HAVE YOU BEEN READING LEFT 4 DEAD'S AWESOME COMIC?

 
Valve has always been great about supplying their fans with all kinds of goodies from their properties, whether it be real-life Companion cubes from Portal or headcrab hats from Half-Life. But they’re even more well known for the way they try to expand their worlds, like the incredible character trailers for Team Fortress 2. It’s always great to see a company try and expand a world they’ve created, but it’s something else when they do it for free.

Which is why it should be no surprise that their online comic for Left 4 Dead is absolutely fantastic. While the game itself managed to make us feel like we grew to know these characters just by the way they reacted to situations, here we’ve finally got a bit of backstory to how they got there. They’re releasing these bad boys once a Tuesday in anticipation of their upcoming DLC pack. The second comic was just released, check them both out ASAP if you haven’t yet.

If the art looks familiar, it’s because it was done by Mike Oeming, which reminds me that I’ve only read the first hardcover of Powers and should catch up.

As I said before, these comics are leading us towards the new DLC entitled The Sacrifice, which will be the flipside of the last pack, The Passing. In it, you’ll once again control the original quartet and see what they were up to while our four new heroes were trying to escpae. It will be playable on both Left 4
Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, although you can only use the new weapons in the sequel.

 
The title makes more sense if you have read the comic or played Left 4 Dead 2. See, at a certain point in that game you run across the survivors from the original game, and find out that one hasn’t made it. The DLC will allow you to be the one that sacrifices himself or herself (it can be anyone) in order for your friends to escape. Another big bonus for Left 4 Dead 2 players is that the DLC will also include an updated version of No Mercy, the first hospital campaign from the first Left 4 Dead.

Hope you’re looking forward to getting some more games in as I am. There are few co-op games that can top Left 4 Dead and while it’s still annoying to have to pay for the 360 content when PC gamers get it free, it’s the kind of game that could be expanded indefinitely.