"Re-goddamn-loading!"
Left 4 Dead may have been full of zombies but the people who bought it weren't the only ones who found it scary - Valve was nervous too. The game demanded four people play online to get the full effect and while many games have four-player modes these days, few ever make them the whole point. The creators of this series may be responsible for several of the best first-person shooters of all time, but they still placed a lot of faith in us by taking this approach.
Fast-forward to the present day however, and Left 4 Dead 2 suggests the studio has thoroughly overcome all that. Whereas the first game was quite lean, with a few basic modes and simple concepts, the sequel is so bloated with cool ideas it's starting to resemble one of its own Boomers - albeit a sexy one with lots of gory new special effects and explosions.
"Your arsenal now includes melee weapons like a chainsaw."
Apocalypservice?
On a basic level it's more of the excellent same: you control one of four survivors and fight through post-apocalyptic cities, slaying the undead until you reach safety. There are five campaigns this time and each takes you through a chunk of the Deep South - a shopping centre, New Orleans, a swamp and even a funfair. Versus mode is also back. The characters are new but they're functionally similar - they all spout one-liners depending on the situation, and they all play to harmless stereotypes.
But this is no mere expansion. For a start, your arsenal now includes melee weapons like a cricket bat and chainsaw. These replace the pistol when you pick them up. They mash the undead up something proper and eliminate the frustration you used to feel when you were swamped: now it's an excuse to swing a samurai sword around.
Plus those new campaigns are very different to the old ones, exhibiting lots more variety in locations and gameplay than the first game. Dark Carnival, for example, is a working funfair, with set-pieces built around a mixture of the zombie hordes and familiar attractions like a rollercoaster and, in finale, a rock band light show.
The Parish culminates in a breathless, violent and spectacular sprint across a huge suspension bridge piled with abandoned cars, while Dead Center forces you to run around collecting petrol cans to fuel an escape vehicle - rather than hunkering down to defend your position.
Punter gatherers
The hunt for petrol cans is also a prelude to a brand new game mode, Scavenge, in which survivors and infected face off in a more traditional multiplayer setting. The survivor team has to collect petrol and the infected team has to try and stop them, then once a timer runs down the roles are reversed. It's perilously compulsive and provides a good answer to the people who argued the first game's competitive mode, Versus, was a bit long-winded.
It's not the only new way to play Left 4 Dead either. Realism mode changes the nature of the campaign's difficulty by removing things like glowing halos around pickups and other players, so the only way to survive is to communicate and co-operate - to a degree that even very good players never had to before.
"This is every bit the sequel the first game deserves."
Dead and loving it
Were these the only new features in Left 4 Dead 2 it would still be one of the best games of the year, but of course they're not. You've also got new special infected (like the Spitter, who expectorates to accumulate, and the Jockey, who jumps on survivors and rides them into danger), new weapons, better Achievements, and an excellent selection of Survival maps.
In other words, Valve isn't worried any more, and you needn't be worried either: Left 4 Dead 2 is every bit the sequel the first game deserves.
It may require four players - or even eight in some modes - to get the most out of it, but none of the people who rock up will go away disappointed.
Undead
+ Addictive new campaigns.
+ Useful and hilariously gory melee weapons.
+ Scavenge mode.
Dead
- Single-player is a bit lonely.
- Easy to get lost sometimes.
- Safehouses rather few and far between.