Zombie killing? Sign me up.
The good: Same great co-op from the first game - Same great multiplayer from the first game - Melee weapons are a blast to use - More guns - new game modes.
The bad: Friendly AI isn't too bright.
Some may say this is the same as Left 4 dead only with more weapons and new campaigns.
Which is sort of true, but more of the same from a great game works.
As in left 4 dead there are four suriviors for you to play as in left 4 dead 2.
Ellis, the southern guy with a good sense of humor.
Rochelle, the only girl of the four and you could say her actions speak louder than words.
Coach, a football coach that loves smashing zombies with a bat.
Nick, a stoic gambler and conman who tends to be the most annoying of the four.
Story is not a big part of left 4 dead 2 but a little back story can go a long way.
Basically a few weeks before you are put into one of the survivors shoes a pandemic broke out that infected all but a few who were immune to the disease.
So obiviously the four characters are immune to the disease and are trying to get to an evacuation center.
And on their way they will meet some new (although faceless) characters and battle thousands upon thousands of infected and special infected.
Special infected are of course back form the first left 4 dead with some new additions.
The charger which as the name suggests, can charge at the survivors and carry them over long distances and then pound them into the ground for a great deal of damage if not kill quickly.
Another new addition is the spitter, who can spit a pool of acid over great distances and quickly incapacitate survivors if they don't get out of the acid quickly.
And last but not least the jockey can jump onto a players back and steer them around while clawing at the players head.
The original five special infected, Hunter, Boomer, Smoker,Tank and the witch.
Although the witch is not playable in versus mode or any of the other multiplayer modes.
The original infected aside from some visual differences and a few tweaks play the same.
The game spans Five different campaigns (eight if you include add-ons)
Dead center, which has you going through a hotel and a mall to get to a nascar to finally escape.
Dark carnival, this campaign starts after the car you got from the mall can go no futher due to miles and miles of parked cars on a highway.
The majority of this campaign has you going through a carnival to try and get to a "arena" where a midnight riders concert was supposed to be held.
Where the survivors must start up the music and lights show to try and attract a helicopter they have been seeing.
Swamp fever begins after it turns out that the pilot becomes a zombie and so nick shoots him and the helicopter crashes leaving them stranded in a swamp. As they make their way through the swamps they find a plantation and make contact with a boat captain who is willing to take them to New Orleans.
Hard rain starts after the boat captain needs more gasoline before he can go futher, and tasks you with traveling through a sugar mill full of special infected to find some gas.
And last but not least the parish where the boat captain drops you off at your destination and your goal is to get to the end of a bridge where a helicopter is waiting to take you to a evac center.
Multiplayer consists of 2 main modes, scavenge and versus.
Versus is the same from the first left 4 dead.
One team of four plays as the survivors trying to get to the end of each level while the other team of four plays as the special infected trying to stop the the survivors from getting to the end.
Once one team has reached the end of a level (there are five levels in each campaign except the first) the teams switch and whoever has the most points at the end of the campaign wins.
Points are gained by how far you have gotten in a level and bonus points are given out for finishing the level.
Scavenge is a game mode like versus but instead of trying to reach the end of a level you and your team have to try and collect as main gas cans as you can to fill a power generator. While the other team of special infected is trying to stop you from getting any.
Then when either your team has gathered all the gas cans or the other team has incapacitated your team it's the other teams turn.
And their goal is to beat the number of gas cans collected, but if they tie in number the winner is decided by the amount of time taken to gather the gas cans.
Aside from these multiplayer modes there are also online co-op modes such as survival which is just as it sounds. Pitting you and up to three other people against unlimted waves of infected and special infected trying to survive as long as possible.
The campaign is also playable online up to four players with out having to worry about human opponents.
There is the also a realism mode which of course makes the game a bit more realistic.
In realism mode enemies take more damage to the body and limb areas while headshots make for an easier kill. And if a friendly dies during a level he cannot be rescued from a spawn area he must be revived using the
defibrillators.
There were a few weapons in the first left 4 dead. An assault rifle, SMG hunting rifle and a few others.
But now there are at least six new weapons including the ak-47, SCAR, a sniper rifle, combat shotgun (similar to the auto shotgun from left 4 dead) and a suppressed SMG to name a few.
In addition to these primary weapons there are secondary weapons in the form of melee weapons like the crowbar, katana, baseball bat, machete, frying pan, golf club (DLC), and more.
There are also pistols for secondary weapons which can be dual wielded or you can use a single magnum pistol.
The game features something quite unique in the AI director.
The AI director makes it so that enemies are not in the same exact place each time.
And this makes for a great gameplay experience since you will never know where enemies are going to spawn, especially the fearsome tank who can take out half your health with one hit on the easiest difficulty.
Sounds can be hit and miss, some weapons sound great while others sound like a peashooter. But the thunk of a melee weapon hitting flesh is satisfying and never gets old. Acting in great from the craking of jokes by Ellis or the concerns being spouted by Nick, all the acting is great even the faceless characters are done well.
The graphics can look quite dull, but what did you expect from a post apocalyptic game?
Characters are quite detailed, but infected zombies look ugly and it's not just because they are undead.
And sometimes the game will start to lag if too many zombies get on screen (even on the console version).
