Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse 2.0 (Part I)
Okay, you all knew this was coming, especially since I'm trying not to get too into the game seeing as how I still have a lot of work that needs doing. So unlike with the first game, I'm trying my best not to just give up and get myself sucked right into it via public campaigns. I haven't played any of the modes of Left 4 Dead 2 with anyone else - only solo. So I suppose that is limiting my experience, but it also ensures I don't spend too much time on it, not to mention I can say a lot more about the game here instead of just anecdotes of “HOLY CRAP, THIS ONE TIME... MAN, IT WAS AWESOME.” (In retrospect now, no wonder Ellis is my favourite survivor...) So that's exactly what I'm going to do. And while I'll get more into it in a minute, you should know that story-telling is a much larger element in this game than it was in the first. As such, each entry on this game is going to focus on a different campaign and mention things about the game that are relevant to that particular level. Not exactly a walkthrough but just to give me a coherent plot to follow.
But today it's a primer! So I'll start with the basics of surviving the zombie apocalypse, who you're going to be working with, and what you ought to know (and why that is all awesome).
As well, this game is Simon Pegg approved. True story - he mentioned it on his Twitter. So if that right there isn't enough of a reason to get this game, I don't know what is. I don't like telling people to go buy things, but I'm really just trying to whore myself out for Steam friends here... you know you want to kill zombies with me. You do.
Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse in the Deep South
Who you are, what you'll need, and why you should be interested
I'll begin with this. I really like the zombie genre. They are the one horror movie character/concept that has succeeded in perpetually scaring me. Vampires? Lame. Werewolves? Awesome, but not frightening. Zombies? I'll be hiding under my bed, thank you very much. In recent years it's also become a lot more dynamic. Zombies don't always simply lumber about, thanks to the idea of introducing zombified plague victims in 28 Days Later. In fact, most zombies are faster now which makes them even scarier. Either way, it's a genre that if you're creative enough can be turned into something fresh and exciting every time. Just go read something by Max Brooks like World War Z. He takes the concept of the zombie he created for his survival guide and uses it for an excellent story. (What I like most about his zombies is that their speed depends on their level of decay. Fresh zombies can be just as swift as healthy humans, but as they begin to decay they gradually become more like the lumbering undead that's traditionally been used.)
There's another thing I really like - fresh gameplay, challenging co-op, and replayability. The Left 4 Dead series combines all of these things, so it's no wonder that this series is one of my favourite games and quite possibly the most addicting game series I've ever encountered (yes, even moreso than Beatles: Rock Band). And that's honestly surprising because I'm not a large fan of the shooter genre on its own. I can count the number of first person shooters I own and have enjoyed on one hand and they pretty much consist solely of the Metroid Prime series, Medal of Honor series, and Left 4 Dead. And what all three of those series have in common is that they offer something unique maybe not so much to the games themselves but to me to enjoy such as strong story-telling, interesting characters, and appealing settings. There's also Goldeneye which I didn't mention because I don't know why I loved that game so much. Why did YOU love that game so much?
Having said that, Left 4 Dead's original gameplay concept was simple. You took on the role of one of four survivors (each one embodying a trope/stereotype for fun), started at Point A, grabbed ridiculous amounts of weapons and ammo, and shot your way through an area to Point B. There were some rough story elements to the original game, but it wasn't really coherent. In playing with the director's commentary (which is really interesting, I have to tell you), it was learned that originally the four campaigns (No Mercy, Death Toll, Dead Air, and Blood Harvest) were all interconnected, but because the survivors kept getting into trouble and having their rescue fall apart, apparently test audiences did not like how their sense of accomplishment was taken away from them at the end of every level. So the final game removed this, and instead you have four campaigns which don't really connect, but all feature the survivors in a different setting, trying to find rescue. Each campaign, while offering a different and unique setting, pretty much ran through the same obstacles. At one point, something would block your path and you'd need to trigger a crescendo event (fighting off a hoarde of zombies) before progressing, and every campaign would end in an area where you needed to fortify and prepare yourselves for rescue, fighting off an insane hoarde of zombies and special infected. It gets a bit repetetive after a time, yes, but you get achievements to aim for and the AI Director. It's really the Director that made the game interesting. Even though you would come to memorize the layout of a level, the Director would never spawn the same number of opponents, nor would they ever appear in the same places. The Director also learns and reacts as you progress through, rewarding you with weapons, ammo, and health for good behaviour or if you're doing badly, or punishing you for bad behaviour (such as killing your teammates, running ahead, or ending up separated from the group) or if the Director thinks you're doing too well. Suffice to say, the Director likes to punish more than reward. It is evil.
