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I recently attended Comic Con, where I got a chance to play Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. The game is
due out November 11th, and offers lots of new content including 5 new campaigns
and over 20 new weapons, many of which are melee weapons.
To start off, I would first like to thank Valve. They were all really cool, and informative.
While waiting in line, I got to talk to Andrea Wicklund, who did both the texture work for
Left4Dead as well as being the model for the hand on the cover. She was really fun to talk
to. When we went into the room, we were placed in the Xbox360 section. I've never played L4D
on the Xbox360, so the controls took some time to get used to, but once I did the game felt just like L4D1.
Game play
The core game play is probably the least unchanged thing about L4D1. You run, you shoot, you
use med kits, PILLS ARE HERE, and your goal is to get to the safe room. However the game
feels a lot more polished then the first. The weapons have a better feel to them, the zombies
have new death animations that look great, and the Molotov throws are more accurate, and so
on. It really made L4D1 feel almost incomplete with how much more optimized it feels. From
the game play trailers it looked like a rehash, or even a step backwards in both game play
and graphics, but it is better then L4D in both these aspects, even if only by a little.
Characters
I was given the character Rochelle. While the characters in the trailers initially came off
as bland in comparison to our favorite L4D survivors, the new L4D2 survivors quickly warmed
up to me with their comments and battle screams. Nick in particular seems like a fun survivor
to play as, as he constantly proclaims his dislike of the situation. Besides that though, the
new survivors don't impact the game at all, much like the first game it doesn't matter who
you play.
Levels
I'll start by saying this: The swamp campaign takes place at night. So many people seem to
think L4D2 only takes place during the day. But no, some campaigns return you to the creepy
darkness of night, and this is one of them.The new levels are much less linear then the
previous L4D game. In the swamp campaign, you are able to take multiple routes to get to your
destination. In addition, the swamp itself is very spread out, making it easy to accidentally
wander away from your team even if you are in the same area. The AI director also now has the
ability to change the level on you. For example, we walked across a bridge that was over a
large swamp area. We made it across fine, but I've seen others play the same part and the
bridge breaks under them. According to Valve, the AI director will decide, based on how well
you are doing, to either break the bridge (forcing you to go a longer way) or allow you to
cross. Valve says Director-controlled areas like this are in the other maps as well.
The crescendos we played were very similar to L4D1. First we came across a trolley, which we
needed to call and wait for, while fighting off the alerted horde. Once it arrived, we rode
it across. The other was a crashed plane, which we needed to climb inside and open the other
door to get through. This alerted the horde, which then rushed through the now opened door.
While these 2 particular events were the same as L4D1s, I should note that Valve has stated
that L4D2's events won't all be like that. Instead, they plan to have crescendos which will
require you to basically run through the horde to reach your destination, once you trigger
the event. These new events will force the player to get into the horde, rather then camp a
corner or closet.
Zombies
The new Zombies are a lot of fun to fight, and I'll assume a lot of fun to play as
well. There are new normal infected which make them more difficult to fight against. First,
there is a hazmat-wearing zombie which is immune to fire. Then, exclusive to the swamp, are
mud men, which are zombies that (when they hit you) will cover your screen in mud, thus
temporarily impairing your vision. This makes you have to think about which zombies you
shoot, and which you melee, as you don't want to get close to the mud men for this reason.
The Charger is like a mini-tank, but also more like a normal Special Infected. He doesn't
have any special music or announcement like the Tank does, instead he spawns like any normal
Boomer or Hunter, however his spawn chance is low I assume (or specific to certain areas, as
we only encountered him once per level). He is extremely fast, you can't outrun him even in
the green. He also has the ability to smash all 4 survivors away at once (which technically
the Tank in L4D can also do, but for some reason it seems harder to do with the Tank). The
charger can also grab a survivor and beat them into the ground, until he is either dead or
they kill the charger. His only downside is his low health, I'd guess that he has about ¼ of
the Tank's health. Also, melee weapons will 1-hit kill him, as our team managed to Axe him to
death in a single hit.
