A British View.Left4Dead2… I’ve been playing you for a couple hours now and I’ve gotta say. You’ve got your charm. And OK yes, some parts are similar to Left4Dead, and yes, I do wish I could still play those old levels without having to rebuy the game. But you’re definitely not the same game, or some “upgrade” or patch. You do truly deserve the sale.
A couple things I have learned from playing Left4Dead2. Firstly, I get such joy out of hitting zombies with overpowered sticks, seriously I could just baseball bat the Z’s for hours. I’m like a child. Not only that but just the sound, man, for a sound effect it has an effect on me I don’t get. All the weapons, the impact is just like a release, the smack of the baseball bat, the slice of the Kanata; it all reminded me of the underground scenes in Fight Club. I really like how they mixed the balance, having the overpowered smack but still needing to watch and worry about being surrounded. If the weapons were too weak no one would use it, at the same time if they were all one-shot-wonders you wouldn’t care about the zombies at all.
My biggest annoyance is my love of the Magnum; the inability to have both a high powered handgun and a sharp shiny sword is extremely annoying. I do understand the real-life need for having a shotgun in reserve and in the first game I did use the high powered rifle for taking out zombies without getting up close. But this new game is ALL ABOUT the up close and personal approach. I reckon, on easy at least, I’m good enough to handle the invasion without the extremely big weapons. I’d rather have the option to switch my bigger weapon for the melee as opposed to only being allowed to switch it for my handgun. Having a handgun in the first game, even the high powered rifle to an extent, helped with accuracy and just increased my skill level exponentially, meaning when I did move up to Expert I wasn’t hitting my team members or running out of ammo. I’m not sure if it’s gunna be as easy on this game, being forced to constantly choose between the smaller more accurate firearm and the more powerful, fun, but less controlled “smashing devices.”
It is fairly obvious this game was designed to be “Left4Dead: Smashy smashy edition” in that the main changes revolve around the melee weapons. The variation in special infected is nice, as it does add a change to the general game. We all know how to avoid the Hunter and the Boomer, how the sounds and smoke can help you spot the Smoker and even how to get out of it yourself, we can mostly creepy part witches or simply headshot them as well. dding these new infected, editing the current ones and varying the situations just adds a new learning curve, IMO. I do hate that they pussy-fied the tank, but I guess I’ll live with it.
I haven’t had time to try out every weapon, the guns specifically I’ve not had the chances to fully utilise, or even get used to, any of them. I’ve only encountered the laser-sights once but it seemed an awesome idea, the different types of ammo once and I screwed up using it. I’ve got a lot more to try, more campaigns to do and get used to playing the new mode, also. It’s a big game and I’m one of those guys who’s still not played every Team Fortress 2 map so I do think I’ll be playing it a while. I’m so glad I pre-ordered this because the baseball bat is just immense.
