From the inception of the first Left for Dead, L4D for short, with 4 player co-op campaigns and team based multiplayer modes, gamers both alive and dead have being raising hell with Valve. Valve took the gamer into a world over run with death and decay and gave them a chance to survive the ordeal. Now with L4D2 Valve has expanded their Undead Co-op game to include many new enhancements, from Boomer Filled Bile grenades to melee weapons ranging from a baseball bat to a frying pan.

 

The one major adjustment is that L4D2 now features a coherent and enticing story line, each end scene fades into the beginning scene of the next stage, where as L4D contained more of a disorientated array of chapters each with little or no correlation to the previous chapter. You get to play one of four survivors namely, Coach, Rochelle, Nick and Ellis who are trying to escape from Louisiana to New Orleans in the hope of a military evacuation.

 

 

L4D2 not only features new survivors but also three new infected characters, the Spitter can send a hoagie of toxic acid your way, Jockeys can jump onto survivors and ride them into a horde of undead or worse… Finally the charger aka the Mini Tank is possible the most dangerous new infected and can easily kill a survivor in a matter of seconds if the other survivors aren’t paying attention to each other…

 

Some of the fun additions include special infected specific to each chapter ranging from Swat infected with body armor to Clowns with squeaky shoes that will bring hordes of undead your way!

 

 

 

 

L4D2 visually is a dismal performance, though any FAN of Valve will tell you they are known to use their source engines for 5 years or longer before upgrading to a new engine. While you won’t be spending to much time admiring glistening sunlight of pools of blood, but rather shooting in various directions in the hopes that the four survivors can get to the next safe house.

 

The cut scenes are well directed and seeminglessly flow from actual game play into a short clip showing our survivors getting into even more trouble. While a more visually appealing game would have made L4D2 into a must have, the gamers who enjoy a good run and gun game will certainly be playing L4D2 however those visually needy gamers will give this title a pass.

 

 

The controls are simple and common to every FPS console gamer, while Valve is known to have bad ports from PC to Console they seem to have resolved the issues from L4D and have quite a solid console title.

 

L4D2 expands on the notorious Director AI from its predecessor. The Director AI is a virtual director that decides when a horde should attack you or where to place weapon upgrades. This is a great feature for a squad of four human survivors as the game is constantly adjusting itself for the group’s ability to clear obstacles, this also means that if you passed the first stage with ease expect a sudden Tank or special zombie to attack at the worst possible time. Many a time an entire team had Red HP bars when a horde would come screaming in followed by a tank and of course everyone’s favorite a witch crying in the only exit.

 

The ambient sounds were eerie, and the little melody warning you of an incoming horde has become a melody of dread and despair. While the weapon sounds were bland and uninteresting the clang of a frying pan against an infected head is most gratifying.

 

 

 

 

While L4D2 is astounding in co-op terms, playing solo with AI controlled survivors is nothing more than less of annoying, they are either super powered and have the eyes of a hawk and can take out a smoker from across the map, or get confused with their prerogative and stand around as a Charged pounds you into a pancake.

 

Another feature for those with broadband is the multiplayer portion, with two modes the Survivor mode which is a standard team death match, pitting infected against the survivors. A new feature which entices gamers to jump head first into a huge brawl is the Scavenger mode. This mode requires the survivors to collect gas cans and bring them to the generator where as the infected will try stop you at all costs. The game time starts with 90 seconds on the clock and is increased by 20 seconds for each successful drop off.

 

While many will consider the 1 year time line between L4D and L4D2 as being a clear indication that L4D is just an expansion and should be charged as such, we find it hard to fault the idea of a fully fledged story line, additional infected and a new multiplayer mode. Even at its retail price L4D2 is worth it for those with other friend’s online, preferably in packs of 4. If you are offline perhaps grab a copy in the second hand market as the AI can be a real fail at the best of times.