After spending some solid time with Left 4 Dead 2, it’s quite apparent that this game is nothing to boycott.  In fact, those doing so are really depriving themselves of an extremely improved version of Left 4 Dead.  I’d go as far as to say that Left 4 Dead should be boycotted, not the sequel game.  Valve has improved upon the original Left 4 Dead tenfold, but is it worth the price tag?

Left 4 Dead 2 is, mechanically, the same Left 4 Dead we’ve all been playing for the past year.  It’s the same engine and the same shooting mechanics (as far as the survivors go), and the only real issue I have with the game is that I had some really bad graphical lag during times when the Tank infected was on screen, or when large hordes showed up on screen, but hopefully Valve will get this ironed out, and it only happens some times.  If you’ve just crawled out from the rock you’ve been living under for the past year, Loot Ninja’s original L4D review can give you the basic rundown of how both games work.

The biggest change to the game is the addition of the three new infected – the Jockey, Charger, and Spitter.  The jockey is a small infected that can jump short distances onto a survivor, and then control them to some degree (ie. walking them off a ledge or away from other survivors.)  He’s small but effective when used correctly.  The Charger is a larger, lower health, tank-like infected who does just what his name sounds like – line up a survivor, and charge them, resulting in pinning the target survivor, as well as sending a shockwave that stuns other nearby survivors.  The Spitter is probably my favorite new infected, Valve’s answer to “closet camping” done in the first game – the Spitter shoots a large puddle of acidic goo at it’s target, which acts like a Survivor’s molotov, causing huge damage to anyone standing in the puddle.  It’s a great way to stop survivors from bunching up together, and absolutely deadly when combined with a boomer.  Regular infected got a slight tweaking too, including more variation and a couple “special” regular infected – infected in haz-mat suits (can’t be set on fire), clowns (attract other zombies), and more.

Survivors get a bunch of new toys to play with as well.  There are now a number of variations of weapons (including a goddamn grenade launcher and laser sights), as well as limited incendiary and explosive rounds for weapons.  There are melee weapons too, including a cricket bat and a chainsaw, which makes me wonder how I ever played the first game without them.  There is also a new grenade item – a canister filled with boomer bile which will cause zombies to attack the target it hits, a defibrillator for reviving dead allies, and a stim shot that increases speed and damage for a short amount of time.  All in all, there is a lot of variation here, and it aids greatly to the replay value of the game.

The new infected skew Versus mode against the survivors rather heavily – which is good, and Valve’s original intention for the first game.  Extracting as survivors feels like an actual accomplishment now, and can make all the difference between a win and a loss for either team.  It also stands as providing some serious bragging rights for the winning team.

Also included are two new modes – Realism and Scavenge.  Realism is just as it sounds.  It’s hard as fuck.  Ammo and teammates aren’t outlined like they are in other modes, death is permanent, and headshots are an instant kill.  Scavenge is based on one of the new events in the game, where survivors take turns trying to fill a generator with gas cans placed around the level.  Speaking of which, the events from the first game (think the elevator sequence in No Mercy Hospital) have been mostly changed – they now are “gauntlet” style events, where you set off the event and need to keep moving and get to the other side to stop the zombie horde.  It works much better than the first game, where events consisted more of starting it and backing up against a wall.

If you’re still intent on not picking up Left 4 Dead 2 because it’s just “more of the same”, you’d be right – it is more of the same, and that’s a good thing – it’s improved upon and makes the original game look rather primitive in comparison.  I’ve barely even covered exactly what makes L4D2 such an improvement over the original, mainly for the sake of space.  There are tons of other little things Valve has done with the game – dismemberment, team versus mode, an actual story line, dynamic weather effects, randomized level design (including extraction points), et al – Left 4 Dead 2 is everything the original game should have been, and more.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]