Left 4 Dead 2 Review

Four survivors, an infinite array of zombies and a goal to reach final in search of salvation, Left 4 Dead 2 is a game that, very wisely avoids taking itself too seriously, demonstrating a sincerity so shameless that it is impossible not to praise. No complex history, to ban unnecessary background narrative and any work effort to "make sense" to the events of the game. What the team wants to offer is essentially a dense set of weapons and a multitude of infected cut in the company of your friends. Goal in this sequel is achieved in an exemplary manner.

For an exact year after the first time Left 4 Dead one of the successful released game. The zombie shooter was well received in the community, especially because of the new multiplayer principle. With one release also announced additional content via DLC. The excitement in the community was correspondingly great when you not even a year later announced the successor, without even a DLC released for the first part.

Gameplay:

Left 4 Dead 2, like its predecessor, is a product clearly devoted to the multiplayer component , and it was a real pleasure to see how the team has taken all necessary precautions to ensure that players fully online mode . In addition to the normal campaign (to play in local or network), you had the chance to try your hand at reality: where the apocalypse is taken to extremes, the enemies will be even more hungry and hard to beat, while the others will lose the ‘ golden color that allows you to easily locate them beyond the walls. There is something deliciously masochistic in a similar way, but we will not be certain that a few players who will pay the massacre.

Focusing a little more in the game and personally, I feel a little less addictive. The reason is that it has lost that touch dark and macabre; giving the impression it was a contest to kill zombies. The endless hordes event can be annoying because the time between horde and horde is very small forcing most players to use melee weapons (the time to recharge is very small) and the routes to the target is so long which is difficult to pass one without taking damage.

It is said that the game has a new artificial intelligence (Director 2.0) for events that are generated in the game. I see no big difference and I feel so everything has always been generated at random, perhaps the most noticeable are certain things that were static in the first game are no longer in this, such as car alarms or routes reach the target may appear in walls where in previous games were not. What is said to control climate change is reduced only a few maps which is not an effect you can find in any campaign.

Again it is four survivors to be nibbled by countless zombies. Pardon, many of those infected. Left 4 Dead 2 plays in the same timeframe as the first part, but just in other places with other heroes. The back story, however, remains as thin as before: any unspecified plague has broken out in the U.S. and has almost the entire population into matschbirnige brain eaters. Now it is time for a little band of four people, their way through the southern United States to New Orleans, allegedly one of the few places on the map, where not everyone wants to chew each.

The journey is as in Left 4 Dead split into chapters, each with four to five sections, separated by a load sequence in a shelter. Were the first part of chapter four’s is now five. You may have had such experience alone on the side of three AI companions or – much more fun – the team with three players in five different difficulty levels. This co-op is already therefore advisable, because game mechanics and presentation of Left 4 Dead 2 dull quickly after a couple of sections. Only the panicked cries, warnings, and general relief from real people, when once again a very crisp zombie attack was averted, make the title a real experience. That was the first Left 4 Dead is not different. A headset is also required!

The Basics of Left 4 Dead 2 are inevitably those of the past, with the four survivors left alone against an endless supply of undead. This time the setting is that of the southwestern United States, from Georgia to Louisiana, then going inwards, and the first point in favor of the production is being able to properly characterize each individual scheme, making credible environments and giving an end to the survivors, travel time to the military and the long-awaited salvation. Obviously there’s a plot that is not an excuse for crossing the maps, but the mixture of written references in the shelters and small during the action, also work in the second iteration. The campaigns in this case have been increased to five and have a variable number of maps each – four or five – and are more or less all the same as duration and presenting a greater variety of different mechanical properties: they have been implemented over time during which wait an event such as opening a gate, but also move towards a given point as quickly as possible, making this a more dynamic, thanks to choices such as fatigue after a certain number of pushes, the first only in Versus Post patch, which prevents long sessions in a tight corner.

