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Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2 is a 3D post-apocalyptic zombie FPS and is the sequel to the number 1 cooperative game of 2008 Left 4 Dead. The game features 4-player cooperative action horror gameplay set in various environments, as well as a multiplayer Infected vs Survivors mode.

Publisher: Valve
Playerbase: Medium
Type: Survival Horror FPS
Release Date: November 17, 2009
Pros: +4-player cooperative campaign. +Unique PvP mode. +Tons of available mods.
Cons: -Graphics showing its age. -Bad AI. -No tutorial.

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Overview

Left 4 Dead 2 Overview

Take on hordes of ravenous zombies together with other survivors in Left 4 Dead 2, the sequel to Valve’s iconic and award-winning post-apocalyptic action horror game Left 4 Dead. Play together with your friends in the 4-player cooperative campaign where you’ll face off against thousands of infected in a variety of locations, from burning hotels to mist-covered swamps. Watch out for unique zombie types with special skills, such as Tanks who can plow through almost anything in their path, Hunters who can pounce on unsuspecting survivors, and the Jockey who piggy-back rides on survivors and steers them into danger. Use a wide selection of real-world weapons, from powerful scoped sniper rifles to hard-hitting cast iron frying pans. Choose to play as the Infected and play against another team of Survivors in the action-packed Versus mode. Getting bored of regular gameplay? Check out the Steam Workshop for a large selection of mods that breathe new life into your game.

Left 4 Dead 2 Key Features:

  • 4-Player Coop Campaign – play with AI, your friends, or other players from around the globe as you take on hordes of zombies to get to safety.
  • Unique Zombie Types – Tanks, Hunters, and the rest of the gang are making a comeback along with a few new companions.
  • Choose Your Weapons – take out hordes of zombies with a shotgun, pick them off from long range with a sniper rifle, or get up close and personal with a baseball bat, chainsaw, or more.
  • Multiplayer Mode – get the chance to play as a zombie and, together with your teammates, terrorize other players in versus mode.
  • Steam Workshop – get virtually unlimited replayability with the variety of mods available for download through the Steam Workshop.

Left 4 Dead 2 Screenshots

Left 4 Dead 2 Featured Video

Full Review

Left 4 Dead 2 Review

By, Marc Marasigan

Left 4 Dead 2, or L4D2, is a buy-to-play 3D survival horror FPS where, like its predecessor, players take on the role of one of four survivors seeking refuge in a world overrun with the walking dead. The game is set in select areas based on real-world cities in the Southeastern part of the United States, including Atlanta and New Orleans. It runs on the Valve’s Source engine and features graphics that are just starting to show their age. L4D2 still looks good but can in no way compete with more modern survival horror games like H1Z1 or Dying Light. But the audio is excellent and can easily send chills down your spine or your heartbeat skyrocketing on cue.

Trial By Fire

Unfortunately for newbies L4D2 lacks a formal tutorial aside from the tooltips that appear on-screen during gameplay. The tooltips are indeed helpful but let’s face it, trying to read something on-screen while a horde of the infected are running towards you just isn’t going to work. If you’ve played any type of FPS in the past you should be good to go. Newbies on the other hand face trial by fire. And in case you were wondering yes the infected can run and quite quickly. They can also climb over obstacles, ladders, and chain fences, and those are just the regular infected. Wait until you come across the Special ones.

The Campaign

One of the features that made the original Left 4 Dead game a hit was its 4-player cooperative campaign where a team of four players, or survivors, tried to make it to their extraction point in one piece. To get there players have to fight through an army of infected using a variety of long-range and melee weapons, and reach safehouses placed in regular intervals along the way to give players a brief respite from fighting off the undead.

The campaign can also be played in Single-player mode with AI bots. But to be honest the bots are so bad that they’re only real use seems to be to carry medkits and heal you, or serve as decoys while you sprint to the nearest safehouse. Don’t worry, as long as one survivor is still alive—hopefully you—killed teammates will keep respawning randomly along your route (usually behind locked doors). L4D2 takes the same concept as its predecessor and improves it with a new batch of survivors with more personality, more challenging maps, more weapons, and more Special infected types.

