I'm sure I must be missing something. I was told Left 4 Dead was the best thing going on the 360 next to the Halo series. Had I been misinformed? Don't get me wrong, I love blasting zombies away, and I love cheesy voice-overs, and B-movie horror is a guilty pleasure. Just ask my wife about the night we watched Dead Alive and I was laughing like a little kid at the ridiculous violence and bloodletting. When Left 4 Dead 2 was coming out, I decided to contact Valve and see if I could get my grubby paws on a copy to review. They obliged, and for that I am grateful. The story is something I had avoided, aside from being aware of a zombie outbreak, and my need and/or desire to kill zombies. For some reason, I cannot connect with videogame characters in their story element. I end up telling the TV to "shut up, let me shoot something!", or something of that nature, sometimes a bit more on the Rated "M" variety.
First thing I noticed about this game it was really dark. Next I noticed the characters I was teamed with (which were the remaining 3 characters I didn't choose at the select screen). Each individual, with equally annoying personalities, but B-movie annoying, which is definitely a good thing. As much of a challenge as it is to shoot wave after wave of zombies, it's equally as challenging to not want to give your compatriots a led lobotomy. In all seriously, people don't flock to Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness or Dead Alive for the award-winning acting, like people really read Playboy for the articles! That's not to say I didn't want to lay a shotgun blast into them every now and then. I've played as each character, and they pretty much respond the same way, I hadn't noticed if the white trash redneck was weaker, or the big black dude was stronger, or the woman is not so great, etc. Playing online in a Pub Match, you will realize that the brainless AI are often replaced with brain-dead people who, if you met them on the street, are fully-functional, but XBox Live turns them into reactionary dooshbags.
The graphics are nice, and the graphic violence is intense. Dead Rising had some disemboweling, some decapitations, and other various deaths of zombies, which was all good, but it really felt like comic book graphic violence (which is win). Left 4 Dead goes the route of the graphic novel, and the graphic violence is stomach-turning, sometimes cringe inducing. An interactive last battle scene from the movie Dead Alive if you will. If you haven't seen it, do it, then, when you jump back into Left 4 Dead, you can live it. Chunks, sinewy goo, blood, party parts, some unrecognizable slop, and other various innards will litter the playfield when you get cooking. But sometimes after removing a zombie limb or two, this bastards don't die! Aim for the head? It worked in the movie, but what if the movie lied?
The titles is set in the ex-Confederacy, even bringing you to New Orleans and Georgia. The chapters in the game, not counting DLC (The Passing) are: Dark Carnival, Swamp Fever, Hard Rain, The Parish, and Dead Center. They are fairly straight-forward and look nice, with the same zombie attack patterns (gauntlets, random, bum-rushes, and pig piles) in each one. You'll know what to expect and how to deal with it, you just don't know when the situations will be thrown at you and how often. The shining light in this title for me is the Dark Carnival chapter. Running through a semi-operating yet empty amusement park- I always wanted to do this, whether it was just closed down or completely abandoned and falling apart. The Tunnel of Love ride full of zombies and hidden doorways and rooms behind the scenery made me wonder, is that what an amusement park is really like when you look at it as the "man behind the curtain"? Well, minus the zombies and stuff.
Hell is for Cricketers
The climax of getting to the arena/ampitheatre to where the Midnight Riders (L4D2's southern rock band) concert was to take place. The strange thing about the end level occurs when you hit the switch to start the concert. Music starts, lights go off, singing starts, but no band. Are they invisible? Is it a MilliVanilli situation where they sing to a recording of music and singing? There's little time to wonder where they are, as the zombies begin to attack from all directions. Good thing is, there are tons of weapons: guns, grenade launchers, gas cans, guitars, pyrotechnics on stage, defibrilators, even boxes of those little annoying fireworks that bang and crack all over the place and always seem to blow some kid's fingers off during the summer time. I would take all of those boxes of fireworks, about 5 or 6 of them I think, and set them all off, watching them fly all over the place, setting zombies on fire and gas cans while the stage pyros were going off- with no noticeable slowdown of graphics, game play, anything! Some of the coolest stuff I'd seen in gaming in quite some time!
The rest of the game's levels I've played once or twice, because the Dark Carnival overtook the rest of the game in spades. Like any title wanting to throw it's hat into the ring of greatness, multiplayer and co-op are in this game. If you aren't playing with friends on your team, or as your co-op partner, don't even bother. Some players will want to kill everything and do everything themselves, some are in it to win, and some will drop out if they're losing. Still, the game stands as a very good title, that you may want to at the very least demo. The DLC is unreviewed here, our budget doesn't allow for us to download it.
