I read Hawk’s post about L4D2 and am chatting with him about it now. We’ve only played Dead Center, the first level – I definitely like how they did a number of things. Starting you off with melee weapons and pistols and having you escape a burning building definitely starts the game off with a bang – and showcases some nice smoke effects at the bottom of the elevator. It really does feel suffocating.

I agree, it does feel like a different game. The trailer prepped me for that a little bit – whereas the trailer for the first one was a horror movie, the L4D2 trailer felt more like an action movie. During gameplay, I think they’ve exchanged that element of suspense – the loud cries of special-infected in the distance while you fight your way to safety – for a sense of urgency, with a barrage of special-infected attacking you one after the other. The end result is a pretty intense experience – I definitely felt like I was stumbling through, barely surviving. I barely dodged a Charger while limping into a Safe Room.

The level design has changed too. There’s day, and that always makes zombies slightly less creepy. Zombie movies are generally night movies because you’re not supposed to see them coming. Day does turn to night in L4D2, which also adds something … just as twilight is the worst time to drive, so too does it seem to be the worst time to kill zombies. Also, the levels are just big – expansive. Whereas L4D generally channeled you towards a destination, L4D2 gives you a lot of room to run around in – which often means you have a lot of room to die in. Getting pinned by zombies while exploring is pretty common.

Weapons – just like any good action movie, there are LOTS, and they are readily available. There’s no difficulty getting them, unlike in L4D, where second tier weapons were sometimes your holy grail.

Special-infected – this is where the most visible changes are. Speaking only as a Survivor (haven’t tried versus yet) in the old game, there was a strategy to dodging Specials while watching your teammates’ back. I’m sure that strategy will present itself in L4D2 over time, but thus far it just seems like being quick and surviving the pummeling from a billion Specials is the best way to stumble to victory. In L4D you could break away from your party and with a little luck make it back okay – in L4D2, wandering off on your own seems to be an instant death sentence.

Overall, the game seemed harder. It’s possible I felt like this back when I played the first one for the first time, but I got decent enough at the first one that I was surprised to have so much trouble on the second. Like Hawk said, this game IS good – I’m dunno if I’m ready to say it’s better or worse than the first one yet. I managed to get to the finale last night without a restart, and then we had to restart 10 times because that finale was so ridiculous. The feeling you get when you make your escape does feel as good as the first game, even if you can only watch it from the afterlife (oh yeah, I was dead as hell!).

Final thoughts: The magnum – very yes! And everybody wants to be Coach or Ellis. Can’t wait to play versus.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 1:25 PM and is filed under Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.