Here you can see Valve’s Gabe Newell and some others playing through the first 12 minutes or so of the upcoming horror FPS Left 4 Dead. Among the highlights are Gabe extolling the benefits of pretending you’re a girl in online games, and the poor sap in the first person view not knowing where the “plus use” key is.

Fast, ferocious, and unrelenting, Left 4 Dead has the feel of an arcade game, pitting you and some friends against a seemingly unstoppable zombie army. The flow of gameplay is a bit like a simplified Half Life, in that between scripted combat events you can find safe-houses with weapons, ammo, and health.

While it looks like fun, so far it seems to lack depth: I didn’t see any puzzles or any tasks that really needed the co-operation of the teammates besides combat situations. I also thought the darkness was excessive and the combat scenarios were a bit repetetive. But then again this is just an early part of the game, and I assume things become more complex from here and more enemy types are introduced. Either way I’m curious to see how it turns out.

Make the cut (I’m coining this phrase because I’m sick of “hit the jump”) to see the second half.

[videogaming247]