[360/PC] Left 4 Dead 2 Review

[DoctorFinger]

Left 4 Dead 2 Review

Title - Left 4 Dead 2
Platform - Xbox 360. Also on PC.
Developer - Valve
Publisher - Valve
ESRB Rating - M (Mature)
MSRP - 360 - $59.99; PC - $49.99
Editor - Michael "DoctorFinger" Chauvet

What's Hot: Some of the best social gaming you'll ever play. Lots of interesting and unique Crescendo Events. Fighting zombies in a torrential storm.

What's Not: Not so much fun in single player. The partner AI is still a bit on the dumb side.

"When there is no more room left in Hell, the dead will roam the Earth..."

You're not playing Left 4 Dead 2 for the story. As much as I love the game, it doesn't have much in the way of the story. You're thrown into the Zombie Apocalypse and have one task: survive.

If you've played the original Left 4 Dead, then you know more or less what to expect in the sequel. For the newcomers to the series: Left 4 Dead 2 puts you in the shoes of a quartet of survivors living through the zombie apocalypse. You and the rest of your group - which can be controlled by the AI, but it's better to have at least one human player runnin' and gunnin' with you - are trying desperately to find a safe place in a world overrun by the walking dead. You shoot your way through 5 campaigns, each broken up into 4-5 chapters, trying to find that elusive safe haven. The game's AI Director constantly evaluates your progress and tailors the experience to that particular play session. In those ways, the core gameplay is unchanged from the original. But oh yes, there are changes.

Zombie swamp folk

The first change which jumped out at me are the new Survivors. Even with little to no story in the original, many gamers became attached to the survivors. Trust me when I say that you'll get just as attached to Coach, Nick, Ellis and Rochelle. Their personalities are revealed through short little one liners sprinkled liberally throughout the game. No one will confuse the story here with Bioshock or Metal Gear Solid, but there's enough charm to the characters to make you really care for them after just a few playthroughs. However this time around there's a little more of a coherent narrative through the game, with the end of each campaign leading into the beginning of the next as the Survivors move through the Southern US from Savannah to New Orleans.

Then you get to the new infected. Joining the Smoker, Hunter, Boomer, Witch (some of which now wander around levels) and Tank from the original are:
- the Jockey - who will jump on the back of a Survivor and 'ride' them away from the group
- the Charger - a miniature Tank who can plow through a group or pummel an individual survivor
- the Spitter - who lobs a ball of acidic spit into the the players' midst.

Each of the new Specials present their own dangers, and seem directly designed to counter some of the most common strategies developed by players in the original game. Valve has also thrown what they call "uncommon common" infected into the milieu. These campaign-specific enemies are more or less just regular zombies with a twist. There's a cop in riot armor who takes a lot more damage than normal, unless you hit him from behind. A circus clown whose novelty squeaky shoes attract more zombies. Scientists in fireproof suits who are immune to fire weapons. These aren't as tough as the Specials, but add a little something to each campaign. To help counter these new necrotic horrors, you have a wealth of new weapons and equipment at your disposal. Defibrillator paddles, adrenaline shots, explosive & incendiary ammo, melee weapons, and new guns all make for a much more destructive experience. It also forces you to make some more strategic decisions. Do I take the adrenaline (which lets you move faster and escape from hordes), or the pills (which give you a temporary health boost)? Do I take a melee weapon, or a pistol? The developers have also reduced the number of ammo piles and weapon caches, forcing you to use more weapons this time around. The addition of melee weapons alone brings about a host of changes in tactics; you can more easily hold off a small horde, but at the same time your teammates are more likely to charge a group of zombies and cross your line of fire.

Here, there be Witches!

The campaigns in which you'll be trying out these new toys have just as many new tricks up their sleeves. The campaigns in the original, with a few exceptions, were fairly similar: running through mostly linear levels with a few Crescendo Events where players just turtle until the tide passes. Not any more. While there are a few events like that, L4D2 changes things up with several moving events. Rather than give you a spot to defend until the horde thins out, in these events you have to move and run to reach a goal. Most of these revolve around some sort of alarm you have to shut off (loud noises attract zombies!) but even so there's a wide variety to work through. This addition seems simple, but it's really a radical change from the original and gives the campaigns some wonderful depth. Deserving of particular accolades is the Hard Rain campaign. In this chapter you have to trek from a boat launch through a creepily abandoned sugar mill to retrieve gas, only to get socked in with hurricane-strength storm as you begin the return trip. You're covering the same ground in the last three chapters as you did in the first two, but the terrain is flooded and you're hit by occasional deluges which reduce visibility to near zero. And in all that you still have to navigate a sugar mill full of roaming Witches. Intense doesn't even begin to accurately describe this campaign.