Now take all that, improve upon it by adding more plot and story elements, adding more realistic challenges and you have Left 4 Dead 2.
Left 4 Dead 2 contains five campaigns (with a sixth one due sometime this spring) each of which follow a progressive story as four new survivors try and make their way from Savannah, Georgia, to New Orleans and rescue. In the original game, the four survivors were more horror/game tropes. Bill was the grizzled war vet, Francis was the angry biker (who quickly became a favourite because he hates everything and often tells you so), Zoey was the token woman but meant to embody the gamer stereotype (go girl gamers), and Louis was pretty much the token black man of the group (with his design based upon Ben from Night of the Living Dead with a slight helping of Shaun from Shaun of the Dead). But other than that, there wasn't a whole lot else to the survivors - very little background given to any of them, and really other than Francis and his “I hate everything” attitude, there was almost nothing regarding personality differences to set each character apart. Though at least that meant there was rarely ever any arguing over who got to play as who. In this game, however, there's more to the survivors and I didn't know if I'd like them or not but they grew on me pretty quickly for the most part. I attribute this primarily to the new setting and greater addition of an actual plot. I mean, if you have a story you need characters for it too, right?
Our first survivor is Nick, also referred to as the river boat gambler. He is the survivor with the least known about him when it comes to his background, making him a delightfully shady character (all we know is that he's thirty-five). One of his first “revealing” moments in the game is in the first campaign when you arrive at a gun store. “I'm not legally allowed to own a gun,” he tells the group. “I hope everyone's okay with that.” Consider in the game that you have been travelling with this guy, with guns, for what's probably the better part of a day in-game. Yeeeeeeeeep. His character is slightly derivative of Francis from the first game, as he has a sort of “I hate you all and I don't care about anything” attitude, and usually doesn't have much to say that's actually helpful when contributing to a conversation (unless it's to make some sort of sarcastic remark). Nick was actually originally an escaped convict in early editions of the game. The development team invented a story about a convict who decided when the world went entirely upside down, to go out and get himself the nicest suit he could find. Eventually, that character turned into Nick, the drifting gambler and con-artist who keeps saying how he's only going to stay with the group for a little while, but... you know... zombies bring out the best in people sometimes.
Ellis is easily the most loveable survivor and (at least for me) I knew this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship the first time I picked up an axe and both myself and the character went “An axe” in the same tone at the same time. Although, he'd probably be my favourite anyway because like Francis in the first game, Ellis gets all the best lines. He's a twenty-three year old good ol' boy through and through, hailing from Savannah itself as a local mechanic (but he's also in a band with his buddies... he plays bass) who once the outbreak hit, armoured up a truck and took off (it was only 99% zombie proof... that other 1% tore the truck to shit). He's kind of an everyman, I think, because his reactions are pretty much what most of the players would be thinking in the same situation. “Holy shit, zombies are real! I knew those books weren't fiction!” He also loves sharing stories about his buddy Keith. If you look in the game files, there are twenty-one different Ellis stories. You will either love the guy, or hate him for never shutting up.
Coach is... well... the coach. As the oldest (at forty-four), he's sort of the unofficial team leader in-game. He gets his name because that's his profession, as a high school gym teacher in Savannah. He's not all that in shape himself though, and often talks about how much he loves food. I guess it's kind of sad that that's what makes him so memorable, but his hulking frame also makes him pretty bad ass when you're out there slaying zombies. Despite the impending zombie apocalypse, Coach manages to find happiness in a few places - namely the mall food court, and all the concession stands at Whispering Oaks amusement park. If Nick is the Francis-based character then Coach is the one based on Bill.
