The original Left 4 Dead was a runaway smash, riding on the coat-tails of a zombie obsessed culture and Valve, the game's developers, reaped the benefits of that wave with money frothing from their pockets. And because the original Left 4 Dead made a lot of money and people are still fascinated by the living dead, a sequel was naturally born. Now Left 4 Dead 2 moves the action to the deep south, with four new survivors, new weapons, new zombies types, a new mode, and more zombie apocalypse goodness. But the question that remains is if Left 4 Dead 2's new additions warrant a full $60 retail release, or is the game merely a glorified expansion?
If this is your first introduction to the Left 4 Dead series, as it is mine, know that this game is best played in the company of friends via the co-op campaign. In fact, the main menu defaults on the co-op setting as a clear indicator to push you in the right direction of how this game is meant to be experienced. But if you forego the suggestion, opting to fly solo instead, know that you'll be bored rather fast. Left 4 Dead 2 is all about fighting off wave after wave of zombies, and without some friends to talk to and strategize with while doing so, you'll simply be pushing forward and holding down the fire button ad nauseam. Rinsing and repeating through five campaigns. Yawn.
But factor in some buddies and the fun level of Left 4 Dead 2 rises exponentially. Working in tandem, covering each others asses as hordes of infected barrel down on your position can be quite exhilarating. The action of Left 4 Dead 2 never really lets up. You'll gun down roughly 4 million zombies over the course of this game (roughly). Think of Left 4 Dead 2 as a zombie action flick, not a creepy horror picture. While I would have opted for more mood setting and genuine scares over the mad rush or hungry zombie hordes and the occasional zombie in a bathtub routine, I still understand the need for Valve to make a zombie game players actually want to play. It needs to be high-octane and action packed. And Valve definitely delivered in that regard. The white-knuckle experience never really lets up, only pausing when you hit those coveted safe-houses.
Now if you played the original Left 4 Dead and were planning to pick up Left 4 Dead 2 with hopes of the sequel actually providing some sort of story, think again. The only difference here in Left 4 Dead 2, as opposed to the original title, is that the five campaigns are strung together in a natural progression as the survivors migrate from Savannah, Georgia to the New Orlean's French Quarter, instead of just being a number of seemingly random scenarios. But you still get no character development or over-arching story in Left 4 Dead 2. The most you learn about the four new survivors is through the banter during levels and by reading the character descriptions in the game's instruction manual, which not surprisingly, fit standard zombie flick conventions.
