Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) Review
Brutal Gamer’s review of Left 4 Dead 2 on the Xbox 360.
The most anticipated zombie post-apocalyptic title from Half Life and Counter Strike creator Valve has finally been released (except from if you’re in Australia, it’ll be released one day – hopefully). We first saw the game way back at E3 (’09) this year in a trailer during the Microsoft press conference, very quickly a “boycott Left 4 Dead 2” group was started by people within the Steam community as they were pissed off at the fact Valve actually released a game with a sequel which had a quick turnaround unlike a certain big franchise they also create – think someone should tell them that episodic means ‘released within a reasonable timeframe of one another’. As well as the pathetic boycott group, there was also the hilarious attempt at a certain someone over at the Houston Chronicle claiming that Left 4 Dead 2 was racist due to there being a few coloured zombies in the trailer for the game.
Left 4 Dead 2 is based loosely around New Orleans in America, which is one of the last places you would honestly expect a zombie game to be set but when you think about it, it does make really good sense due to the huge variety in locations which the game does cover very well. You’ll go from the run down, trailer park areas to fairly urban-cramped areas. The campaign covers 5 different chapters this time round and a bunch of new game modes which are incredible addictive and all will be covered later. As well as the new game modes and setting the game has, you have 4 new survivors to try and rescue and get to that precious safe room. The new survivors are; Coach the high-school football coach with a dodgy knee, Nick who is addicted to gambling, Rochelle the news reporter and Ellis the (crazy) mechanic. All say their own stupid little phrases which aren’t in the slightest bit funny this time round, excluding the random stories of Ellis’ zombie killing friends.
If you’re planning to play Left 4 Dead 2 for an intense and dramatic plot like ones in Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2, this will not be the game for you. It instead goes with the 5 individual chapters which very loosely follow on from each other and it presents itself in a cheesy movie style. The general aim of all 5 missions is simply get to the end act and reach the rescue point, the names and a brief description of all the chapters can be found below:
Dead Centre
This chapter is set in the middle of city; you and the other 3 survivors have to fight your way through the streets to reach the mall where they think they’ll find safety and a way of escaping the city. Instead, in the Atrium of the mall they find a muscle car which they plan on using to escape with, however you have to gather the 8 jerry-cans which are scattered throughout the Atrium; this act gives you a very nice taste of what the games new scavenger game mode is like.
Dark Carnival
As lady-luck isn’t on the side of our 4 unfortunate survivors the car which they escaped the Atrium with runs out of fuel and breaks down on the highway. Luckily (I use that term loosely) they see a sign about a carnival nearby, surely they’ll be someone at it to help you escape! Fighting your way through the car-cluttered high ways, eventually you turn up at the carnival where you then end up fighting on a rollercoaster trying to get to the other side to switch off the alarm. The chapter ends in an epic battle (probably one of the best endings for a Left 4 Dead chapter so far) in a stadium with a rock stage in the centre – note: you can use the pyrotechnics to your advantage.
Swamp Fever
after escaping on a helicopter on the Dark Carnival chapter, it seems that the helicopter pilot was infected and you end up crash landing in a shitty swampy area. This being the worst chapter of the 5, yet still quite enjoyable. Murky water is everywhere, you’ll quickly learn to stay out of it as zombies and the swamp-people enjoy hiding in them. This chapter ends while you wait for Cajun (a local boat owner) to come pick you up.
Hard Rain
After 3 long chapters, death is still following the 4 survivors and Cajun’s boat runs out of fuel in a deserted town. Cajun sets you the task of heading into town to find more fuel for his boat and then to return with it all in one go, when heading towards the area you pick up the fuel from you quickly learn that a terrifying storm is brewing. It all starts to kick off one you’ve picked it up; thunder, lightning, zombies, crop fields, you name it and it is here – you get to a stage where the storm is so forocitious that you’re only able to see 2-3 feet in front of you, and in a zombie game, this is not the best situation to be stuck in. Once you’ve done the epic standoff at the boat yard, Cajun reappears and you hastily make your escape.