Overall the game is a blast and I still find myself playing it almost everyday and it has been out over a year, and if you can get it for the Pc over the 360 version.
The bad: Friendly AI isn't too bright.
Some may say this is the same as Left 4 dead only with more weapons and new campaigns.
Which is sort of true, but more of the same from a great game works.
As in left 4 dead there are four suriviors for you to play as in left 4 dead 2.
Ellis, the southern guy with a good sense of humor.
Rochelle, the only girl of the four and you could say her actions speak louder than words.
Coach, a football coach that loves smashing zombies with a bat.
Nick, a stoic gambler and conman who tends to be the most annoying of the four.
Story is not a big part of left 4 dead 2 but a little back story can go a long way.
Basically a few weeks before you are put into one of the survivors shoes a pandemic broke out that infected all but a few who were immune to the disease.
So obiviously the four characters are immune to the disease and are trying to get to an evacuation center.
And on their way they will meet some new (although faceless) characters and battle thousands upon thousands of infected and special infected.
Special infected are of course back form the first left 4 dead with some new additions.
The charger which as the name suggests, can charge at the survivors and carry them over long distances and then pound them into the ground for a great deal of damage if not kill quickly.
Another new addition is the spitter, who can spit a pool of acid over great distances and quickly incapacitate survivors if they don't get out of the acid quickly.
And last but not least the jockey can jump onto a players back and steer them around while clawing at the players head.
The original five special infected, Hunter, Boomer, Smoker,Tank and the witch.
Although the witch is not playable in versus mode or any of the other multiplayer modes.
The original infected aside from some visual differences and a few tweaks play the same.
The game spans Five different campaigns (eight if you include add-ons)
Dead center, which has you going through a hotel and a mall to get to a nascar to finally escape.
Dark carnival, this campaign starts after the car you got from the mall can go no futher due to miles and miles of parked cars on a highway.
The majority of this campaign has you going through a carnival to try and get to a "arena" where a midnight riders concert was supposed to be held.
Where the survivors must start up the music and lights show to try and attract a helicopter they have been seeing.
Swamp fever begins after it turns out that the pilot becomes a zombie and so nick shoots him and the helicopter crashes leaving them stranded in a swamp. As they make their way through the swamps they find a plantation and make contact with a boat captain who is willing to take them to New Orleans.
Hard rain starts after the boat captain needs more gasoline before he can go futher, and tasks you with traveling through a sugar mill full of special infected to find some gas.
And last but not least the parish where the boat captain drops you off at your destination and your goal is to get to the end of a bridge where a helicopter is waiting to take you to a evac center.
Multiplayer consists of 2 main modes, scavenge and versus.
Versus is the same from the first left 4 dead.
One team of four plays as the survivors trying to get to the end of each level while the other team of four plays as the special infected trying to stop the the survivors from getting to the end.
Once one team has reached the end of a level (there are five levels in each campaign except the first) the teams switch and whoever has the most points at the end of the campaign wins.
Points are gained by how far you have gotten in a level and bonus points are given out for finishing the level.
Scavenge is a game mode like versus but instead of trying to reach the end of a level you and your team have to try and collect as main gas cans as you can to fill a power generator. While the other team of special infected is trying to stop you from getting any.
Then when either your team has gathered all the gas cans or the other team has incapacitated your team it's the other teams turn.
And their goal is to beat the number of gas cans collected, but if they tie in number the winner is decided by the amount of time taken to gather the gas cans.
Aside from these multiplayer modes there are also online co-op modes such as survival which is just as it sounds. Pitting you and up to three other people against unlimted waves of infected and special infected trying to survive as long as possible.
The campaign is also playable online up to four players with out having to worry about human opponents.
There is the also a realism mode which of course makes the game a bit more realistic.
In realism mode enemies take more damage to the body and limb areas while headshots make for an easier kill. And if a friendly dies during a level he cannot be rescued from a spawn area he must be revived using the
defibrillators.
There were a few weapons in the first left 4 dead. An assault rifle, SMG hunting rifle and a few others.
But now there are at least six new weapons including the ak-47, SCAR, a sniper rifle, combat shotgun (similar to the auto shotgun from left 4 dead) and a suppressed SMG to name a few.
In addition to these primary weapons there are secondary weapons in the form of melee weapons like the crowbar, katana, baseball bat, machete, frying pan, golf club (DLC), and more.
There are also pistols for secondary weapons which can be dual wielded or you can use a single magnum pistol.
The game features something quite unique in the AI director.
The AI director makes it so that enemies are not in the same exact place each time.
And this makes for a great gameplay experience since you will never know where enemies are going to spawn, especially the fearsome tank who can take out half your health with one hit on the easiest difficulty.
Sounds can be hit and miss, some weapons sound great while others sound like a peashooter. But the thunk of a melee weapon hitting flesh is satisfying and never gets old. Acting in great from the craking of jokes by Ellis or the concerns being spouted by Nick, all the acting is great even the faceless characters are done well.
The graphics can look quite dull, but what did you expect from a post apocalyptic game?
Characters are quite detailed, but infected zombies look ugly and it's not just because they are undead.
And sometimes the game will start to lag if too many zombies get on screen (even on the console version).
Overall the game is a blast and I still find myself playing it almost everyday and it has been out over a year, and if you can get it for the Pc over the 360 version.
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