The beginning is not the best for the simple reason that the campaign Center for Death is the worst of fives, a race across a hotel in Savannah, Georgia, and then the nearby shopping center that sees a couple of steps in a room filled with smoke and the hunt for a carton of Coca Cola, the peaks of an otherwise anonymous but able to give a final search of jerry cans to fill the tank car to escape, which acts as a tutorial the competitive mode seeker. Passed the first hurdle, objectively non-standard production, the remaining four are beautiful variations on the theme of what everyone knows: the lack of surprise at the unusual formula is not replaced by a thousand situations of great atmosphere, the final concert of the amusement park Dismal the maze of pools of swamp fevers, the conclusion on the move across a bridge next to the explosion of the parish until the genial return of heavy rain, which offers the same stretch of road rebuilt twice, once in normal and l ‘ other under a deluge of great pathos.

The great architect of the replay of Left 4 Dead was the Director: artificial intelligence routines developed to allow the enemies appear and supplies in a dynamic way, depending on the situation of the players, even adjusting elements such as mood music. In this sequel has worked in such a way that no revolution in this process – not entirely procedural content creation, for example – but to adapt to the greater number of objects and environments to expand themselves, now very different in size, from large areas an echo of the cornfield in Blood Harvest first chapter to the narrow streets of New Orleans. if it was for the first filing of balance, for the environments has been done a great job of customizing campaigns, changing a small garden with a maze of hedges in the Parish or the number of hurricanes in the pouring rain, to name just two. In this case, the secret of success is the discreet way in which the changes are small but subtle changes when they lead to the removal of some trails in the marsh fevers are noticed only when you are with the ‘ Water for life and clumsy movements. The same applies to the flames, and now much more present than in the past tours. As regards objects of the work done was more than good, with the defibrillator to revive the companions and additional ammunition, explosive and incendiary also be worn if there is the feeling of giving up the medkit, while Boomer’s bile useful to be launched against the enemies of their prey to make them similar, as an alternative to the usual pipe bombs or Molotov cocktails. Present even the painkillers to which are added adrenaline, perfect to increase speed and strength for a short time, streamlining operations also jacking up of wounded comrades.

Despite the declared vocation splatter and structure of gameplay damn simple (almost remained unchanged), the title developed by Valve manages to avoid the trap of pure "more of the same", proposing a series of mechanisms to expand the good work done above and at the same time introducing new situations and solutions. In the role of Ellis, Nick and Rochelle coach we will have to cooperate actively in an attempt to survive along the route from one location to another, collaborating with peers and supporting each other. The whole adventure can be completed in single or together with three other companions in the course of five main stages, heterogeneous and well differentiated from each other.

By the end of the first level, when we prepare for the now classic horde of enemies that come out everywhere, here is the first difference: in spite of the first chapter, in which only needed to defend themselves and stay alive, here we will take in to refuel the car that will lead us to safety. It seems poor stuff, I realize, but just keep the pad in his hands once to understand the subtle work of filings where the team has dedicated a year now. And, of course, the game will continue to offer similar variations throughout the course of the main mode.

The group of opponents is operated by artificial intelligence players in a shed on the sudden; acting simultaneously on several fronts in order to make it absolutely requires collaboration among players. Whether it’s the Boomer, Smoker or Hunter, left behind by his comrades only means to meet certain death, that’s why the game itself will take care to inform you about the importance of acting with a clear common purpose. Just on this point seem to want the developers insist that the new special infected try to split the group in various ways.

The AI Director 2.0 also seems to have undergone a substantial upgrade in the management of chaos, as if there was a real director to handle and address the hidden enemies to the four protagonists. It is therefore definitely a more sophisticated, able to "act" not only based on your attitudes to urban warfare and the results achieved, but also taking into account the pace, gradually more and more frantic, often enough to leave you breathless as you prepared to reload or heal your wounds or those of friends. So you’ll break down the last infected and then try med-kits and ammunition in times of calm after every fight, but just a moment too distracted to instantly find a whole row of zombies right behind where the first c ‘it was nothing.

The Zombies:

What I just cannot miss in a game with big veins are horror zombies, thousands of hungry undead that they come at you screaming or drooling just as murderous beasts. The first Left 4 Dead was distinguished for the enormous masses of zombies coming towards us and this result remains true offering of the legions of undead to embarrass even the same Romero. Empre S as in the first chapter, here we are at the hands of zombies sprinting then you should pay close attention to every possible escape route in case the undead take over the mass of the unlucky players: well yes, plural, because also in this case the game was designed for cooperation of four (or possibly a human player and three computer-controlled) that will protect each other to pass unharmed infected areas of the game. Again, as in the previous episode, we have the makings of a real plot, but only the perception of a story that revolves around four individuals who may have been found to be mistaken for pure companions – this will take us to different locations along a few occasions where you will also need to think on how to proceed, in the sense that there will be goals that their data cannot be skipped (for example, fill a gas generator for electricity).

