- On day one, Left 4 Dead 2 features more co-operative campaigns, more campaigns and maps for the versus game modes than the original Left 4 Dead did, plus support for Survival Mode right out of the box.
- Left 4 Dead 2 features quality co-op action gaming from the makers of Half-life, Portal, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike.
- Updated “AI Director 2.0" technology expands players’ ability to customize level layout, world objects, weather, and lighting to reflect different times of day, creating fresh gameplay every time.
- Put a whole slew of melee weapons including axes, chainsaws, frying pans and baseball bats to use which allow you to get up close with the zombies.
- The game features four different survivors, a new storyline and new dialog.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
You had me at pipe bomb…,
When Left 4 Dead 2 was announced about six months after the first game came out, a lot of people were shocked for a few reasons. It’s Valve and Valve is notorious for taking their sweet time releasing quality games, was one reason. And then there was the more important question. Was this a cash grab? Is it merely an expansion pack masquerading as a fully priced game? And now it’s released and the answer to the above questions is evident: Left 4 Dead 2 had me at “improved pipe bomb.”
But you’re not here to listen to me go on about how cool the pipe bomb is and how awesome the changed effects of zombie bodies literally exploding through the air is. At least I hope not. The fact is, after playing through Left 4 Dead 2, the original game feels more like a blueprint. Everything that was in L4D is in the sequel, but the sequel is a completely different beast. I was surprised, when we played through the opening campaign “Dead Centre” just how varied and improved the game was. You begin at the top of a hotel, bringing to mind the small apartment complex that began the first game. Except that this time, there’s a whole lot more. You see, the building is on fire, you can create backdrafts through doors, and the entire event feels more context driven than…well, than the entire first game.
Fire will cause impromptu passages, forcing you to discover different ways through the crumbling building. This means sometimes climbing out a window and balancing precariously on a ledge, moving from window to window in your escape. The intensity is further exasperated by the introduction of the special infected. Imagine playing this in Versus as a Jockey, hopping onto one of the survivors and moving them off the edges or being a Spitter and spitting the goo at just the right moment. Moving through the hotel, the fire increases and eventually, smoke will cloud your vision, creating an extremely claustrophic even where zombies charge out of the dense, dark smoke or other zombies, wearing hazmat suits, will simply rush, unharmed, through the flames at you. This diversity continues as you race through the chapters. In the first campaign alone, you will race through a burning hotel, tear through a grocery store in search for cola to bring back to a crazed, holed up hermit so he’ll destroy a barricade and eventually reach the climax where you have to locate gas cans (like in the new mode) to gas up a car to escape.
The thing is, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Later campaigns like “Dark Carnival” add a bit of whimsy as you can play some of the carnival games (kudos to Valve for bringing back the Half Life 2 gnome for an achievement), race up and down a roller coaster as zombies chase endless after you, and eventually reach the end which culminates in an inspired ending scenario that’s completely different (and a tad whimsical) than anything else in the game. This diversity only continues through the later campaigns as well, with “Hard Rain” being my absolute favorite. In “Hard Rain,” as you move through the maps, it starts raining harder and harder. It’s by far the most atmospheric and most interesting, since you eventually have to backtrack through the zones, but this time they are flooded and the weather adds a completely different challenge to the map. Additionally, unlike the first game where the campaigns all felt a bit too similar, resulting in my group relying on a couple campaigns we liked the most, each campaign offers so many differences, that I find myself wanting to replay them over and over. With five fully-developed campaigns, there’s a lot more content than in the original game. Also, if you’re feeling especially masochistic, try turning on the Realism mode which gets rid of the glowy outlines around survivors and ammo, makes infected harder to kill (headshots, please) and gets rid of the spawning closets…
And that doesn’t take into account the other features. Of course, there’s Versus and Survival Modes like in the original game, but L4D2 also throws in Scavenge. Scavenge essentially is L4D2′s version of a capture the flag mode, with the myriad of gas cans being flags. The survivors race around the map, fighting both the infected and the clock, trying to get as many gas cans to start a generator as possible. Meanwhile, the infected obviously try to stop them. What I love about Scavenge is that it’s not the time commitment that Versus is. It’s a quick best of three or five game that ratchets up the tension and can create some truly inspired situations. My only complaint about this mode is that there’s only one per campaign right now. Ditto the Survival mode which doesn’t seem to have as many maps as in the original Left 4 Dead. Hopefully Valve rectifies this with DLC.