Rochelle is - sadly to say - the least interesting or memorable character of the group which I find disappointing considering how likeable Zoey was in the first game (while Zoey didn't exactly have many memorable lines, she had a memorable look to her and didn't suffer from lack of personality because the three male characters were just as devoid as she was). With such likeable, rich, and amusing characters in Coach, Ellis, and Nick, Rochelle ends up a greater disappointment because there is nothing to her. Her most memorable line is “Son of a bee sting!” which is quite sad. And there could have been such potential to her. Why couldn't she end up just as bad ass as the other three? In-game she's a television producer who got her big break when co-workers began getting sick with the infection, and was in Georgia reporting on a CEDA evac center when everything went to hell. You'd think that as an individual involved in journalism she'd constantly be asking questions or offering knowledge about what was going on (if she had any). But she really just doesn't say anything in regards to her surroundings unless it's to kindly tell Ellis that now is not the time for a story. She could have been fierce. She certainly looks fierce! But come on... “son of a bee sting”? Really? Oh boy...
Now that you know the characters, there's also the weaponry to note. Now, in the original game you were always automatically equipped with pistols. These never ran out of ammo, and you could often find a second pistol to wield two at once at some point during the campaign. You also had your selection of a shot gun or semi automatic as your primary weapon (both of which had later upgrades, and an additional sniper rifle was added) which did have a finite amount of bullets, but ammunition dumps were frequent throughout levels... and the guns came with a lot of bullets. Left 4 Dead 2 changes this, adding what I think is a much more realistic element to the game. In other words, if you're not careful, you're going to run out of bullets really quickly. The primary guns in this game have a lot less ammunition to them, and ammunition piles are not going to be found as frequently as they were in the first game. But what the Director does leave behind are often other guns. The idea in this game, therefore, is to salvage for weapons. Maybe you prefer the semi automatic, but you're almost out of bullets and there's a fresh new shotgun lying on the ground in front of you. You're probably going to want to swap guns.
Your basic pistol still never runs out of ammunition, but you're also given secondary alternatives. Dual pistols is no longer an availability, but there's the added Magnum hand gun which - while only offering a clip of eight rounds - will pretty much level anything in a single shot (and take down multiple targets if they're lined up right). If you're holding this, it comes in very handy when you're incapacitated and on the ground versus the regular pistol. But the big attraction to secondary weapons are the melee weapons.
Melee weapons are a huge advantage for the most part in the game. They (quite obviously) never run out of ammo (with one exception), their hits are automatic KOs to enemies which make them incredibly efficient at crowd control, and add a whole lot of fun and variety to the game. Of course there are downsides, such as the fact that you're not going to ever want to run up to a Boomer, Spitter, Charger, or Jockey (and probably not a Tank either) with a melee weapon. But for clearing out most of the other infected in the game, particularly if you're in a cramped space or surrounded by cars with alarms, they're quite useful. And like I said, they add a good deal of variety to the game with there being nine different melee weapons included in the game (or ten, if you pre-ordered to receive the wooden baseball bat, or are playing with someone who does have the bat in their game). You can hack, slash, and send limbs flying using a fire axe, machete, katana (I kid you not), or a chainsaw (though the chainsaw has limited use... when the fuel runs out, the thing is useless so enjoy it while it lasts), or bludgeon zombies to death with a crowbar, night stick, frying pan, electric guitar, or a cricket bat. That's right. YOU GET TO KILL ZOMBIES WITH A CRICKET BAT. No wonder this game is Simon Pegg approved, right? The only thing with melee weapons is that they can cloud up your field of vision with splatter in the middle of a frenzy. But you get used to it, and it usually doesn't make too much of a difference if you're in the middle of a mob anyway.
The usual homemade weapons like the molotov cocktail and the pipe bomb are back (used to either set something on fire or attract a hoarde away and towards the bomb with its blinking light and beeping beacon) in addition to canisters of Boomer bile and cases of incendiary ammo. Incendiary ammo speaks for itself (loading your gun with bullets that set things on fire), but the canister of Boomer bile is interesting because it's a glass vile full of puke. Now, when Boomers throw up on you or explode on you, you get covered in their gunk. This gunk attracts a hoarde of zombies that will home in on whoever is covered in the gunk. You can therefore use the Boomer bile in the midst of a swarm to distract the infected, lob the stuff at a group of zombies so they will kill each other, or - better yet - cover a Tank in Boomer goo to summon a swarm of zombies to attack it. The common infected won't do much, but they will slow the Tank down significantly. Or be an asshole and throw it at a teammate.
