This review will focus on the single player part of l4d2
sound : zombies sounds terrifyingly great, as does the weapons.
graphics : characters look great, but the surrounding environment looks bland and textureless.
story : nonexistent - the same 4 people gets left behind at 5 different occasions ?!?
The game is build up from small packed areas, having to make it from one safety room (savepoint) to the next, this creates a tense atmosphere as wave upon wave of zombies attack your group. Sadly its also the games biggest flaw in single player, you quickly learn to run like hell from one safety room to the next, if you don´t the group will most certainly get eaten alive when they run out of ammo and health. But the AI doesnt allow the npc´s to move an inch before every zombie in sight is gone, so to prevent your party from standing still until eaten you have to be quite abit infront of them so that whenever there´s a short break from the zombie onslaught they actually move towards you and the savehouse. The silly AI becomes a major problem towards the end of each level as a zombietank always turn up and basicly takes out the 3 npc´s unless your really lucky.
L4D2 biggest problem isnt the single player though,it´s the lack of xp, no buildup of your character, no new weapons to buy/find/earn leaving you with no real sense of progress as you have access to all weapons and gadgets from the very start. The lack of rewards from getting on with the game, leaves me with an empty feeling of having achieved absolutely nothing when i finished it.
according to gamespot a score of 9 is : 9.0-9.5: Superb We absolutely recommend any game in this range, especially to fans of that particular genre. However, games that score in the 9 range are also typically well suited to new players. Games that earn 9s are naturally uncommon, and earn GameSpot's Editors' Choice Award for their outstanding quality.
I love a great zombie game, and i like the fps genre, but L4D2 does not deserve a 9, it´s just too boring and pointless.