Long story short for all you guys coming from Google: Left 4 Dead demo out 6th for preorders, 8th 11th now for everybody, get it from Steam.

Left 4 Dead Title

It’s rare that I’m as hyped up for a game as I was for this one. I think the last time this happened was for Age of Conan, and I was disappointed by it, and the time before that must have been World of Warcraft (which I still irregularly play).

Zombies in the Rain

So what makes Left 4 Dead special? First off, it’s by Valve, and they know what they’re doing when it comes to multiplayer shooters – you know how much I love Team Fortress 2, admittedly I never was a Counterstrike person but that game is rather good as well I’m told.

A Horde of Zombies

Next, it has zombies – and zombies are great. Those are particularly nasty, the runny, 28 Days Later type, not the more common shuffling and loitering Zombies!!! type.

And finally, it has proper teamwork (a headset is very, very useful), and a truly cinematic feel – that Director AI thing does work. Eventhough just two chapters of one episode (total 20 chapters in 4 episodes, I think) are in the demo, it’s totally worth it, and does what it’s supposed to do: raise expectations that were really high even higher.

People who preordered (like me, obviously) already got to play the demo since yesterday, it should be in your Steam games list then. It’s gonna be open for everybody else as of tomorrow. Get it from Steam. As for me, I can’t wait for the 18th, when the full game comes out I will make a review after I got to play it properly.

If you want extensive previews of the full thing by the way, Rock Paper Shotgun has one for the coop mode, and one for the versus mode. And just now, they posted tons of screenies.

Update 2008-11-08 02:11: Apparently, you can play as the infected, even in the demo Gotta try that out tomorrow.

Update 2008-11-09 16:57: Seems I was wrong about the demo going open on the 8th, it’s on the 11th apparently. Torrented versions will not work online, they’ll only piss of legitimate customers like me when the game won’t start because somebody doesn’t have a legit demo.

Update 2008-11-10 16:55: I read two main criticisms when it comes to the demo so far: “The game is dull, something for sitting on the couch and eating chips while playing” – you haven’t played it in anything but easy or normal if you think that. And “the guns don’t even allow you to scope” – if you have a PC monitor, you won’t have to, as you have a high resolution; and the hunter rifle does have a scope and allows you to scope (middle mouse button), oddly enough, just like those guns that don’t have scopes don’t allow you to scope.