In the southern United States seems to plague a little bit to be different than anywhere else that needs to be in the swamp gases or the genetic structure as below: Instead of the famous Left 4 Dead five boss zombie’s are here, namely, three other boss infected. to the old friend Hunter, Boomer, Smoker, Tank and the. Witch are joined by more of the Spitter, the. Charger and the jockey. The Spitter spits clear. Although highly toxic and acid, which is distributed over a wide area on the ground? The Charger looks like the little brother of the tank; he dashes towards his opponent, lifts her off her feet and then smashes it over and over again on the floor. And the jockey does exactly what the name suggests, can be: He sits on the back of a survivor and takes over almost completely in control of him. The victim can only try desperately to hold against it, but usually it is directed specifically into a zombie horde, or the green poison from Spitters.

The campaign is divided into five maps (one more than the first chapter) that in turn will be divided into three or four smaller schemes: unfortunately, even if from the point of view of style and level design has done a decent job, through maps give a strong sense of so much that one wonders if indeed this game is a sequel or a mere commercial operation to lengthen the stock, you might as well call him Left 4 Dead DLC and 2. Still on the internship, I note, however, a good choice for environments that perhaps, unlike the first chapter, are much more faithful to the horror genre with a subject of zombies.

All the graphic is new: 

it is difficult to distinguish if the previous game textures, models of those infected and their “skins” (costumes) have been regenerated.

New Maps: 

There are five new campaigns, with 4 new survivors. Unlike the first L4D, campaigns try to save a linearity between them so the 5 campaigns aim to tell a single story rather than several separate. Now the campaigns are developed not only at night, some will be day, night, light rain, storms or fog.
The maps incorporate new types of objects, such as endless hordes events (panic moment) where the waves of infected will not stop until we meet the objective proposed in the map. In others, we must not only go from point A to point B, if not from A to B and from B to A and therefore, spend an item at the beginning means that this is not available returned.

New weapons: 

although the differences between them are very few compared to its predecessors. The differences are practically at the time of recharge, and the rhythm between shooting and shooting. A similar and different weapons. The novelty is that for the melee that occur in great variety – frying pan, katana, baseball bat, baton, and so on, about a dozen in all – and otherwise occupy the slot reserved for the gun, killing the first time the normal but are infected each with different characteristics, for example, if the ax can kill the enemy closer and closer to unbalance the other, the saw does not seem to inflict harm on area but is extremely quick to use in addition to having a quantity finished fuel. Much testing will be done in such a way to discover the strengths and weaknesses of each, but certainly the introduction is quite significant changes and how to deal with the waves. Firearms are instead increased in number and many of which seem to revisit – the old and the new Uzi submachine gun silenced seem to differ only in rounds in the magazine, at first sight – all the others are unknown as the AK 47, very good from medium and short distances, the Magnum or the grenade launcher, with thirty blows and devastating when you cannot use it even against his friends, aware that the ammunition scattered around the maps and in the shelters cannot replenish it.

New special infected: 

Apart from the above, Boomer, Hunter, Smoker, Witch and Tank have special infected added the following:

Spitter:

An infected spits something like gastric juice, the longer one stays on the juice more quickly suffers damage from this. It is specially designed to reduce the corner camping.

Jockey:

It’s a bizarre version between a dwarf and the joker. When jockey likes to play cowboy and “mount” the survivors, with their weight may cause the survivor is in the direction you want. The jockey is to remove a member of the group of survivors to other infected have more opportunities to whip him. Being so small it can be difficult to see where this but can not do the same with his incessant giggling. Melee weapons / Melee: They’re just fun … and risky to use. There are a variety of weapons such as axes, pans, sticks, among others to hit the heads of those infected. The differences between them are few and hard to see, but they are. There’s even a chainsaw makes me remember the old DOOM.

