I’m a fan of zombies – but what geek isn’t? Specifically, I’m in the new school; I prefer the fast-moving horrors of 28 Days Later and the dark comedy of Shaun of the Dead to the groaning, shuffling, George Romero classics, and I’m still waiting for Kirkman to finish his apocalypse saga, The Walking Dead.  In other words, I’d rather watch or read something that comments on our culture, instead of an artifact of an earlier time.

Left 4 Dead doesn’t spend much time on social commentary, but it certainly comments on zombie movies as a whole. The idea is to put the player into the fun parts of a horror film: you and your buddies escape the hordes of (undead/aliens/monsters/mutants) that have invaded your (town/city/country/planet). Some of you die, it’s better that all of you live. And here’s the first difference: in the horror film, part of the fun is betting on who of our rag-tag bad of survivors will die first, or in the most gruesome way, or if any of them will survive. In Left 4 Dead, there are lots of possible grisly deaths, but it’s more fun to live – and the four characters help each other survive not because it’s the right, “human” thing to do but because it significantly improves the odds of survival. As Tim says, the game is expert at getting players to work together without forcing the issue. There are some very nice design pieces here, in particular the way med kits and pain pills can be transferred between players and bots, and the mechanics of getting knocked down and “rescued” by another player. You learn quickly: stay with the group, or the horde gets you.*

And the horde is certainly of the new school. These are fast zombies: they stand in corners until you startle them, then they head straight for you. At least once in every level, they get to swarm: dozens of them come screaming from every direction, overwhelming your position. And these are “science” zombies, with a number of mutant strains that cause you additional problems. There are smoker zombies that drag you off with their long tongues; hunters that jump out of nowhere and pin you down while slashing; “boomers”, fat sickly things that vomit on you and explode (which attracts the horde, of course); tanks that react to bullets and explosives exactly as the name would suggest; and witches, which the game itself cautions you not to fight but to avoid. There’s a lot of Alien in Left 4 Dead. The versus mode, in which players control both the survivors and the zombies, feels a great deal like AVP2 (the excellent game, not the horrible film). It’s a refreshing addition, and a nice change to the core game as well: when some of the zombies have a human intelligence, things can get extremely interesting.

As far as the atmosphere, there’s a movie quality to everything that makes Left 4 Dead game more fun than frightening. This is a cinematic invasion: the four campaigns are titled as cheesy movies, complete with poster and taglines, and survival always has a finale setting: the top of a hospital, a ruined airport runway, an abandoned farmhouse, a lakeside cabin. And while the story is simple – don’t die, get to the chopper – there are some nice touches that bring the space to life. I adore the writing on the walls in some of the safehouses, ostensibly from previous occupants: in particular, the one that starts “We are the real monsters,” followed by variations on “No their zombies, u moron” and “IDIOT”, and ends with “I miss the internet.” It gets a laugh, but it reminds you where you are and what the world used to be like as well.

The sound and music cues certainly play up the filmic atmosphere, but they’re surprisingly important to gameplay. Until I played against friends, I didn’t realize how much my survival depended on paying attention to sound. For example, you’ll hear a “boomer” long before you’ll see it, and as soon as you hear it you need to start aiming; and when you’re playing on the Infected side, success as a “boomer” depends entirely on timing, as the other players will hear and start tracking you as soon as you spawn.

I have discovered, however much I love the game itself, that I hate playing it with people I don’t know. I’m not much of a shooter player, and there is a culture there that bothers me: that easy anonymity that leads to arrogance, frustration, and generally immature behavior from, I assume, otherwise sane and rational adults. I’ve said before that I prefer the culture of an MMO, where competition is drawn out over longer periods of time, but also where the world itself is the primary antagonist. Not all players I meet in World of Warcraft are friendly, not by a long shot, but it’s easy to avoid the ones I don’t like, and it makes the world feel more alive for humans to be running around in it. Left 4 Dead feels more like a playground than a world – and it is. I simply prefer to play with my friends, and the “friends-only” lobby assumes that I am friends with everyone on my friends list, and all their friends, and all their friends….It doesn’t take long for someone with a misspelled name to sign in, rush through a level, bark out orders, call us all fucking noobs, and drop. (This may be the moment I look back on, years from now, when people ask me when exactly I became old and crotchety). There are some slick pieces to the lobby functionality – the voting system, for example – so I’m sorry to see that this piece of it isn’t as customizable.

