I played Left 4 Dead for almost a full year before Left 4 Dead 2 was released. Naturally I was going into this game feeling pretty confident that it’s an extension to what I already knew. I was dead wrong.

Survivors
Much of this is the same. There are a few subtle changes though that add an element of excitement and difficulty that cannot be ignored. The new Special Infected (which I will be covering) are much more dangerous against a coordinated team. You could get boomed (Boomer bile) while a Spitter or Charger could separate the group followed by a Smoker or Jockey to pull the group even further apart amidst the chaos. If you’re not quick on your toes and conserve your ammunition expect to be dealt a lot of damage. Surviving is more difficult, and the finales of the game are unique and exciting. The Dark Carnival finale is very fun with a little music too.

Special Infected
Everyone knows there are new Infected to play as. The new Infected are the Charger, Jockey and Spitter. I don’t know if it was just me, but even the Hunter felt a little different than before. There are so many different ways to attack Survivors that it made my head spin. Most of the night I spent trying to figure out how many different ways I can spit goo from the Spitter to maximize damage or find ways the Charger can be most destructive. The Jockey is very fun to play. There’s something satisfying about pulling a Survivor far away from his group and hearing that maniacal laughter that burns a hole into your soul.

New Maps
I only had the pleasure playing through two and a half maps at this point, but what I can say is “wow” how much more extensive these maps are! At one point in Dark Carnival it felt like we were traveling through the map forever and then we heard “ding.” I look up and see that we only traveled 50% through the map. My heart sank as we were desperately looking for ammo or health. The finales add a whole new frantic level as you may be trying to fill up a gas tank on a car or starting a concert and setting off fireworks to get attention.  I’m looking forward to the others.

Versus
This was the “bread and butter” of the first game, but it has definitely improved vastly. The most notable is the scoring system. The scoring is largely based on how far your group got. There’s a higher score per map because the maps do increase in length and difficulty as the game goes on. Then you get a small bonus for each Survivor to finish the map. Health bonus does not matter so it really is based on how far you can get or if you can survive. That is something, especially in the Gamebattles and competitive L4D community, that we have been all waiting for. I love this mode. This is why I have the game. Versus mode also seemed to go by a little more quickly than the two hour matches from before.

Negatives
Valve is still having issues with the servers, but thankfully they had some forethought into this game in bringing us the ability to set it to a local host. You have have to find a good host in the group that you’re playing with.

There are still idiots out there who don’t use microphones. This is a major annoyance to good players that know teamwork is the only  way.

There are some clipping issues with the Charger in particular. He gets stuck on the weirdest things, and at the same time he’ll go through things leaving you to wonder what just happened.

Overall
This game is going to get a 9 in my book. I haven’t played Scavenge, Survival or any of the other modes really at this time, but the real reason I play this game is the Versus. With the match making, rematch feature, scoring and other things this game surpasses Left 4 Dead, and I may even have a hard time holding on to the first game even for memory sakes because even now it seems like old news. I felt like a little kid again.

What are your thoughts? What did you like most? What did you hate the most? Is this a worthy sequel to a game we dedicated so much time to?