[singlepic id=1230 w=320 h=240 float=center]
I purchased Left4Dead when it was $29.99 on Steam. I enjoyed it for its co-operative element and frantic nature. Hundreds of fast moving zombies swarming four survivors who are armed with barely enough firepower was a winning formula — especially for that price. However, I’ve only played through the co-op campaign once and I haven’t returned to it since.
Today, the Left4Dead 2 campaign demo is out for public consumption and I decided gauge my zombie fatigue level and try it out. My current PC with its Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and GeForce 7900 GT may not be a top of the line rig anymore, but it should be able to run a Source Engine game like this. And it somewhat succeeded.
Regardless of the less than ideal performance, it was clear that this was more Left4Dead. New weapons such as the AK 47 and newly added melee weapons were nice and so were the new enemy types. But the fundamental idea remains unchanged: fight hordes of zombies while moving to the next safe room or evacuation point. I don’t think I can justify a full price purchase based on all of that.
Perhaps its just the demo though. Perhaps they’re saving the real game changers for the final release. As for what else they included in the demo? They showed off the fact that zombies can roam around in the day time. That was new, different and an ideal setting to show off the new dismemberment and gore additions. I didn’t see gameplay differences with it, so I’m thinking it was added to simply gross people out. And let me tell you, It was disgusting, but in a good way.
If I’m sounding like I’m down on Left4Dead 2, it’s because I am. I’ve had my fill of zombies for the year and thus I don’t see myself getting near Left4Dead 2 until probably sometime after I get my new PC built. If you’re not like me and are still hungry for zombie blood, I can’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be picking up Left4Dead 2. It seems to be everything you wanted and then some.
Left4Dead 2 will be released on November 17, 2009 for Xbox 360 and PC. For more information, visit the official website.
Announcements