Left 4 Dead remains the high watermark for co-op shooters. Atmospheric, varied, and able to encourage teamwork without clunky or intrusive extra mechanics, it’s testament to the very best of Valve’s game design principles. Both L4D and Left 4 Dead 2 succeed at subtly, almost invisibly making you want to work together. It’s not about combining skills, abilities, and unique moves – you want to help each other because you love the characters, and because the drama and presentation are so intense, you get an intrinsic need to escape and survive. Now, 15 years later, Chet Faliszek, one of the co-creators of Left 4 Dead, as well as Portal 2, the Half-Life 2 episodes, and CSGO, returns with independent studio Stray Bombay and a new co-operative FPS. This is The Anacrusis.
In some senses, The Anacrusis is similar to Left 4 Dead. At its core, this is a four-player co-op FPS game where you survive against increasingly challenging and varied enemies while trying to navigate to the end of each level. Like the L4D director AI, there is even an AI ‘driver’ that influences and alters the pace and substance of each round depending on your performance, among other factors. If you’ve been waiting since 2009 and the launch of Left 4 Dead 2 for another superlative team-driven shooter, The Anacrusis is definitely for you.
On the other hand, Faliszek and Stray Bombay have worked hard to give The Anacrusis its own style and identity. Compared to the bleak, apocalyptic world of Left 4 Dead, this is a vibrant, ‘70s retro-future with a huge variety of weapons and plenty of color.
It also pushes some of the other, most-loved aspects of Left 4 Dead. Mod support is a huge part of The Anacrusis, as is the four versus four PvP mode, whereby one team plays as the survivors, while the other tries to stop them as the aliens. Already rated ‘mostly positive’ on Steam after its early access period, the full version of The Anacrusis is available today.
You might want to grab some of the other best co-op games, or maybe the best multiplayer games available right now on PC.
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