There are a couple of additions in the health department as well. Med kits are still around, as are those bottles of temporary health-boosting pills, but the developpers have now included crash kits and adrenaline shots. The crash kit is a portable defibulator that takes the place of a med kit, so if everyone in your group still has a med kit, it's going to take some serious thought and consideration about whether or not you want to pick up the defibulator. But what it does is allow you to revive a fallen survivor right on the spot. This is exceedingly useful if you're playing a campaign in the Realism mode where fallen survivors are not going to respawn in a closet somewhere. And adrenaline shots are a great thing to use in conjunction with the paddles or a med kit. Injecting yourself with adrenaline gives you a temporary speed and health boost, allowing you to move faster, shoot faster, revive others faster, and pretty much just do everything faster. In the very last finale, if everyone has an adrenaline shot they come in exceptionally handy once you've taken down the last Tank and made it to the end of the bridge. One shot and you're leaping over cars and bypassing the unending hoarde for the military helicopter. But adrenaline shots also come in handy when you're in the situation that all but one survivor is incapacitated and there's still tons of zombies. With a shot of adrenaline, your chances of single-handedly rescuing everyone quickly greatly improves.
I think that pretty much covers the basics of the game premise. You know the survivors, the way weapons and other goodies work, I told you there's a larger storyline, and I don't really have anything to say about the Director 2.0 other than it's an even bigger asshole than its predecessor. Now the Director can alter your routes by throwing up gates so you can't become accustomed to your “favourite route”, and with there frequently being groups of cars lying around, the Director can pick and choose which cars (if any) have alarms each run through. So even more things change, right down to the weather. Unlike the first game where all the campaigns took place at night, in Left 4 Dead 2 the campaigns take place at different times of the day. Dead Center is a daylight adventure, while Dark Carnival begins in the evening and takes place over night, Swamp Fever is a night campaign, Hard Rain covers both (in a way), and The Parish is a daylight level. This does have an effect on the gameplay style, as more can be thrown at you (and often is) during daylight campaigns because it's assumed you can see more, your flashlights aren't as helpful as they were in the first game (regardless of campaign), and even certain infected enemies behave differently depending on the time of day.
So that leaves us with the game's stories and campaigns for the next few entries. So I'll just leave you with the final quick primer on that. The game's opening cinematic pretty much sets up the first campaign. Four survivors immune to the infection, meet up and end up working together in order to get to the nearest evacuation site. As you see in the trailer, they arrive but too late. CEDA's helicopters have already taken off and left everyone behind. So what now? Now we play a game.
And of course, since I said I was whoring myself out for teammates on steam... my Steam ID is melisus so I should be easy enough to find. SERIOUSLY, GUYS, GET THIS GAME FOR PC THROUGH STEAM AND WE CAN KILL ZOMBIES AND BE TERRIFIED TOGETHER.
But today it's a primer! So I'll start with the basics of surviving the zombie apocalypse, who you're going to be working with, and what you ought to know (and why that is all awesome).
As well, this game is Simon Pegg approved. True story - he mentioned it on his Twitter. So if that right there isn't enough of a reason to get this game, I don't know what is. I don't like telling people to go buy things, but I'm really just trying to whore myself out for Steam friends here... you know you want to kill zombies with me. You do.
Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse in the Deep South
Who you are, what you'll need, and why you should be interested
I'll begin with this. I really like the zombie genre. They are the one horror movie character/concept that has succeeded in perpetually scaring me. Vampires? Lame. Werewolves? Awesome, but not frightening. Zombies? I'll be hiding under my bed, thank you very much. In recent years it's also become a lot more dynamic. Zombies don't always simply lumber about, thanks to the idea of introducing zombified plague victims in 28 Days Later. In fact, most zombies are faster now which makes them even scarier. Either way, it's a genre that if you're creative enough can be turned into something fresh and exciting every time. Just go read something by Max Brooks like World War Z. He takes the concept of the zombie he created for his survival guide and uses it for an excellent story. (What I like most about his zombies is that their speed depends on their level of decay. Fresh zombies can be just as swift as healthy humans, but as they begin to decay they gradually become more like the lumbering undead that's traditionally been used.)
There's another thing I really like - fresh gameplay, challenging co-op, and replayability. The Left 4 Dead series combines all of these things, so it's no wonder that this series is one of my favourite games and quite possibly the most addicting game series I've ever encountered (yes, even moreso than Beatles: Rock Band). And that's honestly surprising because I'm not a large fan of the shooter genre on its own. I can count the number of first person shooters I own and have enjoyed on one hand and they pretty much consist solely of the Metroid Prime series, Medal of Honor series, and Left 4 Dead. And what all three of those series have in common is that they offer something unique maybe not so much to the games themselves but to me to enjoy such as strong story-telling, interesting characters, and appealing settings. There's also Goldeneye which I didn't mention because I don't know why I loved that game so much. Why did YOU love that game so much?
