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Left 4 Dead - No Mercy
When the world becomes infected, its up to four survivors to get to the refugee centre. But what's watching them in the shadow's.
21 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 6, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 13, 2014
For those who don't know me, I'm an avid video gamer. Many times over the years, I've picked up a controller and become immersed in a video game. When I saw this book, based on Valve's popular Left 4 Dead series, I was intrigued. Left 4 Dead is one of my favourite games. The problem is this: I don't remember Valve optioning the rights to a book adaptation. Thus I picked it up and gave it a read.
It was okay. There were flaws but it was enjoyable (more later).
First of all, this is not an adaptation but more fan fiction. The description is basic and lacking. It reads like a film script with instructions, the characters having little to do except move from one location to the other, avoiding enemies and obstacles. It seems more like a walk in the park than azombie apocalypse story. Left 4 Dead is a tense, frightening and unpredictable FPS game, which pioneered the 'undead' genre on Xbox 360. This book doesn't retain any of that, ignoring the pivotal tropes of the game for a standard story. This, for video game fans like myself, is a no no.
For example, the Infected (not zombies as indicated by my strikeout above) are fast, relentless, and vicious. They run and don't stop or give up, sometimes solo or sometimes in vast numbers. Although this is touched on in the book, you never really feel like they're a threat. Likewise with the Special Infected - Hunter, Boomer, Smoker, The Tank and, my favourite, The Witch - whose presence in the game is always the difference between life and death, most times in a heartbeat. If one of these gets you, you're going to have a bad time...but this doesn't become apparent...which is a shame, this could have created some phenomenal scares.
The biggest flaw is the characters. Francis, Bill, Louis and Zoey are unique in their own ways. Despite being an 'undead' game, their characters are immersive and paramount to the plot. Should they die, you care. Without them, there's no Left 4 Dead. In the book, they're mere cyphers; the story placed on their tired backs which make them more talking heads than relatable humans in a shit-storm of a epidemic. By the end of the book, you don't really care if they live or die, which removes the reader from the narrative.
On the plus side, I enjoyed the book. I've played the game, I could imagine every second of the story. If the author mentioned a certain room, I saw it in my minds eye. A certain scenario, I knew what it was. And even though the attacks of the enemies didn't draw enough tension, I remembered playing the game and what they could do to your character. For me, the book wasn't a wasted experience. For people who've never played Left 4 Dead; I can imagine this being a different story altogether. I didn't need description to tell the tale...but then I've seen it all before.
3* - Worth a read if you've played the games. If not, you might find this hard going. I commend the author for writing about No Mercy, a riveting campaign in the game, but if he'd added some description, detail and created some tension, and got the book edited, this could've been an excellent homage to the game itself. A shame since the source material was so unique and terrifying.
It was okay. There were flaws but it was enjoyable (more later).
First of all, this is not an adaptation but more fan fiction. The description is basic and lacking. It reads like a film script with instructions, the characters having little to do except move from one location to the other, avoiding enemies and obstacles. It seems more like a walk in the park than a
For example, the Infected (not zombies as indicated by my strikeout above) are fast, relentless, and vicious. They run and don't stop or give up, sometimes solo or sometimes in vast numbers. Although this is touched on in the book, you never really feel like they're a threat. Likewise with the Special Infected - Hunter, Boomer, Smoker, The Tank and, my favourite, The Witch - whose presence in the game is always the difference between life and death, most times in a heartbeat. If one of these gets you, you're going to have a bad time...but this doesn't become apparent...which is a shame, this could have created some phenomenal scares.
The biggest flaw is the characters. Francis, Bill, Louis and Zoey are unique in their own ways. Despite being an 'undead' game, their characters are immersive and paramount to the plot. Should they die, you care. Without them, there's no Left 4 Dead. In the book, they're mere cyphers; the story placed on their tired backs which make them more talking heads than relatable humans in a shit-storm of a epidemic. By the end of the book, you don't really care if they live or die, which removes the reader from the narrative.
On the plus side, I enjoyed the book. I've played the game, I could imagine every second of the story. If the author mentioned a certain room, I saw it in my minds eye. A certain scenario, I knew what it was. And even though the attacks of the enemies didn't draw enough tension, I remembered playing the game and what they could do to your character. For me, the book wasn't a wasted experience. For people who've never played Left 4 Dead; I can imagine this being a different story altogether. I didn't need description to tell the tale...but then I've seen it all before.
3* - Worth a read if you've played the games. If not, you might find this hard going. I commend the author for writing about No Mercy, a riveting campaign in the game, but if he'd added some description, detail and created some tension, and got the book edited, this could've been an excellent homage to the game itself. A shame since the source material was so unique and terrifying.
April 24, 2014
"Its just a flu, there is nothing to worry about..." thats what the government and CEDA always said before the infection spread out, in the beginning there were only 2 infected people but it rapidly moved its way up to the hundreds of thousands of people that are infected to this day.....maybe even more. But in between all of the infected lifeless beings that now roam the earth, there are survivors, William 'Bill' Overbeck, the vietnam army veteran, Zoey, the young independent one, Louis, the typical business man and Francis, the heavy metal biker. The Survivors are people in the world who either have not yet contracted the Infection (by virtue of natural immunity) or are carriers of the disease but who display none of its symptoms―and who may falsely believe themselves to be immune. Although the characters are "immune", a comment by Bill suggests that they could become an Infected at any point.
This comic is one of the 6 in the Left 4 Dead series which covers the survivors adventures while trying to reach a "safe zone" created by the government agency CEDA (Civil Emergency and Defense Agency) to try and prevent the infection from spreading and also give any remaining survivors a place to stay while a cure is found. This comic series is very well made in both story line and illustrations overall, if your looking for a good action adventure thrill ride, then this is the story for you. Definitely recommend it to everyone!
This comic is one of the 6 in the Left 4 Dead series which covers the survivors adventures while trying to reach a "safe zone" created by the government agency CEDA (Civil Emergency and Defense Agency) to try and prevent the infection from spreading and also give any remaining survivors a place to stay while a cure is found. This comic series is very well made in both story line and illustrations overall, if your looking for a good action adventure thrill ride, then this is the story for you. Definitely recommend it to everyone!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews