Several news sites have previews up today of Valve’s upcoming co-op shooter Left 4 Dead.

A lot of it is a retread of stuff that’s been covered in earlier press events, but take a look at this mini-interview here. (First spotted at Destructoid.)

The part I want to highlight here is the AI director, which controls the tempo of the game to give it spikes of excitement mixed with peaceful spots. The part I didn’t know before is that the director even controls things like ambient music, lighting and special effects like film grain to make the game more cinematic depending on what’s happening to the players.

Contrast this with the much-vaunted Metal Gear Solid games. Director Hideo Kojima clearly loves Hollywood movies, and as such, embeds long non-interactive cutscenes in the franchise. They’re good scenes, don’t get me wrong, but they’re a stark contrast to the “game” part of the game. It’s jamming one medium into another, like tangerines suspended in jello.

Between the two, I much prefer the approach Valve is taking with Left 4 Dead. They’re playing to the strengths of the medium, things like interactivity and multiplayer cooperation, to build and expand on a movie-like experience rather than wresting control from the player to deliver reams and reams of exposition as Hideo Kojima games do.

(Plus the actual stories in the Metal Gear Solids are about on par with the kind of overwrought, groan-inducing sorta-seems-deep-if-you’re-13-and-haven’t-read-many-books anime that became popular after Neon Genesis Evangelion, but that’s a snark for another time.)

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