Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2 is a single-player and multiplayer co-operative survival horror first person shooter game developed by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to Left 4 Dead. It was first announced on June 1st, 2009 by Valve Corporation at Microsoft's E3 2009 press conference.

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

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


 * Campaigns/Maps
 * The Survivors
 * The Infected
 * Updates

Plot


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

The story starts around noon in Savannah, Georgia. As the last rescue helicopter leaves the building, four unlucky Survivors climb up the hotel to find that they were just a couple of seconds too late, watching their chance of escape fly away. With this newfound 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 desperatation, 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 heads; 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.

During their escape, the group stops at a bridge raised by three of the original Survivors from Left 4 Dead, Francis, Zoey, and Louis (Bill was killed). One of them will meet the Survivors and inform them that they cannot lower the bridge for the group because the generator that used to lower the bridge is out of fuel, and they must tend to one of their own who is wounded. After battling through a wedding with the Witch bride, the streets, and a "historical sewer," the Survivors then meet up with the other three again. After the three original Survivors agree to help by defending them from higher ground, the Savannah group is able to fend off most of the Infected, find gas cans, fill up the generator, cross the lowered bridge, and drive off while exchanging farewells as they continue to New Orleans.

The escape car works well 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 on foot. When they go below the overpass, they see searchlights still lit up in the distance. The group then decides to head for the lights, in hope of finding some uninfected people. The searchlights turn out to be originating from Whispering Oaks Amusement Park and Fairgrounds, which is now a hunting ground for a large number of infected individuals. The Survivors wander through the park for a bit of time until they see a helicopter fly over their heads. Newly inspired, they decide to hold a rock concert set up for the Midnight Riders in hopes that the loud music and Grammy-award-winning pyrotechnics will attract the helicopter. When they finally enter the amphitheater, 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 pick-up 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 the helicopter pilot turns out to be infected and was shot by one of the Survivors. 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 as this time as they find that someone wrote on a wall about an old plantation house and a nearby dock, which leads to an escape boat. 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 blocked their way to the river, the Survivors then jump on the boat to safety.

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 two miles east, navigating through a Witch-infested sugar mill to collect gas. Even more unfortunately, they have to once again walk those two miles back, except uphill, in the midst of a torrential downpour. The forgotten bag of guns also held the flares to contact Virgil. So they decide to signal Virgil by lighting up the Burger Tank sign near the dock. They defend themselves once more against hordes of Infected until Virgil finally arrives for them.

At long last, Virgil drops the Survivors at a waterfront in New Orleans. He then leaves, saying he is on his way to find other Survivors. The group of Survivors then fight their way through the waterfront, a park, a cemetery, and the French Quarter, coming to a bridge 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 then run across the bridge to the awaiting chopper pilot who carries them to a military cruise ship.

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 the missing thumb, yet not accepting the two unwanted fingers and the thumb. 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 New Zealand and Australian versions of the game even though the direction of the two-finger sign applies in those countries 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.

Australia and Germany censored Left 4 Dead 2, removing some features generally to do with violence:
 * Blood and gore: Virtually no blood is found after killing the Infected and is impossible to remove any body parts from using weapons on them. Despite this, achievements for dismemberment were still included and can be awarded in the Australian version
 * Fire and Explosive Effects: Infected can no longer be set on fire and no damage is visible when hit with Explosive Ammo or the Pipe Bomb. Infected that the game registers as having been set on fire act in the same way as they would if on fire except that no fire is visible.
 * Bodies: After dying, the Infected disappear, often before they even hit the ground
 * Infected: The Riot Infected is removed from the game, because it "encourages violence against official authority". In the Australian version, the Riot Infected was eventually put back in with minor alterations to remove any connection to official authorities.

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.

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."

The Drunk Tank Podcast by RoosterTeeth named Left 4 Dead 2 the best game of 2009.

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 was 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 because the pre-order sales of Left 4 Dead 2 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, one should note the irony that on the leader's profiles it is noted that they both own and play Left 4 Dead 2.

Major changes from the original

 * New Main Characters
 * More Infected in each level.
 * Increased level of gore
 * New Common Infected textures and models
 * New Special Infected textures and models
 * New Special Infected (the Charger, the Jockey, and the Spitter)
 * New Uncommon Infected enemies
 * More guns
 * New weapons tier
 * Melee weapons
 * Gauntlet crescendos
 * New Gameplay Modes
 * Upgraded Graphics
 * No running animations (P220 Pistol only)
 * Counter Strike: Source weapons (German Users Only; compensation for the game's censorship in Germany).

Downloadable Content

 * Baseball Bat upon pre-order (now available for everyone).
 * The Passing
 * The Sacrifice with No Mercy
 * Cold Stream with original Left 4 Dead campaigns

Split screen
Split screen play is fully supported on the XBOX 360 allowing players to play both online and offline with a friend using one console. On PC, split screen is unsupported but still possible. Using an XBOX 360 controller for PC and some console commands, one can play only offline with a friend. Due to changes in the console split screen online for PC is not possible, unlike Left 4 Dead where split screen PC can be done both online and offline. Doing this requires a higher-end processor.