It’s been almost a full week since the release of the Survival Pack for Left 4 Dead. Sadly, I’ve been busy most of the week because of work. Between that, and the fact that I’ve been having so much fun with Demigod, it took me a while to be able to sit down and try out the new survival mode for Valve’s most recent co-op shooter. Let’s cover what we all already know: the game has no storyline; it doesn’t need one. “Here come some zombies, burn, shoot, or blow them up” is the best you’re going to get from Survival mode.

Before the survival pack launched, I already had a basic idea of what it was going to be like. I knew it was going to be like those finale events where you have hundreds of zombies coming at you, and a few tanks. What I experienced, though, completely blew me away. There’s one thing for granted in survival mode: you’re never going to win. There’s no way to beat it. The best you can do is hold the world record for most survived time, but you still die at some point. Rescue is never coming, and you have to try to take down as many of those zombie bastards as you possibly can.

You start off each game in one of the many event points in the campaigns. If you’ve played the game, then you probably know where those are already, so there’s no point in covering them. You’ll have the best weapons available, an extra pistol, a health pack on you, and more on the ground, and pills and grenades all over the place. At this point is when you have to work out a strategy for survival. You won’t be fighting zombies until you start the event. Make sure you and your friends have a grenade combination that will serve you well. Pipe bombs are best saved for last, in my opinion. When you’re fighting a dozen special infected and you have a horde coming at you, the best way to survive is to get rid of the common infected so you can pick out the specials. Also, since there seems to be a large amount of pills, you’re probably better off pill-popping than using your first aid kit(you probably won’t get enough time to use first aid kits, anyway.)

Survival mode is very fast-paced. If someone gets incapacitated, you better get that person up quick. Otherwise, you can consider them gone. The zombies hit you as if it was on normal difficulty, so they don’t really do a lot of damage. However, the game gets progressively harder the more time you spend alive. The first time you face a tank, for example, you’ll probably face it alone, or with an incoming horde after about 20 seconds(plenty of time to kill it). By the second time, though, you’ll be fighting the tank with about 5 special infected near you, and an incoming horde. Well, you get the picture. The more time you spend alive, the more tanks, special infected, and hordes the game will throw at you. There’s a few new achievements you’re able to get, as well. I only have Bronze Mettle and Last Stand, so far, because I suck.

Lastly, the Survival Pack introduced a new level: The Lighthouse. I am not sure if this will be a full campaign, or not, as I haven’t looked into it that much(not enough time, sadly). However, the survival event in there is very fun. You start off with a dozen gas cans and propane tanks, there’s grenades and pills all over the damn place. Oh, this may have been added in a previous patch(in fact, I’m sure it was), but I’ve only had a chance to play the game this weekend. There’s now a “cooldown” on melee attacks. After doing a few melee attacks, you’ll start to get tired, and you’ll have to wait before hitting another melee attack. Infected players everywhere, rejoice!

That’s pretty much it for survival mode. If anyone wants to help me complete the achievements, you know where to find me!