Left Dead, Valve’s 2008 release that won critical acclaim due to simple but brilliant gameplay mechanics, straightforward goals and objectives, and just for being so much damn fun.
Left 4 Dead was originally billed to be a first person perspective survival horror game, pitting four characters in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with only their wits, and each other, to survive. The basis was simple, you and the three other survivors stay alive from point a to point b, repeat until the survivors reach a safe zone where other human survivors will rescue them. Only issue with the original plans of survival horror was, the characters were so over the top in their gimmicks that the game became more comedic than anything else, spawning thousands of parodies on the internet in forms of flash cartoons, web comics and home videos.
It was a game that had cartoony graphics, reminding many users of a better detailed Team Fortress 2, but graphics have always taken a backseat to gameplay and control in Valve’s world; and they nailed it.
The control of this game was among the, if not THE, best game for control on XBox Live and PC online.
Of course it’s also important to mention that the online draw was the bread and butter of this game, with several available game types to play online, one of which even splitting up gamers into two team of four and having the team take turns being the survivors and the actual zombies!
So, how the hell could Valve, only one year later, make this game better?
By taking everything awesome about this game and making it super awesome.
What’s new? A lot! First off, the gun selection has been boosted up huge. I personally always liked the limited selection of weapons in L4D, because in a real world situation you wouldn’t come across grenade launchers and automatic sniper rifles laying about in the street. But, gamers being a violent bunch, naturally complained. So L4D2 took a neat approach on this: The game’s based in the South-Eastern U.S. where moonshine and Nascar reign supreme; and what do rednecks love just as much as their Nascar? Firearms, of course. So now survivors have chances to happen across firearms stores, where they can stock up on the more ridiculous weaponry that one would not find normally in other places.
One of the most annoying aspect of L4D was the melee attack system for survivors. All a player had to do half the time was hold down the L trigger on the controller, and their character would swing away with a stupidly overpowered attack. This has been removed; the melee is still there, but it’s nowhere the overpowered juggernaut it was; to compensate, now gamers can substitute their pistol for melee weapons. Now those players who just want to cheaply swing away can do so, but they have to earn it by finding these weapons; it’s also a nice touch that the impact generated by each weapon varies: like a frying pan, though painful, wouldn’t be as devastating as a fire fighter’s axe.
On top of newly added weapons, there are new items like the adrenaline boost that will give your character a little pick-me-up if they’re hurting. L4D many times left you frozen if a zombie so much as grazed you, then you were stuck, with the adrenaline boost, you shove your way through the hordes and being hit hardly slows you up.
Another great addition is the defibrillator. In L4D you had first aid kits to patch yourself up if you got too damaged, but what if the damage just went too far and there was no first aid kits around? The player would join the living impaired, naturally. Now, with these zapping paddles, if a player is seemingly down for the count, you can run in, shout “clear!” and give you teammate another fighting chance to make it to the safe house.
Another aspect of L4D were “crescendo” moments. Basically these were moments when a scripted incident would happen, the players hunkered down in a corner somewhere and blasted away until the zombies were no longer a threat. Now many of these crescendo moments require the survivors to actually keep moving and do something in order to stop the flow of zombies (IE: an alarm in a store goes off, in L4D you just crouched in a corner and blasted zombies until the alarm turned itself off. In L4D2 you have to find the alarm and deactivate it to make it stop. Easy enough? Try it with 100+ zombies all around you.) This avoids camping out and cheap play, which is always a plus.
The biggest draw are the new zombies. Previously on L4D you had a small handful of assorted zombie types with special traits and abilities. That number has been doubled now and each zombie type brings its own strategy type to the fray
Graphics Many gamers complained about the graphics of Left 4 Dead, which to me felt a little silly as they were by no means bad, they just weren’t trying to make the next Unreal Engine-based game that took 5 minutes to lead a level due to texture heaviness. In Left 4 Dead 2, the graphics are still sacrificed for playability, but the characters all look a bit more real now and less cartoony than the previous quartet of survivors and zombies; plus the game features different environments from the original, which was almost entirely a night theme. Now there are daylight areas, rainy days, and even smoke-filled buildings, which add rather pleasant additions to the appearance of the game.
Control Control is still awesome. It handles like a dream. Valve took the advice “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to heart, good job Valve.