On the other hand, the AI is quite intelligent, almost too much so. Again, I’m not much of a shooter player, so I’m learning a literacy here, particularly with aiming speed and precision. It’s not much of a challenge when the AI players are so quick that they take out the threats before I even know they’re there. A bit like playing with experienced players who are not also teachers, and have no reason to be.

Bottom line: this one’s worth a playthrough. It’s already become my “start the morning” game – what better way to wake up before work than with a cup of hot chai, comfy slippers, and masses of undead that just need killing?

*In which case, you are placed in the survivors’ path and “rescued” again, rather than respawning or waiting until the next round. It’s an elegant solution, and it fits with the movie theme as well. Nice work, Valve.

I’m Ayn Rand-ambivalent, but I love this game.

Bioshock is part of what I’m starting to consider the New Science Fiction: sci fi that’s not only worth telling in a gaming medium, but is ultimately better for it. This story needed to be a game.

I won’t say that Bioshock is at the true forefront of the revolution, but there’s something about facing down a Big Daddy that simply has to come across in play instead of words or visuals; something about the phrase “would you kindly” that only hits so hard because the actions and choices were yours, and because your only alternative to those action was to stop playing the game. (Those of you that haven’t played it, I promise that last bit makes sense). A shame that after the big reveal, you aren’t given any more or less freedom over your actions, just gentler, kinder reasons for doing so.

The increasing possibility of a Bioshock movie strikes me as not only strange, but a hell of a challenge. I can’t argue against adapting this story – most stories, really – to another medium and audience, but the original will be hard to top with celluloid. Take the Big Daddies, for instance. The first time I faced “Rosie” is one of only three* moments in games where I honestly thought, “Get me out of here, I don’t want to fight that” – the polar opposite of the usual, “bring it” response that most gaming combat inspires in me. Sure, we aim to inspire fear in games, but often hoping for the fight reflex, not for flight.

And yet, the promise of Bioshock, that ambiguous moral complexity we were primed for in the weeks before release…. That never really comes through for me. Yet again, I was rewarded for being a good person. Yet again, punches were pulled, perhaps to avoid accusations of shock value – you’re asked to not only kill little girls but to literally rip a slug-creature out of their living bellies, but all you see onscreen is a white flash and ta da! Just a slug. Not that I’m a fan of child-killing, but if you say you’re going to let players act truly depraved, you better make ‘em feel it.

There’s also no chance for redemption in Bioshock, which I’m not sure how I feel about. I don’t mind actions with permanent consequences, at least during one given playthrough; but I was bothered by the abruptness of the endings, regardless of which one I achieved.

I think the major issue I have with Bioshock is that it lives up to the hype, but not to its potential. The introduction and the first sections of gameplay are just fantastic, and everything up to Andrew Ryan fits within the same slow, tense build. Until Ryan, every cinematic moment is done in-game, while the player still has control, but the player is physically separated from the scene in some way, usually by glass. There’s a moment of real shock when, for the first time, another character crosses that barrier and stands in the same room with you; and the way that Ryan’s scene plays out…. It’s flawless in its execution, a moment I just can’t spoil for new players. But the game falters after that, and ends on a less-than-impressive note. I know game developers are worried that too many players aren’t finished their games, but Bioshock is quite definitely front-loaded.

Bioshock is also my first “Easy Game” – the first time I bit the bullet and played on easy mode, to my everlasting shame. Not God of War, which encourages it; not Metal Gear Solid 2, with the Snake/Raiden bait-and-switch; not Ikaruga; not even Ninja Gaiden Black did it. Bioshock broke me, and it did so because I have a full-time job that does not inspire patience – and because, for all my gaming experience, Ijust can’t play an FPS without a mouse and keyboard, and my beautiful computer has one of the few graphics cards that Bioshock isn’t happy with.

That last was a worthwhile experience for me. I do think there is a literacy to not only games but game genres, which can keep people who don’t consider themselves gamers at arms’ length, and out of some amazing fictional experiences. Playing Bioshock through with a dual-joystick control made me think about those hapless students of mine that are fascinated by games but don’t have the literacy level to play them – students that take three hours to find their way out of the first town in Ocarina of Time, or can’t manage to jump on that very first goomba in Super Mario Brothers. It takes time to learn games, not intellectually but physically; I have more sympathy for that than I used to.

For those of you looking for recommendations, I can’t recommend this game highly enough. Writers and academics, there’s a lot of meat here that needs looking at, flaws and all.

*I’ll cover the games in which I felt those other two moments soon – let’s say before I hit #20.