Left 4 Dead’s Survival Mode

I’m a huge fan of Left 4 Dead, and it tends to be my go-to multiplayer game of choice because of its stellar cooperative play.  For that reason, when the latest downloadable content for the game dropped yesterday, including the hotly-anticipated “survival” mode, I downloaded it immediately.  Last night we had a crew of 4 ready to give it a try, but to be honest it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Survival Mode is basically an extended version of the scenario that plays out at the end of each of the four levels in Left 4 Dead.  In the standard co-op mode the way it works is you and your 3 buddies have to defend an area while you wait for a rescue vehicle to come and save you from the zombie onslaught.  Such a task is extremely difficult, especially on expert difficulty, but we’ve been able to overcome that part of the game several times with proper strategy.

Survival mode basically throws strategy out of the window.  It’s almost as if Valve made this mode just to thwart the gamers who play it.  For example, if you ever find a good spot to hold up and defend from, chances are good that there will be some new breakable wall that will let the infected flood in from behind you.  Not only that, but the waves of zombies and special infected come much more rapidly, and often simultaneously unlike in standard cooperative play.  Add to that the fact that they’ve severely reduced the effectiveness of using melee attacks to push zombies away from you, and this mode has frustration written all over it.

The good news is that it’s completely free, so you don’t really have to worry about whether you’ll like it or not.  Give it a shot, you might dig it or you might think it’s a little overboard.  I’m apart of the latter group.