Left 4 dead 2 review full#

Cluster too close and the spitter, charger, and boomer will have their way. Get too far apart and the humans are easy pickings for the hunter, smoker, and jockey. Along with the other two new infected, the jockey and the spitter, Left 4 Dead 2 presents a much finer line for the survivors to walk than the original. The burly, linebacker-esque charger is my personal favorite, as blasting through a team of humans that think they're safe is my favorite thing to do in the entire game. Playing as the zombies in either versus or scavenge is still the game's best experience, and the three new special infected don't disappoint. In short, Valve recognized that people were playing the game in a different way than they had anticipated and adapted the sequel to counter it, making the game far more challenging and rewarding. There are still events in the mold of the old ones, but even those are changed by the presence of chargers and spitters. Now the survivors must often complete some kind of objective before the horde stops, usually turning off an alarm or retrieving some kind of item. Fortunately, Valve has gotten a lot more creative with events in Left 4 Dead 2, and by doing so has made them a much richer experience. Many teams simply began running away as soon as the event started, leaving the horde behind and taking the opportunity away from the zombie team to attack. Most of the levels in Left 4 Dead have some sort of alarm that sets off a huge zombie rush, and usually the survivors would just hide in a corner and blast them away, making the event far less challenging than intended. Fire and weather effects have also been utilized more effectively, especially in the Dead Center and Hard Rain campaigns.

There are even special versions of the normal zombies unique to each campaign, which was also noticeably lacking. There is much more environmental variety this time around, as things can range from a daylight urban environment to a dark and muggy swamp, a welcome change from the four similar settings in Left 4 Dead. The levels are much more vibrant this time around-the game relocates from western Pennsylvania to ground covering Savannah, Georgia all the way to New Orleans.

Left 4 dead 2 review full#

There are five full campaigns compared to the original's four (only two were playable on versus) and all five are usable on every game mode in some way. Left 4 Dead 2 was released as a much more complete package than its predecessor. Playing on expert difficulty is arguably harder than taking on a full team of players in versus, and adding in the new realism mode (no colored outlines on teammates and zombies do more damage) on top of thatвЂ¦well that's just for people that think Contra III was too easy. The AI director has been improved as well, now having the capability to alter things like wall placement, lighting, and weather effects depending on the paths chosen by the players. Even playing on advanced difficulty is a struggle, with vastly improved zombie AI and new special infected specifically designed to counter the cornering strategy I mentioned earlier. While the regular co-op campaigns in the original were enjoyable enough, it eventually got to the point where my friends and I could blow through them on any difficulty with breaking much of a sweat. And to be quite honest, I wouldn't have it any other way, since it actually makes the non-versus campaigns fun to play. This is Battletoads level of challenge we're talking about. And I don't mean that in the sense of 'man, this part is kinda kicking my ass.' Oh no no no.

One thing is abundantly clear from the beginning-this game is hard, much more so than the original. So while it might seem that Left 4 Dead 2 has the easy task of simply adding more content to its predecessor, there are quite a few things it needs to address to make itself worthwhile. Or the extreme length of a full versus campaign. Or CPU players that completely ignore me when I need to be helped up. However, after so much playing time the game's flaws and shortcomings become that much more apparent, like the universal 'hide in a corner' strategy used by the survivors during horde events. I've put about 120 hours into the game at the time of this writing, as the versus mode is near-endlessly replayable if you have the right people.

The original Left 4 Dead, Valve's zombie-riffic first-person shooter from last year, redefined co-op gaming as we know it, providing a tighter and more team dependent play style than any other title in its genre. WTF: Why can't the tank pick people up like the charger does? LOW: Rochelle's extremely bland character. HIGH: Barreling through all four survivors with the charger.