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So after waiting for a couple of weeks more than I had originally thought I'd be waiting when I got the pre-order, and after a slight snafu on launch night that left people waiting a few minutes longer than they wanted to unlock the game (and boy did people panic about that!), the full game of Left4Dead 2 is finally in my possession. I've not had that much time to play the game yet, as I'm still sharing the computer with Nick and so I have to wait till he's done with it to play, but last night I played through the first campaign and was pretty damn impressed with what I saw.
First off, the graphics have been improved massively - not that the graphics in the first game were anything to be sneezed at, but there's still a great improvement that makes the game look even smoother. The physics engine has also been upgraded, so now when you shoot, explode, maim or otherwise commit mass zombie slaughter they bounce, flop and generally fall over in new and interesting ways. (And when the graphics and the physics are combined, I noticed, it gives a very realistic look to the dead zombies, complete with gaping holes in chests with rips sticking out, missing limbs with jagged stumps and half-exploded heads from high-caliber rifle bullets.) There are also a whole selection on new special zombies to get in the way, such as the Charger, who's kind of like a mini-Tank except that he runs at you like a quarterback, picks you up and starts bouncing you off the ground, the Jockey, who's like an evil dwarf who leaps on your head and tries to steer you into the path of other dangerous zombies, and the Spitter, who can, well, spit great gobs of corrosive acid at you. And of course there's all the old favourites too, with the occasional new twist (Witches now walk about, making it considerably more difficult to avoid them sometimes).
We've also got four new characters to get through the zombie apocalypse; Coach, Ellis, Nick and Rochelle. I'll miss Francis and his random hatred of things, but I still have the original L4D to play so I won't miss him too much. The new characters all have their own personalities and dialogue as well, and plenty of random things to say to make you stop and think "Did they just say that?" moments.
As well as the new characters, there's also a ton of new weapons as well, including new melee weapons so that you now have a choice between shooting the zombies or hacking, slashing and beating them to pulp. I particularly enjoyed using the katana on a few dozen zombies (what can I say, I watched Versus again recently), but there's also a cricket bat, a frying pan and even a guitare, just to name a few off the top of my head. Other new weapons and items include a defibrilator, to bring back dead teammates, adrenaline to give you a temporary speed boost, and Boomer Bile, to throw on zombies and give them a taste of their own medicine. Finally, there's some new game modes to play as well, including 'Realism' and 'Scavenge', which I assume do much what they say on the tin (although I suspect even Realism takes some liberties, otherwise it'd be a pretty short game).
On the down side... admittedly, I've only played the game once so far, and it was single-player as all my other gaming buddies were asleep by the time I got on (and they're five hours behind me, which should give you an idea of how late it was), but I found some of the new 'mini-quests' to be kind of difficult to do, at least when I'm the only actual player in the game, because the bots don't actually do anything to help (well, they shoot the zombies, but that's about it). I'm assuming that, if you play in a group of real people, then it becomes considerably easier, but on single-player it gets rather annoying very quickly.
But overall, Left4Dead 2 is pretty much as good as I had hoped, and with any luck over the next few days I'll be able to play with some of my friends and get an even better idea and experience of the game.
First off, the graphics have been improved massively - not that the graphics in the first game were anything to be sneezed at, but there's still a great improvement that makes the game look even smoother. The physics engine has also been upgraded, so now when you shoot, explode, maim or otherwise commit mass zombie slaughter they bounce, flop and generally fall over in new and interesting ways. (And when the graphics and the physics are combined, I noticed, it gives a very realistic look to the dead zombies, complete with gaping holes in chests with rips sticking out, missing limbs with jagged stumps and half-exploded heads from high-caliber rifle bullets.) There are also a whole selection on new special zombies to get in the way, such as the Charger, who's kind of like a mini-Tank except that he runs at you like a quarterback, picks you up and starts bouncing you off the ground, the Jockey, who's like an evil dwarf who leaps on your head and tries to steer you into the path of other dangerous zombies, and the Spitter, who can, well, spit great gobs of corrosive acid at you. And of course there's all the old favourites too, with the occasional new twist (Witches now walk about, making it considerably more difficult to avoid them sometimes).
We've also got four new characters to get through the zombie apocalypse; Coach, Ellis, Nick and Rochelle. I'll miss Francis and his random hatred of things, but I still have the original L4D to play so I won't miss him too much. The new characters all have their own personalities and dialogue as well, and plenty of random things to say to make you stop and think "Did they just say that?" moments.
As well as the new characters, there's also a ton of new weapons as well, including new melee weapons so that you now have a choice between shooting the zombies or hacking, slashing and beating them to pulp. I particularly enjoyed using the katana on a few dozen zombies (what can I say, I watched Versus again recently), but there's also a cricket bat, a frying pan and even a guitare, just to name a few off the top of my head. Other new weapons and items include a defibrilator, to bring back dead teammates, adrenaline to give you a temporary speed boost, and Boomer Bile, to throw on zombies and give them a taste of their own medicine. Finally, there's some new game modes to play as well, including 'Realism' and 'Scavenge', which I assume do much what they say on the tin (although I suspect even Realism takes some liberties, otherwise it'd be a pretty short game).
On the down side... admittedly, I've only played the game once so far, and it was single-player as all my other gaming buddies were asleep by the time I got on (and they're five hours behind me, which should give you an idea of how late it was), but I found some of the new 'mini-quests' to be kind of difficult to do, at least when I'm the only actual player in the game, because the bots don't actually do anything to help (well, they shoot the zombies, but that's about it). I'm assuming that, if you play in a group of real people, then it becomes considerably easier, but on single-player it gets rather annoying very quickly.
But overall, Left4Dead 2 is pretty much as good as I had hoped, and with any luck over the next few days I'll be able to play with some of my friends and get an even better idea and experience of the game.
