Left 4 Dead 2.

Valve continues their unorthodox naming convention first explored with Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Episode 2, and published a followup to the original Left 4 Dead, almost one year to the day later and called it Left 4 Dead 2. This is a full-priced game, and the screenshots led me to believe that this was basically the same game but with more content, a la the Madden and Tiger Woods games with their annual full-priced updates, however there's enough new twists and reworkings of the original formula to actually make this a worthwhile game, especially if you get in on a four-pack with three other people, which brings the price down to a much more enticing $35.

I was a big fan of the original Left 4 Dead, mainly by association with a strong circle of gaming friends who really dived into it and played it heavily. We had regular weekly matches online set up that started out as co-op campaigns that quickly ran out of free slots, so we graduated to versus play for a several months, occasionally mixing it up with an ad-hoc survival or co-op map during the rest of the week if enough people were online at the time. The game provided I would estimate about 8-9 months of solid entertainment, which is pretty remarkable, considering the relatively small amount of content (4 original campaigns, 2 of which had versus capability for half of that time). The gameplay was compelling, the teamwork was tense and vital to your success, the weapons were sublimely balanced, the levels were cleverly designed with lots of choke points and tricky places to hold during a horde rush, and the enemies were lethal in the right combination. The versus play emphasized all of this even more, with some truly diabolical combination ambushes being possible with just two hunters, a smoker and a boomer.

Needless to say, it was hugely popular online, and because of this I thought that Valve was trying to pull a cash grab by releasing a full-priced sequel instead of incremental DLC packages, as they promised. When the demo, consisting of one half of a campaign, was released, my fears were solidified as we played through two levels of essentially new maps, new weapons, and new bad guys. There was no innovation in the gameplay aside from a couple new powerups, just more of the same.

Thankfully, the demo did not do the game justice. The final version is an evolutionary step, not quite revolutionary, with some very exciting new features and remixes of the old formula. It all begins with the co-op campaigns, which have been heavily rethought and restructured to provide some new compelling gameplay and strategy. The levels are still basically a run-and-gun from the starting point to the safe room, but along the way the developers have added some new twists, such as incorporating some basic scavenging missions like running to get a rooftop sniper some much-needed Coke so he can clear a path for your exit, and a particularly compelling sequence at the end of one campaign that requires you to gather gas cans to fill up your getaway car all while fighting off the last-stand hordes and tanks. Then another campaign requires you to clear and then backtrack through three relatively short levels and ration out your health packs because they don't replenish on your return trip. To add difficulty, the second time through many areas of the levels have been flooded out by heavy rain and are treacherous to pass so you are forced to find alternate routes.

Formula remixes like this are a welcome change, as are some fun new weapons and powerups that add a lot of diversity to the strategic element. In addition to the old tier 1 and 2 weapons, there are now a variety of assault rifles and shotguns with different statistics, such as rate of fire, stopping power, buckshot spread, as well as a grenade launcher. A magnum pistol (my personal favorite) is also available that replaces your standard dual-wielded sidearms with incredible stopping power and accuracy for a pistol. I also enjoy the AK-47, with a slower rate of fire than the M-16 but much more stopping power so conserving ammo with single taps is much easier and you waste far less ammo taking out a throng of zombies. You also have a variety of melee weapons like fireaxes and samurai swords that replace your secondary weapon, and deliver surprisingly damaging blows to the zombies. Then there are defib paddles that can revive fallen teammates, adrenaline shots that increase the speed of everything you do (including healing), incendiary and explosive ammo to ratchet up your weapon effectiveness, and canisters of boomer bile that you can use to lure the horde away or attack a tank. The additional weapons and powerups are lots of fun and add lots of depth to the gameplay, but the sheer number of them can be bewildering at times, and you can only carry one item of a class a time, i.e. ammo powerups and defib paddles take the place of your health kit, adrenaline shots take the place of pills, and boomer bile is another grenade type.

The new infected types are another welcome addition that really mix up the enemy bestiary, ensuring that you won't easily tire of the same old attack patterns from the boomers, smokers, and hunters. We now have chargers, which will run at you and pin you to a wall, jockeys that will grab a hold of you and steer you away from the team, and spitters that deploy a lethal pool of acid on the ground that quickly eats away your health. The new attack types are interesting and keep the encounters more spontaneous-feeling simply because there's more variety. These transfer well to the versus mode too, and provide even more deadly combinations to ambush the survivors with.. i.e., using a jockey to guide a survivor into a pool of spitter acid while you wait for a charger to build up speed and pummel them.

The alternate play modes versus and survival return, along with two new types, Scavenge and Realism. Scavenge mimicks the gas tank collection scene mentioned earlier and requires the survivors to retrieve a set number of gas tanks and pour them into a generator while fending off waves of zombies. Realism ratchets up the difficult of a standard campaign by removing the glowing outlines of teammates and pickups, while disabling the respawn closets and increasing the zombie resiliency to your weapons. With five campaigns and five different play modes, the sheer amount of gameplay has been drastically increased since the last game.

All of this added up accounts for a significant improvement, in my opinion, and I think justifies the "sequel" worthiness of the title, even though the game mechanics and graphics engine are largely the same. This is definitely not a cash grab, but it's unfortunate that Valve has waited this long to release the first major update to the game, especially since they were promising from day one that there would be regular updates to the original game. I would have much rather had regular monthly or bi-monthly updates to the old game to keep it fresh and interesting throughout its life than one major annual update. Also, considering the amount of content and depth in a game like Fallout 3 or Borderlands, I have a hard time justifying the full $50 for a game like this. If they would have included the original plus L4D2 in a bundle for $50, I think that would more readily justify the cost. Alternatively, if they were to add the five original campaigns from L4D1 to this game as downloadable content, that would instantly add tremendous value.

All in all, I think the game is a must-play for diehard and casual fans alike, because it basically offers more of the same plus a lot of new twists to keep things interesting. The price is a little steep, considering the first game also cost $50, so you could potentially be paying up to $100 for the complete Left 4 Dead experience. But if you get the 1+2 bundle for $70 or a 4 pack for $35 each ($23 each for L4D1), it's a much better deal.