Rental Impressions: Left 4 Dead 2

I have a bias. I love zombies. Every take on them. Romero’s slow zombies of the 1970’s to the viral speedster’s of the 28 Days series. The undead hordes have hundreds of backstories, but until 2008 they didn’t have one important thing: variety. In Valve’s Left 4 Dead, we were thrown into a zombie-plagued landscape in the form of four survivors on a mission: get from Point A to Point B. Sure, it sounds easy in execution and honestly it is, but it’s Valve’s creativity that made Left 4 Dead such a cult phenom. You have your four survivors, piles of weapons and health packs and zombies… everywhere. Not just your garden variety grave-creepers with a brain craving, but some gnarly suckers.

Boomers: zombies swollen with putrid bile to explode all over you.
Smokers: zombies with long, ensnaring tongues to latch on and drag you everywhere.
Hunters: hooded punk-ass zombies with a lunging attack.
Tanks: Gargantuan monsters with the ability to fling survivors across the map.
Witches: You don’t want to mess with them… trust me.

Combine hordes of regular zombies, strategically placed and strategically pissed “special infected“, four player co-op online and you got yourself one solid, steaming pile of fun. Dead fun.

Fast-forward to 2009 and we receive the speedy sequel to Left 4 Dead in the form of Left 4 Dead 2. Developer Valve Software generated both hype and controversy by releasing their sequel almost exactly a year after the first title. The company however assured fans that the game was worth the purchase, and that’s what i’m going to get into now. The setting has changed as has the survivors. While the first game showed us the lows of big city living, the sequel throws us into the zombie-infested Southern United States. The setting for me was a big plus for the game, providing a much more interesting back-drop and almost a dose of “culture” to the title. The locales include a mall, a carnival, a rain-soaked sugar mill, a swamp and a suburban area. Great variety makes for great gameplay. Speaking of the gameplay, Valve definitely stepped it up. Though the core gameplay is the same, slight additions definitely added to the experience in Left 4 Dead 2. The secondary slot was now home to melee weapons instead of just pistols. These weapons are the best way to get out of a tight space in a crowd of the dead trying to murder you. See a Hunter lunging? Hit him with a frying pan! Got ‘em! In addition to melee weapons, various other items were included like ammunition types (both incendiary and explosive), speed-boosting adrenaline shots, survivor-reviving defibrillator paddles and zombie-distracting bombs. And you needed every last one of these extras to handle the new zombies added. The “Special Infected” roster doubled with the addition of the
Charger, Jockey and the Spitter.

Charger: Ram at full speed and carry survivors away before pummeling them into the ground.
Jockey: Jumps atop the survivors back and steers them away from their comrades.
Spitter: Spews a stream of damaging acid that lingers doing massive damage.

These new species of zombie change the gameplay durastically. The Charger can scatter all survivors while carrying one off to damage. The Jockey can also single out a survivor, especially preying on laggers that don’t keep up with their team. The weakest addition to the team is the Spitter, whose attack is quick hard to aim and also easy to avoid. The Spitter can do massive damage if you get lucky and corner survivors or spray your attack in a very small space with no room to dodge.
Left 4 Dead 2 of course features the classic multiplayer campaign mode of the first game, but also adds two new modes to the roster. Realism Mode allows players to experience the horror of the most life-like zombie experience yet in videogames (think of an even harder Expert Mode), while Scavenge is a new multiplayer game option. In Scavenge, the four survivors band together to collect as many gas cans possible while avoiding and killing an onslaught of zombies and special infected. The teams take turns as the survivors and whomever collects the most cans by the end of the round (all survivors dying or all cans collected) wins. I personally didn’t enjoy this game type at all. I found it to be repetitive (I played the same map over 25 times in a row… it never changed!) and too easy for the zombies to succeed. Versus Mode is still the best of the bunch, featuring the best multiplayer experience in the game by far.
Overall, Left 4 Dead 2 is honestly an improvement in every way. The campaigns seem more varied, the characters and story more developed and interesting, the multiplayer more fun with more modes and the addition of more playable zombie characters vastly changes the way the game plays. Downloadable content has already been announced which reportedly ties the characters from the first game to the new four, showing that Valve is interested in adding to the story-telling elements of the series. Now with all this praise, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, the final verdict!

Would you buy this game? No.
Why? While the multiplayer is addicting, no shooter can seem to tear me away from the formulas of Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3. The sequel is much improved but it might take a third to finally sell me on the series.

How many rentals would it take to complete? Two. I would recommend playing through all five campaigns although it is possible to skip any that you don’t like. This would only take one rental, but I say two as I believe everyone should experience the multiplayer for themselves. Just because it’s not my favorite doesn’t mean it’s not a fun experience: it definitely is.
Estimated cost of rental: $15 USD.

The verdict: Thrown into a hectic 2009 holiday season, Left 4 Dead 2 was a great shooter but an even better sequel. It maintains all the positive from the first game while adding to everywhere that is needed. The new multiplayer modes weren’t the best, but at least they can learn from them for the next game. It’s a great experience for those interested in a tight, four-player online experience.