L4D 2 demo... what do people think?

[wildpeaks]

I think.. that I'm very angry at Valve, even if I didn't believe that possible until recently.
Even if I was as surprised as everyone by the announcement of L4D2 so soon after L4D1 and the scarses add-ons to the first game despite what was promised, I was nonetheless impatient to get my hands on the new infecteds, being an incurable optimist.

The demo is one day late ? It's ok, I'm waiting patiently.
Downloading a few gigas and restarting steam three times later, at last, the demo starts, looks fine even if a bit short (normal, it's a demo, it was the same thing with the L4D1 demo).


You'll notice at this point I was still a foolish happy gamer.


Next day, big update. A bit surprised, but ok. I start, the introduction movie is censored.
Worrying about a file download error, I re-download the whole. Same result.

After browsing the Steam forums, seems it happened to all people who are physically in Germany even if they got gifted the uncensored version from a civilized country.
At that point, I was already worried, but if it's the the intro movie, I don't really mind.

Today, another big update. Pearls of sweat appear on my forehead.
After sacrificing a console player to the autel of the mighty Cthulhu, I dare starting the demo and what I feared was true, the whole demo is censored !

...

So now, even if the game was bought by a US account, on a US IP, with a french card and gifted it to a french steam account registered on a french IP, you still end up with a **** censored version if you happen to play in Germany.
Given I'm stucked there for work for some more years, this is really depressing.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

Not great for PC.
Decent on 360.

 

[crysis core]

this game couldnt be
more average if it tryed
the gameplay offers nothing
new your doing the same crap
as what you did in the 1st one
its a complete waste of valves
time and everyone's money that
buys it

yer the 1st one was great
it was new and exiting but
this is bland and dull because
the only good thing about L4D1
was how fresh and different it was
and this is just the same dish
with a little bit of seasoning on
it

and even if you do find this fresh and
exiting you'll just get bored of it in
a week and regret buying it like allot
of people that had left for dead one
did

well atleast it took me a week to get
bored of the 1st one because this hunk
of junk got be bored after half way though
the demo

 

[JeanLuc761]

I think my only real issue with the demo is that it's laughably short considering the 3.6GB file size.

 

[Jonci]

It is a demo.
And not the final system.
Seriously.
Does no one read that?

Demos are meant to be a way to experience the best the game has to offer, so people will then go and buy it.

They should function as well as the finished game.

And developers should be perfect, find every bug long before it comes out, max out the game engine to the full capabilities of the hardware, and have the entire game in mint condition weeks before release. That way they can release a demo that's just cutting out the majority of the content. Who would dare release a demo that's put together from an unfinished product, taking time from that product which is being stressfully worked on already, just to satisfy and entice potential consumers?

 

[Doug]

Just played the demo and I have to admit I wasn't all that impressed.

This is coming from a huge Valve fan, by the way.

The gameplay was nothing new, felt just like the first one with the lights turned on.

Now I know graphics are not the most important part of a game, but man Valve need to either update or replace the Source engine.

The game looks like shit.

The buildings and character models are horrible, angular last gen atrocities that would look more at home in GTA San Andreas than on a 2009 mainstream release.

Objects are blocky and have no shadows, lighting effects look dated and blurry.

The very first vista was a badly implanted endless sea with an almost blank horizon. Half Life 2 had better graphic than this.

Animations and sounds are still very good, and the guns feel about right. The characters seem a bit more interesting than the last bunch too. The music was very cool and jazzy and helped with the setting.

But all in all I found the experience pretty underwhelming and won't be forking out my cash for it.

Especially not after playing Borderlands. Aussie friends, you're not missing all that much.

Anyone love it? Hate it? Feel indifferent to it?

To be honest, I'm amazed at this - it sounds as if you have bad settings or a computer problem. Maybe you need to update your driver? Or check your settings in the L4D2 menu...

It was on the 360. (awaits smart alec 'oh well there's your problem' answers...)

*puts on his best smart alec voice* oh well there's your problem!

Though honestly, I've not see the XBox 360 version - I have heard that the source engine doesn't port too well to it.

 

[oliveira8]

I had fun with the demo. The melee weapons were nice, I liked the new weapons(more varied now, also adrenaline shots(!)) and everything else. Overall it was fun, more of the same but bigger and better. I'll buy it durinh Christmas or hope for a New Year sale over steam and buy buckets of games with 50%-75% discount.

 

[A13X T3h NubCak3]

Fucking love it to tiny fragments.

This. There's something sooo satisfying about killing loads of zombie with nothing but a guitar. It has a much better feel to it than L4D 1

this again.. Why dont you like it.. makes no sense..

 

[Twilightruler]

The demo was...well...nothing special...Not something I'm gonna write home about. I liked the original L4D when I first got it. As of recently the game has just been getting on my nerves though. But anyways, they didn't change the game enough to actually justify a sequel. New zombies and weapons could have both been added in through DLC. And of course, the whole lighting issue. I liked the dark..it worked for L4D. OP isn't the only one who had issues with the game looking like crap, my graphics seemed really bad as well...and my computer ran it on max settings. I'm sure it's just an individual issue because..well Valve wouldn't release something that looked like that to the public...The combat seemed very buggy and difficult. The melee weapons didn't seem to hit anything that was a few inches off of the center of the screen. The zombie AI seems to have gotten even worse...in the fact that I had zombies that ran towards me, climbed a street-light, jumped off, turned around and climbed it again. There was a good chance that I wasn't going to buy it anyways but after actually playing it I'm definitely not going to.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I think this is pretty polar camps at the moment. I didn't like it.

