I would like a little co-op with my zombies, please

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great environment, low system requirements, entertaining cooperative play, can be played offline

Cons: Repetitive, AI is a little spotty, not enough campaigns!!

The Bottom Line: 
Great game that takes advantage of its survival horror setting.  Working together online to ensure that everyone makes it out alive makes it that much sweeter.

Author's Review
I had been following this game as it was developed and I'm always up for some good old fashioned first person shooting especially if it involves zombies.  In a genre that is fairly saturated it takes a lot to stand out.  This is especially true with anything involving the horror genre.

There is still one area (in my opinion) that remains largely untapped.  That is in the area of cooperation with other players to play the main game.

The game itself plays out as a classic horror flick.  In fact, each load screen for the different campaigns displays a movie poster.  There was a mass infection that leaves everything in ruin.  You are placed in the shoes of four survivors:

Bill - Old and crusty retired military man
Louis - Young and successful business man turned zombie killer
Francis - Big and bad biker who hates vans
Zoey - The female zombie killer of the group

The opening cinematic actually sets the story line up perfectly.  It introduces the four survivors as they are discovering that the infected are changing somehow.  They are then attacked by the horde of zombies along with these special infected that are very prominent throughout the game.  When it is all over and the four reach the top of a building, an overjoyed Louis exclaims, "We made it!"

To which Bill replies, "All we did was cross the street."

There are five special infected to watch out for while fighting your way through each campaign.

Smoker - This guy coughs a lot and you can usually hear him coming from a distance.  The only problem is that he can shoot his tongue out to drag the survivors and constrict them.  He also explodes into a cloud of smoke when he's killed.
Hunter - These special infected are very fast and can jump great distances.  They will pounce on the survivors and you are pinned until a buddy saves you.
Boomer - These guys are pretty sick.  There are a couple things to look out for.  First, they can vomit on you which attracts the zombie horde.  Second, if they are too close when you kill them; they explode on you and again attract the zombie horde.  Your screen is also covered in green slime which makes it harder to see as you are getting pummeled.
Tank - The tank is just like its name sounds.  He's big, likes to throw things, and his punches send the survivors flying.  He can absorb a lot of damage before finally being brought down.
Witch - The witch is a special kind of special infected.  She incapacitates the first survivor that disturbs her and keeps wailing on them.  You can hear her crying from a distance along with the creepy music that accompanies her.  It's best to avoid her if at all possible.  Otherwise; aim for the head.

There are four storylines that initially come with the game.  Each campaign places you in different locales such as a city, a creepy toll road, and an airport.  All four of the campaigns can be played in single player or online.  Each campaign has a series of "levels" where the survivors have to make their way to the safe house to stock up on ammo, change out weapons, and heal up.  The final level is called the finale which often puts you in a situation where you are awaiting a rescue as hordes of infected and special infected swarm the survivors.  Nothing really compares to the excitement and the adrenaline rush as you are fighting off hundreds of zombies and the radio is telling you ETA 8 minutes until the (insert mode of transportation here) arrives!  If at least one survivor makes it out alive the credits roll and the "film" is dedicated to any lost survivors.  It show various stats and how many zombies were killed.

Two of those campaigns can be played online in the extremely entertaining versus mode, which places you in the corpse of a special infected (minus the witch).  Valve just announced a new, and free, expansion that adds a new type of game mode called Survivor and adds two more versus campaigns, along with a development kit for the developers.  Thanks Valve!

Each survivor can carry one rifle, two handguns, one explosive, one first aid pack, and one bottle of pills.

The weapons are your standard type you have with most FPS style games.  You start out with a handgun but have the opportunity to get two to hold in each hands.  The handgun also has unlimited ammo which you'll need.  You can pick up a submachine gun, machine gun, various shotguns, and a sniper rifle which have limited ammo. 

There are two types of explosives.  You have the pipe bomb which attracts the horde and will explode as they all crowd around it.  The Molotov cocktail is thrown and sets things on fire.  You can also blow up gas cans and propane tanks littered throughout the levels.

The first aid packs are used to heal yourself or your teammates.

Pills are used for a quick boost of health but you slowly lose that health over time.

The game is really about working together which is very apparent especially when you are trapped under a hunter or constricted by a smoker.  Another survivor will have to kill the infected to get you out of those situations.  They can also help you up after you reach zero health and are incapacitated.  As the survivor is incapacitated they quickly bleed out and lose health until another survivor helps them up.

The game can be played as a single player campaign but the AI is occasionally questionable.  Sometimes I think the infected are smarter than my fellow survivors.  They will occasionally stand around a hallway as you are being mauled by a hunter when all they have to do is turn the corner to save you.

The graphics are nice and you don't need a whole lot of processing power to get the game up and running.  The game does a great job of displaying what an apocalyptic area of this type should be.  It doesn't revolutionize in the graphics department but it definitely gets the job done.

The sound is great; I strongly encourage headphones to get the full effect.  The eerie sounds, from the screaming of the hunters and other infected, to the coughing and vomiting of the smoker and boomer, grabs hold and immerses the player into the environment.

This one is definitely not for the kids.  There is a lot of blood and gore and some swearing throughout.  I mean, they are fighting for their lives so I wouldn't say it isn't warranted.

The game is so much fun that we bought another copy for my wife so we can play together.  Granted I am deployed and my network connection is not the greatest but we still have a good time.  I look forward to getting online and playing more when I get home.  It's fun for the whole family!  As long as they're over 18 and enjoy killing zombies that is...