Left 4 Dead 2 was developed and published by Valve.

Left 4 Dead 2 follows the harrowing take of four survivors of the impending zombie apocalypse, caused by either swine flu or John Cusack. This sequel uses different characters from the original game, although I can’t tell the difference 95% of the time: choosing a different character does not impact your in-game performance, like lowered health or faster running speed. The game features five campaigns as the survivors trek across the Southeast from Savannah to New Orleans in search of zesty rice (or such is my understanding). Each campaign takes place in a distinctive setting: the shopping mall of Dead Center, the amusement park of Dark Carnival, the swamps of Swamp Fever, the hard rain of Hard Rain, and the mythical town of New Orleans in The Parish. Each of the game’s levels are very well designed and quite detailed, with more open areas to be less of corridor shooter. There are also some nice moments during each campaign, from breaking into a store for cola to fighting on a roller coaster and through flooded streets. The AI Director can control the weather, time of day, and the specific paths available to you; there isn’t quite as much variety as I would like here, though, as the changes are quite subtle and you are usually only diverted for a minute at most. Each campaign takes between one and two hours to complete, and I have found that the advanced difficulty setting is appropriate for coordinated veteran players.

But that’s not all! Left 4 Dead 2 features four more modes of play for your gaming enjoyment. Brought over from the original game is the so-so Survival mode and the popular Versus mode, where four people take the roles as the special infected and attempt to stop the survivors in one of the campaigns. There is a lot of coordination potential with the new infected types (details later), although it would be nice to be able to choose your infected from a list of two or three choices (I lack the coordination for the hunter’s crouch/pounce). For those with less time to play, a new shortened competitive mode called Scavenge is available. Here, the survivors attempt to collect gas canisters to refuel something (a car or generator) while the infected attempt to stop them. The matches take place in a small portion of a campaign map for much more concentrated gameplay. Most of the maps are balanced well, although some are confusing and too strung out.

There are some nice strategies to employ (gas canisters can be shot for a sacrificial wall of fire) and coordination is still imperative; it’s a great way to still enjoy competitive play in a shorter time span. Finally, Realism mode is perfect for veterans of the series. Instead of simply making the game more difficult (you can play Realism mode on “easy”), the silhouettes around the survivors and items are removed, head shots inflict significantly more damage, death is permanent until the end of the level, and the Witch is a formidable opponent as attacks are one-shot kills. The Realism mode places an even higher focus on teamwork and sticking together, which is really what Left 4 Dead 2 is all about. Finding all of these game modes is easy enough: while Left 4 Dead 2 lacks a server browser, it does list how many games of each type and each difficult level are being played, so that you can gauge your probability of joining a low-ping contest. You can, however, join a match in progress: a much appreciated feature.

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