Left 4 Dead 2 Review (360)

It’s time for the hoard to rise again

After just 10 minutes of playing, you can see who the two fingered V sign on the Left 4 Dead 2 box is directed at. 2009’s biggest zombie mash-up proves to the small time boycotters that you should a little faith in Valve when they announce a fully fledged sequel only six months after the former was released, they’ll still ensure you’re getting bang for your buck. Sure enough, they’ve proven just that, enough to convince the strongest Valve team-players to chase down, ravage, spew, tear up and gouge any boycotter that actually managed to enforce the ban, just so they could see what they were missing.

In terms of second attempts, Left 4 Dead 2 is about as sequely as sequels get. To some it may seem fairly unprofessional to run into a second instalment with the motivational message simply being ‘More=Better’, yet it clearly works, and more is what everyone wanted after all. In fact if anyone were to still complain about a lack of anything, the game is sure to shut itself off and start showing you pledge videos from Children In Need until you feel heart chomping guilt, and so you friggin’ should.

The new group of 4 survivors prove to be a lot more talkative than the last bunch. Light hearted yet heavy weighted Coach, quick witted Rochelle, life loving southerner Ellis and sharp tongued sarcastic Nick all throw in their fair share of narrative about the situation, surroundings and each other. Even after several plays, barely any of it is ever recycled and manages to actually give the unlucky foursome clear depth in terms of character, meaning you can pick out a clear favourite to play as, making it easy for the average forum-goer who constantly posts ‘I alWAys pik Zoeey cuz she’s FiNe JLB8’.

A major gripe with the first L4D was the four campaigns of offer. Despite all being impressive lengths, the number four played strong in this element as well and all were set in incredibly dreary settings leaving players starving for more. L4D2’s five campaigns hardly sounds like a strong boost to the roster, yet all prove to be longer and filled with so much attention to detail that frequent replays will reward you with alternative routes and story possibilities. The deeper scale of the plot still remains a mystery, yet clues to uncover it are scattered around everywhere and you can’t help but be intrigued by the nature of the pandemic. Locations also feel incredibly natural, almost organic until the flood of infected stopped by, and certain elemental factors in the environment sometimes factor in your overall strategy and approach in tackling the undead.

Joining the classic uber Infected members are three new special Infected who plan to make life a complete misery. ‘Jockey’ joins the leaping family popularised by ‘The Hunter’, throwing themselves onto the necks of survivors whilst forcing them to lose control over where they’re heading and the ‘Spitter’, acting as a combination of ‘Boomers’ and ‘Smokers’, who spit large amounts of acid in your general direction, perhaps to burn your clothes in jealousy as an obvious attempt to cover up her own bad taste in fashion sense. ‘The Charger’ proves to be an all brawn ploughing machine, ramming a whole team down, grabbing one unlucky individual and slamming them against anything resembling rock. All are complete nuisances to come up against, yet brilliant fun to play as in Versus mode.

Character models on all the special Infected have been modified to look extra gruesome (trust me, watching a Tank’s cholesterol induced blubber wriggle around has put me off fast food for some time), and even the Boomer has its own female equivalent. It’s not just the boil ridden Special Infected that earn their place in the hearts of elephant men everywhere, new uncommon Infected roam specific areas forcing you to adapt to the environment and even peppy common zombies get a makeover. Despite their fierce determination to rip you to pieces, common Infected are incredibly frail, and so practically anything attached to their torso can come flying off…including the front of their torso.

Of course the added gore factor is a huge welcome, and the vast new arsenal only embraces it further. All handguns, shotguns, rifles and machine guns come in several varieties allowing you to pick out what works best, yet the melee weapons really bring out the thirst for blood. Sacrificing your pistol with unlimited ammo may seem daunting, but carrying around a chainsaw in exchange is definitely worth the price you pay. Melee weapons prove to be incredibly useful, acting as a violent and deadly shove when the team gets overwhelmed. Just don’t expect a frying pan to be your final saving grace when things get hairy.

If a Charger rams you 50 feet into surrounding shrubbery in Realism mode, there isn’t a hope in hell that the other three are going to find you.

New recovery items also find their way in. The defibrillator can revive dead players, at least giving them at least a chance to run off without the team like a moron again. Vials of Boomer vomit can be found around the place that, once chucked at an Infected, will cause other zombies to rush over to them like an aphrodisiac, and suspiciously placed adrenaline shots can be swapped for suspiciously placed pill canisters in order to increase the speed of the survivors. Despite only being small changes, they can radically redefine your method of play. Should you carry a defibrillator for one of your team-mates, or trust them so much that you can take a medi-kit for yourself? Is it more likely you’ll come across a huge horde of zombies or a Tank? Why are these decisions taking so long when a Hunter could pounce any minute?

Despite all these improvements, the ally AI can still act as dim as a group of moths heading to the sun, but L4D always hinted that it was a multi-player fare, and L4D2 enforces that even further. The new ‘Realism mode’ practically makes the whole game a survival simulator and forces players to rely on nothing but teamwork in order to make it through even a minute. You don’t realise how useful halos surrounding allies and weapons are until they vanish, leaving those who dare to split up untraceable, with loyal survivors fearing the worst.

The new ‘Scavenger’ mode takes advantage of the new finale events that finish each scenario. Instead of calling for help on a radio and simultaneously praying and shooting, players actually have to be a lot more pro-active about their escape. In order to revive a spluttering vehicle, fuel cans litter the playing field and need to be transferred to it in order to get it running. Of course, the added danger in carrying gas cans around is the fact that they could blow up in your hands, setting your Holy Bible of survival into a death inducing inferno.

These new online game modes, the ‘Realism Mode’, the fact that survival is now dependent on both leadership and the will to make it through alone in certain sections and the moral de
cisions faced when it comes to healing team-mates really strengthens the core of what this franchise is all about. Team work was always important in L4D, but here, it feels like you just can’t get by on your own. If a Charger rams you 50 feet into surrounding shrubbery in Realism mode, there isn’t a hope in hell that the other three are going to find you. If you run on ahead and a Jockey manages to steer you into the acid of a Spitter, you’re done for. All these factors contribute to make a truly terrifying experience for those playing as Survivors, yet when the roles are reversed it’s devilishly fun as an Infected.

Left 4 Dead 2 had to fight in order to prove that it was something more special that just an add-on pack and that it deserved its place on our shelves, and that’s precisely what it’s done. The improvements manage to heighten everything the previous game started to build with, manages to go that little bit further, and does all this without making the original feel redundant. The content encourages a replay straight after you finish the final chapter and is certain to keep the letters ‘D’,’L’ and ‘C’ out of the minds of players for quite a few months.