"Left 4 Dead"

Reviewed for: Xbox 360

Also available for: PC

From: Valve

ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, intense violence, language)

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The honeymoon between gaming and zombie apocalypses is borderline ridiculous right now, with zombies making cameos in everything from "World of Warcraft" to "Grand Theft Auto" to "Call of Duty."

But while those franchises simply toss out a zombified mode and fight for position on the bed of the bandwagon, Valve heads straight for the driver's seat and emerges with the best zombie apocalypse simulator in all of gaming.

To fully get "Left 4 Dead," though, you must first understand its methods, which run fairly counter to convention. There isn't, for instance, a single story mode, but instead four small "campaigns" that might take an hour or so each to complete. That sounds a bit threadbare until you realize the game never populates its campaigns the same way twice, randomizing zombie placement every time you play to keep you on your toes.

"L4D" gets away with this for precisely one, somewhat ironic reason: brilliant zombie artificial intelligence. The game trots out the same breeds of undead over and over, but individual zombies act as individuals _ sometimes cowering in corners, sometimes minding their own business, sometimes coming straight at you or even inflicting harm on one another.

The bevy of tactics means different parts of the same campaign will have you acting proactively and reactively _ able to formulate strategies in some areas while forced to run for your life or just unload lead in others. Because you never know precisely what the game has waiting for you, every trip through a campaign feels different. And because "L4D" shares other Valve games' rabid appetite for physics, even individual zombie encounters will trigger wildly different results.

All that said, if you plan to maximize your "L4D" experience, you best not come alone. In another bucking of convention, "L4D's" single-player offering appears at the bottom of the main menu, with co-op (two players offline, four online) and competitive (two offline, eight online) taking precedence.

While playing through the campaigns alone is fun - "L4D" outfits you with three very capable A.I. teammates - it's considerably more exciting to team up with human players. "L4D" not only emphasizes the importance of teamwork when zombies are descending from all 360 degrees, but actually makes it fun to watch each other's back. Human teammates are prone to fallacies A.I. teammates can avoid, and that alone adds considerably to the excitement of whatever unknown danger lies ahead - or behind.

As for the competitive mode? You get to play as the zombies. No more need be said.