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The Left 4 Dead demo is out for pre-orderererers, and it just sort of… stops.
The four campaigns are usually four missions long each, and the demo only gives you the first two sections of one of them. It’s like releasing the first half of a song as a single to promote your forthcoming album. You can tell from the first half of this campaign that it’s going to be a good campaign, but the first half isn’t one by itself.
I am baffled and saddened by this. To me the point of Left 4 Dead is that “just made it!” moment, the way the Director expertly builds difficulty, tension and drama over the four levels to an incredible climax. Even when you die, that finalé is the highlight of the game. I can’t think why, after spending more than two years years perfecting an extraordinary new system that masters the eternal design problems of pacing and balance, you’d release a demo that does neither well.
This demo is only for people who’ve already committed to buying the game at the moment, but it’s the same one going live to the public next Tuesday, and it’s the one from which the first player impressions will be posted on forums. Playing it earlier tonight was the first time in my five sessions with Left 4 Dead that we’ve survived easily, and the first time the answer to “Do you want to play again?” has been “Not really.”
It’ll do till the full thing comes along, of course, and it’s still great fun. Just don’t assume from the demo that the full game lacks drama, variety or a satisfying climax.
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Also the server function is poor at best, horrible most of the time. You can't choose what server you want to play on, it instead forces a console-ish 'match maker' upon you. It reminds me of a small, snot covered child scribbling on a piece of paper with crayons and sticking it over an expensive picture and screaming 'Looky! I made a picture! Look at it!'
I would like to see the option of using the ye-olde style of choosing a server. The lack of dedicated servers also means that you either have to play on single-player or on a (most probably) laggy LAN server.
As a demo, it's left me a bit empty. But some of those 'OH, SHIT!' moments make up for it.