First impressions of Left 4 Dead 2

 

Cover art for Left 4 Dead 2

 

One of the biggest –and most surprising- announcements at this year’s E3 convention was the sequel to Valve’s PC and console hit, Left 4 Dead. While criticism has been rampant about Valve’s quickness to release a sequel so soon after the first and its lack of promised downloadable content, the game looks promising in the same way as its predecessor.

 

Left 4 Dead 2, or “Left 4 Dead 1.5,” as it’s being called on Internet message boards, is not a direct sequel to the first in terms of the characters’ stories. Rather, it is a different story of the same zombie infection at a later time. Where the first game was based in Pennsylvania “two weeks after (the) first infection,” the new game will be based in the southern states between Georgia and Louisiana some time afterwards.

 

Much to the dismay of many fans of the current game, the original four characters will not be carried over into the new game. Instead, four new characters make their debut: Coach, a retired football player and high-school football coach; Rochelle, a local news reporter who hoped to find a story and ended up in the struggle of her life; Ellis, a mechanic at an auto shop who is, in his own mind, “21 and Invincible;” and Nick, a gambler and conman who was looking for his next big score and may or may not be finding his way out of town. However, Valve has hinted that the first 4 have not gone the way of the title and been “left for dead,” and may make an appearance or at least be referenced in the finished product of the game.

 

 

 

The main improvements in the sequel will be added gameplay and visual flair. According to GameSpot, the control scheme is basically the same, with minor tweaks that only hardcore fans of the first game will notice. The most noticeable addition is melee combat, including an axe, a frying pan, and the most expected and hoped-for: the chainsaw. Opinions are mixed on the use of these weapons so far, but they help bring up another change: dismemberment.

 

Where Left 4 Dead had a limited number of zombie death animations and a small amount of real dismemberment, the sequel promises to make up for it, allowing holes to be blown through zombies’ stomachs, shoulders being blown away, and other body parts being equally removable. Other notable weapon upgrades include new ammunition types; the only one unveiled so far being incendiary rounds for your guns. These will set your would-be attackers ablaze, instead turning them into flaming targets that will catch their fellows on fire as well.

 

Speaking of the zombies, some have become fire-proof thanks to hazmat suits, and two new special infected have been revealed. One has been named the Charger, and that is just what he does: charge through zombies and players alike, knocking them over and potentially slamming his target into the ground. Another is a new take on an old “favorite.” Witches in the first game were menacing enough, but they didn’t move. That’s all changed this time around. The first game was played mostly at night, but since this game will involve daytime travel, witches are now prone to wandering about a set area of the map, proving to be much more of an obstacle.

 

According to an interview in Official Xbox Magazine, developers at Valve have done their homework and did their best to eliminate any “safe zones” or glitches players could utilize in the first game. Gone are random corners where players can pull back and turn themselves into an 8-armed, 4-gunned monster against hordes. Some of the “crescendo” events where you simply have to outlast the zombie horde have also been discarded in favor of causing the players to keep moving to turn off or eliminate the source of the zombies’ notice of your party. They have also forgone the “hold out” final stages from some of the campaigns for what they have dubbed “gauntlets,” requiring players to run and gun to reach their safety vehicle rather than staying in one spot and waiting for it to come to them.

 

The AI for the game, codenamed “The Director” (playing off the movie-based style of the game), has also been improved. In the first game, “The Director” measured players’ “stress levels” determined by the amount of damage they had recently sustained and the number of times they had been attacked, healed, etc. This time, “The Director” can freely place walls and obstacles in certain areas of each campaign, including a completely randomly-generated graveyard, as well as rewarding players for taking longer, riskier routes through the campaign areas.

 

Last on the list of changes are, of course, the campaign settings. Since the game goes between Savannah, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, some environments are obvious, but still deserve mention. First off, there are the typical town settings, although this time around the destruction is a little more serious than in the original, since the outbreak has been going on for several months. Not only will there be evidence of the usual zombie-to-human standoffs, now evidence of person-to-person carnage will be present as well, as is to be expected during an apocalypse. Then there is the afore-mentioned graveyard and its surroundings. Finally, and as should have been most expected, is the swamp. The marshlands have always been feared in the event of any kind of disaster, and players will find out why in this new area.

 

Left 4 Dead was successful on an unprecedented level, providing fun for PC gamers and Xbox players, as well as on- and offline players. But members of Valve’s online community Steam have criticized the company for quickly releasing a sequel rather than downloadable content, saying that a new game will “divide the community” of loyal players. While this may or may not be true, Valve has chosen not to delay its new project and intends to release Left 4 Dead 2 in November, 2009. It seems only time will tell if the online community will be right.