Like a gory blend of all the best zombie movies ever made, Left 4 Dead is a horrifying yet exhilarating experience.
Best played with a group of friends in the sublime co-operative mode, the adventure sees players blasting their way out of a zombie-infested urban sprawl, the relentless ebb and swell of the undead army forcing players to work together to survive, with any split in your ranks giving the brain-chompers an opportunity to rush in and overpower you. The small number of weapons and limited ammunition on hand also adds tension and strategy to the bloodshed, and the bewildering number of fast-moving zombies and powerful bosses mean there’s never a quiet moment as you shoot your way to freedom.
Although the computer can fill the boots of your fellow survivors if you choose to play alone, the co-operative game perfectly captures the sense of camaraderie that binds Romero’s Living Dead flicks, and the game subsequently suffers as a single player experience. But when you’re working together with a trio of friends to escape the city, or mucking around in the competitive mode where one team takes control of the undead bad boys, playing Left 4 Dead is fierce, frantic and many other words beginning with ‘f’. Ferociously frightening
See how Left 4 Dead did on our list of the 100 greatest games.