The default options are multiplayer, as I discovered right away when I chose ‘campaign’ and was informed that the system was ‘searching for games’, and launched me into a co-op battle! That was a load of fun, but given I had just started and only had about fifteen minutes to play at that moment, I had to do the lousy thing and bail on my squad just as we were starting to click! Starting the game, after a cool montage that explains how our heroes end up on the roof of a hotel, you get presented with a load of gameplay options. This is due to a few things: ramped-up difficulty, better enemy AI, and improved weapons. While other games offer four-player co-op (*cough* Borderlands *cough*), the original Left 4 Dead really did it right – and it only improves in the new game.

Left 4 Dead 2 is not about a sweeping epic storyline, it is about plopping four poor souls in an awful situation with some weapons and leaving them to fight together or die. So it is not surprising that some folks would be upset that rather than a budget expansion pack we’re getting a full game. After all, sequels of this sort are dicey to begin with: this isn’t a story driven game, and the new game doesn’t run on a new graphics engine or otherwise push technology. All I will look at is whether or not the current game is good, and if it represents a good value based on the price. I will not deal with anything related to the protests and boycotts, nor will I discuss whether or not more should have been released for the original game. Left 4 Dead 2 is set in the south this time, and across five campaigns you’ll be romping through swamps and graveyards and cities working all the way from Savannah, Georgia to New Orleans battling massive hordes of fast moving zombies. Mac gamers might have completely missed out on this stuff, but message boards were all alight with many demanding more support for the original Left4Dead rather than a sequel a year later.

That game that stirred so much ire and controversy last year is Left 4 Dead 2, the sequel to the mega-hit zombie crunchin’ co-op from Valve. With multiple multiplayer options both on and offline, extensive AI custom functionality, four character options, new mêlée weapons and more, Left 4 Dead 2 promises to become one of 2009’s best shooters on the PC platform and set a new benchmark for co-op centric action games. Left 4 Dead 2 is the sequel to the best-selling and critically acclaimed co-op multiplayer smash from Valve, creators of the Half-life, Portal, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike game properties.

Left 4 dead 2 review