Charger:

Personally I consider it a mini-tank because of the annoying and harmful it is. It has a disproportionate arm than the other, which used to take down the survivors pouncing on them with great speed. All survivors who are beaten by the Chargers will fly through the air and be stunned for a few seconds, if one is engaged in the whip against the ground will be receiving a considerable amount of damage. This training is designed to break the strong players have reduced fields. This infection cannot be pushed, has good resistance to damage, a small head makes it difficult to make critical shots and normal shots make good amount of damage.

With respect to old suffered some changes, now Boomer female version can be found in the Hunter seems to be slower and have a smaller area of stroke, the Witch walks around the map if it is daytime and the Tank if he knocks down a survivor is not devoted to beat to death, go for the others. Each map can have a rare normal infected, which has a special feature, for example in a campaign have helmets so the chances are lower votaries head in another are clowns and the sound of their shoes attracts the infected close.

New game modes:
There are two new game modes:

Search Scanvenge or where the survivors must collect gas cans and pour them into a machine while the infected should avoid filling using the smallest possible amount. The style is like versus mode, some players are the survivors and the other infected, but the games are developed quickly because they jump right into the action.

Realistic mode: This mode is the same campaign mode but a little more difficult. The first is that the Auras covering colleagues to know where they are no longer so communication becomes more important. If a survivor dies can not be rescued from closets, but can be regenerated in the safe zone (at the beginning of each map). And apparently, the zombies are a little tougher.

Multiplayer: 

We come to the heart of the game, the multiplayer mode, here are the five player game modes are available:
1. Campaign: Playing with three other players who campaigns against computer-controlled Infected
2. Realism: Campaign mode with higher difficulty
3. Versus: same principle as in campaign mode, except that the boss played by other infected players
4. Survival: Four players have to hold out against zombie hordes
5. Scavenge: A team takes on the survivors, a team of those infected, is changed after a round, the team with the most points wins. The goal is to collect cans scattered in the level in order to fill a generator

After selecting the game mode you can even choose difficulty level and before the matchmaking system is looking for a suitable game. Here, the Ping is apparently attached no great importance, was during the test it frequently to ensure that all players had a ping, which was well over 100 ms. However, the weights are not quite as heavy as in other shooters is the case, because the enemies are mostly computer controlled. Otherwise, the system works well and there are in all game modes more than enough servers available for all levels.

Without a good teamwork we have hardly a chance, since it can also be the easiest difficulty very hard to get to your destination. The players need to communicate and work together to survive. Thus, for example, the player who carries a load of coke to the local arms dealer not gun fire and must be protected by his teammates. The most fun making this the Versus and Scavenge modes, because the bosses are not paid by the average AI of players but what the whole game is like a whole lot more challenging. Above all, it becomes tactical, because both sides can have completely different approaches to approach the game.

Complete the game it amazing how often to conjure up the player a mischievous grin across his face. Whether it’s because as a survivor of an ambush of those infected has successfully eliminated or because the infected their opponents briefly still could catch in front of the shelter.

Graphics:

Half-Life 2 or Counter Strike source has played detects the engine of Left 4 Dead again directly. The Source Engine is now almost 5 years old, what you look at it clearly. Although the engine over the years often and much improved, but the game looks frumpy, detailed low and partly muddy textures and rudimentary shadow effects, by far the most credit for the graphics lost Left 4 Dead but one among those infected, there only a handful of models that appear over and over again and not even look good.

Quite unlike the models of the four survivors who know to convince both the optics, as well as animations. Despite all this but do you manage to get across the atmosphere is good, what the sound is also making its contribution. Although we usually only hear the screaming and groaning zombie hordes large, but quiet and dark situations, the music does know to build mood. Worth mentioning yet that the censorship in the German version of the atmosphere in some massive clouds, but still injects blood, but lacks many other effects, which would in a normal shooter maybe not bad, but such effects are simply a zombie game, so here is the lack of strong.