Having said that, Left 4 Dead's original gameplay concept was simple. You took on the role of one of four survivors (each one embodying a trope/stereotype for fun), started at Point A, grabbed ridiculous amounts of weapons and ammo, and shot your way through an area to Point B. There were some rough story elements to the original game, but it wasn't really coherent. In playing with the director's commentary (which is really interesting, I have to tell you), it was learned that originally the four campaigns (No Mercy, Death Toll, Dead Air, and Blood Harvest) were all interconnected, but because the survivors kept getting into trouble and having their rescue fall apart, apparently test audiences did not like how their sense of accomplishment was taken away from them at the end of every level. So the final game removed this, and instead you have four campaigns which don't really connect, but all feature the survivors in a different setting, trying to find rescue. Each campaign, while offering a different and unique setting, pretty much ran through the same obstacles. At one point, something would block your path and you'd need to trigger a crescendo event (fighting off a hoarde of zombies) before progressing, and every campaign would end in an area where you needed to fortify and prepare yourselves for rescue, fighting off an insane hoarde of zombies and special infected. It gets a bit repetetive after a time, yes, but you get achievements to aim for and the AI Director. It's really the Director that made the game interesting. Even though you would come to memorize the layout of a level, the Director would never spawn the same number of opponents, nor would they ever appear in the same places. The Director also learns and reacts as you progress through, rewarding you with weapons, ammo, and health for good behaviour or if you're doing badly, or punishing you for bad behaviour (such as killing your teammates, running ahead, or ending up separated from the group) or if the Director thinks you're doing too well. Suffice to say, the Director likes to punish more than reward. It is evil.
Now take all that, improve upon it by adding more plot and story elements, adding more realistic challenges and you have Left 4 Dead 2.
Left 4 Dead 2 contains five campaigns (with a sixth one due sometime this spring) each of which follow a progressive story as four new survivors try and make their way from Savannah, Georgia, to New Orleans and rescue. In the original game, the four survivors were more horror/game tropes. Bill was the grizzled war vet, Francis was the angry biker (who quickly became a favourite because he hates everything and often tells you so), Zoey was the token woman but meant to embody the gamer stereotype (go girl gamers), and Louis was pretty much the token black man of the group (with his design based upon Ben from Night of the Living Dead with a slight helping of Shaun from Shaun of the Dead). But other than that, there wasn't a whole lot else to the survivors - very little background given to any of them, and really other than Francis and his “I hate everything” attitude, there was almost nothing regarding personality differences to set each character apart. Though at least that meant there was rarely ever any arguing over who got to play as who. In this game, however, there's more to the survivors and I didn't know if I'd like them or not but they grew on me pretty quickly for the most part. I attribute this primarily to the new setting and greater addition of an actual plot. I mean, if you have a story you need characters for it too, right?
Our first survivor is Nick, also referred to as the river boat gambler. He is the survivor with the least known about him when it comes to his background, making him a delightfully shady character (all we know is that he's thirty-five). One of his first “revealing” moments in the game is in the first campaign when you arrive at a gun store. “I'm not legally allowed to own a gun,” he tells the group. “I hope everyone's okay with that.” Consider in the game that you have been travelling with this guy, with guns, for what's probably the better part of a day in-game. Yeeeeeeeeep. His character is slightly derivative of Francis from the first game, as he has a sort of “I hate you all and I don't care about anything” attitude, and usually doesn't have much to say that's actually helpful when contributing to a conversation (unless it's to make some sort of sarcastic remark). Nick was actually originally an escaped convict in early editions of the game. The development team invented a story about a convict who decided when the world went entirely upside down, to go out and get himself the nicest suit he could find. Eventually, that character turned into Nick, the drifting gambler and con-artist who keeps saying how he's only going to stay with the group for a little while, but... you know... zombies bring out the best in people sometimes.