It just felt like Valve were trying too hard. Everything that should be easily apparent wasn't, and the characters didn't really feel different apart from a few lines.

Ellis is annoying as hell, Rochelle is a squeaker and Nick is bland. Only Coach stands out and that's because of the Worf/Teal'c motif.

I understand it's only part of a bigger thing, but I kept thinking to myself while playing it, "Oh..." rather than "WHOA!".

And the armoured zombies are a pain in the ass; and not in a good way.

L4D sold me on the opening movie, L4D2 still has to and I've clocked the demo on Expert.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I loved every second.
It was gory, fun, and I got to blast at zombies.
Sadly, I do not have the money to spare for it, so I have to pass at this time...sigh.

And I do not know where you're finding issues with the graphics...I played it on the default settings and it still looked markedly better than the first game when I played it on high.

I'll try and explain what I mean.

See how everything is angular?

This game has more right angles than the companion cube factory.

Look at the texture clash between the balcony and the wall below it... they look badly pasted together, it's too obvious. The balcony just floats next to the wall. Nothing seems to fit together well in the world.

The guns are definately better looking than in L4D 1 though. Finding an AK47 was pretty cool.

The character models are kind of blocky and 'gamey'. The survivors look ok, I mainly refer to the infected.

Compare this to say, Dead Space, now almost a year old, as an example of a game that makes good use of the current gen's lighting and graphical power:

The graphics are not the biggest concern anyway, though anyone who says they are not important I would disagree, graphics enhance a player's immerison within a game when done correctly, therefore enhancing thier enjoyment of it.

 

[L33tsauce_Marty]

I never was a fan of the series. L4D got stale to me and this game was fun for a bit, but now it's just to repetitive.

I loved every second.
It was gory, fun, and I got to blast at zombies.
Sadly, I do not have the money to spare for it, so I have to pass at this time...sigh.

And I do not know where you're finding issues with the graphics...I played it on the default settings and it still looked markedly better than the first game when I played it on high.

I'll try and explain what I mean.

See how everything is angular?

This game has more right angles than the companion cube factory.

Look at the texture clash between the balcony and the wall below it... they look badly pasted together, it's too obvious. The balcony just floats next to the wall. Nothing seems to fit together well in the world.

The guns are definately better looking than in L4D 1 though. Finding an AK47 was pretty cool.

The character models are kind of blocky and 'gamey'. The survivors look ok, I mainly refer to the infected.

Compare this to say, Dead Space, now almost a year old, as an example of a game that makes good use of the current gen's lighting and graphical power:


The graphics are not the biggest concern anyway, though anyone who says they are not important I would disagree, graphics enhance a player's immerison within a game when done correctly, therefore enhancing thier enjoyment of it.

Umm...I played it on the PC and it looks a shit ton different from that screenshot...just saying. The graphics looked very smooth to me. Or is that just the 360 version?

 

[Zipline Upshaw]

I just played it on my 360 and absolutely loved it. I'm guessing the graphics problem so many of you are complaining about must be a computer thing because I thought it looked awesome. The new characters are really cool (did anyone else notice that, at a distance, Ellis looks quite a bit like the scout? Give him a blue shirt and a bat and there you go), the new weapons are great (my favorite is the guitar), and the new infected are pretty cool as well (the spitters are quite annoying though). Overall, I liked it, and it made me want to get this game (currently 3rd on my list behind Borderlands and MW2).

 

[Aurion2112]

I honestly loved every moment of that demo. From the moment I picked up a machete in the beginning and slashed a zombie's face clean off, I was hooked.

 

[Mr.Black]

It is nothing compared to Left 4 Dead 1

The characters are annoying, the game has a boring feel to it. It doesn't even try to be scary. Melee weapons are pretty lame, I much prefer two pistols.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I have to say very meh, i have friends who loved this game and i just dont see it. its fun but nothing that couldnt have been added with left 4 dead 1 dlc and it hasnt swayed me to buying it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Caveat: using Boomer Bile on the Tank/Witch never gets old, and the flames are nicer.

L4D is better imho.

 

[Neonbob]

I loved every second.
It was gory, fun, and I got to blast at zombies.
Sadly, I do not have the money to spare for it, so I have to pass at this time...sigh.

And I do not know where you're finding issues with the graphics...I played it on the default settings and it still looked markedly better than the first game when I played it on high.

Spoiler: L4D2 screen

I'll try and explain what I mean.

See how everything is angular?

This game has more right angles than the companion cube factory.

Look at the texture clash between the balcony and the wall below it... they look badly pasted together, it's too obvious. The balcony just floats next to the wall. Nothing seems to fit together well in the world.

I can see that.
But that's immediately followed by "why are you looking at the walls? Zombie! Shoot!"
...yeah, I'm not that good at taking the time to stop and look more closely.
I really noticed that the lighting seemed better(or at least more present), and the splatters were nicer.
*shrugs*
I'll admit I turned my brain off while playing it.