It's popular for the same reason that Asteroids and Space Invaders will always be classics. Even though it's extremely repetitive, it's fast, fun, and has great arcade action.

I didn't believe the hype until I played it. This game rocks. One of the few next-gen games that might convince me to buy an Xbox 360

Let's be honest, the game satisfies a need to kill things shaped like people over and over in the most savage and unforgiving ways.

There. I said it.

Meh, not really. How is the game all that savage? It's not like the game is known for these amazing kill animations or excessive gore. Shit there's so much of it that I don't even remember those parts. I remember just having a fun time with people working together and joking about whatever while playing.

So gunning one's way through countless hordes of infected blowing heads and limbs off in a life or death struggle isn't savage?

Ooookkkkaaaayyyeeeeee.

We will agree to disagree....

I guess it's savage, but when I think about the game I always forget you can blow away limbs and heads until I'm playing.

When I fire it up, I always think to myself I hope people who have mics are on, and that I get a fun team.

Actually his point stands up when talking about L4D2. They're really bumped up the gore in the sequel.

I guess when it comes down to it though, just about every non-puzzle game could be considered 'savage' couldn't it? Whether its destroying Space Invaders, virtual Pokémon dogfighting, or blazing through enemy troops in CoD. Its all about killing.It is ironic though. I was shocked and up set by the leaked 'no Russian' level from MW2. But at the same time I've laughed when I've seen zombie heads practically explode in my face.
I guess its all about context. Inflicting pain on other creatures, as opposed to slaugtering hordes of zombies who want nothing more then to rip you apart. In fact you're probably doing them a favor.


Me, I've never been an online game fan, but I got hooked on L4D fast. Simple, fast paced, and as others have said, playing with other people just adds that extra touch of unpredictability to the game. Theres somethign almost zen-like when you sinc up with a good group. And frustrating as hell when you're on a team of screwups.

Left 4 Dead is a first person Gauntlet. If you like Gauntlet and FPS, you would like this.

Remember how Gauntlet was boring by yourself, but amazing with 3 other people?

You know what is the most annoying thing... when the same user posts repeated threads about things that could easily be found with a basic search...

Will Gamefly work for me? I doubt it, you can't even figure out Google...

Heh, so true. You can say that about nearly any dungeon crawling game like Ultimate Alliance -- though never amazing, it's a lot less boring with other people.

God, this shit is annoying. I didn't read the whole thread, but it just reminds me of all the huffing and puffing about game delays. If you have shit you haven't touched from over a year ago, why do you care if new stuff gets pushed back? Maybe you should focus on the stack you have and wait for there to be deals on the current stuff and the stuff that isn't out yet.

I just started playing this game because of all the hype and am also disappointed that its not really a 1-player game. There is no full campaign and you cannot save your game and if you die you have to restart the whole level from the beginning.

Unless there is something I'm missing, I'm already ready to sell this game.

This game demands to be played with 3 other people. I don't know why you would want to play it by yourself anyways. Have you tried playing online? Working together with (human) teammates to survive is what makes it so fun.

and watching your best friend get face-fucked by a special infected while he screams like the bitch he is.....classic...

My XBOX is not online. I just play solo.

Not to beat a dead horse, but playing online also solves this problem. As long as at least one human player is alive, the game keeps going and dead players respawn in a closet after a few minutes.