Sound A lot of the old sounds are back in L4D2, but many others received an overhaul. There are several sound banks now for the different breeds of zombies, making them all sound different from each other now even more than before. In L4D there were instances when several players would have the same zombie type, and there was nothing to set them apart, now even the same types of zombies have multiple sounds to differentiate them; it’s a minor touch, but a nice touch. The obnoxiously loud guns from L4D have been pulled back some, but done tastefully. The percussive submachine gun in L4D has now been toned down in the volume department by adding a silencer. Quaint.
L4D’s music was never really stellar, but this time around Valve gave the music a rickety Louisiana twist to make the game feel more at home in this environment. Hillbillies pluckings and New Orleans jazz accent the music beautifully and really give the game a bayou feeling; that and frantically bashing zombies with a baseball bat in a desperate clutching for survival, all while hearing a jazzy rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In piped in through a store speaker somewhere out in the mall you’re hiding in to survive is one of the few comedic breaks you’re given in this game.
Presentation L4D became a comedy game right out of the gates thanks to character traits that became very memorable; players lol-ed about Francis always complaining about hating everything, while the YouTube community has flooded servers with Louis’ love for pain pills; I played this with my friend John once, and his first time playing it was quite frequent that Louis’ one-liners would make us both pause the game to chuckle.
L4D2 still has much of that charm, but it’s been pulled back. L4D2 really is going for the sense of overwhelming urgency as the zombies just seem a bit more scary; that and when you get swamped now you get swamped. I almost never ran out of ammo in L4D, but in L4D2 there are times you need to shoot frantically all around you just to get some breathing room, and once
you think you almost have the situation under control you hear that ominous “click” of an empty gun, and there are still waves of zombies coming for you; it can get pretty hairy.
In L4D, many times I would play The Gonk from Dawn of the Dead through my speakers, as the game was pure comedy. Not the same feel in L4D2, the humour has been pulled back enough to warrant it not being considered a comedy anymore.
A minor but cool aspect is how the characters interact with one another. These are four strangers thrown together in an effort to survive, each have their own personalities (I personally like Nick, the sarcastic asshole… we relate…) but as the game progresses, interactions with one another (IE: helping another character up when they’re hurt, healing them with your first aid kit, or accidentally hitting/shooting them) will change their banter accordingly. I was playing online and my character was less than friendly with another player’s character, exchanging harsh words such as “take these pain pills and try not to screw up again” and being very condescending to one another if they helped the other one up. As the levels progressed though, and my and this other player’s characters interacted positively with one another, the banter between characters became more friendly and compassionate; whereas the character played by the chick who accidentally shot my guy in the ass pretty much only got the response “go to hell” throughout the rest of their interactions. Does it add anything to the game? Not at all, but it’s a cool extra.
There’s been a lot of heat on this game, some people saying it came out too early, others claiming it wasn’t enough new stuff to merit it’s own full game.
Those people are wrong.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a great romp through zombie-infested New Orleans and a lot of fun. It’s not as light as the original Left 4 Dead, so if you’re new to the franchise I recommend starting with the original, but if you played and loved Left 4 Dead, you owe it to yourself to play Left 4 Dead 2.
I’m out.
By Lee Clifford
Left Dead, Valve’s 2008 release that won critical acclaim due to simple but brilliant gameplay mechanics, straightforward goals and objectives, and just for being so much damn fun.
Left 4 Dead was originally billed to be a first person perspective survival horror game, pitting four characters in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with only their wits, and each other, to survive. The basis was simple, you and the three other survivors stay alive from point a to point b, repeat until the survivors reach a safe zone where other human survivors will rescue them. Only issue with the original plans of survival horror was, the characters were so over the top in their gimmicks that the game became more comedic than anything else, spawning thousands of parodies on the internet in forms of flash cartoons, web comics and home videos.
It was a game that had cartoony graphics, reminding many users of a better detailed Team Fortress 2, but graphics have always taken a backseat to gameplay and control in Valve’s world; and they nailed it.
The control of this game was among the, if not THE, best game for control on XBox Live and PC online.
Of course it’s also important to mention that the online draw was the bread and butter of this game, with several available game types to play online, one of which even splitting up gamers into two team of four and having the team take turns being the survivors and the actual zombies!
So, how the hell could Valve, only one year later, make this game better?
By taking everything awesome about this game and making it super awesome.
