Left 4 Dead 2

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Left 4 Dead 2
Developer(s)	Valve Corporation
Distributor(s)	Valve Corporation
Designer(s)	Mike Booth
Writer(s)	Chet Faliszek
Composer(s)	Mike Morasky
Release date	Xbox 360, PC US November 17, 2009 EU November 19, 2009 Mac October 5, 2010
Genre(s)	Co-operative Online Survival horror First-person shooter
Game modes	Single player, multiplayer
Platform(s)	PC, Xbox 360, Mac
Prequel	Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead 2 (abbreviated L4D2) is a single-player and multiplayer cooperative survival horror first person shooter game developed by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to Left 4 Dead, and was built using Source engine. It was first announced on June 1, 2009 by Valve Corporation at Microsoft's E3 2009 press conference. The game is available on PC and Xbox 360.

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

Plot

The campaign poster for The Parish, the final campaign in the game.

The story takes place in Savannah, Georgia, after the events in The Sacrifice. The four survivors climb up the roof to witness the last rescue helicopter leave the rooftop of The Vannah. They decide to go to a mall, where a second evacuation point is located. While on their way, they learn each others names: Ellis, Coach, Rochelle and Nick. After an encounter with Whitaker, the survivors enter the mall to discover that it is overrun, with all CEDA agents at the center either dead or infected. The group enters the mall's atrium to discover Jimmy Gibbs Jr.'s stock car and, following Ellis's plan, fuel up the car to break out of the mall where they head to New Orleans, rumored to be the last standing city in America.

The four then arrive at the raised bridge in Rayford, where they meet Francis, Louis and Zoey. The late Bill sacrificed his life to raise the bridge, and Louis had been wounded by a Witch as the group explored Rayford. Because the new survivors need to cross the bridge, they must find another way across and refill the generator. After battling through a wedding, the streets, and a "historical sewer", they meet up with the original survivors again, who help cover the new survivors while they fend off the Infected in order to fill the generator and lower the bridge.

They continue driving until they reach Griffin County, where they find the highway is completely blocked by abandoned vehicles, thus forcing them to proceed on foot through miles of abandoned cars where they find a distant search light. The lights are revealed to come from Whispering Oaks Amusement Park. As they fight their way through the Park and navigate to its stadium, Coach comes up with an idea to use the concert equipment in The Peach Pit, abandoned by Midnight Riders, to attract the helicopter pilot's attention. The plan works, and the Survivors manage to evacuate in the helicopter as the masses of Infected swarm the stadium.

The Survivors of Left 4 Dead 2. (From left to right: Ellis, Coach, Rochelle, and Nick)

After being rescued, the helicopter pilot becomes infected, prompting Nick to shoot him and cause the helicopter to crash. The Survivors exit the wrecked helicopter to find that they have landed in a bayou. They discover a small village, where the villagers decided to fend for themselves, but ultimately failed as they were overrun. Working their way through the swamp, the survivors come across a crashed plane, dead military paratroopers, and infected swamp villagers. The previous survivors had informed any passerby to head to the Plantation House. When the survivors head there, they find a radio, which they use to contact Virgil for rescue. After fending off the horde, Virgil blasts the Plantation gate open to allow the survivors to escape on his boat before the horde could overwhelm them.

On their way to New Orleans, Virgil's boat runs low on fuel and drops off the survivors at Ducatel, Mississippi to find gas. The survivors forget the gun bag, and the local gas station is out of gas which forces them to go to the next gas station two miles away. After passing through an abandoned sugar mill infested with Witches, they find the gas station. After collecting their fuel, they begin to head back when stormy weather hits. Going all the way back to the Burger Tank, Coach comes up with the idea to use the Burger Tank's sign to signal Virgil. They succeed, and Virgil arrives to pick them up before the Survivors are overwhelmed by the Infected.

Virgil drops the group off at New Orleans, where Coach is immediately reinvigorated as they see fighter jets in the sky, revealing that the military has not abandoned the city yet; Nick however is skeptical about their presence. They decide that the bridge in the distance is the best chance of survival, but discover the corpses of non-infected people on the way. The survivors suspect that the military took over CEDA's pitiful attempts to contain the situation as they find themselves in an area being bombed by the military, and quicken their pace to the bridge. They interrupt a transmission on the bridge between the two military personnel: Papa Gator and Rescue 7, who suspect that the Survivors are Carriers. Rescue 7 is prepared to carry the Carriers, and Papa Gator informs the Survivors that they are lucky as the Military had just left the area, and that they must reach the other side of the bridge for rescue. The Survivors fight through the Infected amassed on the bridge and reach Rescue 7. As he carries the Survivors out, the fighter jets bomb the bridge to prevent the Infected from leaving the city and the pilot takes the Survivors out to a military cruise ship at sea.

