Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2 (abbreviated L4D2) is a multiplayer co-operative survival horror FPS game developed by Valve Corporation. The game was built using the Source engine and was released in North America on PC and Xbox 360 on November 17, 2009 and November 20, 2009 in Europe. 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 03.

According to Valve, the Infection has spread to the southern United States, where the sequel picks up 1 week after the events of the first game (3 weeks after the first infection). Left 4 Dead 2 will feature three new Infected (the Charger, revealed in the E3 '09 trailer; the Spitter, revealed on July 20th, 2009 and the Jockey), 20 new weapons including melee weapons, new items, upgraded Infected (limbs can be taken off), the Uncommon Common Infected (such as the hazmat-suited Infected that are immune to fire), five new campaigns which are said to connect unlike the original's, new Survivors, and one new game mode, entitled 'Scavenge Mode'.

Just like the original, the game has four Survivors in an apocalyptic pandemic battling against hordes of the Infected. There are four new Survivors in Left 4 Dead 2: Nick, Ellis, Rochelle, and Coach.

Another feature which has been announced is new powers to the Director. Instead of just switching up where items and enemies spawn according to how players are doing, it can now completely rearrange the map's layout, turning places that would normally be simple into mazes with dead ends.

The game will bring players a new gameplay experience with close combat weapons that can be found around the campaigns: the axe, baseball bat, chainsaw, cricket bat, crowbar, katana, electric guitar, frying pan, Tonfa, and the Machete. These can kill Common Infected in just one hit, but it replaces the pistol(s) in the sidearms category. The close combat weapons are able to kill most of the Special Infected in one hit. The Charger, Tank, and Witch will need more than one hit. Although the melee weapons are strong against the Special Infected, it is not recommended due to the amount of time to reach the Smoker, Hunter, and Charger. Also, hitting a Boomer will cause bile to cover all nearby Survivors. There are also new items which can give players certain advantages, such as incendiary bullets which set their target on fire. Unfortunately, once these special items are picked up, they must be used at that time; they cannot be saved for later use. Another change that should be noted is that the melee fatigue system, which was included in only Versus and Survival mode in Left 4 Dead, is now integrated into Campaign mode in the sequel.

The Game

 * Campaigns/Maps
 * The Survivors
 * The Infected

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, around 3 weeks after the first infection. It is yet unknown how long the storyline in Left 4 Dead is.

The story of Left 4 Dead 2 spans five new long campaigns, taking place during the daylight and night (possibly meaning that the Survivors' travels to the eventual rescue vehicle take even longer than before), and is set in the Southern United States, starting in Savannah, Georgia and ending up in New Orleans, Louisiana. According to Valve employee Chet Faliszek, the Savannah area hasn't yet been hit by the Infection. The daylight causes some Infected to act differently, especially the Wandering Witch.

Four new Survivors replace the original Survivors in their quest to find a safe area where the infection hasn't reached yet: Coach, a high school gym teacher; Ellis, a 23-year-old auto mechanic; Nick, a 35 year-old gambler and conman; and Rochelle, a news reporter. The Survivors will encounter new Infected behavior, such as a Wandering Witch, and completely new Infected altogether, like the Charger, the Spitter, and the Jockey. There will also be new variants of the Common Infected, depending on which level a player is on.

Valve has also said that they intend on providing more exposition about what may have caused the zombie apocalypse and to try connecting the narratives of the two Left 4 Dead games.

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.

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.

