Left 4 Dead 2 takes place at roughly the same time as the original, and leads four new “Survivors†through the southeastern United States — from Savannah, Georgia to New Orleans’ French Quarter. The title adds melee combat, new monsters and weapons, the AI Director 2.0, and more to create a larger game than the original.
GenreFirst-Person Shooters
Platforms pc
DEVELOPER Valve | PUBLISHER Codemasters | RELEASE DATE
Left 4 Dead 2 Reviews pc
gameshark.com review
It needs to be stressed that if you thought Left 4 Dead was too challenging then the sequel might cause you to lose hair from both stress and manual ripping. This is a hard game – even on normal difficulty. It’s almost like Valve said to its fans, “Ok…so you thought Left 4 Dead was too easy, eh? Well try this on for size!â€
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gamingtrend.com review
Sitting underneath the core game is The Director. Improvements have been made all-around with the background AI controlling the action. I feel like the difficulty has been ramped up significantly, with The Director throwing more waves of Infected and special Infected than before. I haven’t memorized the levels yet, but I am aware of the Director having the ability to alter physical paths the Survivors must take through a level in order to keep the play fresh. Veterans of the first game will definitely notice the intensity increase coming from The Director.
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1up.com review
It’s a lot to catalog. Honestly, it’s probably stupid to try. The point is, yeah, there’s more than enough to call this a complete sequel. If there was any concern going into this thing, it was that maybe it’d represent a collection of tweaks and touches that’d be better suited to expanding the first game, and there are sure to be a few who hold on to that opinion. Personally, I think this sucker earned the 2 at the end of its name.
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gameinformer.com review
Last November, Valve spread a pandemic infection across Xbox Live and PCs everywhere with the original Left 4 Dead. The newest chapter in the undead uprising now oozes with even more of the proven developer’s trademark personality and polish. If you are among those who think the sequel is coming too soon, prepare to eat your words like so many brains. Left 4 Dead 2 is everything a sequel should be: perfected, expanded, and an absolute riot.
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oxmonline.com review
No Synopsis Available
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gamingtarget.com review
If you liked the original Left 4 Dead, then you have no reason not to pick up Left 4 Dead 2. This well-crafted sequel takes everything from the original game, adds in some new features and additional variety, and refines the whole package into the new must-play cooperative title. If you aren’t familiar with the franchise, then here are the two key things to know about this game: 1.) Left 4 Dead 2 is all about shooting zombies and 2.) Shooting zombies is more fun with friends.
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strategyinformer.com review
What brings out the zombies, however, are the special infected, those who are more powerful than your typical mindless pedestrians. The Spitter, Jockey and Charger do exactly as their names imply: spit, ride and charge. The Spitter literally shoots toxic goo, the Jockey jumps on top of players and rides them while slowly damaging them, and the Charger…well, the Charger will tackle you like a football player, then repeatedly slam you into the ground until it’s killed.
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gamernode.com review
The meat of the game, though, is in its game modes. The single-player campaign, online campaign, and online versus modes all return, as well as two new modes: Scavenge and Realism. In Scavenge, the survivors must find gas cans strewns throughout the level and use them to fill generators to keep the game going, while the Infected must kill them or blow up the cans themselves. Realism mode is the same as the Campaign,
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destructoid.com review
No Synopsis Available
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planetxbox360.com review
I would certainly prefer to travel by day during an apocalypse. Still, the sections of daylight lack the atmospheric punch of darkness. By far, the upgraded arsenal is my favorite addition to the series. The first game didn’t offer many options. If you preferred automatic firearms, you picked up the sub-machinegun and upgraded to the assault rifle later. Now, you can load up with a silenced sub-machinegun, M-16, AK-47, or a combat rifle, and the differences go beyond cosmetic. Shotguns and handguns received the same treatment and scoped rifles are more functional with quicker rates of fire. You can even equip many weapons with laser sights, explosive ammunition, and incendiary rounds. Best of all are the melee weapons. Swords, frying pans, guitars that slam with a twang, and baseball bats are vicious tools of the trade. There is even a crowbar for your Freeman fantasies, or a cricket bat if Shaun is more your type.
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gamefocus.ca review
While the campaigns will occupy you and your friends for a while, there’s more to the online here than just a simple co-op game. Like last year you’ll find a Versus mode, which allows you to play on a team as either the survivors or the infected. The sheer lunacy of 4 on 4 action is quite enjoyable, but the core hasn’t really changed from last years model. Instead, it’s the new infected that really add to the dynamic of the game. While you’ll still find the Hunters, Smokers and Boomers from the last game, the new additions of Spitters, Jockey’s and Chargers makes for some new and interesting skirmishes.