Elite Zombies

Aside from the regular marathon-running infected players also have to deal with several breeds of Special infected, each with their own unique abilities such as Hunters who have the ability to pounce on survivors and are great at picking off stragglers; Smokers, who can use their long tongues to drag victims away from their group; and Tanks, infected who throw slabs of cement and charge through almost anything in their path. The first game features five types of Special infected; L4D2 adds three more to the roster: Charger, Jockey, and Spitter, which makes a total of eight Special infected types, seven of which are playable in Versus mode.

Versus Mode

Tired of going up against AI-infected? Why not try going up against player-controlled ones for a change? L4D2’s Versus mode allows two teams of players to fight it out in any of the campaign maps. The Survivor team’s goal is to reach the extraction point, while the Zombie team tries to stop them. The match ends when the Survivors reach the end of the map or when they’re wiped out. At which point the roles are reversed. Survivors have the ability to use weapons, medkits, and basically anything usable in the campaign. Zombies, on the other hand, can climb walls but are not allowed to use weapons and need to rely solely on their respective abilities. They’re also much easier to kill than the Survivors. L4D2 is probably one of, if not the first game to feature, and successfully implement asymmetric PvP gameplay, which paved the way for games like Nosgoth and Dying Light.

The Workshop

L4D2 doesn’t have a Cash Shop like most free-to-play games or other buy-to-play games like CS: GO. What it does have is a robust community willing to make Mods to change various aspects of the game, from purely cosmetic mods that change the appearance of weapons, to more complex ones that change the core gameplay resulting in a different game altogether. These mods can easily be downloaded through the Steam Workshop and activated through the game’s Add-ons menu.

The Final Verdict - Excellent

Left 4 Dead 2 took everything that was good about the original award-winning game and made it loads better, from the graphics and gameplay, right down to the player dialog, almost to the point of making the original game unplayable in comparison. I’ve logged plenty of hours in both games when they first came out and remember holding nightly L4D and L4D2 zombie-killing sessions with my brothers which went on for months. A few years later and it’s still one of the best games I’ve ever played. Left 4 Dead 2 is an awesome game and if you haven’t tried it then you’re definitely missing out.

Screenshots

Left 4 Dead 2 Screenshots

Videos

Left 4 Dead 2 Videos

"The Sacrifice" Teaser

System Requirements

Left 4 Dead 2 System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7 32/64-bit / Vista 32/64 / XP
CPU: Pentium 4 3.0GHz
RAM: 2 GB RAM
Video Card: Video card with 128 MB, Shader model 2.0. ATI X800, NVidia 6600 or better
Direct X: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Disk Space:  13 GB available space

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7 32/64-bit / Vista 32/64 / XP
CPU: Intel core 2 duo 2.4GHz
RAM: 2 GB RAM or more
Video Card: Video Card Shader model 3.0. NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better
Direct X: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Disk Space:  13 GB or more available space

Music

Left 4 Dead 2 Music & Soundtrack

Coming Soon!

Additional Info

Left 4 Dead 2 Additional Information

Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve

Distributor: Electronic Arts/Steam

Designer: Michael Booth
Writer: Chet Faliszek
Composer: Mike Morasky

Game Engine: Source

Official Release Date: November 17, 2009
Mac OS X Release Date: September 5, 2010
Linux Release Date: July 2, 2013

Development History / Background:

Left 4 Dead 2 is a buy-to-play 3D survival horror FPS developed and published by Valve, and is the sequel to Valve's award-winning game Left 4 Dead. Valve started development shortly after the first game was released in November 2008 and was initially titled Back 4 More but was later dropped for its current title. The game was released only a year later on November 17, 2009 for both the PC and Xbox 360. L4D2 was initially released on Steam for the PC and retail copies made available a few days after. A number of DLC's have also been released since the game came out including a new campaign called "The Passing," where the new survivors cross paths with three of the survivors from the previous game. A Mac OS X version of the game was released on September 5, 2010 and a Linux version on July 2, 2013.