Left 4 Dead 2

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Left 4 Dead enjoyed a strong life of critical reception and sales, so it's obvious that there were a lot of eyebrows raised when its sequel was announced about five months ago. After all, Valve did promise a lot of additional content support like they have been doing with Team Fortress 2 for almost two years now, and with a strong enough community still making mods for the game, all of that balance had supposedly thrown out the window in favor of what seemed like a cash cow getting milked for all it's worth. Natrually, there was a boycott, a response by Valve, and a lot of talk within the PC Community over whether or not this game was going to be worth it.

But you already saw the rating I gave this game, so you know this is not the case.

Left 4 Dead 2 takes everything that was great about the first game and adds a whole new dimension to gameplay. It's easy to dismiss this as simply an expansion pack with more campaigns and extra weapons, but beneath the surface there's a lot more than what is seen in the demo and through press releases. Even by adding new features, its core gameplay elements are still accessible to the casual gaming market while deep enough to warrant play by veterans of First Person Shooters. Valve's great history of balancing multiplayer still rings true, as Campaign and Versus modes, as well as other modes, still make you feel like everything is in your control in your own Zombie Horror Film.

The campaigns in this game are much better done than in the first game. Rather than having four seperate stories starring the cast as they go from desertion to salvation, Left 4 Dead 2's campaigns actually play like a long-winded story from start to finish, as you and your three friends fight your way through five campaigns taking you from Savannah to New Orleans, from crowded shopping malls to infested carnivals to a final assualt on the city's streets. While these campaigns can certianly be played in whatever order you want, they all have their own distinct taste to them. Different props and artifacts can be found on each level, and each swarm of Infected look different from level to level.

Campaigns play differently as well. Instead of the standard "run to the checkpoint, hold off swarms of Infected, run to the checkpoint" in the first game, Left 4 Dead 2 mixes things up a bit. Sometimes you'll have to open a door that sets off an alarm and find the switch to shut it off to calm the horde. Sometimes you'll have to find gasoline canisters scattering around the near area and fuel up an escape car while Tanks and Boomers make your life miserable. And depending on how The Director 2.0 likes you, it could be a different experience every time you play.

The new characters function as they do in the first game, which works fine from a gameplay perspective. And while they represent the diversity of Southeast United States realistically in terms of race, class, gender, and culture, they don't seem to click well enough together as the first team did. There isn't as much mystery surrounding these characters and each player's interpretation of each one doesn't seem as much fun as it used to be. Maybe this is because I'm from the Southeast United States and I'm used to the kind of people represented in this game in my daily life, but I just don't get the feeling of imagination I did in the first game. It's going to be hard to let go of Francis hating everything and Louis loving his pills, but I'm sure with time we'll all find something to love about these new Survivors.

New weapons and items offer a strategic diversity to the Survivors, especially to the new Melee Weapons. Do you go for the weapon that pushes piles of Infected back and let your teammates finish the job, or do you go for the slice-n-dice weapon that efficiently takes out one enemy at a time, or do you ignore them both and opt for a Pistol or Magnum in its place? Likewise, there are differing variations of shotguns and rifles, and special primary weapons like the new Grenade Launcher. These, along with the new healing items and throwables (Boomer Bile Grenade is the perfect anti-Tank weapon) add a whole new dimension to the game.

The Infected, however, also have more tricks up their rotting sleeves. Best noted are the new Special Infected types: The Spitter (like the Boomer, but spits acid bile at an arc to deal direct damage, or to create an area-of-denial), The Jockey (rides a Survivor directly into danger), and The Charger (sort of like a weakened tank that takes a great deal of surprise and precision to execute perfectly). These three new Special Infected work well within the balance of gameplay without making things unfair for the Survivors, and an established teamwork with the game's previous infected, whom have also been rebalanced for this game. If you thought you could just mash the left-mouse button to spawn and kill Survivors: think again. You're going to need your teammates this time around to set up traps and get the team off-guard in order to get the upper-hand this time.

There are a few new game modes as well, but they don't seem to get the grip into the Left 4 Dead formula as one would think. Scavenge is basically the aforementioned collect-a-thon, only played in versus mode to see who can last longest. Realism takes away some of the neat functions from the original game-mode, no silhouettes of players through walls and no Survivor respawning (a new item, the Defibrillator in the Med Kit slot, can bring back a dead survivor, a welcome and strategic addition), but it doesn't make the game feel as tense and requires more communication on the players' part than what seems to be warranted. I suppose this would be the next-generation of competitive Left 4 Dead, but it all depends on how the community responds to this new mode.

Overall, if you enjoyed the first Left 4 Dead and aren't completely upset over a sequel being released a year afterward, you'll love Left 4 Dead 2 since it's basically everything you love plus more, and will definitely get a lot of play time out this game. If you're somewhat hesitant to buy the game right off the bat, Steam will have all sorts of sales for the game in the upcoming months if the sales for the first game were of any evidence. Obviously, PC is the way to go here, if anything for the sweet mods and maps that will come out (for free!) in the future, better online play, and it's $10 cheaper.

Once again, our nemeses at the OFLC wanted to ban the game until Valve took out some of the more grotesque elements out. But I look at this as another reason to get it for PC, because you know that someone is just going to figure out a way to mod them back in and release a patch behind their backs. It's obvious that a game like this is for adults with all the killing, drugs, and gunplay, so why do these guys need to keep pushing some "child-protecting" agenda for the punishment of adult gamers? Don't let them ruin the game for you, just worry about how many Infected you're going to take down.