Parents' Guide to Popular Games in Singapore
Game: Left 4 Dead
Platform: PC/Xbox360
Game Genre: FPS
ESRB Rating: Mature (Intense Violence, Blood and Gore and Language)
MDA Rating: Age Advisory
GENERAL GAMEPLAY
Left 4 Dead is a first person shooter (FPS) game, where players take control of one
of 4 surviving characters. Game objective is to get out of the zombie-infested city
before and not get killed. Beyond the usual FPS gameplay, L4D features strong cooperative
play among online players. One often has to help save or heal teammates who are down on the
ground, before they are mauled to death by zombies. A player may also play as a zombie and
start hunting down the survivors in an online or LAN setting.
THINGS PARENTS SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR
- Graphic Violence ()
L4D carries realistic and extreme violence (blood, gore and scary sound effects),
definitely not suitable for the young. While shooting at zombies would blow their limbs
away, killing humans will play out very violent scenes too close to real life possibilities.
- Profanity ()
Profanities such as s**t and g*d**n are already programmed into the game. Yet the
strongest language often comes from other human players immersing in highly aggressive gameplay.
It is almost a given that anyone playing this game will be exposed to high levels of vulgarities.
WAYS IN WHICH THIS MAY WORK FOR GOOD
- Development of coordination and perceptual skills ()
A first person shooter game requires significant hand-eye coordination and quick
processing of perceptual information presented in the game. This is can be helpful to
develop other physical real-life skills. (However, it should be noted that such skills
can also be obtained through other games that are non-violent in nature.)
- Teamwork ()
The cooperative game play requires a substantial amount of teamwork between the human
players (up to 4) in order to complete the missions. Such "structured experiences" may
present considerable merits for teambuilding.
WHAT SOME PARENTS SAY ABOUT THE GAME
My son (10) and I play this together. He is not afraid - no nightmares. This game
stresses the importance of teamwork - live together/die alone. It's a great game that has a
high replay value due to the fact that the zombies spawn in different places, so it is a
different game each time - especially with the live online play where you can play not only a
survivor, but also one of the zombies. Highly recommended if you are into survivor first person
shooters. I wouldn't recommend it for all kids my son's age, but he's very practical and not
easily frightened. You need to know your kid.
Back
If you would like to comment about this review, please click here.
|
|