Ellis is easily the most loveable survivor and (at least for me) I knew this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship the first time I picked up an axe and both myself and the character went “An axe” in the same tone at the same time. Although, he'd probably be my favourite anyway because like Francis in the first game, Ellis gets all the best lines. He's a twenty-three year old good ol' boy through and through, hailing from Savannah itself as a local mechanic (but he's also in a band with his buddies... he plays bass) who once the outbreak hit, armoured up a truck and took off (it was only 99% zombie proof... that other 1% tore the truck to shit). He's kind of an everyman, I think, because his reactions are pretty much what most of the players would be thinking in the same situation. “Holy shit, zombies are real! I knew those books weren't fiction!” He also loves sharing stories about his buddy Keith. If you look in the game files, there are twenty-one different Ellis stories. You will either love the guy, or hate him for never shutting up.
Coach is... well... the coach. As the oldest (at forty-four), he's sort of the unofficial team leader in-game. He gets his name because that's his profession, as a high school gym teacher in Savannah. He's not all that in shape himself though, and often talks about how much he loves food. I guess it's kind of sad that that's what makes him so memorable, but his hulking frame also makes him pretty bad ass when you're out there slaying zombies. Despite the impending zombie apocalypse, Coach manages to find happiness in a few places - namely the mall food court, and all the concession stands at Whispering Oaks amusement park. If Nick is the Francis-based character then Coach is the one based on Bill.
Rochelle is - sadly to say - the least interesting or memorable character of the group which I find disappointing considering how likeable Zoey was in the first game (while Zoey didn't exactly have many memorable lines, she had a memorable look to her and didn't suffer from lack of personality because the three male characters were just as devoid as she was). With such likeable, rich, and amusing characters in Coach, Ellis, and Nick, Rochelle ends up a greater disappointment because there is nothing to her. Her most memorable line is “Son of a bee sting!” which is quite sad. And there could have been such potential to her. Why couldn't she end up just as bad ass as the other three? In-game she's a television producer who got her big break when co-workers began getting sick with the infection, and was in Georgia reporting on a CEDA evac center when everything went to hell. You'd think that as an individual involved in journalism she'd constantly be asking questions or offering knowledge about what was going on (if she had any). But she really just doesn't say anything in regards to her surroundings unless it's to kindly tell Ellis that now is not the time for a story. She could have been fierce. She certainly looks fierce! But come on... “son of a bee sting”? Really? Oh boy...
Now that you know the characters, there's also the weaponry to note. Now, in the original game you were always automatically equipped with pistols. These never ran out of ammo, and you could often find a second pistol to wield two at once at some point during the campaign. You also had your selection of a shot gun or semi automatic as your primary weapon (both of which had later upgrades, and an additional sniper rifle was added) which did have a finite amount of bullets, but ammunition dumps were frequent throughout levels... and the guns came with a lot of bullets. Left 4 Dead 2 changes this, adding what I think is a much more realistic element to the game. In other words, if you're not careful, you're going to run out of bullets really quickly. The primary guns in this game have a lot less ammunition to them, and ammunition piles are not going to be found as frequently as they were in the first game. But what the Director does leave behind are often other guns. The idea in this game, therefore, is to salvage for weapons. Maybe you prefer the semi automatic, but you're almost out of bullets and there's a fresh new shotgun lying on the ground in front of you. You're probably going to want to swap guns.
Your basic pistol still never runs out of ammunition, but you're also given secondary alternatives. Dual pistols is no longer an availability, but there's the added Magnum hand gun which - while only offering a clip of eight rounds - will pretty much level anything in a single shot (and take down multiple targets if they're lined up right). If you're holding this, it comes in very handy when you're incapacitated and on the ground versus the regular pistol. But the big attraction to secondary weapons are the melee weapons.
Melee weapons are a huge advantage for the most part in the game. They (quite obviously) never run out of ammo (with one exception), their hits are automatic KOs to enemies which make them incredibly efficient at crowd control, and add a whole lot of fun and variety to the game. Of course there are downsides, such as the fact that you're not going to ever want to run up to a Boomer, Spitter, Charger, or Jockey (and probably not a Tank either) with a melee weapon. But for clearing out most of the other infected in the game, particularly if you're in a cramped space or surrounded by cars with alarms, they're quite useful. And like I said, they add a good deal of variety to the game with there being nine different melee weapons included in the game (or ten, if you pre-ordered to receive the wooden baseball bat, or are playing with someone who does have the bat in their game). You can hack, slash, and send limbs flying using a fire axe, machete, katana (I kid you not), or a chainsaw (though the chainsaw has limited use... when the fuel runs out, the thing is useless so enjoy it while it lasts), or bludgeon zombies to death with a crowbar, night stick, frying pan, electric guitar, or a cricket bat. That's right. YOU GET TO KILL ZOMBIES WITH A CRICKET BAT. No wonder this game is Simon Pegg approved, right? The only thing with melee weapons is that they can cloud up your field of vision with splatter in the middle of a frenzy. But you get used to it, and it usually doesn't make too much of a difference if you're in the middle of a mob anyway.
