Left 4 Dead & Quake Wars Videos

Sometimes I just feel the urge to review something or share my impressions about an upcoming game. Not because I have actually played a game or received special insider access. I simply get tweaked by a new trailer or gameplay video in such a way that my preconceived notions may have been turned around.

Last week I came across two such videos via the fabulous GameTrailers.com site. Here we have two relatively high-profile shooter releases, Id's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Turtle Rock Studios' Left 4 Dead. Both games were featured prominently at the recent QuakeCon, Id's celebration of all things Quake. Attendees were treated not only to brand new trailers, they were also able to get hands-on time with the team-based zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead.

Hit the jump for more details...

I devoured all of the videos taken of the Left 4 Dead demo at QuakeCon as well as the latest vids for Quake Wars. Up till now, I've been a lot more excited about the former than the latter, but after viewing the videos, my opinions have traded place for both games.

First up, Left 4 Dead. The video captured at the convention is not the clearest, but it's obvious that the game is shaping up visually and from a gameplay standpoint. While not amazing, the graphics are up to current standards and features dozens upon dozens of uniquely modeled zombies along with the usual explosions and atmospheric lighting. As a huge fan of zombies, this game is still looking to be the closest approximation of experiencing an interactive zombie movie. After watching the first few videos, however, I still couldn't help but feel a little underwhelmed by the gameplay.

The Turtle Rock developers have stressed on the official Left 4 Dead website that teamwork is an essential aspect of the game. Unfortunately, these videos didn't really showcase much necessity for teamwork aside from sticking together and healing teammates when they were knocked down to the ground by the rampaging, undead hordes. Maybe the people playing the game in the videos were not the greatest players. I most certainly witnessed some questionable tactics as players would wander off on their own or run headlong into a roomful of zombies, gun blazing. Still, when it looked like everyone on the team was trying to work together, my general sense of each level was just total chaos. The zombie hordes are spawned randomly and they are endless and they all run extremely fast. The player characters also move very quickly, which sort of put me off. I always imagined the speed of the players to be slower, in order to foster more team tactics and heighten the menace of the faster-moving zombies. As it appears in the video, everyone moves fast and that causes the game to look more like a twitch-based deathmatch shooter. It's what I like to call the FPS Shuffle... and it just doesn't seem to jive with what the game is trying to accomplish.

I am still looking forward to the game's release in early 2008. Here's hoping my concerns turn out to trial and the developers make Left 4 Dead the high benchmark of all horror team shooters.

I got quite a different set of impressions from Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Here's a game that I really cared very little for up until I watched these new videos on GameTrailers. To me, the Quake franchise had grown stale. Quake 4 was a massive disappointment for me and Id appeared to be running dry on new ideas, especially in their attempt to blend the Quake universe with massive team-based multiplayer combat seen in other successful franchises like the Battlefield series. Wow, so now you can pick soldier classes and pilot vehicles! Hardly innovative stuff here.

Well, these new videos opened my eyes a bit more to the potential this game has. While the graphics are still solid (albeit unimaginative), the refinements it is bringing to the standard objective-based team battles are something I am very curious about. Imagine spawning into the battle as an engineer class soldier and receiving a series of objectives for you to complete. Completing these missions not only helps your team in the overall battle, it also nets you an impressive point score at the end of the round. No longer will you jump into a game, a battle raging all around you, and have no sense of where to go or what to do. There's no need to hunt for the frontlines or figure out what objectives need to be secured. The game gives you the necessary direction and have the choice of pursuing these mission or striking off on your own.

I absolutely LOVE this idea, as it now makes playing support classes very rewarding. Everyone has a role on the battlefield and the game will reward players who fulfill their specific combat roles whether you're a heavy gunner holding down the frontlines or a medic keeping your team alive.