While the game can be played solo, it is not as much fun as with other human players. The partner AI can be a little on the slow side, and having even a single other real person playing along with you makes the experience a whole lot better. Beyond the basic Campaign mode, Valve has included a number of interesting modes: Versus, Survival, Scavenge and Realism. Versus sees two teams of 4 pitted against each other; one side plays as the Survivors, the other as the Special Infected, switching off after each chapter. This is, in my opinion, the ne plus ultra of the game. Playing as the Special Infected (you can play as all of them but the Witch) is as much fun as you can have with your clothes on, and the strategy of the game changes dramatically when playing as the infected.

Survival is a take on the hot new "endless waves of increasingly difficult enemies" mode. You're sequestered in a constrained area of the game with weapons, ammo and equipment and have to fight off wave after wave of infected, both normal and Special. Fun, but it gets old faster than most of the other multiplayer modes. Scavenge Mode forces you to collect gas cans to power a motor, all while the infected besiege you. Since you can't shoot while carrying the cans, it certainly makes things more difficult. Then there's Realism mode, which can be applied to any difficulty level, removes much of the video game-y elements of the game. The silhouettes around the other players are gone, zombies only go down quickly with a head shot, and dead players can only be revived with defibrillator paddles; no more hero closets. This makes the party much more reliant on voice communication, and even on 'Easy' gets very difficult, very quickly. Difficult, but still fun.

Yes, you get to shoot Evil Clowns

Graphically there are a host of relatively minor tweaks and changes which collectively add up to a noticeably improved graphical experience. There is more variety among the common infected, and the zombies themselves look a bit creepier, particularly since their eyes now glow with reflected light, like the Luminal membranes on a cat. The environmental effects are also ramped up in the sequel, from the ruddy cast of the setting sun in 'The Parish' to the near biblical deluge you slog through in 'Hard Rain', everything around you is just a joy to behold. Each of the special infected has their own unique 'call' which alerts the players to their presence, and boy can they get creepy.

The power of the Storm

The original Left 4 Dead was great, but the new additions and tweaks make it the rare sequel to surpass it's progenitor in every way. All of the new levels are good, all of the new weapons are fun, all of the new challenges are interesting. I know many fans were critical of Valve's decision to release an all new game just a year after the original, claiming that the content here could have been released as DLC. Well I can say without hyperbole that the new content here is worthy of a separate release, and worth every penny.

Score: (5 out of 5 Cogs)


Michael says, "Left 4 Dead 2 is without a doubt one of the best multiplayer experiences you'll have. It improves on the original in just about every conceivable way. The new additions to the game - the new weapons and equipment, the new modes, the added variety to the levels - produce something superior to the original and a must own title for the social gamer.

[Tayaya]

Great review, and one I agree with 100% with one exception, which I'll get to. You went to some pretty good lengths to show exactly what differentiates this game from the first one, and I think that's something a lot of people need for this game. So many people are stuck in the "I'm not paying this much money for a map pack" mindset, and to me they really are missing some very big points.

The second game introduces:
*More campaigns than the first game had.
*New weapons, including melee items.
*The ability to modify your weapons with additional pickups.
*A major change to bringing dead players back - it's really significant as a game changer.
*Improved AI Director - he's a fucking bastard now.
*New enemy types
*New multiplayer modes.
*New engine with noticably different handling of basic enemy movement (they seem a lot more realistic now... move like they have mass to them), and physics/corpse dismemberment and disintegration.

All of these are enough to call this game an actual sequel... there's a lot more to it than just "more maps and different player-characters." To me, it really does take the original idea and build upon it, providing a better version of the same experience that we bought the original for... this is what a sequel should do, and this one does it admirably.

