Okay. Got my buddy. Got mah controller. Got meh nerves. TIME TO SLAY SOME ZOMBIES!
I came into Left 4 Dead 2 as a hopeful child. A child hoping to be terrified at the though of immanent death at the claws of merciless zombies. A child hoping to be enjoying the thrill of fighting hoards of the undead with my buddy at my side. A child hoping to have fun. What I got was more akin to a bad Christmas Present (socks usually) Left 4 Dead 2 is a mind numbingly dull experience with little motivation for the player and little variants in the game to remain interesting for more than five minutes.
The game begins with "AN INFECTION!!??!?!?!?!" (Insert gasp) Which turns everyone bar four people into zombies. From the get go you are strung with the thrilling narrative of "Kill all sons of B!t(h3$" and "Get from point A to point B" That is the story for the whole game. Nothing more complex at all. If Left 4 Dead 2 were a book, it would be a page long. Actually, a sentence. Here's I'll write it for you: Four guys were trapped in a zombie infection, but they got away by killing everything in sight. There, I just wrote my first book. Cheque please.
The graphics are pretty awful, especially for the Australian version. Zombies blend in with each other into the dull backgrounds and when you shoot them, their bodies disappear before they even hit the ground. There's barely any blood in this game (thank you Australian classification system) and the game just looks thrown together at the last minute kind of graphix. Know what I'm sayin'? U dig?
The gameplay at the very start of the game sets you up for the monotonous ride that you spend the whole game on. Here's how the game plays.
You grab gun and shoot zombies coming from --> that way.
Next level: You grab gun and shoot zombies coming from --> that way.
Next level: You grab gun and shoot zombies coming from --> that way.
Next level: You grab gun and shoot zombies coming from --> that way.
Next level: You grab gun and shoot zombies coming from --> that way.
Next level: You grab gun and shoot zombies coming from --> that way.
Next level: You grab gun and shoot zombies coming from --> that way.
Next level: You grab gun and shoot zombies coming from --> that way.
See that? I was so lazy I didn't even bother to rewrite the level design. I just copied and pasted while only adding a different background. I essentially made Left 4 Dead 2! Hey, I wrote my first novel in the same night as my first videogame walkthrough. Keep this up and I should be rich.
One last thing I must mention about this abomination are the clunky physics. Tens of Zombies all hitting you at the same time does minimal damage. You can use the sniper rifle like a shotgun. The weapons have no weight to them, just ripping through the bad guys like they are paper, you move too fast. Basically this game is awful. I recommend buying it, then snapping the disc to send a message to the stores not to order any more copies.
4EVER over and out.
(oh dear, the fanboys are going to kill me...)