Gamers can be a fickle old bunch, as Valve found out first hand when they announced that Left 4 Dead 2, the sequel to the award winning online co-op first person shooter Left 4 Dead, was going to be released a mere year after the original. Often knocked for their somewhat slack development regime (we are, after all, still waiting for Half Life 2: Episode 3), Valve has all of the sudden been targeted by fans for releasing something too quickly. Let us be honest, Valve releasing a product on time is a rare thing, so it must be a slap in the developer’s face to finally hit a deadline and then get told off by the very same fanbase they usually leave to age and wed between releases.

Indeed Left 4 Dead 2 has been boycotted in some quarters for being unleashed upon the unwashed too soon after the first installment; which was itself promised to receive future downloadable content that never came. And so, to some, regardless of what is said in this review, Left 4 Dead 2 will still be a glorified, full priced expansion pack rife with content that should have been free to download for the original and arguably overpriced Left 4 Dead. Well, hanging up the hat of corporate cynicism for a moment, I think that the sequel is a massive success. That’s right, at the risk of receiving a slew of negative comments, I disagree with the fan base.

The reason I choose to risk my life for this game is simple: it is the most fun I’ve had online in a long, long time, and that includes the original Left 4 Dead. This sequel to the first zombie apocalypse sees the player once again playing one of four survivors battling their way from point A to point B whilst bringing home the lead on thousands upon thousands of undead locals. There is a certain satisfaction to mowing down a shopping mall full of zombies with three friends that borders on the spiritual, and Left 4 Dead 2 embraces this sense of gratifying fun far more readily than its successor ever did.

One of the most prominent ways in which it does this is through the inclusion of melee weapons. From frying pans and chainsaws to guitars and axes, hitting and slashing zombies never ceases to be an utter joy – so much so that you find yourself wondering how you ever lived without it. A mere five minutes into the first campaign, "Dead Centre," with its emphasis on initially providing only melee weapons and pistols, it becomes very clear that this physical approach to combat gives the game a far more visceral feel than the first. This is helped in no small part by the new damage effects that the undead sustain, with all description of body parts being flung around the room at the pull of a trigger – or at the quite frankly poetic detonation of a pipe bomb.

Article Author: Cubert

A dabbling musician, gamer and general media consumer, Jon 'Cubert' Plum is not only named after a fruit, but frequently butters vigorously upon the mighty bread of opinion.

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