If I had to gripe, and as a single-player gamer I feel this is worth mentioning - the AI for the survivors is dumb to the point of being a detriment to the rest of the game, actually making the game more difficult at times than it need be. For all the improvements the AI Director and special infected have undergone, it's inexcusable that the AI Survivors:

* Do not use, or even pick up, any of the grenade type weapons. Pipe bombs are essential when you get hit by a big horde, molotovs are great against special infected, and Boomer Bile... well it's just entertaining (and great for Tanks). Being the only guy in the group to utilize these weapons makes a lot more work for me than there should be... at the very least if the other Survivors would pick these up and hold them for me, that'd give us enough to deal with things when the poop hits the fan. I didn't like this in the first game and it's disappointing that it hasn't changed.

*Don't pick up or use defribulators. These are a great item, and in this game, the only way to bring back a dead Survivor. If the AI used these, they could revive you when you die, but instead the game ends instantly for you, the single player. In a real 4 player game we make sure to keep one defib on-hand at all times. Since the AI knows how to help when you've fallen or are captured by a special, making them use Defibs would not be a terribly hard thing to program. Also, like grenades... at least let them pick up these valuable items and hold them, even if they're too stupid to use them.

*Make you take point 100% of the time, and don't always keep up with you. If it sounds like I take a lot of damage in single-player, it's because I do. Main reason - the AI always hangs behind you, sometimes really far back, leaving you as their hunter-bait around every corner of the game. If there are any targets in range, even ones that you can totally ignore, the AI will huddle up and take shots at them, staying engaged with needless targets when there's forward progress to be made. The first "turn off the alarm" segment took me 4 attempts because the AI was staying on the first floor of the mall, trying to clean it up, when the objective (and incoming waves of horde zombies) were all up at the top, on floor 3. In this part you need to "swim upstream" while battling the horde... if you stay at the bottom the horde just keeps on coming... and that's just what the AI does.

* Don't help with special events. There are points in this game where you have to collect items scattered about the map and bring them back to a central point. In a real game players could split into groups of 2 and make this task easier. The AI will not do this... I can forgive that. However, you would think that at least one of them would follow you and cover your happy ass... instead they tend to hover around the central drop-off point and leave you by yourself to do the real work. If you get pounced by a hunter, better hope they realize this and get to you in time!

So yeah, even on normal, the SP mode is really difficult, mainly because it's like playing the game with 3 idiots that have never played the game before. The end-of-campaign stats prove this when they show the player having about 60-70% of the kills and taking about 4 times the damage as anyone else. What the AI is great at, though is not shooting each other, and taking out specials when they DO detect them.

Given that I don't play single player much, and most L4D players don't... it's hard to call it a gamebreaker, but it is really annoying that ALL of these issues are present, as opposed to maybe one or two of them. In the first game these complaints existed, but the campaigns were still beatable with only minor headaches. With the jump in challenge provided by the sequel, leaving all of these issues unaddressed is really frustrating. On the bright side though, playing single player really does make you a better player. If you can beat campaigns with those morons, you and a group of others that can as well will go far in this world.

[Telefrog]

Originally Posted by Tayaya

* Do not use, or even pick up, any of the grenade type weapons. Pipe bombs are essential when you get hit by a big horde, molotovs are great against special infected, and Boomer Bile... well it's just entertaining (and great for Tanks). Being the only guy in the group to utilize these weapons makes a lot more work for me than there should be... at the very least if the other Survivors would pick these up and hold them for me, that'd give us enough to deal with things when the poop hits the fan. I didn't like this in the first game and it's disappointing that it hasn't changed.

This, plus...

Originally Posted by Tayaya

* Don't help with special events. There are points in this game where you have to collect items scattered about the map and bring them back to a central point. In a real game players could split into groups of 2 and make this task easier. The AI will not do this... I can forgive that. However, you would think that at least one of them would follow you and cover your happy ass... instead they tend to hover around the central drop-off point and leave you by yourself to do the real work. If you get pounced by a hunter, better hope they realize this and get to you in time!

...this.

Christ! I mean, why has this not improved at all from the first game? The AI Survivor behavior is inexcusable at this point.

The rest of the game is awesome, but Valve really needs to work on this feature.

[Wilkz07]

i have enjoyed part 2 over the first for everything thats mentioned above. managed to go through the entire first campagin using only melee weapons only to be attacking with ninja sword and getting knocked down and because i was in mid click, fired the pistol. turns out it was right at the end of the campagin.

i've noticed that majority of reviews lately are 360version any chance of getting some for ps3?

