Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2 (abbreviated L4D2) is a single-player and multiplayer co-operative survival horror FPS game developed by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to Left 4 Dead and was first announced by Valve Corporation at Microsoft's E3 '09 press conference on June 1st.

The Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer demo was released on October 28th (for those who pre-ordered), but the demo was made available to the public on November 3rd.

The sequel picks up 1 week after the events of the first game (3 weeks after the first infection) where The Infection has spread to the southern United States. Left 4 Dead 2 introduced three new Infected, new weapons including melee weapons, new items, upgraded Infected, the Uncommon Common Infected, five new campaigns, Scavenge Mode, and Realism Mode. The four Survivors the players control are Nick, Ellis, Rochelle, and Coach.

The Game

 * Campaigns/Maps
 * The Survivors
 * The Infected

Awards
Left 4 Dead 2 was featured as one of Game Informer's top 50 games of 2009, they had this to say:
 * "Ever wonder how far you could make it through the zombie apocalypse with just a chainsaw and a grenade launcher? Left 4 Dead 2 has your answer. Everything about Valve's sequel to last year's intense co-op FPS is amplified, with gratuitous gore, tons of melee weapons, intensified finales, and even more zombies. If you still think this sequel came too soon, then you haven't cracked a clown zombie in the face with a cricket bat while protecting a lawn gnome."


 * Interestingly, cricket bats are not available in Dark Carnival, despite the review.

Plot


The plot is similar to Left 4 Dead; it involves the aftermath of the the Infection 1 week after the events of the previous game, now being around 3 weeks after the first infection.

The story starts at around noon in Atlanta. As the last rescue helicopter leaves the building, 4 unlucky survivors climb up the hotel to find that they were just a couple of seconds too late. With this new found predicament, the group decides to go to a mall, where it is said that another evacuation center is still in operation. When the group reaches the mall, they find that it has been overwhelmed by the infected. In desperate hope, they decide to pierce deeper into the building in hopes that the evacuation center was simply deeper inside. It turns out that the center was decimated, and all the CEDA employees were dead. In despair, the group wanders into the mall's atrium and finds a functioning stock car, albeit without gas. A new idea appears in their head to scrounge around the atrium in search of gas cans, followed up with filling the car’s tank. This proves successful, and the survivors escape Atlanta.

The escape via car works for a while until the survivors find that the highway is blocked by hundreds of stalled vehicles. Finding no other way across, the survivors leave the car behind and proceed by foot. When they go below the overpass, they see bright lights flickering in the distance. The group then decides to head for the lights, in hope of finding some healthy people. The bright lights turn out to be originating from Whispering Oaks Amusement Park and Fairgrounds, which now has a large population of infected, whether they were all infected while in the park or simply wandered in there because of the bright lights. The survivors wander through the park for a bit of time till they see a helicopter fly over head. Newly inspired, they decide to activate a rock concert, in hopes that the loud music and bright lights will attract the helicopter. When they finally enter the concert, they activate the controls and find out that the sound is attracting a massive amount of infected as well as the helicopter pilot. After much fighting, the helicopter finally arrives and the survivors just escape the abandoned carnival.

But once again luck is not on their side, and the helicopter is forced to do a crash landing after the pilot becomes infected. The survivors exit the wrecked helicopter to find that they crash-landed into a bayou. They enter a small village and find out that the populace decided to take matters into its own hands and barricade itself against the infected. Without any other option, the survivors decide to try to find the barricaded area. They enter through a swamp, fight numerous infected, and find a crashed airliner in their progress towards the safe zone. When they finally reach it, they soon discover that the town people were overwhelmed by the infection. But luck turns out to be on their side as they find graffiti talking about an old plantation house that has a nearby dock. The survivors head toward it and find a radio and manage to contact a man who has a boat further down the river named Virgil. The group and Virgil have a short discussion via the radio, and the survivors tell him that they are at the plantation home. Virgil recognizes the location and begins to navigate his way to their location. After the survivors fight many infected, Virgil arrives and blows down the gates leading to the river, allowing the survivors to escape.

