I just recently discovered a new PC game in the February issue of PC Gamer magazine. After playing Gears of War non-stop on the Xbox 360, I've been craving some other great multiplayer co-op games. Well, Turtle Rock's newest game called Left 4 Dead looks to fill that void. That's right, the famed development studio behind the hit Counter-Strike is taking their shot at a new IP. Will it be as popular as Counter-Strike? In my opinion I think so.

Slated for release sometime in Q2 2007, Left 4 Dead is built upon Valve's Source engine. This game takes place in an infected world where zombies have taken over pretty much of everything. Only a handful of humans are left to try stop these zombies, or destroy them, or just get the hell out of there! While trying to imagine this game, just think of every other zombie-type game or movie you've ever seen, or just think of 28 Days Later. But I'm not really interested in the story or setting part of the game yet, nope - I want to play some co-op multiplayer.

When playing video games I like them in the following order: single player with great story, co-op multiplayer, mmo-type games, and finally standard multiplayer a la deathmatch type crap. I love co-op games. I love getting together with a buddy or two (or a whole team), and working together through a story fighting enemies. That's the most entertaining for me. That's why I love games like Sven Co-op, Gears of War, and now Left 4 Dead. But not only can you play as the humans trying to escape the city, but you can also play as the zombie type Infested (as they're called), and try to kill the human survivors.

I'll let Michael Booth from Turtle Head Studios explain it:

Left 4 Dead is a cooperative survivor horror game where four survivors must work together to escape a city teeming with an overwhelming number of the infected. If you work together, you have a chance. If you run off on your own, you will die.

There is a lot more info about the game on Gamespot's web site here. At that site is an interview with Michael Booth about Left 4 Dead. Below are some snip-its that I found extremely interesting:

The initial four campaigns of Left 4 Dead include both urban areas and rural areas, with lots of dense architecture and challenging landscapes. Each campaign also ends with an elaborate "finale" where the survivors must make a stand while waiting for a rescue vehicle to arrive and take them to apparent safety.

The experience of playing an infected is entirely different than that of being a survivor. The four "boss infected" classes have very unique abilities based on their particular virus-induced...mutations.

For example, the boomer can vomit blood on his victim, which attracts hordes of infected to this victim. The smoker, meanwhile, has a 50-foot tongue that can pull a survivor out of position or even leave them hanging.

The game is designed to allow human players to drop in and out without adversely affecting the experience or requiring the scenario to restart. We have also taken steps to maintain the survivor's game experience even with the presence of human-controlled infected. Although the infected can "win" by killing all of the survivors before they reach the finale and escape, it doesn't feel like a traditional competitive game--it still feels very cooperative from the survivor side.

Finally, an Xbox 360 version of the game is set to be released sometime in Winter of 2007. But here is something that sounds extremely cool:

Left 4 Dead was explicitly designed as an online cooperative survivor horror experience. I've been quite impressed with the Xbox 360 and its Xbox Live interface. Our game will be a perfect fit for it.

Allowing the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Left 4 Dead to play together is something we're still investigating.

Hell yes! With Microsoft's Live Anywhere scheme they're putting into place with the release of Vista, I'm expecting to see a lot more games follow this same path. Why not bring the gaming communities of the PC games and console gamers together? Well, besides the fact that PC gamers will destroy any console gamer in a fps. Check out the entire article at Gamespot's web site here.

Left 4 Dead kind of reminds me of those House of the Dead arcade games. Those were always fun to play with a buddy, shooting the shit out of anything that moves. But Left 4 Dead looks to far, far surpass those games and finally bring back some good co-op multiplayer to the PC.