What’s new? A lot! First off, the gun selection has been boosted up huge. I personally always liked the limited selection of weapons in L4D, because in a real world situation you wouldn’t come across grenade launchers and automatic sniper rifles laying about in the street. But, gamers being a violent bunch, naturally complained. So L4D2 took a neat approach on this: The game’s based in the South-Eastern U.S. where moonshine and Nascar reign supreme; and what do rednecks love just as much as their Nascar? Firearms, of course. So now survivors have chances to happen across firearms stores, where they can stock up on the more ridiculous weaponry that one would not find normally in other places.
One of the most annoying aspect of L4D was the melee attack system for survivors. All a player had to do half the time was hold down the L trigger on the controller, and their character would swing away with a stupidly overpowered attack. This has been removed; the melee is still there, but it’s nowhere the overpowered juggernaut it was; to compensate, now gamers can substitute their pistol for melee weapons. Now those players who just want to cheaply swing away can do so, but they have to earn it by finding these weapons; it’s also a nice touch that the impact generated by each weapon varies: like a frying pan, though painful, wouldn’t be as devastating as a fire fighter’s axe.
On top of newly added weapons, there are new items like the adrenaline boost that will give your character a little pick-me-up if they’re hurting. L4D many times left you frozen if a zombie so much as grazed you, then you were stuck, with the adrenaline boost, you shove your way through the hordes and being hit hardly slows you up.
Another great addition is the defibrillator. In L4D you had first aid kits to patch yourself up if you got too damaged, but what if the damage just went too far and there was no first aid kits around? The player would join the living impaired, naturally. Now, with these zapping paddles, if a player is seemingly down for the count, you can run in, shout “clear!” and give you teammate another fighting chance to make it to the safe house.
Another aspect of L4D were “crescendo” moments. Basically these were moments when a scripted incident would happen, the players hunkered down in a corner somewhere and blasted away until the zombies were no longer a threat. Now many of these crescendo moments require the survivors to actually keep moving and do something in order to stop the flow of zombies (IE: an alarm in a store goes off, in L4D you just crouched in a corner and blasted zombies until the alarm turned itself off. In L4D2 you have to find the alarm and deactivate it to make it stop. Easy enough? Try it with 100+ zombies all around you.) This avoids camping out and cheap play, which is always a plus.
The biggest draw are the new zombies. Previously on L4D you had a small handful of assorted zombie types with special traits and abilities. That number has been doubled now and each zombie type brings its own strategy type to the fray
Graphics Many gamers complained about the graphics of Left 4 Dead, which to me felt a little silly as they were by no means bad, they just weren’t trying to make the next Unreal Engine-based game that took 5 minutes to lead a level due to texture heaviness. In Left 4 Dead 2, the graphics are still sacrificed for playability, but the characters all look a bit more real now and less cartoony than the previous quartet of survivors and zombies; plus the game features different environments from the original, which was almost entirely a night theme. Now there are daylight areas, rainy days, and even smoke-filled buildings, which add rather pleasant additions to the appearance of the game.
Control Control is still awesome. It handles like a dream. Valve took the advice “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to heart, good job Valve.
Sound A lot of the old sounds are back in L4D2, but many others received an overhaul. There are several sound banks now for the different breeds of zombies, making them all sound different from each other now even more than before. In L4D there were instances when several players would have the same zombie type, and there was nothing to set them apart, now even the same types of zombies have multiple sounds to differentiate them; it’s a minor touch, but a nice touch. The obnoxiously loud guns from L4D have been pulled back some, but done tastefully. The percussive submachine gun in L4D has now been toned down in the volume department by adding a silencer. Quaint.
L4D’s music was never really stellar, but this time around Valve gave the music a rickety Louisiana twist to make the game feel more at home in this environment. Hillbillies pluckings and New Orleans jazz accent the music beautifully and really give the game a bayou feeling; that and frantically bashing zombies with a baseball bat in a desperate clutching for survival, all while hearing a jazzy rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In piped in through a store speaker somewhere out in the mall you’re hiding in to survive is one of the few comedic breaks you’re given in this game.
Presentation L4D became a comedy game right out of the gates thanks to character traits that became very memorable; players lol-ed about Francis always complaining about hating everything, while the YouTube community has flooded servers with Louis’ love for pain pills; I played this with my friend John once, and his first time playing it was quite frequent that Louis’ one-liners would make us both pause the game to chuckle.
