PixelVixen707

If you’ve ever skidded near the hardcore scene, you’ve probably met the ringleaders who keep the whole thing together - the tattooed, self-made intellectuals who can keep a scene together, bring the bands to town and line up the venue, the couches and the eggs the next morning, and read and actually get all the existentialist philosophers. Sharp, articulate, organized, and yet unwilling to turn their talents to running a bank or holding elective office, these are the people who put the “DI” in “DIY.” They’re the secret behind punk scenes that are as healthy as they are unhealthy. Because these same guys and girls will get in a mosh-pit and tear it up, Docs knocking and blood pouring and fists flailing until they get out and talk to you about when they quit drinking and turned on to Earth Crisis. All night.

I’ve known and respected enough brainy punks to recognize the same type in Left 4 Dead. I spent last night playing mostly with strangers. I met a lot of people, all guys, and all surprisingly nice. Let me preface this by stating that I was wary of trying the game on the XBox. Remember all those stories on the blogosphere about how the election of Obama had failed to reform the racist, immature underbelly of XBox live gaming? Who doesn’t throw around the stereotype of the masturbating 13-year-old spewing filth while he assassinates you for the twelfth time on Halo?

I’m sure those kids are out there in the Left 4 Dead space, but I didn’t meet them. Left 4 Dead seems to attract a better crowd, for a couple reasons: it takes time to finish a campaign, and it takes teamwork. I wondered going in if Valve had structured an elaborate rewards system to make the survivors work together, when realistically, anyone can just screw up and open fire on their teammates and be as much of a pain in the ass as they wish. But it doesn’t happen. Everyone who wants to finish a campaign knows they have to work together. It takes four to survive the rescue attempts, four to safely bring down a tank. Players swapped pain pills and stepped up to heal me or accept my healing with even needing a “thank you.” It just went unsaid.

But the other reason this feels more niche than Halo: the game has an extremely edgy vibe. I don’t mean the horror elements, which are just backdrops. (It’s no Ravenholm.) Yes, the game has scares, but it’s better to call them shocks. Surges of zombies come randomly and without warning, and a full session leaves you with jitters like three cups of cheap coffee. The game feels like a moshpit, and the kicking and flailing happen capriciously. In fact, I suspect many people will get sick of it almost immediately, and jump back to some metalhead shit like Gears of War 2.

Each campaign is structured like a movie, with a series of scenes and a big finish. But in every session I jumped into - and remember, this was launch day - at least one player had already memorized the map, and cued us in on the surprises. Someone should coin a term for this phenomenon, where a dramatic narrative is reduced to a mere sequence of events; I’ve seen other critics compare this to the raids in World of Warcraft, and they’re dead on. Except Warcraft raids end with loot, and Left 4 Dead doesn’t have that. Your reward comes when you beat it together.

On one spin through the “Death Toll” campaign, we made it to the boathouse rescue. Our band of survivors placed ourselves around the upper balcony to ward off the zombies. We fought back the first wave, and the tank, and finally the rescue boat showed up. But on the way to the boat I turned around - actually I think to help another player, who had gotten roped by a smoker. That’s when the horde hit. Zombies piled on, kicking and screaming while bile soaked my eyes and my limbs were pinned. I kept firing from the ground, firing and firing until I died. The other two got away.

“I feel like we lost!” someone said over the mic. I consoled him: two of us got away. I’m a noob here. We did pretty good. But he said it again: “I feel like we lost.” And he was right.