The usual homemade weapons like the molotov cocktail and the pipe bomb are back (used to either set something on fire or attract a hoarde away and towards the bomb with its blinking light and beeping beacon) in addition to canisters of Boomer bile and cases of incendiary ammo. Incendiary ammo speaks for itself (loading your gun with bullets that set things on fire), but the canister of Boomer bile is interesting because it's a glass vile full of puke. Now, when Boomers throw up on you or explode on you, you get covered in their gunk. This gunk attracts a hoarde of zombies that will home in on whoever is covered in the gunk. You can therefore use the Boomer bile in the midst of a swarm to distract the infected, lob the stuff at a group of zombies so they will kill each other, or - better yet - cover a Tank in Boomer goo to summon a swarm of zombies to attack it. The common infected won't do much, but they will slow the Tank down significantly. Or be an asshole and throw it at a teammate.
There are a couple of additions in the health department as well. Med kits are still around, as are those bottles of temporary health-boosting pills, but the developpers have now included crash kits and adrenaline shots. The crash kit is a portable defibulator that takes the place of a med kit, so if everyone in your group still has a med kit, it's going to take some serious thought and consideration about whether or not you want to pick up the defibulator. But what it does is allow you to revive a fallen survivor right on the spot. This is exceedingly useful if you're playing a campaign in the Realism mode where fallen survivors are not going to respawn in a closet somewhere. And adrenaline shots are a great thing to use in conjunction with the paddles or a med kit. Injecting yourself with adrenaline gives you a temporary speed and health boost, allowing you to move faster, shoot faster, revive others faster, and pretty much just do everything faster. In the very last finale, if everyone has an adrenaline shot they come in exceptionally handy once you've taken down the last Tank and made it to the end of the bridge. One shot and you're leaping over cars and bypassing the unending hoarde for the military helicopter. But adrenaline shots also come in handy when you're in the situation that all but one survivor is incapacitated and there's still tons of zombies. With a shot of adrenaline, your chances of single-handedly rescuing everyone quickly greatly improves.
I think that pretty much covers the basics of the game premise. You know the survivors, the way weapons and other goodies work, I told you there's a larger storyline, and I don't really have anything to say about the Director 2.0 other than it's an even bigger asshole than its predecessor. Now the Director can alter your routes by throwing up gates so you can't become accustomed to your “favourite route”, and with there frequently being groups of cars lying around, the Director can pick and choose which cars (if any) have alarms each run through. So even more things change, right down to the weather. Unlike the first game where all the campaigns took place at night, in Left 4 Dead 2 the campaigns take place at different times of the day. Dead Center is a daylight adventure, while Dark Carnival begins in the evening and takes place over night, Swamp Fever is a night campaign, Hard Rain covers both (in a way), and The Parish is a daylight level. This does have an effect on the gameplay style, as more can be thrown at you (and often is) during daylight campaigns because it's assumed you can see more, your flashlights aren't as helpful as they were in the first game (regardless of campaign), and even certain infected enemies behave differently depending on the time of day.
So that leaves us with the game's stories and campaigns for the next few entries. So I'll just leave you with the final quick primer on that. The game's opening cinematic pretty much sets up the first campaign. Four survivors immune to the infection, meet up and end up working together in order to get to the nearest evacuation site. As you see in the trailer, they arrive but too late. CEDA's helicopters have already taken off and left everyone behind. So what now? Now we play a game.
Click to viewAnd of course, since I said I was whoring myself out for teammates on steam... my Steam ID is melisus so I should be easy enough to find. SERIOUSLY, GUYS, GET THIS GAME FOR PC THROUGH STEAM AND WE CAN KILL ZOMBIES AND BE TERRIFIED TOGETHER.