Left 4 Dead series
Contents
Brief
Short description of the game.
The series currently consists of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.
Gameplay
The games rely heavily on Achievements to provide Replayability of the levels and campaigns. Some of the Achievements are simply gained by completing the campaigns, others one can gain more or else through Grinding since they are based upon achieving a certain event (e.g. killing zombies with machine guns or honking the noses of zombie clowns), and others through actions that require Timing or Game Mastery (e.g. throwing Molotov cocktails on a special type of zombie or killing witches in a single shot), and yet others which make gameplay more difficult for the other players. The last category consists both of voluntarily limiting oneself to using less effective weapons and of goals such as carrying garden gnomes extensive distances (in Left 4 Dead 2. Although some of the Achievements can be seen as Optional Goals, these and the goals of completing levels and campaigns might effectively become Incompatible Goals.
Some of the gamers actions in the games are both Extended and Interruptable Actions, specifically those that help the other players. Helping other players while they are hanging from heights or healing them takes time and can be interrupted by zombie attacks (and is best done with yet other players having the Supporting Goals of protecting them). Besides providing Time Pressure these actions can also be seen as a form of Delayed Reciprocity since there is typically an unstated understanding that the helped players while in the future be helpees. Healing oneself with bandages is also an Extended and Interruptable Actions in the game, but since this also is best done when guarded by other players it also encourages team work.
The series allow Betrayal in that players can opt to run to safe rooms or the escape vehicles while leaving the other players to their fate, choices that have persistent effects since only the survivors of a campaign get the Achievements associated with it.
Left 4 Dead 2 adds some tangible Shared Rewards through cases with special ammo that can be handed out to all players.
The series shows that one can provide individual Game Pauses in Multiplayer Real-Time Games through letting computers take over the control of characters, although of course the overall gameplay continues.
