raView: L4D2 Impressions
I’m pleased to announce that the writer’s block that has plagued me for the past several years has finally lifted, and also Gamefire’s ban on silencing the rambling guy on staff. So to celebrate, I’ll have a little column to myself where I’ll be writing daily on gaming related news called the raView! Yes, the name’s cheesy. No, I’m not going to change it. These will be from my own personal viewpoint and will be op-ed.
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Okay, okay. So we don’t really have an editorial board for me to be opposite for, but nonetheless, I hope to inform or provide insight on various stuff, and I’ll be combining these posts with plugs reviews and shameless product placements gaming deals because I am a sellout journalist with integrity! Consider it a written podcast if you will. I’m sure iTunes will love me.
So first things first. With the release of a Steam-wide Left4Dead 2 yesterday, I finally got my little hands on Left 4 Dead 2 for a reasonable $34 USD. Now before I actually give my thoughts on the game, I know some people who bought the original L4D are going to say, “Don’t buy that game, boycott it!” or “It’s just an expansion pack anyway.” After playing the game, I have to say that it really feels like its own new game as opposed to the lacking original L4D (which I hope Valve will continue to support and release stuff for!) Anyway, onto the review.
Gameplay: If you’ve played the original Left 4 Dead, not much has changed gameplay-wise, although there are now more weapons to choose from (12 guns compared to the original 5 guns) as well as having an extra pistol choice (the Magnum) and a whole new category of melee weapons which range from a regular axe to an electric guitar! They’ve also given a bit more variety to the accessories as well, notable mentions going to the defibrillator which can revive units, an adrenaline shot which makes you do everything faster, and a “bile bomb” which is a grenade that showers an enemy in boomer vomit so they can see how frustrating it is to get puked on without pipe bombs. Take that Special Infected!
Some other cool new stuff is of course, the much-talked-about-multi-hyphenated Special Infected: Jockey, Spitter, and Charger. I’ll just say this now, I love the Spitter. She spits a corrosive acid that deals more damage the longer a Survivor stands in it, acting much like a Boomer in the sense she discourages Survivors from grouping up. Best combo I’ve found so far is a Boomer/Spitter combo where all four Survivors are covered in vomit and (naturally) head to a corner to prevent the oncoming horde, and a spitter gets them all packed in a tight bunch. It’s worked so well, I think that in the majority of games I’ve played, it’s actually pretty hard to survive and make it to the end as a Survivor.
A new thing they’ve added to the levels is a “rolling crescendo” as its called, which is basically fighting through waves of infected to get to another area. The awesome thing about this discourages camping, since you have to get somewhere and survive, rather than just plain ol’ survive, which isn’t too hard when you’ve got three other buddies who are keen on the same goal.
Replayability: A lot more than before. With three extra modes added (Scavenge, Realism, Survival) to the staple two (Campaign, Versus) there’s a whole lot more fun to be had and it goes a long way in keeping my zombie-killing hunger in check. As a gamer with a small group of friends who like to play a lot of games together, I’m most pleased with the Realism mode, which makes things more “real” (and by real, I mean super hard). How real you ask? Witches now one-hit kill and you can’t see glows from your teammates or the Special Infected when they attack Survivors. Even common infected get harder, as they take more damage and are capable of still attacking when dismembered, so remember to shoot the head!
Multiplayer: Like the last L4D, there are a few downers. During my play, I’ve only gotten low (below 100) ping twice out of 10 games. Granted, this problem probably won’t be as bad later on when there are more dedicated servers for L4D2 popping up, but on the first day of Steam launch, “Best Available Dedicated” seemed to be “Host it yourself” which means 300+ ping for everybody! Hooray! It’s especially worse on Versus, since the host has to take care of 7 other people than just 3 teammates, which (on a regular connection) will probably mean about 500+ ping for everybody. Not fun. For the rest of the games though, (which was about half the games I played) the ping was good enough that my decent aim didn’t lag behind zombies when I shot them.
Graphics: I often don’t like talking about how good a game looks, since I feel it detracts from the overall “game” part of the game. Sure, a game looking beautiful would be fun to play, but for more instances of fun, please refer to the Nintendo/SNES age. A game can be fun without having great graphics. Nowadays, the “graphics” part of the review is almost a description of what hardware you’ll need to run the game. Thankfully, this game runs smoothly on my year-old computer, and it has the same system requirements as the original L4D, so if you can run L4D fine, L4D2 will be just as good (or crappy).
raView: 4/5 stars. This is, of course, only a first impression review since it’s only been out for a day, so I’m sure the multiplayer aspect will improve with time (as did L4D), in which case I’d give it 5. So if you’re a fan of co-op gameplay or like zombies (or both), this game would be a good choice. Be sure to get the 4-pack deal so you save $17 USD! This looks to be a great competitive game.
For a complete list on L4D2 information including new Special Infected, weapons, and other goods, check out the write-up on the Steam Forums.
Disclaimer: The preceding written opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of Gamefire.
For any letters of bewilderment, anger, or products to advertise, please send them to vxu@gamefire.com
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Great read, Vida!