The concept of an 'AI Director'-an unseen hand that dynamically adjusts the difficulty of your session by spawning more enemies if you aren't quite struggling enough-was a novel and compelling concept at the time. Also, Valve loves themselves some environmental storytelling, so paying close attention to certain quips and having an eye for detail would also reward players with clues about the truth behind the outbreak. (No one sounded more stoked to find a bottle of pain pills than Louis.) Under no other circumstances than a zombie apocalypse would people like Zoey, Francis, Bill, and Louis become brothers in arms, much less friends. The four survivors quickly became a beloved cast of characters thanks to their distinct personalities and context-sensitive banter. Video games got their shoutouts, too: An achievement for killing a very specific number of zombies (53,595) was a cute little wink and nod to Capcom's Dead Rising, and Zoey's character design was immediately reminiscent of Resident Evil 2's Claire Redfield. People also got drawn in by the the developer's huge reverence for zombie-themed cinema that was literally impossible to miss every campaign's loading screen was styled after a movie poster (complete with a cheesy tagline), there's a film grain effect overlaying the screen by default, and you can't spend more than five seconds in a safe room without catching a Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later reference. Gunning down hordes of zombies alongside three of your friends was a pretty easy premise to sell for a video game back in 2008, and with Valve's reputation for top-quality shooters backing it up, Left 4 Dead was warmly received on both PC and Xbox 360. Spoilers Ahead RELATED: ‘Back 4 Blood’ PC Trailer Showcases the Game’s Impressive Graphics and Confirms Crossplay So, welcome to the best possible starting point for that explanation: Why the Left 4 Dead games were so damn special. The newer generation will never understand why B4B is worth paying attention to without a proper explanation. Zombies have been played out for years even the Call of Duty games have them every other year. Someone who's never even heard of Left 4 Dead definitely saw that B4B trailer, rolled their eyes, and condescendingly thought to themselves, 'Wow, another zombie game? How original.' And you know what? They aren't even wrong.

The landscape of video games and the people who consume them have changed considerably. There's an open beta starting very soon ( with full crossplay between every platform!), prompting several people to reminisce about all the great times they had back in the day with blasting zombie brains, running from Tanks, and of course, spamming the 'Look' command at bottles of pills.

If you consider yourself a Left 4 Dead fan, chances are that Back 4 Blood has caught your attention.

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