The other new zombie, revealed at Comic Con, is the Spitter. The Spitter is able to shoot out
an acid, which will spread across the floor like the Survivor's molotov. Much like the
Smoker, the Spitter's job is to remain unseen. However unlike the Smoker (or any zombie for
that matter) the Spitter does not need to reveal her position (yes, her, the Spitter is a
female Special Infected for a change). Instead, she simply aims, spits, and runs. However
when she spits, a trail will show which direction it came from, so she will need to move
quickly or they will find her. The spit itself spreads quickly, and also in a much larger
radius then the Molotov. If the survivors stand in the spit, it hurts them quickly, I'd say
about as fast as a fire hunter used to hurt you. So even standing in it accidentally for a
second will shave off a good portion of your health. This will be great for getting survivors
to leave any corner they are camping, as well as blocking their path to help the Boomer catch
them. She is in my opinion the best addition to the new game so far.
Weapons
This new game's whole focus is melee weapons. And wow, they are fun. First one I got was the
frying pan, found it in the kitchen of a house. The swing takes out anything in front of you
with 1 hit. It seems great for hordes, as well as taking off Hunters and Smokers that have
grabbed people (once you get close to them of course). There were many times that my
teammates were surrounded by a horde, and with the frying pan I was able to get rid of them
with ease. As I previously mentioned, the melee weapons can even one-hit the SI, including
the Charger. The drawback of course is it's range, and your inability to use guns (including
pistols) or items (including pills).
The new guns are great, but unfortunately I didn't get to use many of them as I was having
too much fun with the melee. However I did see the new Uzi, which seems about as strong as
the Tier2 machine gun in L4D1. I also saw the new shotgun (again, about the same strength), and the grenade launcher.
The grenade launcher was great fun, able to take out approaching hordes in a single hit, and
doing massive damage to the tank. But of course it has the drawback of being a dangerous
friendly fire weapons (in fact, I can see this being the new griefer weapon). Finally, I got
a chance to try the new incendiary bullets, which you can find randomly around the level
like any weapon. These bullets add onto whatever current weapon you have, and light any
zombie you shoot on fire (including the tank). They are especially fun to use with the
machine gun, as it almost feels like you have a flamethrower due to the firing speed.
That's it for the review, I know there was nothing in here that hasn't already been discussed
or revealed by other reviews and websites, but I wanted to give a player's review of the
game, so people don't think the big review companies are just trying to suck up or anything.
The game is fun, the game (from what little I played) is better then L4D1 in many aspects,
and it should be a fun game to play in full when It is released. Thanks again to valve for
letting us come and play it.
As for my actual game experience with L4D2, it was pretty funny. When we first started
playing, I was so busy getting used to the Xbox360 controls that my teammates started leaving
without me. So I quickly ran out to catch up. When we started encountering our first zombies,
I realized I only had my pistol. Yep, I forgot to grab a weapon. So I spend a good 1/4 of the
first map using only pistols. Eventually I found the Frying Pan and did my best with it.
Towards the end of the campaign, all of our healths were getting low, and it was then I
realized, I also left spawn without grabbing a health it. Everyone in on my team heals up,
except me. We continue on and encounter the Charger (who is very scary to encounter due to
his speed). Fortunately, he put his attention on another survivor, and killed him shortly
before we killed the Charger. We continued on, and another survivor died, leaving just
another guy and myself. He still had yellow health, but I'm now in red. A horde attacks us, I
drop. He picks me up, I drop again. Finally he gets me up, I have 1 hp and I'm seeing black
and white. I start limping as fast as I can to the safe room, while everyone watching us play
begins to cheer me on to make it. I get into the safe room, and shut the door.
It was a crazy game, but was a lot of fun. The second map I got to play was also a lot of fun,
but not as exciting as that "pistols only/no health kit" match I accidentally did. Thanks again
Valve.
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