The mad scientists at Valve really, really, really don't want to let go of their Source engine. They've used it in countless games, from Counter Strike to Team Fortress to Half-Life to Portal to Left 4 Dead, and of course, Left 4 Dead 2. Not that there's anything wrong with the engine. It's just that by the 18th game made by the same company using the same engine, the overall atmosphere and physics start to get a tiny bit familiar, and you're no longer sure which franchise you're even playing. Fortunately, Valve has discovered a method to counter that, exemplified in Left 4 Dead 2. And that method is to just make every game really good.
The Premise.
Remember the first Left 4 Dead? Its story could be summed up in about 11 words. Fight lots and lots of zombies in Philadelphia during the apocalypse. The story of Left 5 Dea--I mean, Left 4 Dead 2, can be summarized simply by changing one word. Fight lots and lots of zombies in Louisiana during the apocalypse. Normally, any decent game critic would spit more noxious acid at Valve than one of the game's own Spitters. But Valve manages to pull off a severely thin story completely by providing as little story as possible. You are with 3 other people. There are zombies. They want to kill you. You shoot the zombies from guns to prevent them from killing you, and repeat ad infinitum.
The Looks n' Sound.
And here we are again at the Source Engine, forcing me to reiterate myself once more. Source is like most golfers (for his sake, we'll exclude Tiger Woods). They're way too old to be playing any type of sport (is golf even a sport?) but what they do, they are HELLA good at. The game chugs along at a steady 60 FPS, and even during the most frantic of duels with overwhelming amounts of brain-eating undead, I never saw even one hiccup. The environments look nice enough, although the dark scenarios are sometimes evidently trying to hide the apparent lack of texturing. Played on surround sound, the game's audio is fantastic. Lethal gunshots have a penetrating thump, the Hunter's rabid screech chills me every time I hear it, and the soft moaning of a Witch right in front of you....cannnot be described.
Guys, can someone revive m--Oh, shiiiii!
The Gameplay.
Let's get this straight. The way this game handles is probably its saving grace. While being almost an identical clone to the first Left 4 Dead, albeit with increased variety and new environments, while playing the game it's almost impossible to care. Valve didn't need to drastically overhaul the series in this sequel, and that's because the first game was #%@!ING PWNSAUCE (am I allowed to swear on this site?). After a five-second grace period to get adjusted to the slippery movement mechanics, you and your in-game gun practically become one. It will shoot precisely what you want, when you want it to. Of course, simply blasting through corridors and streets would get sort of tiring, so every now and then Valve's AI Director (the Omnipotent computer watching your game that adjusts difficulty and scale on the fly) will toss you into a room with several thousand zombie minions, force you to hold your ground on a stage against hordes of flesh-eating demons, or put you face to face with a quartet of unstoppable Tanks.
The Depth.
Admittedly, Left 4 Dead is not the deepest game, especially if you don't have any friends to play it with. This game is the reciprocal of most campaign-designed games, with single-player practically being thrown in as an afterthought. Like L4D1, this game simply must be played with someone else, be it a Split-Screen buddy or a stranger you met on Xbox Live. There is somewhat of a lack in game mode variety. Once you finish the Campaign (a solid 10-hour romp whose chapters can be played in any order), you can either play the levels in Online Versus mode (player controlled humans Vs. player controlled zombies), an extremely difficult, desperate-struggle version of the campaign called Realism, a mode called Scavenge, where players are tasked with gathering Gas Cans to fuel up a vehicle, and Survival (my favorite), where you're tasked with defending one spot from endless waves of Infected. Additionally, you can replay the campaign (it will change in zombie positioning/numbers and structure every time) but honestly, once is enough.
The Verdict.
Left 4 Dead 2, much like Left 4 Dead, is an extremely good game. That much cannot be argued. Valve still has the adept skill to squeeze game after game out of its withered Source Engine, and though the roughness-around-the-edges can be all too visible at times, the games are invariably fun, and that's what really counts.
8/10
that's why I didn't go into much depth about it.
