Never has a zombie apocalypse been so much fun!
Left 4 Dead 2 (in future I’ll call it L4D2) was released
around a year ago, following its highly successful debut (L4D) a year before.
Valve had consistently produced great games, usually in the First-Person
Shooter genre, however had never released a game based on a zombie-infected
world. When L4D was released two years ago, it was met with extremely positive
reviews across the board, praising its fantastic multiplayer gameplay and
innovative special infected. The main flaws were the lack of content, and the
frustrating AI.
So what have L4D2 done in the year since its debut? Quite a
lot actually. We have new infected, we have new characters, different maps, two
new game modes and new weapons. On the basis that sounds like a heck of a lot
content added from the original, so they already crossed off one of the two
main flaws in the original. Let me go through each topic.
I mentioned the fantastic special infected from the first
game, these special infected have superpowers that make them much more deadly
than your standard zombie. You could play as these special infected when
playing Versus mode, going against another team playing as the survivors. Just
to recap, in the original you had the Hunter, who dived at their prey and rips
them to shreds, the Smoker, who had a very long tongue used to pull their
victim and attack them, and the absolutely brilliant looking Boomer, a very fat
infected who spreads his bile across the survivors which attracts a horde of
zombies to attack them. Those three special infected would appear much more
often than the next two. Other than that you had the Witch, an uncontrollable
infected, who would be quiet and only attack, to deadly consequences, if
bothered in any way, and the Tank, an enormous infected that bullies and pounds
the survivors to submission.
So what have L4D2 done to the special infected? Well they’ve
added 3 more actually. Now we also have the Charger. Who, well, charges into
the survivors and pummels them to the ground. We have the Spitter, who, well,
spits acid at the ground where the survivors are, burning their feet and
forcing them to try and move out of the way. Finally, we have the Jockey, a
tiny special infected, who climbs and, well, jockeys the survivor into
hazardous situations, namely away from everyone else, or into acid or a Boomer.
Also, witches can move around now, rather than stay in one location, which
makes them potentially even more dangerous.
One of the main things I liked about the original three main
special infected is that they were so balanced. You would have moments, when
playing one where it would suck to be one of them, based on the map
environment, however for the most part they were fantastically balanced. The
problem I have with the new three that add to make six main special infected is
that they make the balance, well, a bit off. The Charger for instance, is quite
often much more useful than the Hunter, they can both be used to cripple a
survivor, yet the Charger deals much more damage. I also, for the most part,
find the Spitter to be pretty useless, it can be quite easy to miss and they have
very little health. The Jockey however, man, this guy is fantastic, I find a
lot of pleasure getting a survivor when the other three aren’t looking, and
dragging the poor bugger back far so the others are little too late to get back
in time. So the new special infected make the options vary, but the balance can
be a little off.
Now onto the new characters. I welcome the new characters,
they have much more personality than the original bunch; the best definitely
being Ellis, who plays a talkative, zany, young Southern US mechanic and his
ramblings make good entertainment when you have a breather, usually at the
start of levels. We have Coach, who is, a coach, who plays the stereotypical
black man you see in films nowadays (many parodies on the web have him eat
chicken). You have Rochelle, who sounds very dumb and irritating, but is a
caring and young woman, and Nick, a conman, who gives you the feeling that
there’s more to him that meets the eye. The characters interact more, and show
more personality, which makes the experience better.
These characters will travel through different maps than
those of the original game, all based in the South of the US. These maps have a
much more “theme” feel to it than the original, which felt much more “you are
going through a location”, by default, emphasis on this being “Dark Carnival”,
which, naturally, takes place in a Carny, as well as “Swamp Fever”, which takes
place in a swamp environment, with particular infected wandering here named
mudmen. It’s debatable whether or not the theme-esque campaigns make them
better levels, however I personally don’t prefer these levels to the originals
from L4D. Sure, they look prettier and the themes make an interesting twist to
the game, but I just think that the level design on the L4D2 maps are a step
backwards from the original game’s. That being said, the final campaign, “The
Parish”, is a fantastic campaign that has a very L4D1 feel to it, and the
finale level is a fantastic one to play through.
In the original L4D, you had your general campaigns, your
Versus mode and your Survival mode. Versus mode, as touched on earlier, pits
you and other people online against another team online. You take turns being
the infected and the survivors, and it is a point-based system to determine
what team was better. In Survival mode, you had to last as long as possible
against horde after horde of infected. You can compare your times with other
members online. Those two modes are also in L4D2, with only a subtle change to
the Versus mode, being how the points are tallied up at the end of each level.
