Left 4 Dead 2

[Aleister Black]

Today I bring to you a review of:







Let's start with sketching the situation for those completely unfamiliar with the game: humanity's been hit by some kind of virus (swine flu?! ) that turns us into infected. Infected is just a fancy word for zombies, because that's what they are; fast, bloodthirsty zombies.

In the midst of all this, a small group of survivors make their way from safehouse to safehouse to try and get to a more permanent kind of safety... if there is any.


The Cast



We play an entirely different cast from the first game. From left to right, you can play as:

Ellis, a Georgian (I think) guy who sports a pretty thick southern accent.
Coach, a big guy who, in all probability, used to be a coach before his team turned into zombies.
Rochelle, a young woman who, judging by her shirt, is into Depeche Mode.
Nick, a smartly-dressed guy (nothing beats a white suit in a zombie apocalypse!) who probably used to own some kind of gambling centre. Just guessing though.


The environment you find yourself in has also changed drastically. In contrast to the first game, you find yourself in the southern states, trying to get to... New Orleans I think. The greatest change by far, though, is the fact that some levels are now also played during the day.



Gameplay

I must say that, despite my original reservations when I first heard they were working on L4D2 (so soon after the first game), I'm really impressed with all the new things they added to the game. There's a few really inventive things that change the way you have to play the game. Among these changes are new Special Infected (infected who are stronger than regular infected and also have some kind of destructive power), but also weather types, new weapons and other equipment, new kinds of missions, melee weapons and more. Let's take a look at these changes more closely.


New Special Infected

Next to the already existing Boomer (fat guy who vomits stuff that attracts infected and incidentally also limits your vision) , Hunter (flexible dude who jumps far and high and can pounce people), Smoker (tall bloke with a rather long tongue), Witch (sad girl who sits and cries and claws your guts out) and the Tank (big, BIG geezer who punches and throws big things), we can now also enjoy the effects of a few new infected:

The Charger is a big guy who looks as if he changed his mind halfway through becoming a tank. The result is an infected who has one very big arm and likes to run into people, drag them a mile away while scattering other and then punch them into the ground.


The spitter is a rather repulsive chick who vomits green stuff that you don't want to touch, as it burns and hurts you.


The Jockey is a tiny fellow who jumps on your head and does something remarkably like the 'peek-a-boo'-game, covering your eyes and steering you into dangerous things (like fires, Spitter acid or ravines).


These new infected, added to the original few, make an end to closet camping and corner campaing. You don't want to stay anywhere near Spitter acid for very long, and Chargers just charge into you and scatter you overywhere. These new infected really require some adaptation in your playstyle. Also, some witches move around now, which can be really annoying and tense to say the least.


Weather and Environment

I have to say that the weather effects and such make the campaigns really interesting. Sometimes you find yourself in situations where you view distance is not much more than some 10 feet, due to a heavy storm, or smoke from a fire. These moment can be really tense since you can't see any infected until they're really close. It's also really atmospheric, adding a lot more to the atmosphere of the game than L4D1 ever did.


Weapons and Equipment

I won't list all the new weapons here, suffice to say that there's now much more choice, including melee weapons. Melee weapons take the place of your pistol (although you still have your pistol when you're incapacitated) and they can be pretty cool. Swinging a katana or an axe right into a clump of infected feels oddly satisfying. There are also weapons upgrades, like laser sights (improve your accuracy), explosive ammo and incendiary ammo. These last two last for the duration of one clip of your weapon and can really help out when you're being swarmed. I must also not forget to mention the chainsaw. Badassness couldn't be more badass.

Also, there's now adrenaline shots (work like pills, but instead of giving you more health they make you able to run through crowds of infected faster and perform other actions faster as well) and chest paddles (allows you to revive a fallen teammate even after he 'died', without the use of a so-called hero closet.


Missions

Although many of the missions are still of the 'get from A to B' variety, there have been a few very nice added things that make it a lot more interesting. In addition to the events where you get swarmed by one horde until it's finished, you also get events where you have to fight your way through an endlessly spawning horde that will only stop when you reach a certain point, which is always further away than you'd like. These force you to get a move on instead of camping somewhere and hope it'll all be over soon. Some nice inventive mini-missions give some flavour to the game that keeps it interesting for a little longer.



Game

The game itself is good old-fashioned fun, like the first was but maybe even better. One might argue that this is the game that L4D1 should have been, but I don't know whether that is the case. This does feel like the true sequel to the original, and feels like more than 'just a mod', which I have heard people say too. The atmosphere is really good, and there are some legendary moments in the game. One of the best is walking through a cornfield in a storm, while you can look no further than 2 feet away from you, and you hear Witches cry all around you. Awesome.


Graphics

The graphics are not that different from the original, but it does seem a bit more polished and the infected have been given a thorough makeover. Also, there's a lot more gore in this game than in the previous installment (and that one was pretty gorey, too!) and at times looks really, really credible. Pretty nice graphics indeed!


Multiplayer

I have only really played the campaigns (in SP and MP), so I cannot tell you much about the Survival, Versus or the new Scavenger modes. However, from what I've seen in the SP, there are a lot of opportunities for the Infected players to make the lives of the Survivors a living hell and possibly even worse. It's really impressive how they managed to lift this game to the next level, story-wise as well as gameplay-wise.



At the moment, I'm giving this game a grade ranging from 8.7 to 9.3. Yes, I have a thing for decimals.



I decided against including pictures in the text itself, especially since the game is now a lot more graphic than it used to be. On the other hand, I didn't want to withhold the pictures from you if you really want to see them, so I will put them in Spoiler tags.

 

[Aleister Black]

The review wouldn't be complete without mentioning the 'special common infected'. These new kind of infected are specific to the seperate campaigns and all have a small extra that sets them apart from the regular infected.

You have clowns, whose squeeky shoes attract the horde; there's guys in protective suits that make them invulnerable to fire; muddy infected that splashes mud in your eyes, limiting your view; swat team zombies who cannot be shot from the front; and construction workers, whose earmuffs make them unable to hear the drawing beep of the pipe bomb. The fact that there are now also common infected that have these little extra powers means that you cannot simply rely on any one tactic.

By the way, has anyone got this on PC? If so, care to share your Steam name so we can fight the zombie horde together?

[Fuyumine]

Played it on Xbox today and... Christ, it really is an improvement of the first game. I didn't really think it would be, but it truly is. I loves it.

[Contra Fates]

I'm kicking myself for not having picked this up on Black Friday for $35! Argh!

I'll definitely get around to picking this up, and again, an amazingly awesome review, Aleister! <3

[Aleister Black]

Played it on Xbox today and... Christ, it really is an improvement of the first game. I didn't really think it would be, but it truly is. I loves it.

It is, isn't it? It's a lot more tense and a lot harder for the survivors. A few unbalances (the Spitter is a bit too strong in versus I'd say) but otherwise it's balanced just right. I'm still loving it so far, despite my current fixation with Dragon Age. That's probably going to be my next review

I'm kicking myself for not having picked this up on Black Friday for $35! Argh!

I'll definitely get around to picking this up, and again, an amazingly awesome review, Aleister! <3

Thanks, and yeah, you should have. It's a pretty sweet game and it shines in multiplayer. You'd be getting it on the console though I reckon?