L4D2 still has much of that charm, but it’s been pulled back. L4D2 really is going for the sense of overwhelming urgency as the zombies just seem a bit more scary; that and when you get swamped now you get swamped. I almost never ran out of ammo in L4D, but in L4D2 there are times you need to shoot frantically all around you just to get some breathing room, and once
you think you almost have the situation under control you hear that ominous “click” of an empty gun, and there are still waves of zombies coming for you; it can get pretty hairy.
In L4D, many times I would play The Gonk from Dawn of the Dead through my speakers, as the game was pure comedy. Not the same feel in L4D2, the humour has been pulled back enough to warrant it not being considered a comedy anymore.
A minor but cool aspect is how the characters interact with one another. These are four strangers thrown together in an effort to survive, each have their own personalities (I personally like Nick, the sarcastic asshole… we relate…) but as the game progresses, interactions with one another (IE: helping another character up when they’re hurt, healing them with your first aid kit, or accidentally hitting/shooting them) will change their banter accordingly. I was playing online and my character was less than friendly with another player’s character, exchanging harsh words such as “take these pain pills and try not to screw up again” and being very condescending to one another if they helped the other one up. As the levels progressed though, and my and this other player’s characters interacted positively with one another, the banter between characters became more friendly and compassionate; whereas the character played by the chick who accidentally shot my guy in the ass pretty much only got the response “go to hell” throughout the rest of their interactions. Does it add anything to the game? Not at all, but it’s a cool extra.
There’s been a lot of heat on this game, some people saying it came out too early, others claiming it wasn’t enough new stuff to merit it’s own full game.
Those people are wrong.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a great romp through zombie-infested New Orleans and a lot of fun. It’s not as light as the original Left 4 Dead, so if you’re new to the franchise I recommend starting with the original, but if you played and loved Left 4 Dead, you owe it to yourself to play Left 4 Dead 2.
I’m out.
By Lee Clifford
Left Dead, Valve’s 2008 release that won critical acclaim due to simple but brilliant gameplay mechanics, straightforward goals and objectives, and just for being so much damn fun.
Left 4 Dead was originally billed to be a first person perspective survival horror game, pitting four characters in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with only their wits, and each other, to survive. The basis was simple, you and the three other survivors stay alive from point a to point b, repeat until the survivors reach a safe zone where other human survivors will rescue them. Only issue with the original plans of survival horror was, the characters were so over the top in their gimmicks that the game became more comedic than anything else, spawning thousands of parodies on the internet in forms of flash cartoons, web comics and home videos.
It was a game that had cartoony graphics, reminding many users of a better detailed Team Fortress 2, but graphics have always taken a backseat to gameplay and control in Valve’s world; and they nailed it.
The control of this game was among the, if not THE, best game for control on XBox Live and PC online.
Of course it’s also important to mention that the online draw was the bread and butter of this game, with several available game types to play online, one of which even splitting up gamers into two team of four and having the team take turns being the survivors and the actual zombies!
So, how the hell could Valve, only one year later, make this game better?
By taking everything awesome about this game and making it super awesome.
What’s new? A lot! First off, the gun selection has been boosted up huge. I personally always liked the limited selection of weapons in L4D, because in a real world situation you wouldn’t come across grenade launchers and automatic sniper rifles laying about in the street. But, gamers being a violent bunch, naturally complained. So L4D2 took a neat approach on this: The game’s based in the South-Eastern U.S. where moonshine and Nascar reign supreme; and what do rednecks love just as much as their Nascar? Firearms, of course. So now survivors have chances to happen across firearms stores, where they can stock up on the more ridiculous weaponry that one would not find normally in other places.
One of the most annoying aspect of L4D was the melee attack system for survivors. All a player had to do half the time was hold down the L trigger on the controller, and their character would swing away with a stupidly overpowered attack. This has been removed; the melee is still there, but it’s nowhere the overpowered juggernaut it was; to compensate, now gamers can substitute their pistol for melee weapons. Now those players who just want to cheaply swing away can do so, but they have to earn it by finding these weapons; it’s also a nice touch that the impact generated by each weapon varies: like a frying pan, though painful, wouldn’t be as devastating as a fire fighter’s axe.