There are two more modes added onto the list of game modes, those being
Realism, and Scavenge. Realism is basically your campaign mode, but without all
the visual aids the game gives you, like silhouettes of the other characters
you are playing with, if you shoot a fellow survivor it will damage them much
more, and makes the zombies more difficult to kill. You don’t quite realise how
much you depend on these aids until you have them removed! And lastly, you have
the Scavenge mode. This mode is a quick and fun game where you have to fill an
engine of some kind with oilcans scattered across a terrain. Similar to verses
mode, you are either the survivors filling the engine, or the infected trying
to stop them. Scavenge mode is definitely a charming little addition to L4D2.
There are many new weapons in this game in comparison to the
original where you only a choice of two shotguns, two machine guns and an
assault rifle, and the handgun. In this game you have a multitude of shotguns,
rifles and machine guns. You also can pick up a magnum instead of the handgun.
There is also a grenade launcher available, which has limited ammo but can
inflict mass damage over an area of the map. That, however, isn’t the major
improvement in this department. That, my friend, is the many melee weapons you
can now use to replace said handgun. You can have a frying pan, an axe, a
baseball bat, a machete, or most impressively, the chainsaw. These weapons
bring you closer to the infected, which could be a bigger risk, but it also
notches up the gore a drastic amount.
Which brings me to that point, the graphics, and more
particularly, the graphic content. This game is graphic. It’s much more graphic
than the original, I’ve never seen a game put so much emphasis on the human
anatomy as this game. If you shoot an infected in the stomach, his intestines
will fall to the floor. Shoot them in the back; you will see their spine. Shoot
them in the leg, you get the picture. It’s fantastic to look at, albeit slightly
concerning with regards to the detail, and makes the experience that much more
prominent. The graphics are a big step forward from the original in general as
well; it just looks smoother, crisper. Fire looks much more realistic, so does
smoke, you have to hand Valve a lot of credit for boosting the graphics for
this game.
The sound in the game has also improved, most particularly
the soundtrack. The general themes now sound much more old school rock and
roll, and really works with the game. The sounds in the game were originally
great anyway, and they have made subtle improvements to an already great sound
engine, you can hear the special infected with their very unique vocals, you
can hear fantastic rushed drumbeats when you hear a horde coming, and the Tank
music is still the same, which is as great as ever. The only problem with the
sound? They changed the Boomer’s noises slightly. He was much more horrendous
to hear in the original!
There is a lot of Downloadable Content (DLC) also for this
game, stuff I’m not going to review, partly because I’ve not played it, but
also because you don’t get it with your game by default. From what I’ve heard
the DLC has been very well received and if you have the spare cash, I’d
definitely recommend you get it.
L4D2 is a game that is vastly improved when you are playing
with friends. Playing Versus mode, or playing a campaign, it doesn’t matter.
This game unfortunately does little to improve one of the main problems with
the original, and that’s the AI. The AI in the L4D games get in your way often,
resulting in you shooting them, they also point blank refuse to pickup
Molotov’s and pipebombs and most frustrating of all, can see through trees and
other obscuring areas, which makes “hiding” as a special infected in a game of
Versus very frustrating. This however, really is the games only flaw, it’s top
notch in every other area.
To conclude, L4D2 is a phenomenal game. Just in case you
didn’t know, I actually for the most part, hate FPS games. But I can’t help but
love L4D2, it’s so much fun, you can play Versus mode for hours and you still
won’t be bored. The graphics and sound are fantastic, the infected, despite
there being a slight imbalance this time round, are all great to see and play
as. What is better? L4D2 or L4D1? I still prefer the first one though, sorry. I
think technically this game is better, Valve have addressed the few criticisms
from the first game and improved the game as an engine. But like a lot of game
series’, the original just feels better, even though the game has been improved
in many ways. If you have not played a L4D game, get this one first, you’ll
probably appreciate it more, because it’s more than likely pure sentiment with
regards to why I prefer the original. One thing I can guarantee. Is that never
has a zombie apocalypse been so much fun!
Rating: ****1/4
Having played the second one first I have to say I do prefer number 2, but I generally agree with your review. You forgot to mention the varying normal zombie types. Whilst the first game suffered from repetitive zombie skins the new one has a much larger variety of regular zombies, ranging from SWAT Police, zombie clowns, infected CDC agents. Although, this is only really window dressing as with the levels it just makes the game feel a bit more complete than the first game.
ReplyDeleteGood points Mike, it does make that slight bit of difference. I still think, sentimental reasons of course, L4D1 is better! =p
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