Left 4 Dead 2 – Not The Sequel You May Be Looking for

By: cynicalmonkey | November 23rd, 2009

I should start by saying I was a big fan of the original, not in a dress up like Bill at conventions or scream grabbin’ peels when I went to a pharmacy kind of way but as a gamer I found Left 4 Dead an incredibly fun, immersive and replayable experience. I was not one of the people who thought this sequel was to soon or that the original hadn’t received enough support or would even consider the boycott a logical idea, I was all for more Left 4 Dead and have spent months waiting for the game. 

The trouble is that Left 4 Dead 2 does not feel like a sequel it feels like a whole different game. 

The joy I found in left 4 dead was in the suspenseful crawl through levels, the closing doors behind you, the scavenger feel of finding a home made pipe bomb or pain pills in a bathroom, the conservation of ammo and the survivor mentality of 4 people holding a position against wave after wave and these 4 people who I came to love and hate (I’m looking at you Bill!). The game valve have followed up with is not the same kettle of fish, this is an action game. 

I don’t mean that all of a sudden you are playing Zombie May Cry but the subtlety of the first game has been replaced with a chaotic manic pace that feels designed to get the adrenaline pumping (or being shot into your chest), the ammo is free flowing with weapons and stashes appearing 2-3 times each chapter rather than 2-3 times a campaign and the stay close and survive mentality has been replaced with mad dash crescendo events that actively encourage you to split up and run for it. 

That’s a strong theme in this game especially if you look at the new special infected (the jockey, spitter & charger) all designed to prevent you grouping together or the crescendo events that require you to run about collecting things or turning generators on and alarms off. This game is not about standing your ground and fighting off the hordes until they relent, mainly because the hordes don’t relent, they will keep coming and keep coming in waves that if you don’t stop you will be overwhelmed. This has strong effect on the group because it is no longer about surviving its about escaping and escaping means when a team mate falls you don’t pick them up. What Valve have created seems to be a very single player multiplayer experience. 

This is another hang up for players like my girlfriend who has racked up several more hours than me on the original with a silver account playing with the games AI. So much of this game requires you to do specific things that the AI won’t, they won’t pick up coke bottles or turn off alarms, not something that came up in the first game as all the campaigns were quite achievable single player, here I am not so sure. 

I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out the level design, in the original you had all the horror movie stereotype scenarios spread over 5 chapters offering varying experiences on all the campaigns. No campaign did just one style, in one campaign you could fight your way through apartment buildings and streets, followed by train lines and sewers, fight your way through an infected hospital and a rooftop showdown. Most people have favourite chapters and most hated chapters some even in the same campaign because of the variation in level design. Here however the levels feel even more linear with the chapters all containing the same themes and styles that you never feel the separation between chapters, it all just feels like one long level. 

Everything above you have just read may sound like I dislike the game but I don’t, I think the game is really good. I love all the new touch’s that have been added, the ammo upgrades and uncommon infected, the new characters are great and Ellis is hysterical to listen to with running gags to boot. As a game in its own right Left 4 Dead 2 is a really good game with so many nice references from Shaun of the Dead to Army of Darkness that is loads of fun to play. The new scavenge mode is a great multiplayer mode and it has achievements that are genuine fun to go after instead of grind quests. The melee weapons offer immense enjoyment (if not much in variation) and overall I don’t regret or begrudge any time I have spent playing this game. 

I really like the new challenges it sets you in the game as events, I think if this had just been clones of the format from the first it would have gotten very stale very fast and you have lots of little side things to distract you from besting Moustachio to rescuing Gnome Chomski that really add to the strength of this game. The graphics are superb and the music makes it such an immersive experience that this really is a standout triple A title that could hold its own against the other triple A titles in its release window. 

I would also like to address the boycott I mentioned briefly at the beginning because basically they are wrong. If L4D2 had been irked out across a 6-12 month period as DLC it would of felt out of place with the original game so much and you would of paid more than you would for a whole new game on a console. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is a different game that deserves its own game, in fact I would argue this is more a game in its own right than Gears of War 2 was. 

There are lots of good positive things about this game that make it a really good game that provides a really enjoyable experience. The trouble is that while the changes have provided a more adrenaline fuelled rush of a game they have lost the initial X factor that made the original so special and while I will be playing this a bunch for the next 2-3 weeks I think my love affair with its predecessor will remain quite firmly intact long after I have stopped playing L4D2. 

A sequel not as good as the original, whoever heard of such a thing?