Left 4 Dead is an up and coming zombie co-op game in which four survivors are pitted against 28-weeks later style running zombies. Although some say that the slower zombies are more authentic, the fast zombies and frantic fighting forces teamwork in a way simply not achievable with slow zombies. There are also several human controlled "boss infected" that can drastically effect the situation for the survivors, described below.The "director" adjusts enemy spawn, ambush points, and item locations in relation to how well the survivors are faring: if they're doing well, enemies will pour on and on, where as if the humans are barely fighting, the enemy spawn rate would go down and more items could be found. Friendly fire is always on, and it the game keeps track of all positive and negative achievements of the individual player, viewable at the end of each game.
The actual release date is November 4, 2008

Survivors
The survivors are the four human players in L4D. Their objective is to get to the safehouses established by other survivors. In the beginning of each level, the players can pick out their equipment from the safehouse stocks. Throughout the levels, additional safehouses (which function as checkpoints and respawn areas) can be found, as well as extra weapons (although the weapons are usually off the main path). In the last stage of a level, the survivors are allowed to set up barricades, explosive barrels and stationary weapons. When the escape is activated (signaling a helicopter, trying to start a car and such), the players must fend off waves of infected for a period of time. Human players are "knocked down" when out of HP and can only use pistols. Unless they are helped up by another survivor, they will bleed out (sped up by enemy attacks) and die for the duration (they can also die if knocked down 3 times). Dead players must be found in respawn zones. Survivors can see the outlines of their fellow humans through the walls, and will automatically yell to alert their teammates, such as "reloading "help me up" or "I see a hunter" as well as manual voice commands.

There are four survivors-

1. Bill-A Vietnam veteran with combat skills that have helped keep him alive, he is also the eldest of the band of survivors.
2. Zoey-The daughter of a wealthy family.
3. Louis-An assistant manager at an electronics store.
4. Francis-A tattoo covered biker, who knows Bill well.

Available items: (note all guns have attached flashlights)
Certain items will be available to you at the starting safe house, additional medical supplies, explosives, and alternative weapons can be found throughout the level. You can hold one of each type of item, except pistols (although they'll still be counted as a single item)

Starting Firearms (capacity is different on several firearms for gameplay purposes)

Springfield Armory 1911
-holds 15 rounds, will kill regular infected in 3 or 4 hits
-can be dual wielded if a 2nd one is found
-has unlimited ammo; the idea is, since the only melee attack is to hit with your firearm, the designers didn't want to make a player useless just because they ran out of ammo.

Uzi
-holds 50 rounds
-has a high rate of fire and will take a zed down fairly quickly
-does moderate well at long range

Shotgun (is kinda generic, looks like a mossberg 590 tactical)
-holds 8 rounds
-reloads at a decent rate, 2 shells per second

Found Weapons

M16A3
-holds 50 rounds and fires in full auto
-has better accuracy, range, and a harder punch then the uzi

Ruger Mini14
-holds 5 rounds
-has telescopic sight (it is also the only gun that can use sights)
-can fire reasonably accurately without the scope
-can punch through several enemies and even walls

Benelli M1014
-holds 7 rounds
-is a semi-automatic but kicks just ashard as its pump counterpart
-apparently has the same firepower and reload time as the standard shotgun
-is somewhat rare

Explosives

Pipe Bomb
-is essentially a home made frag grenade and is a PVC pipe with end caps and a fuse on one end
-has time delay
-has a huge blast radius and impressive power, but obscures your vision with smoke and can kill your teammates instantly
-takes a second to light it before it is thrown
-can be kicked back by running infected (not literally, it canbounce off infected when they charge at you)

Molotov Cocktail
-home made firebombs: a bottle of gas with a rag
-explodes on contact
takes a second ot ight before thrown
-has large blast and sticks to everything
-fire burns for a while, and burning enemies can still run at you

Medical Items

First Aid Kit
Can be used once to completely restore your own or a teammate's health.

Medicine
Gives the user a temporary boost in heath, speed, and melee strength, although it drains long term health.



Melee attack
All guns have a melee attack. Although it is fairly weak, it is still very useful. Its ability to push thing back means that you can knock away a crowd (infected can fall into other infected and create a domino effect) or knock a teammate out of the way of an attack. It is also one fo the few ways to knock a boomer back without killing it.


Infected
The infected in left 4 dead are running type zombies, and come in massive waves. They have night vision and can see the locations or the survivors. Most infected can also sneak through air vents and other passages to ambush the survivors. You cannot play as a standard infected, but there are several "boss infected" you can play as:

1. The Hunter- Fast, agile, can leap great distances. If it pounces on you a teammate will need to knock it off or it will rip you to shreds. It can stealth itself and needs to stay still for a moment to leap. The hunter takes the least damage of all the infected and two are available at a time, where all other boss infected can only ahve one at a time.
2. The Smoker-Moderate speed, Can spray smoke to cloud survivors vision and impair their communication, has a long tongue to grab and choke survivors or just toss them into a horde. When a survivor is grabbed, you have touse your melee attack to free them. When a smoker is killed, it leaves behind a choking smokescreen. Smoke stuns you temporarily, disables voice commands, and blurs your vision.
3. The Boomer-Moderate speed, Fat, Can vomit over you to impair vision and attract more infected, explodes if shot.
4. The Tank-Slow, Strong, slow, and HUGE. They can crash throguh walls, batter down doors, and send survivors flying. You cannot choose to play as a tank, but you will be prompted randomly: all players will get a chance before any player uses the tank a 2nd time. In the final stage of a level, there are two tanks. There is a glaring disadvantage, however: if the tank does not see a survivor on screen, a "rage meter" will fill up, and when it tops off, the tank will go berserk and the player will lose control. The only real way to take down a tank is to direct all the survivors fire.
5. The Witch-Fast, Strong, kills instantly, can be crept past. She gets up if you bump her, shoot her, or shine your flashlight at her. Basically don't be stupid and she won't be a problem. Although the witch is a boss infected, the witch is always an AI, as it mostly lies on the floor.

(More to come later...)