Left 4 Dead

Platforms

• PC

  Nov 17, 2008

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  8.6

  playscore

  8.7

  12 Critics

  9.3

  30.5K Players
• Xbox 360

  Nov 18, 2008

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  8.4

  playscore

  8.7

  8 Critics

  8.5

  292K Players

14 critic reviews · 25 community reviews across all platforms

Critic Reviews

• 

  Game Trailers

  8.6

  Left 4 Dead is a fun game while it lasts, but that’s not long. There’s not much nuance to the combat or weapons, but the realistic enemy behavior gives it a sense of unpredictability. The AI director is mostly successful at scaling the difficulty to the skill of the player, and this is one coop game that actually forces you to cooperate. Some will find it refreshingly straightforward, others will find it repetitive, but everyone will have at least a few hours of fun just trying to survive.

  Reviewed on PC, X360
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  Video Gamer

  9.0

  It's worth noting that the experience is somewhat dulled if played alone, but if you've got online friends or are happy to play with randoms, Left 4 Dead is a game you simply can't pass up. Just make sure you've worked out what you'd do in a zombie outbreak before you start playing, as you won't be able to make anything approaching a sane decision with a screaming witch bearing down on you.

  Reviewed on PC, X360

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• 

  Destructoid

  9.0

  As it stands, Left 4 Dead just happens to be a must-have game with a versus mode cherry on top. The cherry's a little bit sour, sure, and it's still got the pit in it, and it's been cut in half, and sometimes you can't connect with the cherry because you're not allowed to actually pick the cherry yourself but have to instead rely on a half-blind chef who rummages around in a bucket full of week-old cherries before handing you a random one, but hey -- it's still a cherry, and it's on top of an orgasmically awesome sundae.

  Reviewed on PC, X360

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• 

  GameSpot

  8.5

  Between play sessions, you may find yourself craving more maps, but once you're in the game, you'll be so consumed by your quest to survive that you'll likely be grateful for your knowledge of the terrain. It's a tricky proposition for a game to serve up such seemingly meager variety, but Left 4 Dead does so with panache, and gamers will likely be enjoying this recipe for a long time.

  Reviewed on PC, X360

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  Giant Bomb

  8.0

  Left 4 Dead's biggest breakthrough is the way it blurs the lines between the often compartmentalized pieces of a modern first-person shooter. It makes for a game that's unlike any other, and while the limited amount of content is admittedly unfortunate, that shouldn't keep you from experiencing this fast-paced, nerve-wracking game. ou alive

  Reviewed on PC, X360

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• 

  Hardcore Gamer

  9.5

  All in all, if you know from the start you are getting into a game that is entirely based around its cooperative multiplayer elements you are going to be rewarded with hundreds of hours of the best gaming experience you have had in years. If you were looking for a game you could blow through by yourself, maybe because you have no friends due to your poor hygiene, then you might want to look somewhere else. Just let me know if you didn’t like it though, that way I know not to save you during the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

  Reviewed on X360

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• 

  VGChartz

  8.0

  Despite the amount of pure fun I've had with it, I still can’t shake the feeling that Left 4 Dead is an incomplete game. That’s partly due to the dated presentation and missed opportunity with the story elements, but there’s also not that much content here either, and although the recent free DLC update, addictive gameplay and heavy multiplayer focus all combine to extend the game’s longevity, it’s still far from perfect. The foundations are there for a truly outstanding game, but Left 4 Dead itself falls just short of that level of excellence.

  Reviewed on PC

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• 

  Game Watcher

  9.0

  Put it this way: if you can get the PC version, do it. This is undoubtedly a PC game, and not just because “all games are better on the PC”. If not, the 360 version is fine, but don’t play it on the PC; it’ll make you jealous for not having that version, which is superior. No matter what you say, Left 4 Dead is an excellent title. It gets everything right. It’s simple enough for anyone to play, unique enough for everyone to enjoy, and intelligent enough for no one to get tired of. Isn’t that the game we’ve been asking for?

  Reviewed on

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  Euro Gamer

  9.0

  In short, Left 4 Dead is another deeply professional, personality-filled and progressive take on the shooter from Valve. In a cultural landscape that has as many zombie touchstones as ours, it takes something special to make them shamble appealingly, and Left 4 Dead, both literally and metaphorically, makes them run. In this new co-op landscape, it'll be interesting to see whether anyone can catch up.

  Reviewed on PC

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• 

  IGN

  9.2

  Let's not worry about that now, though. What we've got for at least the next few weeks is one of the finest zombie games ever made, and one of the finest co-op games ever made. The potential for everything to go so, so wrong without warning, or conversely to pull off the most spectacular escapes against all odds, means this is an online shooter you can tell your finest anecdotes about without boring everyone else to tears. Everyone loves a zombie movie, after all. Hooray, then, for Left 8 Dead.

  Reviewed on PC

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Community Reviews

About the game