Left 4 Dead 2 has been around for quite some time but it is still going strong and I want to talk about it. What are you going to do about it? Nothing, that's what I thought.
Available for PC and Xbox 360, Left 4 Dead 2 is Valve's second take on a zombie apocalypse first person co-operative shooter. The first game in the series was a massive success due to its high quality production and unique online experiences, and the sequel doesn't attempt to fix something that wasn't broken, and instead focuses on bringing more of the stuff that made the original great.
For most of the game, you will play was one of the four human survivors. These are Ellis (the lovable hick pretty boy), Rochelle (the sassy journalist in a Depeche Mode t-shirt), Nick (sarcastic con artist) and Coach (he's a coach). Immune to the virus that has infected everyone else and turned them into mutated undead freaks, the team must collect any weapons they can and fight through hordes of super-fast zombies in order to reach safe points, and ultimately their rescue.
There are five campaigns, all of them set around New Orleans, and each one is made up of four to six maps which will take an average player between ten and twenty minutes to get through. On the whole, the game is a 'get from A to Z without being eaten' experience, although occassionally a map will require something different from you, such as collecting items or going on a salvage mission for petrol. The maps are packed full of great ideas and have expert design and stylish visuals. There are flash floods to deal with, uncontrollable fires, a creepy carnival and a rock concert, to name a few of the highlights. Due to the AI Director, each playthrough is different, making it easier for struggling players, harder for confident players and, above all else, different every time.
Making your journey interesting will be the occassional horde of zombies, who are easily dispatched with a shotgun blast but they will cause problems if you let them swarm. There are Special Infected too, horribly disfigured creatures who will attack your team in different ways. Spitters will cover you in burning acid, Boomers will vomit over you (which will attract the zombies), and Tanks and Chargers will just generally beat you up and then down again. The ones to really look out for are Hunters, Smokers and Jockeys, who can essentially disable you until a team mate comes along to help. And don't go disturbing the crying Witch...
Various weapons can be found along the way. These range from the logical (shotguns, machine guns, pistols, magnums and grenade launchers) and the cool (melee weapons such as axes, samurai swords and guitars, modified pipe bombs and Molotov Cocktails) to the outright weird (bottles of vomit and a garden gnome). The best weapon you will have at your disposal though is your team work. You won't make it through unless you work as a unit, protecting each other, rescuing each other and managing your resources properly. You can play the game as a single player experience and the computer players (the AI bots) will do a decent job, but Left 4 Dead is at its best online or split-screen with living human beings on your team.
I mentioned that you would spend about half of your game as the human characters, and this is because of Left 4 Dead's excellent Versus mode. Most of the life from this series comes from the multiplayer fun, and this is the core attraction. The players are split into two teams - Survivors and Infected. The Survivors have to try their best to get through each map, while the Infected players take control of the nasty zombies and get in the other players' way as much as possible. Unique, exciting and unpredictable fun, and let's be honest, it's great to be a zombie. The only downside to this mode is its extraordinary length, so if you want to take control of a zombie for a shorter period of time, try the Scavenge mode, which plays like a cut-down version of Versus. Wrapping up the available game modes are Survival, where you must fight against waves of attackers and last as long as you can, and Realism, where some of the more video game style elements are removed from the gameplay in order to make it more realistic (read: difficult).
When compared to the original (and cheaper) game, there is not much technical stuff that has changed. There is a lot more content though, and the graphics and the world of the game are crisper and smarter than they were before. The maps exhibit smarter design, and each campaign offers a unique experience. There are new weapons and items to collect, four new fun characters to get to know and eight new zombies to re-kill. Would you be missing out a lot if you saved a few quid and went for the original Left 4 Dead instead of this sequel? Not really, but in all honesty, both games have such strong replay value that I recommend you buy them both. The online play experience is brilliant and addictive, and while the game itself is quite short and basic, the unpredictability and variety on offer makes it one of the most engaging zombie apocalypses you could ever hope to be part of.
The Passing Downloadable Content
The 'Passing' add-on pack was released for Left 4 Dead 2. Available free for PC users and for 560 points (about £5) for Xbox users, the Passing adds three maps to the game, along with a new zombie type (the Fallen Survivor), a gun and a melee weapon. Also, Valve have introduced the Mutation mode, which presents a weekly variation on a game mode for players to enjoy. These are unique, fun and sometimes sadistic extra challenges that mean you will get serious long-term value for money on your download. PC users should pick this up without hesitation, and I would recommend this downloadable content highly to Xbox users, despite the added cost, as I think the new maps, weapons, Mutation mode, achievements and avatar unlockables will more than make up for the small investment.