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game-over.com review
The odds have been distinctly turned against the survivors in fact, and not in an unwelcome fashion. At the multiplayer core of L4D2, completing campaigns on any difficulty beyond Easy can feel like an accomplishment. Masochists can turn on Realism mode, which removes the halos around friends and objects, also placing a greater emphasis on headshots. Versus presents another challenge altogether, since the new infected coordinate so well under human control that it can feel – just feel – a little unfair. The zombies could well be tweaked in coming weeks, if Valve’s history means anything.
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worthplaying.com review
In spite of its few faults, Left 4 Dead 2 is a very worthwhile sequel, and any fears you may have about this game merely being an overpriced expansion will melt away as soon as you start playing. Besides, seeing Valve release two games from the same franchise in the span of a year gives me hope that I may actually see Half Life 2: Episode 3 released in my lifetime, and you wouldn’t want to steal away my hope, would you? Even if you don’t love zombies, play this game anyway. You’ll feel much better prepared when the real zombie apocalypse comes and the only thing standing between you and certain death is a shotgun, a med kit and three of your closest friends ready to help you clear a path through the horror.
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gamervision.com review
Like in L4D, there are four difficulty settings—Easy, Normal, Advanced, and Expert—but during the campaign, players can turn on Realism mode, which makes everything a lot more difficult. Realism eliminates the outlines around players and makes the undead a lot harder to kill. You don’t realize how important those blue and red lines are until one of your teammates is crying for help while pinned by a Hunter and you have no idea where he is. It’s definitely a challenge, and requires more teamwork and communication than usual, but gamers who found Expert too easy (and yes, they do exist) will enjoy this ultra-difficult gameplay mode.
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cheatcc.com/xbox360 review
The campaigns themselves are also much more varied than in the original L4D. While fighting your way to New Orleans, you’ll find yourself battling the undead in a variety of settings such as a city, small towns, a sugar mill, a mall, swamps, a carnival, a cemetery, and on a bridge. These different settings are a far cry from the drab cities and few outdoor excursions that make up its predecessor. Perhaps my favorite of the lot is the carnival, complete with abandoned rides to make your way through and games that you can play to take your mind off of the zombie that is probably about to start gnawing on the back of your head any minute.
next-gen.biz review
Moment to moment, the action is subtly altered from its predecessor. The game’s new, significantly bolstered arsenal feels meatier and rips diseased zombie flesh apart in yet more gruesome ways – but the real change here is in the addition of melee weaponry. Far from being a mere novelty, fire-axes, crowbars and cricket bats rebalance the threat posed by normal infected. No longer are you so susceptible to the mob; in fact often the most effective way to deal with a threat is to get up close and knock its head for six.
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eurogamer.net review
There are also three new special infected. Each has a specific role, and they interact with one other in maddeningly clever ways. The Spitter lays down intensely damaging green flob to burn away your health, while the Charger drags one of you away from the group at speed and then slams him or her up and down on the ground until help arrives. The new favourite though is the Jockey, a Gollum-like scamperer who clambers on a survivor’s back and steers them into danger – perhaps into Spitter flob, or off a building. Hopefully Valve’s merchandise department is already working on Jockey backpacks to replace our worn-out headcrab hats and Companion Cubes.
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thunderboltgames.com review
The Charger will ram through the survivors and slam them to the ground while the Spitter shoots corrosive acid. As a change of pace, the diminutive Jockey leaps on a survivor and can actively control them once initiating the attack. On his own, he’s not much of a threat, but the Jockey’s real danger comes from steering the survivor into things like fire, other infected, or near ledges.
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videogamer.com review
This welcome diversity is particularly evident during the climactic events that occur at the end of each campaign. In the past you’d invariably end each adventure with a siege-like stand-off against the undead hordes, a desperate struggle to survive until a rescue vehicle arrived. This time you’ll find yourself suffering through all sorts of things: a marathon-length running battle across a suspended bridge; a zombie massacre in a rock stadium; a near-blind sprint over the roofs of flooded houses as you’re battered by a tropical storm. The latter is a particularly well-crafted slice of level design, limiting the players’ vision and battering them with impressive weather effects – and yet it’s not quite the pick of the bunch.
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gamerevolution.com review
As with the first Left 4 Dead, this isn’t a game you’ll want to play alone. Left 4 Dead 2 may have lost some of that new zombie smell, but its cooperative play is still among the best. There’s nothing quite like plowing through mountains of undead crawfish lovers with a friend or two at your side.
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