[Ink Asylum]

Agreed about the bot AI being the worst thing about the game. It's entirely clear that, despite all the upgrades to Director and Special Infected AI, they seem to have just pulled the Survivor AI from L4D1 and dropped it, completely unchanged, into the new game. You can tell because practically all of Tayaya's complaints have to do with features added to the sequel. In L4D1 a cautious, clear-each-room AI fit the style of campaign play. Now, with so many run-and-shoot crescendos, it's completely out of place.

I played through Dead Center solo on Easy last night, just so I could get the Confederacy of Crunches Achievement (complete a campaign using only a melee weapon). I did fine despite their slow, bumbling behavior. I actually lucked out and they followed me around during the finale, allowing me to pitch gas cans off the walkways without fear of SI. I doubt I'd want to solo either Normal or higher because of the poor AI.

[Telefrog]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

I doubt I'd want to solo either Normal or higher because of the poor AI.

Dean Center finale on Normal with all AI buddies is an exercise in frustration. Or punishment.

[Wackman3000]

I don't get why people complain about the AI.... This is a co-op designed game and I have yet to ever have a reason to play this game without 3 friends.

If you know they suck, why still use them? Or do you just enjoy pissing yourselves off?

[DoctorFinger]

I play local co-op all the time, so I deal with the AI quite a bit. There is one change: the other players don't leap in front of your crosshairs nearly as much as they used to, but they're still dumb as brocks.

[Tayaya]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

Agreed about the bot AI being the worst thing about the game. It's entirely clear that, despite all the upgrades to Director and Special Infected AI, they seem to have just pulled the Survivor AI from L4D1 and dropped it, completely unchanged, into the new game. You can tell because practically all of Tayaya's complaints have to do with features added to the sequel. In L4D1 a cautious, clear-each-room AI fit the style of campaign play. Now, with so many run-and-shoot crescendos, it's completely out of place.

That sums it up a lot better than I did while rambling in between issues at work. Thank you!

[Ink Asylum]

Because sometimes players drop out of a campaign, and if you can't replace them you're left almost crippled by the AI.

[Wackman3000]

Originally Posted by DoctorFinger

I play local co-op all the time, so I deal with the AI quite a bit. There is one change: the other players don't leap in front of your crosshairs nearly as much as they used to, but they're still dumb as brocks.

Local co-op on X360 can't also have 2 online people with you?

I forgot about X360, mostly because I don't consider Valve games on consoles to be real.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Wilkz07

i've noticed that majority of reviews lately are 360version any chance of getting some for ps3?

Would be hard on this game

Most of the multiplatform stuff sent to me is sent on 360. When and if I go to purchase a game I will usually get it on 360 over the PS3 version. Chances are greater there are more people available to play any multiplayer online on 360 over the PS3. Also, when I do go buy I simply don't have $120 to blow on both versions.

[DoctorFinger]

Originally Posted by Wackman3000

Local co-op on X360 can't also have 2 online people with you?

We can play with 2 other players (or 6 more in Versus), but it's not always practical so we end up playing quite a bit with just two players.

[MachEnergy]

I was one of those people who didn't really "get" the first game. Do you feel the additions to the sequel (can I call it that without offending anyone??) could potentially capture my intrigue this time around? I approached the previous game without much knowledge, and I expected a lot more explanation and never receieved much. Who are these characters? What's going on? Where are we going, and why? It just seemed like, "Zombies! Shoot them!" was the only thing was clear.

After a while, we figured out we were supposed to be moving from one safehouse to another, but I never did even complete one campaign. After a couple hours of not knowing what to do, we gave up, sealed the Gamefly envelope, and I haven't looked back. Being a trend gamer, I have been very jealous of how many people love the first game. What did I miss? How come everyone else loves it but me??

I think now that I know how to approach the series, maybe if I start over with the 2nd game, I'll have a much more fun time.

[Tayaya]

Originally Posted by MachEnergy

I was one of those people who didn't really "get" the first game. Do you feel the additions to the sequel (can I call it that without offending anyone??) could potentially capture my intrigue this time around? I approached the previous game without much knowledge, and I expected a lot more explanation and never receieved much. Who are these characters? What's going on? Where are we going, and why? It just seemed like, "Zombies! Shoot them!" was the only thing was clear.

After a while, we figured out we were supposed to be moving from one safehouse to another, but I never did even complete one campaign. After a couple hours of not knowing what to do, we gave up, sealed the Gamefly envelope, and I haven't looked back. Being a trend gamer, I have been very jealous of how many people love the first game. What did I miss? How come everyone else loves it but me??