Trivia

 * There are usable jukeboxes in Swamp Fever and The Parish. These jukeboxes contain two Jonathan Coulton songs: "Re: Your Brains", and "Still Alive" from Portal, another Valve game. The jukeboxes feature song is often selected out of random as sometimes the jukeboxes will play music by the Midnight Riders and sometimes play the traditional song, When The Saints Come Marching In (listed in the captions as The Saints Will Never Come).
 * Infected can survive with missing limbs, whereas in Left 4 Dead, they die when their limbs are blown off.
 * The game takes place in Autumn as seen in a banner in the beginning of the trailer.
 * In the trailer, one can see what appears to be the Army bombing the Infected. Infected can also be seen breaking through fenced barriers, implying Valve's statement that New Orleans had been relatively safe from the infection before the events of 2.
 * Valve seems to have reused the baseball bat hitting sound from the sound used in Team Fortress 2, which was also used in Half-Life 2. However, they have applied new, more authentic wooden sounds for it.
 * Valve decided not to give the game an elaborate sequel name because the title is so straightforward. However, the team did consider calling it Back 4 More.
 * Upon seeing the campaign poster for The Parish with all four Survivors standing together, Game Informer Magazine commented; "Now the Black Guy is also the Old Guy and the office professional is wearing a suit instead of a tie. Yep, they're really mixing it up this time around.", this statement might be seen as contradictory, implying that there are two Louises who have become both Coach and Nick, but is simply commenting on the similar lineup of main characters in relation to the previous game.
 * As seen in some Gameplay Videos the "Dying Animation" of the Hunter and Smoker have been changed. Instead of flying away when being shot like in the first Left 4 Dead they just fall on the ground like any other Infected.
 * According to Chet Faliszek, 2 will include something to do with the original Survivors, saying "we're not done with them yet". In a previous issue of PC Gamer, Chet claimed that it may be possible to unlock the old Survivors due to the numerous demands for their return in the sequel. This calls into question if the old and new Survivors can interact with each other during a game, as most likely some players would have unlocked them while others have not. Since the old Survivors were not featured in 2, there is a possibility that the Survivors will appear in one of the possible future games in the franchise or maybe DLC.
 * The weapons that originally appeared in Left 4 Dead will appear in every campaign, just under new names.
 * On the options menu, you can change the gore setting. Setting it to "low" will disable the body deformation system, making it more like Left 4 Dead but without any dismemberment.
 * The main menu and loading screens change as witnessed in the demo, possibly every time the game is reset.
 * In the Zombie Survival Guide, once the survivors are on the elevator there is blood and the tongue from the smoker but in the TV commercial 2 (see below) it is absent during the clip.
 * In the Left 4 Dead 2 TV Spot 2 video, the 'hand logo' was changed from as it was on the game's box art. Instead of the thumb being torn off, it is instead bent back, much like the two fingers when the ESRB deemed that two torn off fingers would be too graphic for the box cover.
 * The song in the latest Left 4 Dead 2 TV spot is called Electric Worry by Clutch.
 * Although the UK's boxart was changed due to censorship issues, the manual and the game avatar keeps the original 'hand logo'.
 * The elevator scene from the Zombie Survival Guide is actually the Dead Center finale with darkened lighting.
 * For unknown reasons, the new Survivors address ammunition piles as guns rather than correctly addressing them as ammo like in the previous game.
 * The clues for how all of the game's campaigns relate are less subtle than the ones for the campaigns in the first game which provided little to no obvious signs of how the Survivors ended up in each campaign with the exception of Crash Course.
 * In the instruction manual for Left 4 Dead 2, on the Survivors page there is a picture with Ellis but the background is yellow while the other survivors have green background. Also they used Coach's and Rochelle's old models noted by Rochelle's long hair even though it's supposed to be short and Coach's old shirt. This probably signifies that Valve didn't bother with the character pictures thus leaving them alone.
 * In the Zombie Survival Guide when the Survivors are getting into the elevator of Dead Center, one of the infected Ellis melees is a riot infected, which do not appear in this campaign, only in The Parish campaign.
 * Left 4 Dead 2 has gotten strong review scores, and almost all reviews state that it is better in the first in every way (deeper characters, more zombies, more guns etc.) although IGN gave it the same score as the first (9/10) but still states that it's a lot better.
 * Every time you start up  Left 4 Dead 2, the loading screen, menu background animation, and music will change to match one of the 5 campaigns.

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)