The Cover and Rating


The cover of the Left 4 Dead 2 appears to be identical to the original Left 4 Dead cover. The hand was modeled once again by hand modeler Andrea Wicklund.

The idea was to create a hand missing another two fingers along with the famous original missing thumb, resulting in a hand only holding up two fingers, further signifying the number two. The background's color was also changed to a lighter shade of green.

Around June 2009 the ESRB told Valve that the new cover is unacceptable, and the idea was changed to tucking the two bitten fingers behind the hand to create the illusion that model's fingers were missing, yet still retaining the missing thumb.


 * The ESRB was asked why they still allowed the new cover with only one missing finger, yet not accepting three. The ESRB has declined to comment.

Around July 2009 Valve decided to change the cover once again, instead of tucking 2 fingers to make them look missing, the idea was to just tuck them and leave them visible. The hand drastically changed, including the background which no longer contains green, Instead it now contains yellow.

In the United Kingdom, the cover was changed to show the hand facing the opposite direction, as the two-finger sign towards the viewer is considered an insult. This cover design change does not apply with the Australian version of the game even though the direction of the two-finger sign also applies there as well. In addition, the German and Japanese version of the cover features all of the fingers intact as it did with the first game due to the same censorship reasons that applied to the first game's cover.

Controls
These are the default controls of Left 4 Dead 2 for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions.

Context sensitive controls

 * The X button is used to interact with other things. Using it, you can pick up objects, open doors, or help other Survivors to their feet.
 * Select the first aid kit, target a teammate and press and hold LT to heal them. It has the same effect as them healing themselves. (It will therefore take 5 seconds and heal damage depending on the current hp of the person)
 * Select the pain pills, target a teammate, press and hold LT to give the pills to them.

Refer to health for further tips. Make sure your teammates know how to revive you and give first aid kits and/or pain pills to you. The Survivors need to watch out for each other.

Boycott
Shortly after Valve's announcement of Left 4 Dead 2, many fans were shocked of the idea due to the short period of time after the first Left 4 Dead and the fact that the long promised SDK (which is essential to making new levels for Left 4 Dead) was being held back because of this. Hours after the announcement fans gathered together and formed a group called L4D2 Boycott (NO-L4D2); the group reached 10,000 members in one week and 35,000 members in three weeks. The group believed that Left 4 Dead 2 should not be a separate game in order to keep the community one, claiming that releasing a sequel would split the community. Their suggestion was to make Left 4 Dead 2 either an expansion pack that is not full-priced or free downloadable content, citing a lack of new content and also voicing their preference to keep the original Survivors and maps. Many fans were also disappointed that Valve had yet to deliver the free DLC they promised.

Valve has informed the fans that they have been tracking their comments ever since the first announcement on 1st June 2009, and their response were that Left 4 Dead will continue to be supported with downloadable content. This announcement caused some fans to believe that Valve saw the fans of Left 4 Dead as boycotting the sequel only get more free updates and to save money. Valve has also said that they are discussing the matter and are considering importing the original maps into Left 4 Dead 2; nothing regarding the original Survivors was mentioned.

The boycott did not seem to be especially effective. Currently, the pre-order sales of Left 4 Dead 2 have quadrupled the pre-order sales of Left 4 Dead .

The boycott has since been officially disbanded as the founders themselves have said that they have done what they set out to do and are now sympathetic with Valve's work on Left 4 Dead 2, but however still maintain that they themselves will not buy the game. Despite stating this, it can be noted on the leader's profiles that they own and play Left 4 Dead 2. (It should be noted that not "buying" the game doesn't tend to stop one from "owning" the game.)

Trailers
See Also: Videos and Trailers

thumb|300px|left|Left 4 Dead 2 teaser trailer from E3 '09.

thumb|300px|left|Left 4 Dead 2 Zombie Survival Guide

thumb|300px|left|Left 4 Dead 2 Ad thumb|left|300px|Left 4 Dead 2 TV Spot 2A (Updated release date)