After you get past the myriad of modes and campaigns, there’s still more tiny additions that made me smile. Guns are now strewn across the level and…
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|Everything the first l4d should’ve been.,
This game is very violent, very bloody and gory. But it’s a game where you’re killing zombies, what do you expect?
That being said, what a game, what a game. It’s all I can say about this. To sum this up, this is an over the top, intense, first person zombie shooter that’s everything that the first left 4 dead should have been.
First, the setting, stories, characters, etc.
So this time around you’re playing in a southern area, around Louisiana, Mississippi, etc. which brings with it, it’s own character. There’s a famous southern rock band, the midnight riders, for instance and in one level, the ending fight scene takes place at a concert of there’s where you can battle against zombies amidst the fireworks and light show that the stage provides. There’s also a famous race car driver, and one level you’re busy gassing up his stock car (at a car show) so you can drive it and get the heck out of there. But no, you sadly wont be doing any driving. It’s a great ending to see the car bash through a bunch of zombies however.
You get the idea..
This time around, you’re not playing 4 separate sort of “movies”. The chapters are, at least somewhat, connected. Like when you drive out from the ending of one chapter, the next chapter, the car has broken down, and now you’re on foot.
The characters, wow, what a change. Part of me misses the old l4d characters, like bill, and zoe.. but these new ones are so full of great humor and character it’s quite a tossup.
There’s Nick, who doesn’t really “belong” in the south. He’s very more of a serious, almost like a business man from the north. However, he’s actually just a gambler and a conman, oh wait, what’s the difference? I’m kidding! But seriously, he’s always making jokes about the “south”.
There’s Rochelle, who’s a news reporter, she’s kind of an in between character, not too funny, not too serious imo.
Then there’s Ellis and Coach. Ellis is a mechanic, and coach is well, a coach. They’re always full of jokes and wisecracks and can really bring a laugh, or at least a chuckle around every now and then.
Ok so enough about that, lets get down to the nitty gritty.
This game is extremely over the top and I mean that, whole heartily. But it fits well here and provides a new layer to the l4d world. For instance, there’s new melee weapons, there’s normal things like you would expect. Like an axe, a sword, a baseball bat, a chainsaw… But there’s also others like a guitar, or a….. frying pan and I must say, there’s something oddly funny about smashing a zombie over the head with a frying pan and hearing that comical clang afterwards. With all the melee weapons, they’re basically 1 hit kills to the normal zombies and will usually involve some sort of dismemberment. Even if you’re using a guitar, if you hit a zombie at the head, it’s gonna fly. However, you have to be careful as it’s extremely easy to damage friends nearby with these.
Speaking about that, you can take a whole new world of hurt to the zombies. There’s a new system in place that allows you to… well, lets put it this way.. if you shoot a zombie in the back, part of his back goes missing. You can blow off a part of the zombies head, if you slice with an axe or sword you can leave some nasty gashes in the torso. You can literally blow a zombie to bits, like with the grenade launcher and pipebomb. Sometimes after the explosion if you take the time to look you’ll see bits of arms, legs, some intestines, whatever. It’s pretty violent, pretty brutal, pretty fun. If this was happening in another game, and you weren’t killing zombies… There’d probably be a ton of people freaking out. It’d be like an extremely violent game, even more so than the soldier of fortune games… But since you’re killing zombies, it’s actually quite fun.
Also, to quote game informer, “At one point an explosion propelled a zombie over m head with its intestines trailing behind it like a party streamer.” oh and if you attack zombies with melee weapons blood splashes up on your screen, it’s a neat effect and doesn’t really get in the way.
The melee weapons takes place of your secondary weapon, so you can still keep your primary firearm, whatever it may be. There’s plenty of new ones this time around as well.
The guns this time around are much more real. It seems as though they took their time modeling and animating these guns to their real life counterparts. There’s an ak47, something that resembles a scar, you’ve got a much more modernized semi-automatic rifle equipped with sights for some nice sniping action, there’s m16′s, there’s shotguns, uzi’s, tmp’s, grenade launchers, etc. Whatever you pick, you’re probably going to like it. It just FEELS right, it feels like a gun in the game, not a toy.
There’s also “laser sights” you…
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|A good game, but less spooky than L4D 1,
The game is a blast to play, but it doesn’t creep me out like the original. Nothing seems scary. It’s more of an action game than a horror/shooter. It’s a good action game, but some of the magic is gone.
Please, Valve, bring back the spooky.
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