I think now that I know how to approach the series, maybe if I start over with the 2nd game, I'll have a much more fun time.

Yes and no... The gameplay is a bit more improved this time around, and there are a few more objective oriented tasks that give you more to do other than searching for the next safehouse, but the overall game structure is very similar to the first one. I think you should probably give the first one a second chance, maybe play with someone that's been through the game a bunch by now, that can help take on the leadership role and get you and your friends through the original campaigns.

I think your problem with the first game is that you were looking for more to do than there really was. Shooting the undead and finding the next safehouse is all there really is to it. The level design and subtle hints dropped as part of the inter-character dialog should serve as enough guidance. When you get to an area where there's a switch to find or a radio to activate, the game should tell you this. The challenge of the game, and the thrills, come from simply making it out alive. When you can see the rescue chopper coming and a huge tank bursts into the area, suddenly coming between you and sweet, sweet freedom, that's where it's at its best. When three of you are about to get on the chopper and your rear guy goes down, and you have to decide whether you should just get out or be noble and save your friend.... that's one of the great L4D moments, and it happens a lot!

The new game isn't going to deviate much from this basic formula, but the campaigns are a LOT better, a bit more structured, and "flow" more nicely than they did before. In the first game, No Mercy and Dead Air are the only ones I really enjoy. Here, they're all getting equal play. Maybe that'll be just enough for you.

Edit: Yes, the characters get fleshed out a little bit more in this one too. Not by much, but it does have a bit more of a narrative to it than L4D.

[NotJeff]

Originally Posted by Wackman3000

If you know they suck, why still use them? Or do you just enjoy pissing yourselves off?

Something else: you can pause the SP game. That's not often an issue for most of us, but my daughter's young and I'm learning that for the time being at least, an unpausable game is an unplayable game.

I've had to drop out of more MP campaigns early than I've been able to finish. If I want to see the whole campaign, I'm going to have to play it SP.

[Food Nipple]

Originally Posted by Telefrog

The rest of the game is awesome, but Valve really needs to work on this feature.

I would much rather them put effort into virtually any other area of the game. It's a multiplayer game. The bot AI is there so that if I have to pee, I can flip on bot mode and hopefully not have lost too much health by the time I get back.

Anything beyond that is a waste of time.

It seems like there's always a string of complaints every time a single player game like Bioshock adds in a throwaway multiplayer mode, why isn't the converse true?

[Kielaran]

Originally Posted by Tayaya

I think your problem with the first game is that you were looking for more to do than there really was. Shooting the undead and finding the next safehouse is all there really is to it. The level design and subtle hints dropped as part of the inter-character dialog should serve as enough guidance. When you get to an area where there's a switch to find or a radio to activate, the game should tell you this. The challenge of the game, and the thrills, come from simply making it out alive. When you can see the rescue chopper coming and a huge tank bursts into the area, suddenly coming between you and sweet, sweet freedom, that's where it's at its best. When three of you are about to get on the chopper and your rear guy goes down, and you have to decide whether you should just get out or be noble and save your friend.... that's one of the great L4D moments, and it happens a lot!

This. The game is really just about 4 people trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. There isn't any story except 'let's go here so we can get rescued' and the rest of the compaigns are all about getting to that point.

Edit: Yes, the characters get fleshed out a little bit more in this one too. Not by much, but it does have a bit more of a narrative to it than L4D.

That I have not seen so far. Ellis has a big personality, but the others have all seemed pretty blah to me. Maybe this will change as I play more, but I see the first set of survivors as having much more of a personality (except Louis, who I put the other 3 in L4D2 on par with in uninteresting).

[Psykoboy2]

Originally Posted by Wilkz07

i've noticed that majority of reviews lately are 360version any chance of getting some for ps3?

There's rarely a difference between the two. At least a difference that is staggering. It usually only consist of graphical differences and even those have been minor as of late, with the main exceptions being Ghostbusters and, from what I've heard and seen a bit of, Bayonetta.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Psykoboy2

There's rarely a difference between the two. At least a difference that is staggering. It usually only consist of graphical differences and even those have been minor as of late, with the main exceptions being Ghostbusters and, from what I've heard and seen a bit of, Bayonetta.

And supposedly Borderlands.