Harmony In Extremis

Like every game or televised program, there is a musical score to go along with it.  The music, or soundtrack, is an essential part of games and movies.  Sound and music are a huge part of what makes the certain piece of entertainment you are playing / viewing complete, especially when it comes to the horror genre.  Other than L4D, the two biggest games that I can think of as examples for this are Silent Hill and Resident Evil.  I have played Silent Hill 2 with and without sound and it is terrifying with sound, but when it's off the game suddenly become a whole lot less creepy, same with Resident Evil 4.  Anyways, Left 4 Dead's soundtrack is all composed by Mike Morasky.  The way that the sound and music is directed in Left 4 Dead is the same as I just explained for Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 4.  The structure style of the songs and how they're used are similar to that of a movie - certain cues will often be repeated throughout the soundtracks, like a recognizable theme for the game.  Various songs will play when something happens to your character or when you reach a certain point in a level.  Here is a link I found to all of the songs in the game (through youtube):  http://left4dead.wikia.com/wiki/Left_4_Dead_Soundtrack

Fear



Can I has your soul nao?




     Why do people like Left 4 Dead so much?  Is it because of the non-stop action?  Is it because of the dark and fearful atmospheres the game puts you in? Or is it because of the zombie society which has grown within our current culture?  For me, Left 4 Dead is an amazing game because of a mixture of all these things.  I am always satisfied with a good action-filled or horrific game, and this seems to cover both of those topics very well.  The game always keeps you on the edge of your seat and puts you in good, dark environments while you get to unload an army of bullets to save you and your partners from the wrath of the undead.  I have been a zombie and horror fan for a while now, but not until recently have I been a big fan of the genres.  Therefore, this game is a satisfactory means for escaping from the real world to kick some undead ass.

     Anyways, the point of this blog post is to discuss what fear is and how our society is fascinated with horror, violence, and the undead.  The topic of zombies has been around for a long time, especially within recent culture, particularly because of George A. Romero's 1968 release of Night of the Living Dead.  Ever since then zombies and the undead have been a part of our society.  Earlier on, during the 20th century, zombies were widely known to spawn through black magic of various sorts because that was what the society had feared at the time.  If you notice, currently all zombie storylines involve them coming through viruses and blood transfusion, which is what we as a society now have been currently fearing (ie. swine flu, anthrax, mad cow, to quickly name a few).  The original Resident Evil game was highly influenced by the 1990's gas attack/scare in Japan and it became a major element in the game because it was what the Japanese society was dealing with at the time and it made the game more relatable, and ultimately more terrifying.

     Left 4 Dead is a prime example of the current societal scare.  The game takes place because of the outbreak of the "Green Flu" virus, which is highly contageous and causes a lack of higher brain functions.  If the viewpoint for the game was made through the earlier 20th century's perspective, then it would be sort of like: A witch who was sentenced to die but escaped has a vengence upon the world so she takes her magic, potions, or whatever and summons the undead to attack all who live...or something like that.  Left 4 Dead is a great example of how current scares influence what we see on our television screens.  It also has fun with the violence factor, which society has always loved since the beginning of time.  All in all, this game did a great job with what the modern society would want within an action-packed zombie horror-survival game.

Wicked Cinema

As I stated in my last post, Valve Corporation was largly inspired by all kinds of horror films.  One of the biggest goals for the art direction of this video game was to make it seem like the player is right in the middle of a horror flick.  This meant that they had to make the various environments around the game in a specific "filmic" way.  The art direction used five specific ways of creating this atmosphere: color, correction, film grain, vignette, and local contrast.  Some examples of what they did include:
For the color, they simply dimmed down certain spots in the game's environment while they enhanced the color on specific items to catch the player's attention (health, blood, exits).  While working with the film grain effect during the cinematic parts of the game, Valve realized that the effect added both a heightened sense of feeling/authenticity, but if used too much the players (at least game testers) got tired of it fast.  Therefore, Valve evened this situation out and let the darker parts get grainy, but the lighter the screen got, the less grain appeared.  Altogether, Valve wanted the player to have a "visually unique experience" every time they play, based upon their performance.  Blending all of the effects together in the end made the game look a lot more realistic and cinematic for the user's enjoyment. 

A Hellish Development

Left 4 Dead was an improvement upon Valve's Source engine (a 3D game engine which they developed) and allowed them to work on many different things, such as the physics-based animation.  This allowed them to use a more realistic portrayal on characters' hair and clothing and let them improve upon the physics interaction with enemies.  This also allowed the characters to move more realistically.  Because of these improvements, the game was able to run smooth as all of the zombies continued to keep coming.  Valve also used some sort of advanced shadow rendering as well for the lighting aspects of the game.  Horror films were a big inspiration for Left 4 Dead too, and a lot of the time you can see how they affected how it added to the cinematic parts of the game.


During the testing and development of Left 4 Dead, there were lots of features that were removed from the game, like various types of zombies.  Because the game is meant for its replayability and fast action, Valve decided to take away the long introduction and many of the cut scenes and replaced them with some narratives so that the players would have more time to focus on the gameplay itself. 

First Blog - Left 4 Dread

For my video games & culture class at Hartwick College, I have chosen to research the action-packed, horror survival game series Left 4 Dead.  It takes place in Pennsylvania, where a virus has hit, called the "Green Flu," which causes a loss of brain functions and extreme aggression. This game is a fast paced zombie shooter that will never fail to keep you on the edge of your seat.  Throughout this class, I will be blogging much information about all aspects of this series.