Left 4 Dead 2 Review

Getting Real

Before we end up gushing on and on about how fantastic the game is and how improved the graphics are though, it’s important to point out that even Left 4 Dead 2 has some flaws. As before, most of our concerns and problems stem from the introduction of melee weapons.

The arsenal of guns and gadgets available in Left 4 Dead 2 has been expanded in almost every way possible. There are new health items, like adrenaline shots that let you shrug off enemy attacks and defibrillators that can be used to resuscitate dead allies. There are new items, like the boomer bile which you can misdirect enemies with or the explosive ammo that allows you a single clip of highly damaging rounds. There’s a greater variation of firearms…and there’s the melee weapons.

They fill a noticeable gap, admittedly and allow players a good choice when it comes to the old range/power debate – but the fact that they are one-hit kills means they too easily unbalance the game on lower skill levels. It’s just too simple to hold a doorway with naught but a machete, crowbar or guitar in your hands – and what the hell is a guitar doing in the game anyway? Anyone who’s ever tried to wield one as a weapon knows they’re cumbersome and fragile things.


Conversely, if you jump the difficulty up or switch to the new Realism mode that disables most of the HUD help and means headshots are the best way to get a kill, then the melee weapons become useless. That’s especially true for the slower variants, like the axe.

The AI Director, which is the name given to the process by which the game decides where to place items and enemies throughout the level to help make the experience different every time, has been updated, but now it feels a bit confused at points. It can now effect a few extra things and can more closely monitor players – but finding three crates of explosive ammo in a fairground toilet can be confusing enough to shatter the immersion the game otherwise builds so successfully.

Likewise the AI of your allies can be a bit lacking when you’re playing in singleplayer too – with CPU-controlled team mates sometimes refusing to pick up the last health kit or shooting at far off enemies while infected claw at their backs. Singleplayer obviously isn’t the focus of the game for a lot of people, but it’s still a shame to see the AI falter as there’ll always be situations where you can’t find an extra player for your Expert Difficulty run through Dead Centre.


To be fair though, these are very minor niggles and if stupid AI didn’t bother us too much in the first game then it shouldn’t bother us at all in the considerably larger sequel. Melee weapons are a more pressing problem, though they do have their place in the game as a whole – especially when it comes to running through a short gauntlet or holding a doorway while a team mate is revived safely behind you. We're not denying that does kill the suspense somewhat, but for every other scenario you're showered in it.

The crucial question on the minds of many is obviously going to be whether or not it’s worth forking over for Left 4 Dead 2 considering that their original game has such an active modding community, with new maps released fairly regularly. The answer is a definite ‘Yes’.

Not only does Left 4 Dead 2 provide a chance to test your skills against a whole host of new enemies and using a slew of new equipments, it also lets you play with the new modes and maps created by Valve – and the worst levels created by Valve are still twice as good as the best created by amateur map-makers.

Left 4 Dead 2 really is an essential purchase despite the flaws and the boycotts and totally unimportant controversies that have arisen from its fast development time (for Valve anyway). It’s as simple as that.