Patch: 

Left 4 Dead introduced a competitive element to great effect, one of the few cases where differentiation between the sides not send cards and forty-balance and even more fun. The problem was initially support only two campaigns, then sweated through an expanded update. Here the situation is very different: Versus is immediately available on every single setting and involves, in addition to the four survivors, including all the variety of new Special Infected, leaving out the usual Witch and the semi-special. The new mode is the Seeker, during which, as we said about the campaign Center for Death, collect a given number of objects and return them to the set point. Once again: it was decided to push on the movement and how it responds to the strategies adopted in the past too often expected, forcing the quartet to move very quickly and do not fall into the clutches of the other. Regarding the use of new infections, the characteristics are those described above and more detailed evidence to make the next few weeks will appreciate all the value, but for now – in the process of review has not been easy to find people online to play in Versus and Seeker – the impression is to be immediately in front of a complete and perspective.

What seems to be Bug:

Bad things about the plan for the bug, strangely, two flaws that just should not go down to the programmers are slow and the interpenetration of polygons (no one knows why) some rather large areas of the game. If the delays may depend on a version of the title has not yet completed, the intermingling of polygons in a fearful plagues this game and it shows even more horrifying to splatter and zombies as a result. In short, I understand the rush to want to make out the title, but having to see my character literally disappear in the other characters, or in almost all areas of the game, it really does seem exaggerated..

Also shows that the changes over the previous are mostly to be found in weapons and levels, one wonders whether it might not have enough to offer the new content as DLC for the first part because neither gameplay nor graphics have changed. The pronunciation of buy recommendations is necessary to distinguish a bit so now. First is advisable to buy an international version, on the one hand, these have cheaper, on the other hand there were no atmosphere damaging censorship applied. Soloists should leave the game on the shelf, but there is a single player mode, but this will quickly dull, since they give only human with and against players of the game the right flavor. Owner of the first part must decide whether the changes they are worth a full price title. We tend to recommend to wait for a fall in the price. For all others is: buy recommendation! The multiplayer fun will not soon abate and there is a nice team feeling. A great multiplayer game.

What to expect me again? 

Apart from the addition of a campaign, as mentioned just above, I have to admit that the new marks very few points, though good. Everything about the party has remained roughly unchanged. So we have areas where we can supply both medkit that supply us hope that sufficient ammunition to the “pit stop” next. Great news are the weapons that could be used to melee as hammers, swords, maces or cooking pans: with these you cannot kill zombies, but simple ones will do very little against evil. Excellent addition to the saw turns out to be his dirty work (including at scenic), I can do any melee. Regarding firearms, point out the addition of the AK47 automatic rifle as well as the usual Uzi submachine guns and pistols. Good also that the distance the new launcher can destroy a good number of undead and zombies from large as the tank (still angry).

As for enemies, even here the result is quite passable only with the simple addition of three new enemies. I say if you think that this should be an official sequel and not just an upgrade as it continues made me think of being. Of the new order of nastiness that I report the Spitter has the particularity to spit highly corrosive acid, the Charter that loads whatever he is facing and the jockey who has the bad habit of jumping in head and control our movements. Finally, even if they are not real bad monsters, I note that one of the classic bands of the zombies are the soldiers who have armor capable of limiting our scope of fire and, even better, the doctors in overalls bacteriological ( that he is not served very effectively) but may even exceed the fire: this means that in some sections where we will be blocked by the flames, but these zombies will have free access to and could bring on heartburn because of the burn but also the general . Obviously, the addition of these new infections is also positive as regards the multiplayer section where you can play as one of these new creatures, with each of his “powers”. Really nice use of the Jockey so that it can literally take control of the victim to turn and use it to kill their own comrades.

Overall game 

The good points:

• Great FPS, loaded with lots of action and moments of chaos.
• Excellent multiplayer game.
• Excellent graphic section.
• Excellent sound section.

The Bad points:

• Many players feel that, as such, is not a new game if not only an expansion.
• Many new things are similar to each other.
• Too much focus to multiplayer, play only possible but loses some charm and are not available all game modes for single player.
• The AI for the survivors feel worse than the first game.

Conclusion

To conclude Left 4 Dead 2 is a good title to shoot zombies, but feel less macabre. It’s a good challenge for players due to the high difficulty can be obtained by combining all game details. The game may have several bugs and details that make it less enjoyable gaming experience, but that in the future are expected to be corrected.