I don’t have to write about Bioshock anymore! Let’s talk L4D2.
November 21st, 2009 by panfriedmoogleI’ve refrained from reading any reviews about L4D2 because I wanted to formulate my own opinions about it before I read anyone else’s. I did read a short article on Kotaku about it a week ago, but that’s about it.
My first impression: the game is harder than the first one.
I think that it was very clever of the developers to include new special infected zombies that force you out of corners (Jockey, Charger). Movement is definitely one of the main focuses of this game. The Spitter also forces you to move, or else your health continues to go down until you step out of the acid. This eliminates hiding in a corner. I never really thought of piling into a corner as much of a problem as a player, but if I had developed the game, that’s probably one of the first things I would have fixed for the second installation. I feel that they have done this successfully.
Also: instead of fighting off the horde in certain parts of the game (namely the finales), they have introduced new goals. In Dead Center’s finale, your team has to retrieve 15 gas tanks from three different floors of the mall. Not only do you have to retrieve the gas, but you also have to fill the car up. All of this is happening while common infected, special infected, and tanks are spawning all around you. When playing versus, people tend to get really angry when you spit acid by the car so that they can’t fill it up with gas. Naturally, this was one of my first strategies.
At another point, the survivors have to go and fetch this guy’s Coca-Cola in order to get him to clear the path. This isn’t particularly difficult, but it’s a refreshing change of pace.
One really cool aspect to The Parish campaign is the level where you have to get out of the burning apartment. It’s pretty difficult to see much of anything with all the smoke and fire around you. I haven’t been able to play through all of the Hard Rain campaign yet, but I hear that your sight is impaired during the storm as well. Both of these aspects definitely made the game more realistic, and I haven’t even played the through the Realism mode yet. Between work and class, I’ve just been trying to get through all five compaigns on advanced.
So far, the Dark Carnival campaign is my favorite. I am positively delighted every time I come across a zombie clown. I honk its nose about five times, and then I shoot it. Shooting down a tank in the Tunnel of Love amidst swan boats was comical. The only problem with that campaign was the finale. For some reason, my team was having some trouble with it. Our first instinct was to pile into a corner, but that’s impossible now due to the Spitter, Jockey, and Charger. We eventually made it to the chopper after fighting off zombies from the stage. There is no cover in that finale whatsoever. I suppose that technically isn’t a problem though; rather, it’s an improvement.
The witch sometimes wanders now as well. There’s a sugar mill that you have to go through in one of the campaigns, and there are wandering witches everywhere. It’s not much of a problem just so long as you’re not playing with a 12-year-old boy who’s afraid to walk past the witches. Needless to say, we never beat the campaign -__-
A lot of people like to use the melee weapons, but I’m not very fond of them. I still enjoy my guns. There are more to choose from now, and there are ammo upgrades that can be dispensed by players. I personally like the incendiary ammo. People still have their favorite weapons, but they’re harder to come by now that different ones are spawned in different locations each time. You might like a certain weapon a lot, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be using it the entire time; ammo is limited. The only thing you consistently have is your pistol(s).
Defibrillators are also available now; they immediately revive an incapped teammate to 50% health. There are also adrenaline shots — which I don’t ever really use — and boomer bile, which attracts zombies to the target you threw it at.
This is getting way too long-winded, so I’ll wrap it up for now. The main complaints I have with the game:
1. The characters. The dialogue is stupid, and the characters aren’t as interesting as the last batch.
2. The servers. Dedicated servers have the worst lag, and local servers aren’t much better. Part of the reason I’ve only completed two campaigns is because everybody’s connections have been so terrible. I hope they do something about this soon.
Hopefully I’ll have time to check out Realism and Scavenge soon.

