On top of newly added weapons, there are new items like the adrenaline boost that will give your character a little pick-me-up if they’re hurting. L4D many times left you frozen if a zombie so much as grazed you, then you were stuck, with the adrenaline boost, you shove your way through the hordes and being hit hardly slows you up.
Another great addition is the defibrillator. In L4D you had first aid kits to patch yourself up if you got too damaged, but what if the damage just went too far and there was no first aid kits around? The player would join the living impaired, naturally. Now, with these zapping paddles, if a player is seemingly down for the count, you can run in, shout “clear!” and give you teammate another fighting chance to make it to the safe house.
Another aspect of L4D were “crescendo” moments. Basically these were moments when a scripted incident would happen, the players hunkered down in a corner somewhere and blasted away until the zombies were no longer a threat. Now many of these crescendo moments require the survivors to actually keep moving and do something in order to stop the flow of zombies (IE: an alarm in a store goes off, in L4D you just crouched in a corner and blasted zombies until the alarm turned itself off. In L4D2 you have to find the alarm and deactivate it to make it stop. Easy enough? Try it with 100+ zombies all around you.) This avoids camping out and cheap play, which is always a plus.
The biggest draw are the new zombies. Previously on L4D you had a small handful of assorted zombie types with special traits and abilities. That number has been doubled now and each zombie type brings its own strategy type to the fray
Graphics Many gamers complained about the graphics of Left 4 Dead, which to me felt a little silly as they were by no means bad, they just weren’t trying to make the next Unreal Engine-based game that took 5 minutes to lead a level due to texture heaviness. In Left 4 Dead 2, the graphics are still sacrificed for playability, but the characters all look a bit more real now and less cartoony than the previous quartet of survivors and zombies; plus the game features different environments from the original, which was almost entirely a night theme. Now there are daylight areas, rainy days, and even smoke-filled buildings, which add rather pleasant additions to the appearance of the game.
Control Control is still awesome. It handles like a dream. Valve took the advice “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to heart, good job Valve.
Sound A lot of the old sounds are back in L4D2, but many others received an overhaul. There are several sound banks now for the different breeds of zombies, making them all sound different from each other now even more than before. In L4D there were instances when several players would have the same zombie type, and there was nothing to set them apart, now even the same types of zombies have multiple sounds to differentiate them; it’s a minor touch, but a nice touch. The obnoxiously loud guns from L4D have been pulled back some, but done tastefully. The percussive submachine gun in L4D has now been toned down in the volume department by adding a silencer. Quaint.
L4D’s music was never really stellar, but this time around Valve gave the music a rickety Louisiana twist to make the game feel more at home in this environment. Hillbillies pluckings and New Orleans jazz accent the music beautifully and really give the game a bayou feeling; that and frantically bashing zombies with a baseball bat in a desperate clutching for survival, all while hearing a jazzy rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In piped in through a store speaker somewhere out in the mall you’re hiding in to survive is one of the few comedic breaks you’re given in this game.
Presentation L4D became a comedy game right out of the gates thanks to character traits that became very memorable; players lol-ed about Francis always complaining about hating everything, while the YouTube community has flooded servers with Louis’ love for pain pills; I played this with my friend John once, and his first time playing it was quite frequent that Louis’ one-liners would make us both pause the game to chuckle.
L4D2 still has much of that charm, but it’s been pulled back. L4D2 really is going for the sense of overwhelming urgency as the zombies just seem a bit more scary; that and when you get swamped now you get swamped. I almost never ran out of ammo in L4D, but in L4D2 there are times you need to shoot frantically all around you just to get some breathing room, and once y
ou think you almost have the situation under control you hear that ominous “click” of an empty gun, and there are still waves of zombies coming for you; it can get pretty hairy.
In L4D, many times I would play The Gonk from Dawn of the Dead through my speakers, as the game was pure comedy. Not the same feel in L4D2, the humour has been pulled back enough to warrant it not being considered a comedy anymore.
A minor but cool aspect is how the characters interact with one another. These are four strangers thrown together in an effort to survive, each have their own personalities (I personally like Nick, the sarcastic asshole… we relate…) but as the game progresses, interactions with one another (IE: helping another character up when they’re hurt, healing them with your first aid kit, or accidentally hitting/shooting them) will change their banter accordingly. I was playing online and my character was less than friendly with another player’s character, exchanging harsh words such as “take these pain pills and try not to screw up again” and being very condescending to one another if they helped the other one up. As the levels progressed though, and my and this other player’s characters interacted positively with one another, the banter between characters became more friendly and compassionate; whereas the character played by the chick who accidentally shot my guy in the ass pretty much only got the response “go to hell” throughout the rest of their interactions. Does it add anything to the game? Not at all, but it’s a cool extra.
