Review | Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
Format: PC | Genre: Online FPS | Publisher: EA | Developer: Valve | Release date: 20/11/09 | RRP: £34.99
By Lewis Denby
I was actually standing on the boat. Left 4 Dead has long been famed for its ability to bugger things up royally at the most inopportune of moments, and is all the better for it. But man. I was standing on the boat. All that was required was for my team-mates to hurry the heck up and join me, and we could speed off to safety.
Instead, a Tank turned up, threw me into the water, then finished off the rest of my team before they knew what had hit them. Man. So close. Left 4 Dead is very much back.
Daniel basically got it spot on in his review of the Xbox 360 version last week. Left 4 Dead 2 is a chaotic, pumping thrill ride of a co-op shooter, a riotous reprisal of Valve’s multiplayer masterpiece. It’s brash and stupid, yet improbably terrifying at various points. It flits between huddling together in a terrible storm, to smashing zombies around the head with a bloody frying pan to the sound of banjos.
So there’s comparatively little I can say about the PC version that isn’t just riffing off Daniel’s excellent write-up. In short: it’s great, but the formula isn’t as impressive as it was when it innovated so much a year ago. The core mechanics remain unchanged – which, to be fair, is largely a good thing. Left 4 Dead was excellent for a reason. Its sequel understands this.
It understands this through its revamping of the special enemies. There are new ones: Chargers who speed at you and pin you to walls or throw you off cliffs; Jockeys who jump on your head and control your movements; Spitters who cover you in horrible acid. The old ones have been modified: Boomers are now of both genders; Smokers exist in more detailed models; and the terrifying Witches are more abundant, and now wander around in a sort of torturous amble, utterly frightening each time they crop up. In the new Realism mode, attracting one’s attention means certain death.
Campaigns are longer, and fiercely imaginative. Heavy Rain introduces the most insane of storms, which pin you back, separate your group and generally make your life hell. Dark Carnival sees you chasing around a rollercoaster track in order to shut off the train to stop zombies racing after it. Its conclusion takes place in the middle of a rock concert, pyrotechnics littering the air in a sort of insane firework display.
The melée weapons are a mixed bag. Hitting zombies upside the head with a guitar rarely loses its appeal. Wielding a katana means instant decapitations. Baseball bats and frying pans feel a little gimmicky, but never truly detract from the phenomenal game that this is. The PC version, with its astonishing graphics and inch-perfect aiming, is the one you should opt for.
//Tank grrl
I’m playing with Reso freelancer Phill Cameron and others a few afternoons ago, and we get to the end of Dead Centre. We’re happily shooting our way through a sea of Infected, dragging gas cans over to a handily on-display car and ready to make our escape, when that music begins: the big, epic drums and the brass tritone. “Tank!” someone shouts. Three of us huddle together, facing outwards, scanning the hall for our giant adversary. Aside from the beast’s terrifying audio motif, it is eerily silent.
Only three of us, because Phill’s upstairs, a couple of floors above, grabbing the last of the gas with which to make our getaway. “Where’s the tank?” he shouts. None of us know. “Oh well. I think there’s a gas can in this room.”
He heads from the balcony above us through a doorway and out of sight. Five seconds later, he comes storming out. “TANK!” We look up, to see Phill sprinting out of the door and full pelt across the walkway above, then out of sight again. Seconds later, the Tank appears from the same doorway, hunched over, charging after him, growling. Then it too is out of sight. Then Phill’s health bar turns red.
The other two guys run upstairs to hit the Tank and revive Phill. It’s too late, though – he’s done for. The Tank races down two flights of stairs and smashes me up against a wall. I’m down. I’m firing half-blindly with a measly pistol as the Tank stamps repeatedly on my face, before clambering up the walls and nonchalantly feasting on our remaining team members. We were only a couple of gas canisters away from escape.
Daniel was right. With all the talk of whether there should have been a sequel, if Valve will keep their promises of continued support for the original game, if what’s here is really new enough to impress… well, it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters. And the fact remains that the Left 4 Dead formula is one of the most viscerally brilliant in modern videogames. When the sequel’s as wildly inventive as this, its inconsistencies barely matter. When the PC version is so vividly detailed and handles so beautifully, you’d be barmy not to pick it up.
9/10
