Left 4 Dead 2 (DELAYED AS USUAL)

Introduction

             Welcome one and all to the newest, and slightly delayed, review to grace this gaming blog of mine. I definitely have a problem with keeping with scheduled releases of these reviews on Sundays, mainly because I sometimes lack inspiration and the feeling of writing and just abandon it altogether and wait till the next Sunday, but that will not suffice, and thus I bring to you this new review, and it may be a day late, but better late than… next Sunday.

            This week’s game of particular focus is an all-time classic, with its huge fanbase (a respectable one even today!), offers spectacularly solid gameplay, had a recent free giveaway for every copy (wow!) and is part of the zombie game genre. Of course, many of you would have guessed it by now. That game is… Left 4 Dead 2.

 

Took me some time to realise the thumb is missing

            Left 4 Dead 2, also known as L4D2, is the sequel to the original L4D, developed by Valve and released on November 2007. An extremely old game, and you know the saying “old is gold”, and that is what this game definitely falls under. 

L4D2 features several maps, the maps individually are split into 4-5 subparts, with players having to battle their way through the zombie horde in order to reach a “safe-house”, where players can heal up and restore their ammunition supply. In the last subpart, however, players must usually hold up somewhere on the map as they must wait for their rescue party to arrive, which is in the form of a boat, plane and many others. There is usually a center spot within the map where players will mostly hold up in as they contain medical supplies and ammunition. If players are successful in fending off the waves of zombies, they escape and thus “win” the campaign, after which credits will roll showing the statistics of the whole playthrough. The whole aim of the game is pretty much similar to many other zombie genre games, which is to survive and be rescued.

Various load screens posters of various campaigns

The main characters in L4D2 include new characters from the sequel itself, and also the main characters and the maps of the original L4D, updated with better graphics, a bigger variety of weapons and new Special Infected.

Upside

However, what separates L4D2 from many other generic zombie games is the huge variety of zombies, some of which are classified under Special Infected. Special Infected are different from a regular zombie in that they have certain buffs and skills that help elevate the strengths of the zombie faction. The Charger is a good example of a Special Infected, he is capable of charging into players, sending them flying, and he can also slam the first person he comes into contact with onto the ground, essentially pinning one player and putting him/her out of action until his/her other teammates come around and kill off the Charger. There are many other Special Infected zombies in the game, but spoiling it here probably wouldn’t make it fun for you. ;D

 

The charger's early concept art with the final rendition on the right.

            The weapons in the game have a good degree of variety, with assault rifles, submachine guns, pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles and even a grenade launcher all present within the game. The game also features melee weapons, if you wanna get down and dirty with zombie blood, then pick up that katana and start making some mince meat. Or if you’d prefer your clothes to be blood-free, grab that sniper rifle and provide some overwatch support for your teammates, the choices this game allows the player to make is what makes the game suitable for everyone to play, and honestly, who doesn’t like killing zombies, they kind of feel like stress relievers, don’t you think?

 

"Its like they are stress and when you kill them you relieve the stress" - psychology expert

            Wanna take a real challenge; think beating all campaigns on that hardest difficulty wasn’t enough? Well then, looks like VS mode has got you covered. VS mode is basically the multiplayer of L4D2, different from the co-op gameplay which the game offers as well. In VS, players are pitted against players, one from the Survivor faction, and the other the zombie faction. 

 

The player in control of a Spitter, pitted against human players or bots

The survivors are, of course, the four main characters of the game, while the zombie faction consists of players taking the role of a random Special Infected. The goal of this mode is simple. For the Survivors they must try their best to beat the campaign subpart while attempting to deflect all incoming attacks from the Special Infected, while the zombie faction must aim to eliminate the Survivors using their individual skills of the Special Infected they are tasked to play. If the Survivors make it, or if the Special Infected manages to eliminate them all, the round ends, and the players switch sides. The new Survivor squad is tasked to run through the same subpart of the campaign, with the new zombie group attempting to eliminate them. Points are awarded to each team for how far they manage to make it in each subpart as the Survivor team only, and tallied at the end to find the winner of the match. VS mode is definitely a good game mode as it gives the opportunity for players with that competitive edge to pit themselves against one another to see who is truly the zombie or zombie killer master.

 

Summary screen after every subpart.

The game is pretty darn old, having been on the market for 7 long years. It is with great hope that Valve, in 2014, can count to 3, and release games such as the long-awaited Half-Life 3, or even Left 4 Dead 3, but one can only hope, after all it is only Valve that can deliver their own masterpiece.

 

Release ur game this yr pl0x

It is thus very easy to get your hands on the game, as this game is usually part of many Steam sales, where its price of 19.99 usually gets cut by 50%, or by 75%, there was even once where the full game was given out for free. For now, there is no offer to speak of, thus waiting for one is probably the best thing to do.

Downside

If there is ever a downside to this game, it is in the game’s replayability. Yes, there may be several campaigns that span for quite an hour, but as players repeatedly play these campaigns, they may find their actions to be very repetitive and they may start to feel easily bored of the game. An upside to this is that there are many, many modders out there who create new, fresh maps, and some even incorporate the likes of Minecraft into L4D2, all of which are free to download for the players to enjoy! But, as the base game stands, it is one that, over time, will slowly reek of little replayability.

TRIBAL COUNCIL

Graphics & Sound: 7/10, solid graphics and sound of its generation, the Source engine is always recognized as a truly solid and consistent engine, and in this game, it is no different. Sound of weapons and melee weapons all sound what you expect them to sound.

Gameplay: 9/10, the area at which this game shines definitely is its gameplay. For a game that has been around for 7 years, the gameplay is still phenomenal. With different enemies and a good variety of weapons spanning several maps of four to five subparts, it is a game that features good gameplay over a substantial amount of time.

Replayability: 7/10, the game suffers from a lack of replayability after playing the maps many times, because the game does not have any deviation in any of the maps, and is mainly focused on getting to Point A to Point B while battling it out on the same environments. However, this is not to say the player’s first and any subsequent time playing each map will get repetitive quickly, as this depends on the player.

Depth: 8/10, with a good mix of weapons, many zombie archetypes and many different environments across all the maps, I’d say this game has pretty good depth.

Learnability: 10/10, never before has a score of that surfaced but I’ll explain. The game is about killing zombies; anyone can learn and pick that up real quick. Mechanics-wise, there are many helpful on-screen text to guide the newer players, what button picks up the weapon, what button to equip the weapon and many others. All of these helpful text help to guide new players as they experience their game while blowing the heads off zombies.

Story: 5/10, there isn’t much of a story in L4D2, yes the campaigns are linked together in that it tells the progress of the characters, but other than that, there are no story elements whatsoever other than in a few maps. Thus, the game’s score is affected.

Overall: 7.5/10, a truly solid game of 2007, still alive and definitely playable even in 2014. Pick it up whenever you can through the multiple Steam sale offers! 

xtra large 4 fun