There’s been a lot of heat on this game, some people saying it came out too early, others claiming it wasn’t enough new stuff to merit it’s own full game.
Those people are wrong.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a great romp through zombie-infested New Orleans and a lot of fun. It’s not as light as the original Left 4 Dead, so if you’re new to the franchise I recommend starting with the original, but if you played and loved Left 4 Dead, you owe it to yourself to play Left 4 Dead 2.
I’m out.
By Lee Clifford
Left Dead, Valve’s 2008 release that won critical acclaim due to simple but brilliant gameplay mechanics, straightforward goals and objectives, and just for being so much damn fun.
Left 4 Dead was originally billed to be a first person perspective survival horror game, pitting four characters in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with only their wits, and each other, to survive. The basis was simple, you and the three other survivors stay alive from point a to point b, repeat until the survivors reach a safe zone where other human survivors will rescue them. Only issue with the original plans of survival horror was, the characters were so over the top in their gimmicks that the game became more comedic than anything else, spawning thousands of parodies on the internet in forms of flash cartoons, web comics and home videos.
It was a game that had cartoony graphics, reminding many users of a better detailed Team Fortress 2, but graphics have always taken a backseat to gameplay and control in Valve’s world; and they nailed it.
The control of this game was among the, if not THE, best game for control on XBox Live and PC online.
Of course it’s also important to mention that the online draw was the bread and butter of this game, with several available game types to play online, one of which even splitting up gamers into two team of four and having the team take turns being the survivors and the actual zombies!
So, how the hell could Valve, only one year later, make this game better?
By taking everything awesome about this game and making it super awesome.
What’s new? A lot! First off, the gun selection has been boosted up huge. I personally always liked the limited selection of weapons in L4D, because in a real world situation you wouldn’t come across grenade launchers and automatic sniper rifles laying about in the street. But, gamers being a violent bunch, naturally complained. So L4D2 took a neat approach on this: The game’s based in the South-Eastern U.S. where moonshine and Nascar reign supreme; and what do rednecks love just as much as their Nascar? Firearms, of course. So now survivors have chances to happen across firearms stores, where they can stock up on the more ridiculous weaponry that one would not find normally in other places.
One of the most annoying aspect of L4D was the melee attack system for survivors. All a player had to do half the time was hold down the L trigger on the controller, and their character would swing away with a stupidly overpowered attack. This has been removed; the melee is still there, but it’s nowhere the overpowered juggernaut it was; to compensate, now gamers can substitute their pistol for melee weapons. Now those players who just want to cheaply swing away can do so, but they have to earn it by finding these weapons; it’s also a nice touch that the impact generated by each weapon varies: like a frying pan, though painful, wouldn’t be as devastating as a fire fighter’s axe.
On top of newly added weapons, there are new items like the adrenaline boost that will give your character a little pick-me-up if they’re hurting. L4D many times left you frozen if a zombie so much as grazed you, then you were stuck, with the adrenaline boost, you shove your way through the hordes and being hit hardly slows you up.
Another great addition is the defibrillator. In L4D you had first aid kits to patch yourself up if you got too damaged, but what if the damage just went too far and there was no first aid kits around? The player would join the living impaired, naturally. Now, with these zapping paddles, if a player is seemingly down for the count, you can run in, shout “clear!” and give you teammate another fighting chance to make it to the safe house.
Another aspect of L4D were “crescendo” moments. Basically these were moments when a scripted incident would happen, the players hunkered down in a corner somewhere and blasted away until the zombies were no longer a threat. Now many of these crescendo moments require the survivors to actually keep moving and do something in order to stop the flow of zombies (IE: an alarm in a store goes off, in L4D you just crouched in a corner and blasted zombies until the alarm turned itself off. In L4D2 you have to find the alarm and deactivate it to make it stop. Easy enough? Try it with 100+ zombies all around you.) This avoids camping out and cheap play, which is always a plus.