The Cover and Rating

The latest cover hand (left), the previous one (center), and the oldest known one (right).

The cover of Left 4 Dead 2 is almost identical to the original Left 4 Dead cover. The hand was modeled once again by a hand model named 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 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 the background did 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 it's impossible to remove any body parts by using weapons on them. Despite this, achievements for dismemberment were still included and can be awarded in the Australian version.
• Fire and Explosive Effects: The 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" (despite them being actually private security employees). In the Australian version, the Riot Infected was eventually put back in with minor alterations to remove any connection to the official authorities.

The cover for the UK version of the game.

The cover for the German version.

The latest cover art for Left For Dead 2

Controls

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

PC

Both Sides
Button	Action
W	Move Forward
S	Move Backward
A	Strafe Left
D	Strafe Right
Space Bar	Jump
Left Ctrl	Crouch
Shift	Walk
C	Voice Chat
T	Team Message
Y	Players Message
F4	Spray Tag
M	Choose Team
H	See Message of the Day
Tab	Status Screen
Esc	Main Menu - Start Vote
F1	Vote Yes
F2	Vote No
F5	Screen Capture

Survivors
Button	Action
Left Click	Fire Weapon / Throw Grenade / Use Current Item
Right Click	Melee Attack / Heal Other / Give to Other
Middle Click	Rifle Scope
Mousewheel Scroll Up	Select Previous
PrevMousewheel Scroll Down	Select Next
1	Select Primary Weapon
2	Select Secondary Weapon
3	Molotov / Pipe Bomb / Boomer Bile
4	Primary Healing Slot
5	Temporary Healing Slot
R	Reload
E	Use
Q	Select Previous Weapon
F	Toggle Flashlight on/off
Z	Give Orders
X	Questions and Answers

Infected
Button	Action
Left Click	Use Infected Ability
Right Click	Melee Attack (Throw Concrete as the Tank)
E	Move closer to Survivor Position (Ghost Mode Only)
Left Ctrl	Crouch (Enter attack position as Hunter)

Xbox 360

Survivors
Button	Action
Left Stick	Move (Click to Vocalize)
Right Stick	Look (Click to use Sniper Rifle Scope)
A	Jump
B	Reload
X	Use [Open Doors]
Y	Select Weapon
LB	Crouch
RB	180° Spin
RT	Primary Attack: Fire
LT	Secondary Attack: Melee Shove
D-Pad Up	Flashlight
D-Pad Right	Select Primary Healing Slot
D-Pad Down	Select Temporary Healing Slot
D-Pad Left	Select Molotov / Pipe bomb / Bile Bomb
Start	Main Menu / Vote "Yes"
Back	Status Screen / Vote "No"

Infected
Button	Action
Left Stick	Move
Right Stick	Look
A	Jump
B	No function
X	Move to Survivor Position (Spawn Mode, or When Far Enough Away From Survivors)
Y	No function
LB	Crouch (Enter attack position as Hunter)
RB	180° Spin
RT	Primary Attack: Fire (Tank: Melee)
LT	Secondary Attack: Claw (Tank: Throw)
D-Pad Up	No function
D-Pad Right	No function
D-Pad Down	No function
D-Pad Left	No function
Start	Main Menu / Vote "Yes"
Back	Status Screen / Vote "No"

Context sensitive controls

• The X button is used to interact with other things. Using it, you can pick objects up, open doors or help the 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 that your teammates know how to revive you and give first aid kits and/or pain pills to you. The Survivors need to look out for each other.

Reception

Left 4 Dead 2 was universally acclaimed by critics, with a Metacritic score of 89/100 on both PC & Xbox 360 based on 55 critic reviews and 76 critic reviews respectively.

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 that 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 whole, claiming that releasing a sequel would split the community. Their suggestion was to make Left 4 Dead 2 either an expansion pack that is either free downloadable content or not full-priced, 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 that they had promised.

Valve informed the fans that they have been tracking their comments ever since the first announcement on June 1, 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 to get more free updates and save money. Valve 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 were 4 times larger than the pre-order sales of Left 4 Dead.^{[citation needed]}

The boycott has since been officially disbanded as the founders themselves 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 leaders' profiles it is noted that they both own and play Left 4 Dead 2.

