Gameplay Journal Entry #1
Left 4 Dead 2 is a 4 player zombie action game in which 1–4 players take control of 1–4 characters and play through campaigns in various locations across the United States. Even over a decade after its initial release in 2009, it’s concepts of cooperative play, easily digestible controls. and “less is more” philosophy still allows it to be a joy to play for veterans and newcomers alike. What this game specializes in is its great emphasis on staying with your team and has enemies that can counteract any or all situations. For example, if your team is together, a spitter will spit acid and force the group to move and possibly separate; if someone is separated from the group, a jockey can pull them away even further or a hunter can pin them down and kill them unless another teammate helps. There’s also mechanics to help your teammates as well including but not limited to: call out commands, healing others, giving others supplies, killing zombies that immobilize players, and reviving players. All these possibilities are accompanied by items and weapons that all serve a meaningful purpose and never get overshadowed by anything else, with the exception of the guns and some melee weapons; Pipe bombs attract and blow up zombies, Molotovs explode immediately but cause damage over time, boomer biles can be thrown to attract zombies and even turn them against one another, pills heal a plethora of health while adrenaline shots only heal a small portion with a major speed boost, etc.
Something I have never seen many games of its type do before is negating the concept of staying in one spot for too long. If your team is in a location for a certain amount of time, a random horde of zombies will spawn, causing you to use more resources and be more at risk of dying and having to restart the level again. Something else many zombie and cooperative games, in general, don’t do is allow you to play as the zombies to turn the game on its head and provide a fresh way to enjoy the experience. The amount of customization and tools this game provides players allows them to play either as casually and freely as possible or realistically immersive and hardcore synergy to survive to the next level. To quote Jon Dovey, “It is important to stress, therefore, that when we assert the power of dominant technicities we equally assert that this power is a dynamic process through which other, alternate and subversive identities are being constantly generated.”
Dovey, Jon, and Helen Kennedy. Game Cultures: Computer Games As New Media (Issues in Cultural and Media Studies (Paperback)). Open University Press, 2006.