The biggest draw are the new zombies. Previously on L4D you had a small handful of assorted zombie types with special traits and abilities. That number has been doubled now and each zombie type brings its own strategy type to the fray
Graphics Many gamers complained about the graphics of Left 4 Dead, which to me felt a little silly as they were by no means bad, they just weren’t trying to make the next Unreal Engine-based game that took 5 minutes to lead a level due to texture heaviness. In Left 4 Dead 2, the graphics are still sacrificed for playability, but the characters all look a bit more real now and less cartoony than the previous quartet of survivors and zombies; plus the game features different environments from the original, which was almost entirely a night theme. Now there are daylight areas, rainy days, and even smoke-filled buildings, which add rather pleasant additions to the appearance of the game.
Control Control is still awesome. It handles like a dream. Valve took the advice “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to heart, good job Valve.
Sound A lot of the old sounds are back in L4D2, but many others received an overhaul. There are several sound banks now for the different breeds of zombies, making them all sound different from each other now even more than before. In L4D there were instances when several players would have the same zombie type, and there was nothing to set them apart, now even the same types of zombies have multiple sounds to differentiate them; it’s a minor touch, but a nice touch. The obnoxiously loud guns from L4D have been pulled back some, but done tastefully. The percussive submachine gun in L4D has now been toned down in the volume department by adding a silencer. Quaint.
L4D’s music was never really stellar, but this time around Valve gave the music a rickety Louisiana twist to make the game feel more at home in this environment. Hillbillies pluckings and New Orleans jazz accent the music beautifully and really give the game a bayou feeling; that and frantically bashing zombies with a baseball bat in a desperate clutching for survival, all while hearing a jazzy rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In piped in through a store speaker somewhere out in the mall you’re hiding in to survive is one of the few comedic breaks you’re given in this game.
Presentation L4D became a comedy game right out of the gates thanks to character traits that became very memorable; players lol-ed about Francis always complaining about hating everything, while the YouTube community has flooded servers with Louis’ love for pain pills; I played this with my friend John once, and his first time playing it was quite frequent that Louis’ one-liners would make us both pause the game to chuckle.
L4D2 still has much of that charm, but it’s been pulled back. L4D2 really is going for the sense of overwhelming urgency as the zombies just seem a bit more scary; that and when you get swamped now you get swamped. I almost never ran out of ammo in L4D, but in L4D2 there are times you need to shoot frantically all around you just to get some breathing room, and once
you think you almost have the situation under control you hear that ominous “click” of an empty gun, and there are still waves of zombies coming for you; it can get pretty hairy.
In L4D, many times I would play The Gonk from Dawn of the Dead through my speakers, as the game was pure comedy. Not the same feel in L4D2, the humour has been pulled back enough to warrant it not being considered a comedy anymore.
A minor but cool aspect is how the characters interact with one another. These are four strangers thrown together in an effort to survive, each have their own personalities (I personally like Nick, the sarcastic asshole… we relate…) but as the game progresses, interactions with one another (IE: helping another character up when they’re hurt, healing them with your first aid kit, or accidentally hitting/shooting them) will change their banter accordingly. I was playing online and my character was less than friendly with another player’s character, exchanging harsh words such as “take these pain pills and try not to screw up again” and being very condescending to one another if they helped the other one up. As the levels progressed though, and my and this other player’s characters interacted positively with one another, the banter between characters became more friendly and compassionate; whereas the character played by the chick who accidentally shot my guy in the ass pretty much only got the response “go to hell” throughout the rest of their interactions. Does it add anything to the game? Not at all, but it’s a cool extra.
There’s been a lot of heat on this game, some people saying it came out too early, others claiming it wasn’t enough new stuff to merit it’s own full game.
Those people are wrong.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a great romp through zombie-infested New Orleans and a lot of fun. It’s not as light as the original Left 4 Dead, so if you’re new to the franchise I recommend starting with the original, but if you played and loved Left 4 Dead, you owe it to yourself to play Left 4 Dead 2.
I’m out.
Sean Chin
Chief Editor & Founder of Live in Limbo. Host & Producer of the Capsule Podcast. Sean is an award-winning photographer and Nikon Professional Services member. His work has appeared on the CBC, Pitchfork, and MUCH. He is an Academy Delegate at the JUNOs (CARAS) and has been involved in the Toronto music scene since 2005. He is also an endurance and CrossFit athlete. You should follow him on Twitter @SeanChin.