Left 4 dead 2 review

Hey guys, DonWeir here with a review of Left 4 Dead 2

Ok, now let’s get down into the hard facts about the game. L4D2 now comes with two new modes along with the original three from the first game, bringing the total to five immense modes, you have:

Campaign – this is where you play as one of the survivors in any level online.

Single player – this is where you play as one of the survivors in any level offline.

Realism – this adds a certain realistic edge to the game by making the zombies harder to kill, the items don’t glow, health becomes a very vital issue and so does ammo when facing the horde. Also in this mode team work is the most vital thing of all when playing hard or expert difficulties.

Versus – this is the same as the previous game with up to eight players taking part as either the survivors or the special infected. This can be very glitchy at times so watch out when you’re in a tight spot, but this mainly down to the speed of your connection, and if you have a good speed this mode will be a lot of fun.

Survival – this is very much the same as the expansion for the original, allowing you to take on the hordes of zombies on each level of the game.

Scavenge – this mode is available for all levels of the campaign, creating a different environment for the player each time, along with a little help from the A.I. director 2.0. In this mode the players must collect fuel tanks for a stock car, a generator and a motor boat to make their escape. Players start off with two teams of up to four on each side, one team will play the survivors and the other will play as the special infected. Upon playing with the public, this is by far the most fun and intense new mode they have brought in, and I’m sure that Kent will back me up that when I say if a mode sucks you in so far that you’re yelling “OH MY GOD I SO CLOSE!” it’s a pretty damn good mode

Moving swiftly onwards, we now come to my favourite part of the game, the campaign. When you first load the game you are given the five different levels which have been extended in length, thanks to the strong urge for more storylines, from a very vocal community over at valve. Thus bringing up the length of time being spent playing the story line of the game. From the first campaign labelled “Dead center” we are introduced to our new characters. Firstly we have Nick, who appears to be of the mafia persuasion, but as we find out is just a conman. Next we have Rochelle, who was a production assistant, who was until recently reporting on the evacuation. Moving on to Coach, he was a former American football coach. Finally we have Ellis, who is by all means a redneck and a mechanic. He’s also my favourite to play as, promise me listen to some of the stories he tells and he’ll have you laughing all day long.
This unlikely bunch of compatriots, are forced to make their way from Georgia to New Orleans, going through all sorts of terrain. The first level “Dead Center” has our survivors running through an infected city and mall. The second level “Dark Carnival” has them running through as you’ve probably guessed a carnival. The third level, “Swamp fever” requires the survivors to walk through a swamp whilst being attacked from all sides by waves of specialised zombies. The forth instalment, “Hard Rain” has our team doing a fuel run, but not all goes well as the weather takes a drastic turn for the worse. The final instalment for the campaign, “The Parish” has the team run through New Orleans to an awaiting evacuation helicopter. Thanks to the progression of the campaigns in L4D2 I’ve enjoyed the storyline more than I did with L4D, which left you with some question that needed to be answered, whereas in L4D2 the story is mainly told between the dialogues of the survivors.



So, so far we’ve covered the game modes, the story the campaign and the characters, I think right now would be a good time to discuss what is brand new for L4D2. Weapon wise we have the Magnum handgun, which you are only allowed to carry one of, due to the power of the recoil. There’s the AK-47 which is the new M16 which is still available. There’s the Grenade launcher, which is by far the most explosive of all the new weapons. There’s the Silenced or Unsilenced SMG, which is very good for clearing out any surrounding zombies. New to the throwing weapons selection we have Boomer Bile, when thrown any zombies in the area will be attracted to the scent making them an easy kill.

Next we have the melee weapons; these take the place of your sidearm although when you become incapacitated you have a pistol to defend yourself with. In no particular order here is the list of melee weapons: Frying pan, Cricket bat, baseball bat, machete, crowbar, police baton, chainsaw and guitar. Each of these has unlimited swinging, except for the chainsaw which has limited fuel, but there are usually two or three chainsaws lying about, so there is no real shortage of them. To be honest the new guns didn’t make this game more enjoyable for me, it was the melee weapons, and sadly I’m one those people who gets really happy at smashing a zombies head in with a frying pan, but my favourite weapon that I have used is the chainsaw, I have has no getter pleasure in a game than running head first in a horde of thirty zombies with a chainsaw spraying blood all over the screen. But everyone’s opinion is different.

In our final section I’ll talk about the new zombies and how they are controlled. Here’s a rundown of the new zombies in L4D2: The Spitter, this zombie reminds me of the smoker, but instead of the long tongue, the Spitter spits pools of acid in your direction which then spreads out over a large area. Next we have the Charger, this is what I would describe as a mini-Tank, as its name describes it charges at you pinning itself to you, after it has stopped running it will slam you into the ground until you or it is dead. Finally we have the really only original zombie the Jockey, this little fella will jump on top of you and ride you into hordes of zombies, out of windows and even over cliffs. Also on each level there are specialised zombies for the environment, there are the Clowns, the Mudmen, the CEDA agents and the riot police.

Now we come to the A.I. director, he has been given some make over I tell you. Every experience that you will have with this game will be unique, he changes the style and amount of zombies depending on how well you are playing he game, for example he can change the types of weapons at different locations, he can change the entire location of health and ammo piles, he can also change the effectiveness of each weapon when realism mode is turned on. So if you are pretty good at L4D watch out.

Easter egg time! For those of you who know of Jonathan Coulton his song RE: your brains can be played on every Juke box, tis the second or third song you can select.

Overall I found this to be one epic game loved every single moment of it bar when the A.I. director got me, but apart from that, loved it to pieces.

I’m going to give this a 9.5/10, why the .5 you ask. Well it’s really down to the fact that there are still some glitches that need to be worked out, but all in all an epic game, and it holds up brilliantly to its predecessor.