Top 10 Games of The Year 2009

Three – Left 4 Dead 2

Publisher: Valve & Electronic Arts
UK Price: £29.99 (incl. VAT)
US Price: $39.99 (excl. Tax)
Bit-tech Score: 9 out of 10 - Recommended

Left 4 Dead may have been good, winning PC Game of the Year in 2008, but Left 4 Dead 2 is even better and manages to bring a whole boatload of enhancements to the series, demolishing claims that it’s arrived too soon after the original to be anything but a cash-in.

Subjected to boycott after boycott throughout the development period, Left 4 Dead 2 proved all the nay-sayers wrong when it was released in mid November by showing that Valve was more than capable of expanding on the original premise while still infusing L4D2 with an identity all of it’s own.

The result is a game which is more epic in scale and more grounded in reality than the endless night time dashes through the nameless locations that made up the first game. Left 4 Dead 2 charts the flight of a new group of survivors as they flee through the American south in search of a safe haven, storming through New Orleans and its environs in their bid for survival. It’s still very much the same game, but in some ways it feels completely different and there’s little doubt that Valve has looked to reinvigorate the sequel by upping both the horror and the wit.


There are new weapons to use, with melee attacks playing a big part thanks to the addition of various swords and bludgeons. There’s new gear too, with incendiary ammo and boomer bile making an interesting alternative to the usual pipe bombs and molotovs. New enemies too, with each campaign getting a signature enemy of its own as well as an expanded roster of boss infected which includes Spitters, Chargers, Mudmen and Clown Infected.

There’s even two entirely new ways to play Left 4 Dead too, with a realism mode allowing advanced gamers to up the challenge a bit (if they dare) and a Scavenge mode providing some more team-based multiplayer for those tired who are of Versus Mode. Likewise, co-op fans who feel fatigued by samey climax events in the first game get something new too; the larger levels breed new moving finales and gauntlet events – a simple but effective way to breathe new life into the franchise.

The Left 4 Dead franchise isn’t exactly in danger of running out of steam any time soon either, with new DLC on the way which will unite the cast of both games and reveal a totally new multiplayer mode for fans – and which we can’t wait for.