When Valve announced that they would be releasing a sequel to their smash hit Left 4 Dead so rapidly after the original, many were skeptical. Some took it as a sign of the end times and boycotted Valve’s decision to “screw over” the folk who had just purchased the first. Others saw it as a great boon to the community to receive a second entry in the franchise with such haste. With the sequel’s recent release, we can finally see if it was worth all of the fuss.
Left 4 Dead 2 takes so much of what was great about the first title and galvanizes it with some sturdy new elements. As before, we are following the exploits of four survivors of the sweeping zombie infection of the United States. The game takes place in and around New Orleans and features a high school football coach, a cynical riverboat gambler type, another nondescript female, and an unlikely storyteller. Each chapter this time tells a linear tale, starting with our survivors being stranded at an evacuation point atop a hotel, ending with their eventual dust-off on the other side of town, and including everything in between.
The level design has been improved greatly between the two titles. Whereas many of the stages from the first game felt like mundane treks through various generic cityscapes and sewer lines, each level in L4D2 contains something unique to set it apart from the others. The first stage sends the survivors down from the roof of a burning high-rise hotel into a zombie-filled mall. After that, the survivors find themselves fighting clown zombies in an amusement park, crazed zombie yokels in the bayou, and escaping through downtown New Orleans.
Various environmental effects add to the terror in this title. While wading waist-deep in a swamp or river, survivors are slowed greatly. This causes the players to seek out higher ground throughout the chaos. One level finds the players traveling through a suburban neighborhood to retrieve gasoline cans from a sugar mill, only to have the area completely transformed on their return trip by a blinding rain storm and flash flood. As if the onslaught of undead weren’t enough to put you on your nerves, gamers are now forced to acknowledge the environment in a big way.
Another addition to the mix is uncommon infected. These zombies don’t command the great powers that the special infected do, but still have something to set them apart from the rest of the horde. The best example is the clown zombie of the amusement park episode. Amongst the common infected of the Dark Carnival are zombies which will, when alerted, squeak their shoes and attract even more flesh-eaters to the cabal. It becomes clear that many of these uncommon infected become priority considering their unique and sometimes inconvenient effects.
New special infected have been included as well. The Jockey will leap onto the shoulders of a survivor and yank them away from the group, pulling them into dangerous situations, out of sight from the rest of the group, or even pulling them off of ledges. The Spitter can lay down a patch of bubbling acid that causes severe damage to those that stay in it too long, especially devastating against survivors who are already incapacitated or pinned down by another infected. Last but not least are the Chargers. As implied by the name, a Charger will barrel down on a group of survivors, scattering everyone in its path and slam one unlucky soul into the ground repeatedly until it is stopped.
A new gametype has been added for multiplayer entitled Scavenge. Similar to versus mode, teams in scavenge must take turns as zombies and survivors to either collect gas cans within a time limit or stop the opposing team from collecting them. Various techniques can be employed by both sides to achieve an end, and the action is made even more frantic by the stationary nature of the matches. At any given time, the special infected know exactly where the survivors are located.
Finally, the arsenal has been greatly improved this time around. There are now multiple types of shotguns, automatic weapons, and rifles to keep one’s ranged experience varied and intriguing. Melee weapons have also been introduced and can be used to replace the pistol as one’s sidearm. Magnums have even been included as a more powerful sidearm alternative to the original 15 round peashooter. Couple these powerful new weapons with much gorier zombie death animations, and the player is immediately and completely immersed in a visceral adrenaline-fueled undead bloodbath.
Due to the short wait between the two titles, I suspect that many expected there wouldn’t be as much new content added in such little time. In some ways, this is correct. The basic mechanics and elements of game play have been essentially kept intact, but for a title that got so much right the first time around, this is a good thing. The handful of new characters, weapons, and game mechanics that have been included act as a catalyst however, filling in the holes of the first game and providing a complete package that excels at bringing random strangers together to cooperate under threat of extinction.
Final Verdict – 10/10
Worth releasing this soon, no reason to keep this masterpiece from the fans. Valve knows how to make a good game. I played on the 360 version and have completed all 5 campaigns with various random XBox Live gamers.
