A great improvement on the original despite being censored-
The original left 4 dead holds some of my favorite gaming memories of all time. Me and my mates would scramble through each of the campaigns together and I swear the amount of time I spent in versus mode rivalled the amount of time I spent in WoW(read:lots).
The sequel garnered quite a bit of bad press(locally at least) regarding the fact that the game would be censored for Aussie gamers. This turned me off buying the game so my love of zombie killing faded. UNTIL valve decided to put Left 4 Dead 2 on sale and I decided to take a chance.
The core gameplay remains the same with the survivors scrambling from saferoom to saferoom fighting swarms of infected the whole way. The game includes 5 campaigns(as opposed to the 4 in the original) all of which can be played in Versus mode(for those who haven't played left 4 dead this mode pits survivors against a team of infected players). The game also features survival mode and two new modes- Realism and Scavenger.
Whilst realism is a mode for the hardcore, scavenger is all the fun of versus sqeezes down into bite sized chunks with a team of survivors trying to use fuel tanks scattered throughout the map to prevent a clock from ticking down and a team of infected doing everything in their power to stop them.
The weapons system in L4D2 has been almost completely overhualed with players using melée weapons or pistols as secondary weapons and he amount of weapons has doubled. The new weapons system allows for far more variety in playstyles and actually has lead to me no longer using shotguns(gasp!) and experimenting with other weapons like the SCAR and grenade launcher.
To counter the survivors new arsenal, there are three new special infected.
The jockey jumps on the survivors head and can steer them into danger and the charger can smash the survivors by charging them. The spitter can spit acid that can seperate survivors or be used to force them out of safety. Supporting these new special infected are the uncommon infected which consist of zombies in riot suits/hazmat suits/clown suits/mud, these add some muh needed variety to the infected horde.
The campaigns in left 4 dead 2 can be a little hit and miss. Dead center is Valves take on the zombies in a mall scenario and is quite good. Although some parts in the campaign set in the mall tended to be quite dull.
Dark Carnival is easily the standout best Campaign in the game with great moments and enviromemts for all modes of play. Particularly the finale of dark carnival which had survivor fighting infected at a rock concert using the stage lights and effects to signal a nearby chopper.
Swamp fever and hard rain feel like they should be the same campaign and can be quite dull. However the Crashed plane in Swamp Fever can be neat and The latter half of Hard Rain showcases the awesome new weather effects that Valve added to the game. The Parish is probably the worst of all the campaigns and features boring city enviromemts in broad daylight which completely removes any sense of horror from the game.
The campaign is almost redeemed by it's finale which involves the survivors racing across a bridge that's being bombed by the military and swarmed by the infected.
Overall I enjoyed Left 4 Dead 2 despite the censoring, it adds much more depth to the frantic rounds of zombie survival and I would recommend it to any fan of the original.
7/10
Note-if you're that's annoyed about the censoring, it's easy to remove.(google Is your friend)
