Left 4 Dead 2: You had me at Pipe Bomb
When Left 4 Dead 2 was announced about six months after the first game came out, a lot of people were shocked for a few reasons. It’s Valve and Valve is notorious for taking their sweet time releasing quality games, was one reason. And then there was the more important question. Was this a cash grab? Is it merely an expansion pack masquerading as a fully priced game? And now it’s released and the answer to the above questions is evident: Left 4 Dead 2 had me at “improved pipe bomb.”
But you’re not here to listen to me go on about how cool the pipe bomb is and how awesome the changed effects of zombie bodies literally exploding through the air is. At least I hope not. The fact is, after playing through Left 4 Dead 2, the original game feels more like a blueprint. Everything that was in L4D is in the sequel, but the sequel is a completely different beast. I was surprised, when we played through the opening campaign “Dead Centre” just how varied and improved the game was. You begin at the top of a hotel, bringing to mind the small apartment complex that began the first game. Except that this time, there’s a whole lot more. You see, the building is on fire, you can create backdrafts through doors, and the entire event feels more context driven than…well, than the entire first game.
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Fire will cause impromptu passages, forcing you to discover different ways through the crumbling building. This means sometimes climbing out a window and balancing precariously on a ledge, moving from window to window in your escape. The intensity is further exasperated by the introduction of the special infected. Imagine playing this in Versus as a Jockey, hopping onto one of the survivors and moving them off the edges or being a Spitter and spitting the goo at just the right moment. Moving through the hotel, the fire increases and eventually, smoke will cloud your vision, creating an extremely claustrophic even where zombies charge out of the dense, dark smoke or other zombies, wearing hazmat suits, will simply rush, unharmed, through the flames at you. This diversity continues as you race through the chapters. In the first campaign alone, you will race through a burning hotel, tear through a grocery store in search for cola to bring back to a crazed, holed up hermit so he’ll destroy a barricade and eventually reach the climax where you have to locate gas cans (like in the new mode) to gas up a car to escape.
Left 4 Dead 2 reviews.
The thing is, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Later campaigns like “Dark Carnival” add a bit of whimsy as you can play some of the carnival games (kudos to Valve for bringing back the Half Life 2 gnome for an achievement), race up and down a roller coaster as zombies chase endless after you, and eventually reach the end which culminates in an inspired ending scenario that’s completely different (and a tad whimsical) than anything else in the game. This diversity only continues through the later campaigns as well, with “Hard Rain” being my absolute favorite. In “Hard Rain,” as you move through the maps, it starts raining harder and harder. It’s by far the most atmospheric and most interesting, since you eventually have to backtrack through the zones, but this time they are flooded and the weather adds a completely different challenge to the map. Additionally, unlike the first game where the campaigns all felt a bit too similar, resulting in my group relying on a couple campaigns we liked the most, each campaign offers so many differences, that I find myself wanting to replay them over and over. With five fully-developed campaigns, there’s a lot more content than in the original game. Also, if you’re feeling especially masochistic, try turning on the Realism mode which gets rid of the glowy outlines around survivors and ammo, makes infected harder to kill (headshots, please) and gets rid of the spawning closets…
And that doesn’t take into account the other features. Of course, there’s Versus and Survival Modes like in the original game, but L4D2 also throws in Scavenge. Scavenge essentially is L4D2’s version of a capture the flag mode, with the myriad of gas cans being flags. The survivors race around the map, fighting both the infected and the clock, trying to get as many gas cans to start a generator as possible. Meanwhile, the infected obviously try to stop them. What I love about Scavenge is that it’s not the time commitment that Versus is. It’s a quick best of three or five game that ratchets up the tension and can create some truly inspired situations. My only complaint about this mode is that there’s only one per campaign right now. Ditto the Survival mode which doesn’t seem to have as many maps as in the original Left 4 Dead. Hopefully Valve rectifies this with DLC.
After you get past the myriad of modes and campaigns, there’s still more tiny additions that made me smile. Guns are now strewn across the level and you won’t find conveniently placed groups of weapons that contain everything. The guns also have a lot more variety, with a few different options for each type of weapon (I really enjoy the combat shotgun). The newly introduced melee weapons are interesting. In lower difficulties, they are seemingly overpowered; however, as you start to play on expert, I’ve found their limitations to be too great. Still, a nice additional and some of them are fantastic: taking down a witch with a chainsaw is perfection. The two grenade types return as does vials of Boomer bile. This operates under the same concept as the pipe bomb, except that the undead will race to the impact point and try to destroy whatever’s there…like a Tank. Not that they will destroy a Tank, but they do provide some assistance. Then there’s the other miscellaneous items, like defibrillators that will bring back dead party members.
And I haven’t even talked about the characters and story. I do miss the original gang of archetypical characters; I miss Frank’s acerbic comments (“I hate vans…”) and the camaraderie they had. But the new gang is also better developed and their banter is fresh and entertaining as they move through the campaigns, which, by the way, feel a lot more connected and there’s more story here. So here’s the thing. Those who didn’t care for Left 4 Dead will probably not be swayed by L4D2 because it offers more of what the first one did. It’s not a radically different game, it just feels…more complete. When I blasted through the first game, I wanted more…I felt like I played through a blueprint of a fantastic game. L4D2 delivers on that promise. It’s not an expansion, it’s a great, new, longer and better game.
Very much recommended for fans of the original.
Buy it now: Left 4 Dead 2