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 2009 press conference on June 1st.

As of January 24, 2010, Left 4 Dead 2 has a metascore of 89 out of 100, Metacritic.

The Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer demo was released on October 28th for those who preordered, and 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 introduces 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. Game Informer 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 Savannah, Georgia. 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 agents are either dead or infected. 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, for the purpose of filling the car’s tank. This proves successful, and the survivors escape Savannah.

The escape via car works until the survivors find that the highway is blocked by abandoned vehicles, seemingly going on for miles. Finding no other way past, 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 is now a hunting ground for a decent number of infected individuals, perhaps infected while trying to enjoy the park or simply wandering to the bright lights. The survivors wander through the park for a bit of time until they see a helicopter fly over head. Newly inspired, they decide to hold a rock concert set up for a locally well known band, in hopes that the loud music and Grammy-award-winning pyrotechnics will attract the helicopter. When they finally enter the amphitheatre, they activate the controls and find out that the sound is attracting a massive amount of infected along with the helicopter pilot. After much fighting, the helicopter finally decides to make a pickup and the survivors barely escape the abandoned carnival. But once again luck is not on their side, and the helicopter is forced to do a crash landing after Nick shoots the helicopter pilot, who turned while carrying them. The survivors exit the wrecked helicopter to find that they landed in a bayou. They pass through a small village and find that the populace decided to take matters into their own hands and barricade themselves against the infected. Without any other option, the survivors decide to try to find the barricaded area. They travel through a swamp, fight numerous infected, and find a crashed airliner in their path to the safe area. When they reach it, they discover that the townspeople were overwhelmed by the infection, but luck turns out to be on their side this time as they find someone wrote on a wall about an old plantation house and a nearby dock. The survivors head toward it and find a radio, and manage to contact a man named Virgil who has a boat further down the river. Virgil and the group have a short discussion via 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 off hordes of infected, Virgil arrives and blows down the gates that, moments before, blocked their was to the river, the survivors again managing to cheat death.

However, along the way, Virgil's boat begins to run low on fuel, so he drops the survivors off by a small town in Ducatel, Mississippi, with instructions to get diesel for the boat from the gas station across the road. Unfortunately, this gas station is out of fuel, and the survivors forgot the bag of guns, and have to travel 2 miles east, navigating through a sugar mill and finding new guns along the way, to collect gas. Even more unfortunately, they have to once again walk those 2 miles, except uphill, in the midst of a torrential downpour. The forgotten bag of guns also held the flares, which are rendered useless by the fact that they're still on the boat and the survivors aren't, so they decide to signal Virgil by lighting up the Burger Tank sign near the dock. They defend themselves once more against hordes and Virgil finally arrives for them.

At long last, Virgil drops the survivors at a waterfront in New Orleans. He says he is on his way to find other survivors. The group of survivors we're following fight their way through the waterfront, a park, a cemetery, and the French Quarter, coming to a bridge secured and in the middle of being bombed by the military. On the other side of the bridge is a military chopper about to leave. The survivors manage to contact the military over the radio and have the chopper pilot wait and carry them to safety. Perhaps this military chopper is on its way to a military ship out at sea, as so far the infected don't know how to swim. So far...

The Cover and Rating


The cover of the Left 4 Dead 2 is almost identical to the original Left 4 Dead cover. The hand was modeled once again by hand model 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 unwanted fingers behind the hand to attain the desired effect, yet still keep 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, making the two tucked-away fingers slightly more visible. The hand drastically changed, as did the background, which is now 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 was not 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, and it is possible to receive Steam games as a gift.)

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) thumb|300px|left|The third TV Spot for Left 4 Dead 2