The Parish
The 5th and final chapter of Left 4 Dead 2, Cajun leaves you on a dock as the military are waiting on the opposite side of a major bridge to pick up survivors and escort them to safety via helicopter. It isn’t as easy as it sounds though, you’re going to have to fight your way there obviously, heading through streets, an enormous park and the good ol’ reliable and safe cemeteries, and you’ll finally arrive at the bridge finale. The bridge is jam-packed full of cars making it even more hassle to get to the other side, and the amount of zombies on this part of the game is staggering. You’ve got to love the fact a tank appears at some point on the bridge (because of that bastard AI Director) he then constantly tries to throw cars at you and the other survivors, trying to knock you off of the bridge
When it comes to any horror/zombie-based title, the most important thing to me is the atmosphere and art style of the game. If the atmosphere isn’t right, it can completely kill where you’ve set the game, the amount of detail you pay to even the smallest of things can become noticeable as soon as they appear. You can tell the amount of time and effort Valve spent with making sure everything looked right, the cartoony-ish art style works perfectly, fantastic to look at yet when it needs too, can still make you jump. Yeah, certain parts of it may not be original and cliché (aka. Corn fields) but that doesn’t change the fact what they’ve done, is fucking outstanding.
On average, each chapter will take you around 40 minutes on normal difficulty, meaning you’ll get a couple of hours overall from just finishing the game. As the game features the wonder AI Director, you’ll be able to play them over multiple times as depending on how well you’re doing, will depend on where certain special infected are etc. This time round, there are even more special infected like the charger which is a tank with less health, but charges through your team and will grab one person and slams them into the wall causing them a great deal of damage – there are plenty more, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. New guns are available too like the AK47, combat shotgun, grenade launcher and around 8 different melee weapons (frying pan, hell yes). The new equipment is also pretty damn handy, team mate dead? The defibrillator works wonders by reviving them on the spot or the adrenaline needle for a quick boost of speed.
As with any game that is based around co-op, it is best that you actually play it the way it was designed to be played. I can’t recommend this enough for the fact that the survivors which are played by the computer are to put it simply: shit. They were much more useful and intelligent in the first one, they seem to just be mentally handicapped when it comes to situations where there are lots of zombies or another survival is being attacked by a special infected. There were numerous occasions where the AI survivor would stand next to me as a Charger was beating me to the ground, not even bothering trying to help me.
Remember the piece of free downloadable content “Survival” which was released on Xbox Live and PC users’ way back? This time round, it is actually included on the disk with areas taken from within the game which would work for the game mode, instead of letting you have the option to play every area, even though the majority didn’t even slightly work for it. This again, is a game mode in which you really do need real people because some actually have half a brain cell.
If you think that you’re a “pr0 gamer” and find the normal version of Left 4 Dead 2 easy, you’ll be happy to know that Valve have created a Realism game mode, in which you have even less ammo and the AI Director is as cruel as possible to you – it also seems that the AI are even more useless than before. The Scavenger game mode being the most entertaining of the bunch of new additions, you’re set a goal of collecting X amount of a certain type of item and bringing it back to one location. As this is an online-only game mode, it can be very entertaining to take part in, gradually moving the item closer to the collection point with every life is something which seems to happen regularly. The traditional infected vs. Survivors game mode is still alive and kicking as it previously was, the players taking control of a set survivor or randomly changing between the special infected – yes, it is as brilliant as it was before, so don’t worry!
Final Thoughts
I really do love being able to say this: the sequel to a fantastic game is even better! Everything which you loved about the original is even better than before and the additions of the new weapons, game modes, items and maps add to me ever-growing love of the title. If you’re looking for a co-operative game to play with your friends, this is the game you must pick up this year. Modern Warfare 2 and Uncharted 2’s co-operative game modes are like a horse with one leg trying to run in the Grand National – Left 4 Dead 2 being the horse with a rocket inserted up its arse.
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