

-Pineapple