Left 4 Dead 2 demo impressions

It may have been delayed five times (count em) but the Left 4 Dead 2 demo is finally with us.

First things first, the big reason why I've grown somewhat weary of Left 4 Dead is the limited weapon selection. When all's said and done, there are only three decent weapons - the uzi, the M4 and the auto shotgun. The pump action shotgun is okay but a bit meh and the sniper rifle is totally useless in almost all circumstances.

Things start off well in Left 4 Dead 2.

There are three basic weapons:

1) Uzi
which behaves very like the Uzi in L4D1 but is a bit more spray 'n pray. The rate of fire is increased at the cost of accuracy.
2) Silenced machine pistol
This is much more accurate but less powerful, it's not rocket science :)
3) Pump action shotgun
As with most pump action shotguns (other than Doom and F.E.A.R) it's a bit shit.

What's nice about these weapons is you get lots of bang for your buck. You carry 700 rounds of ammunition for the machine pistols so you'll rarely find yourself running out of ammo.


Then the advanced weapons come along...

1) Ak 47
This has a 40 round magazine and is very powerful. It has a lovely clackety sound to it as well.
2) M16
Essentially the M4 from L4D1
3) SCAR
A good one, this. You get a 60 round mag but it's locked into three round bursts... makes things very interesting in the extended fire fights
4) Hunting rifle
Same as in L4D1. And it's still totally useless.
5) Sniper rifle
Aaah, now this is more like it. You get a 30 round mag and it's hyper accurate. You may not get the rapid fire capacity of the machine guns, but you hit with every shot. Very fun to play with.
6 & 7) Assault shotguns
There are 2 assault shotguns and I honestly can't tell the difference between them (other than how they look & sound) at this stage. I'll probably learn to appreciate them individually as time goes by.
8) The Magnum
There are standard pistols in the game but you have to chose between them and a melee weapon, which for me isn't much of a competition. The magnum is another matter, though. It's incredibly powerful and extremely accurate. You only get 8 rounds per mag, though... That or melee weapons? Hm...


There are other weapons but those are the ones I've played with so far.

As far as the melee weapons go - half of them are great. I've tried the Machetee (fantastic) the riot stick (a personal favourite) the frying pan (silly) and the electric guitar (very silly).

And, joy of joys, there's a new grenade. A grenade of Boomer Bile. Throw it at a bunch of infected or a tank or something and a load of infected will spawn and attack it. Fucking, fucking briliant.

Valve have really outdone themselves with the weapons... What also helps is-

Weapon pickups are frequent in L4D2 but ammo pickups are not. This means that, practically speaking, you'll either have to drop a briliant weapon for a less good one to maintain ammo - or keep an empty gun and hope like hell there's an ammo pickup soon.

You also don't get all the Tier 2 weapons at once... usually there are only one or two available.


What else can I say?

The new special infected are good - although the uncommon common are more fun I think - in the demo, you get zombie cops in riot gear. You have to knock them down and shoot them in the back where they have no body armour. Adds a very nice element to frantic fire fights.

The new music is very good - nice and rocky.

Having things in day time is no less scary, oddly.

The crescendo event in the demo is utterly amazing.

Dismembering zombies is hillarious. The game is now very bloody - and it's all the better for it. I now kind of get why Australia was having a hissy fit about L4D2 and not L4D1

So yes, I'm gushing slightly - but I do really, really like this game.

In the name of ballance, though, what don't I like?


1) The difficulty settings are STILL not quite right.
Advanced is still a bit too easy and Expert is made even harder, thanks to the crescendo events. I'll be interested to see how Realism mode fits in, though. I'd like to see Expert made slightly less hard and leave Realism to the masochists.

2) There aren't multiple routes through the level.
Well, that's a bit of a lie. There are several short cuts you can find and occasionally these will be blocked off. This isn't a massive problem but it would have been nice to have a bit more freeform gameplay.

3) It's not out until November 17th.
Dammit.


So basically, yes. I think it's a very worthy sequel to L4D1. Definitely worth a purchase :)