Left 4 Dead 2 Review [550 words] – CallsignHUSKER
. Left4Dead 2 was the target of one of the largest fan boycotts in gaming history due to its suspiciously swift development and release just 1 year after the first game. Yes this game would have been more appealing if it had been a free expansion to Left4Dead. That said, Valve fans have been spoiled by the astounding value of many of Valve’s previous products. The Orange Box comes to mind as it was possibly the best $ value for a new game release ever. The fact is that Left4Dead 2’s value point exceeds most games released this year. Perhaps this is paralleled by the fact that some of the most bitter supporters of the boycott bought Left4Dead 2 on the day of its release! The recent announcement of a massive free expansion to the game that includes a new multiplayer mode, weapons, and a new campaign further bolsters the game’s value.
. Left4Dead 2 adds a new multiplayer mode called ’scavenge’ that is possibly the best part of the game. Scavenge matches are quite short and exciting; survivors scramble to gather gasoline and protect their buddies while the infected take advantage of the predictable areas that the survivors must enter in order to score points. This mode promotes more complex cooperative play than Left4Dead’s cower-in-a-corner with your team and don’t stop shooting gameplay and is a significant innovation.
. The characters in Left4Dead 2 are more interesting than those in Left4Dead but that’s not saying much as the characters in both games seem to have just met and appeared out of thin air on the roof of a building. The perplexing nature of weapons procurement in the game (weapons are found in neat piles as if someone has scouted areas ahead of you) among other things pulled me out of the experience and felt contrived. Valve made a point of trying to expand the storyline and believability of the franchise with Lef4Dead 2, and I think they failed miserably. My instinct is that the design team was split between people who didn’t see the need for deeper characters etc.. and people who wanted a more immersive game world. The end result was that Left4Dead 2 didn’t make me feel like I was in an alternate reality but in a comic and over the top fiction where the specifics often feel contrived.
. That said, the game world is varied and original. The monsoon-like episodes of the hard rain campaign were especially engrossing and overall the level design is a big improvement over the first game. The meticulousness with which the new infected zombies were designed results in neat combinations such as when a bedeviled jockey type zombie jumps on you and steers you into a pool of acid spit laid by another player using the spitter. The new weapons and special infected unquestionably deepen the gameplay. The true accomplishment of Left4Dead 2 is this masterful level of balance between the infected and the survivors. I would recommend this game not only to fans of the original but also to new players.
Immersive – 7.5 – The design mentality that storyline just gets in the way is readily apparent.
Technical – 8.0 – The weather effects and atmosphere are great and the graphics are adequate.
Value – 8.5 – This game is so multiplayer centric and full featured that it almost never gets old.
Average = 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment