Valve must have been somewhat surprised by the success of the first Left 4 Dead game. After all, it was real short and was more a labour of love than a fully fledged retail release. A year later and the sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, is already on our shelves. So, with such a short development time, do the improvements warrant our hard earned cash once again? In short... Yes!
One of the first things you'll notice with the sequel is that it's as tough as nails, even for seasoned players. On many occasions I found myself having to lower the difficulty in order to avoid the frequent Game Over screens. Valve has tweaked the AI director to be even more punishing, and you'll frequently face two or more special infected at a time, with a tank immediately afterwards to take out any remaining "survivors". It's a game that almost demands perfect teamwork which means that it can be a bit intimidating for new or casual gamers. To make matters even worse for the survivors, there is now a Realism mode that sees the difficulty skyrocketing to new heights with the zombies and special infected becoming even more ruthless, and the helpful character and item highlights that aid you to find ammo, weapons and your own teammates all falling away. Recommended for only the foolhardy and the brave, but will be appreciated by the hardcore L4D players out there.
If you can deal with constant death around every corner (after all it is a zombie apocalypse) then you can take your pick from a wealth of game modes, with the campaign mode leading the way. As with the original, you and your fellow survivors (AI or co-op) will follow the same story based missions where you need to escape to safe houses before finally reaching a rescue point - all while killing thousands of zombies along the way. Versus mode also returns with the chance to take on friend and foe alike as a zombie or a survivor in the campaign missions. New modes include, Survival, which sees you pitting yourself and your team against an infinite supply of infected to see how long you can survive, with medals being awarded for staying alive for a certain length of time. Another new game mode that Left 4 Dead 2 introduces is the Scavenge mode, which sees you and your fellow survivors fighting off infected all while trying to find tanks of gas to power a generator, thereby extending the round time. It's a neat take on the Versus mode, with its own set of maps, and infected who'll not only try to kill you, but also take out the tanks of gas.
Most of your time will be spent killing infected and Valve has seen fit to give us a multitude of death dealing weapons to use. An assortment of melee weapons are now available, so you can tear through zombies with a chainsaw like Mother Nature intended or perhaps use an electric guitar or frying pan to smash your way through the horde. It comes in rather handy when you've depleted your main weapon's ammo and can be a life saver. The main weapons have also seen an overhaul with new weapons being introduced such as the chromed shotgun, silenced submachine gun and AK-47.
Left 4 Dead is all about co-operative gaming, and the first game, although hindered by dedicated servers, managed to be a success locally. Valve has thankfully included a 'local hosting' option which uses peer 2 peer instead of dedicated servers this time around. Unfortunately, it looks like Left 4 Dead 2 also requires more bandwidth, and most of the games I played suffered atrocious amounts of lag. This seems to only be problematic for users on 384Kbit lines, and is also heavily dependant on the host and other line speeds in your party, but should be taken into account for anyone who has difficulty playing online in other popular multiplayer games.
Left 4 Dead 2's graphics engine hasn't seen much of an improvement over the first game but then again it's only been 1 year since the first game was released. Sound wise the game has a rather excellent and unique soundtrack that originates from the game's characters and Deep South setting. So expect plenty of banjos and Cajun inspired music to accompany your terrifying journey through New Orleans, swamps and other environments that could come from the movie Deliverance.
There's been a lot of controversy about Left 4 Dead 2's quick release with only a year separating it from the first game, with petitions and organised boycotts to force Valve to release the game as DLC rather than as a full retail product. Does the short development time mean we as gamers have been stiffed by Valve with a hastily made game? Definitely not. Left 4 Dead 2 adds much more content than we've come to expect from DLC packs and it also manages to add a lot of new elements. If you were let down by the short length of the first game's campaigns and you've been aching to get back into killing infected, then Left 4 Dead 2 is a must have.
Pros:
- Campaigns are lengthier
- New game modes
- Excellent longevity
Cons:
- Prone to lag
- Tough as nails
Rating: 
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