As of 2011, Valve has ported all six original campaigns from Left 4 Dead to Left 4 Dead 2, playable with the original survivors. No Mercy and The Sacrifice were ported to the game on October 5, 2010, while the rest were ported with the addition of Cold Stream on March 22, 2011. The campaigns are virtually identical to their original versions besides the addition of melee weapons (which were absent from the original game) and updated character icons.

Gallery

Trailers

Main article: Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer

See also: Videos and Trailers#Left 4 Dead 2

The blood and Smoker tongue is missing in the TV commercial (Bottom) but is in the Zombie Survival Guide (Top)

L4D2 Teaser

Left 4 Dead 2 teaser trailer from E3 '09.

Zombie Survival Guide (New Version)

Left 4 Dead 2 Zombie Survival Guide

L4D2 GameStop TV Spot

GameStop Baseball TV Spot

Second Left 4 Dead 2 TV Spot

Left 4 Dead 2 TV Spot 2A (Updated release date)

Left 4 Dead 2 TV Spot No. 3

The third TV Spot for Left 4 Dead 2

Screenshots and Concept art

The official Left 4 Dead 2 logo.

Current appearance of the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors.

The Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors as they appear on the E3 '09 trailer.

The Charger, a new Special Infected.

A shot from behind the Charger.

Coach and Ellis on The Bridge (early screenshot).

Coach and Rochelle on the magazine cover of PC Gamer August 2009.

The Dead Center loading screen.

The Beta main menu of Left 4 Dead 2, not fully revealed.

New gameplay enhancements allow pipe bombs to create ragdolls after exploding.

The Laser Sight.

Scavenge Mode gameplay in Dead Center

The menu screen blank.

Features

Major changes from the original

• New Main Characters.
• More Infected per level.
• Revamped gore system.
• 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 were originally the only players who had this due to censorship, however, as of the last stand update, these weapons are available for everyone.).

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.
• The Last Stand.

Split screen

Split screen play is fully supported on the Xbox 360, allowing the players to play both online and offline with a friend by 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.

Notes

• The game takes place in Autumn as seen in a banner in the beginning of the trailer as well as various pieces of graffiti which are dated for early October.
• In the trailer, one can see what appears to be Marine Corps or Navy F/A-18 Hornets bombing the Infected. The 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 Left 4 Dead 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 considered 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 became both Coach and Nick, but is simply commenting on the similar lineup of the main characters in relation to the previous game.
• As seen in some gameplay videos, the "Dying Animation" of the Hunter and Smoker changed. Instead of flying away when being shot in the head like in the first Left 4 Dead, they just fall on the ground like any other Infected. The Charger and Jockey can still go flying when killed, depending on how they moved before death.
• Although the UK's boxart was changed due to censorship issues, the manual and the game avatar keep the original 'hand logo'.
• The clues for how all of the game's campaigns related 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.
• Every time that you started Left 4 Dead 2 up, the loading screen, menu background animation and music will change to match one of the 5 campaigns.
• Left 4 Dead 2 was nominated for "Game of the Year" in the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. It also won the best Xbox 360 Game.
• Left 4 Dead 2 came third in Screwattack's Top 10 Zombie Games, beaten only by Resident Evil 2 and Dead Rising.
• Though numerous areas of the game's campaigns appear in the opening scene, their appearance and order that they are shown is different. The differences included the Plantation's mounted gun being on the lower deck rather than the balcony above, the hotel having a room that has a health pack and several guns and the atrium in Dead Center's mall having many more floors than in the actual game.

External Links

An autographed copy of Left 4 Dead 2 given away during the "Dude Where's my Thumb 2" contest.

• IGN: Left 4 Dead 2 Preview
• IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Stop the Alarm
• IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Axe Ownage
• IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Dock Start
• IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Fire Ammo
• IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Frying Pan Domination
• IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Garden Maze
• IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Kitchen Smoker
• IGN Video: Left 4 Dead 2 PC Games Gameplay - E3 2009: Safe Room
• Left 4 dead 2 Official Group
• Left 4 Dead 2 Contest, Dude, Where's My Thumb 2

References

Gameplay Modes
Introduced in Left 4 Dead				Introduced in Left 4 Dead 2
Single Player	Campaign	Versus	Survival	Scavenge	Realism	Mutation	Realism VS	Versus Survival