Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2 is a game that most people have at least heard of in their life time. Released back in 2009, this game still remains highly popular, eight years later, and is still one of the most loved zombie apocalypse games on the market. After playing a few games, it's not hard to see why.

After being new to this game on PC, having played it on Xbox for quite some years, it was a different experience coming onto it and having to relearn controls. But with L4D2, there's something about it that stops people feeling brand new, and you learn quickly. Even playing with my friends who are basically pros at the game, having put thousands of hours each into it, felt like I was just another guy with tons of hours. It's user friendly, and not hard to get used to.

There's so many different game modes in this that allows you to go through and do pretty much whatever you want in the game, there's a mode for almost anything. Of course, I wouldn't recommend playing multiplayer as a new player, with no friends. The online community are absolutely horrendous when it comes to new players, and are definitely the kind of people who kick others just for being new. It's a shame that a game that's so amazing has such a horrible community behind it.

But really, that's the only con about the game. The game itself is amazing, with brilliant graphics, an awesome soundtrack and really good movement and controls. The only downside, is the community. Definitely grab this, grab some friends, and make a night out of it.

Left 4 Dead 2 is set one week after Left 4 Dead 1. In it, four strangers named Nick (a gambler and conman), Rochelle (A news producer), Coach (A health teacher and coach), and Ellis (a mechanic) team up to survive an outbreak of the "Green Flu" which causes people to behave like zombies (the Infected). There isn't just one type of Infected though. Here is all of them:

1. The Smoker- An Infected with a long tongue that can snatch survivors from a distance and constrict them.

2. The Boomer- A bloated Infected that can puke a bile on the survivors and attract a horde of Infected.

3. The Hunter- A hooded Infected that leaps long and high to pounce survivors and claw them to death.

4. The Tank- The biggest and baddest of the Infected that simply attacks with its strength and throws debris at the survivors.

5. The Spitter- This Infected spits and acid-goo that rules out the possibility of corner camping during crescendo events and if you stand in it too long it will kill you.

6. The Jockey- This Infected jumps on a survivor's head an steers them into danger.

7. The Charger- Another large Infected that charges at a survivor and pummels them into the ground.

8. The Witch- A crying Infected that if startled, will attack the Survivors.

9. The Common Infected- These are the normal Infected that you fight that will travel in "hordes".

10. The Uncommon Infected- These are types of Infected you only see on one map. They usually have varied abilities. For example: the Clowns on Dark Carnival attract hordes with their squeaky shoes.

The game is very fun with large improvements over the previous title. The game now has melee weapons to kill the Infected and a lot more guns. The variety of the maps is interesting and they are all connected, unlike the original Left 4 Dead.

The game is also more challenging. The bots aren't as good as they were in the first game is my only problem. Sometimes they will let you die or try to kill a Charger with pistols LOL. But overall the game is better than the first (which was my favorite game until I bought this one).

The multi-player is good. There is a new Scavenge mode, as well as a Realism mode, a versus mode and normal coop. Here is a breakdown of how the multi-player modes work:

1. Coop- Just you and a friend teaming up with two bots to survive a campaign.

2. Versus- A team of survivors trying to make it to rescue while a team of player controlled Infected tries to stop them.

3. Scavenge- The Survivor team tries to collect gas tanks to fuel up the rescue vehicle while the Infected team tries to kill them all before they can or cause as many gas drops as possible.

4. Realism- This mode is the same as campaigns except that you can't see the Survivor Halos (this causes you to have to stay together), the Witch can kill you instantly and the common/uncommon Infected take less damage to the body and cause you to have to shoot them in the head.

The only game types I've played are coop, Realism, Versus and the normal campaign. The Realism mode is a nice tough. Very challenging and causes you to work together more to survive, it makes the game feel less like 28 Days Later and more like the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.

The game is great. I highly recommend it to fans of the first game.

10/10

This game takes the first one and keeps the simplicity of it, buts adds new and amzing weapons and characters.

This game, like the last. Was amazing and if you have a steam account. I definitely recommend buying it!

This is one of the most entertaining games ever made, especially online versus mode. But even single-player is fun.

Zombies are never in the same place when you re-play a map, so the game always changes and never gets boring. You never know exactly where zombies are going to be.

This game is just a blast to play because it is so chaotic. There are also a lot of different weapons in the game. The 4 playable characters are all very different from each other and entertaining.

The best campaigns are Dead Center and Dark Carnival, in my opinion.

One of the best games ever made. 9/10.

Left 4 Dead 2 is brilliant. The game's many additions such as new weapons, new infected types, daylight campaigns and more varied scenery really spice up the format of Left 4 Dead. To me, the original now seems fairly bland and boring with its exclusively night-time maps and only a very small number of weapons.

I feel the two best campaigns in the game are Dark Carnival and Hard Rain. Dark Carnival takes the survivors through an abandoned theme park. You'll be running from infected hordes through a Tunnel-of-Love and along a roller-coaster track. There's also an achievement for carrying a garden gnome through the entire campaign and the finale is fantastic.

Hard Rain sees the survivors' boat run out of fuel, forcing them to disembark and head to a gas station for a fill-up. They then have to make a return journey, which means that if the players use up all the safe room health packs on the way, they won't have any left on the way back.

Hard Rain gets its namesake from the dynamic weather effects it features. At any moment, a storm could roll in, reducing visibility significantly and making the survivors sitting ducks for special infected attacks. It also means that, on the return journey, much of the route will be flooded, slowing the survivors down and making them use alternate paths.

The other campaigns are excellent as well, and there is a running story arc throughout them, unlike in the original game. The only problem with this is that, due to Left 4 Dead's multiplayer format, there is no real ending sound-off to the story, although the last finale of the game is by far the hardest.

Left 4 Dead 2 takes Left 4 Dead's award-winning format and improves on it tenfold. Anyone who liked Left 4 Dead, or likes shooters in general, should definitely give this one a go.