L4D2 is a great zombie killing game, but sadly it doesn't come off as being anything groundbreaking within the genre.

User Rating: 7 | Left 4 Dead 2 PC
By Kakaroti4 | Review Date:
L4D2 is by far better than its predecessor! The game has great visuals which showcase the source engines abilities without being a system hog. The game makes you go through a different sets of scenarios all scattered throughout different areas, we have swamps, amusement parks, malls you name it it's here, but it becomes apparent that underneath the objective to go from point A to B and surviving endless hordes of zombies and other infected monsters there is not much more to it. The game's terror factor has also been dumped down, a good amount of levels now take place in daylight and this almost kills any real suspense. I found myself wishing I could get one good scare out of the game, but I just could not. Also what further makes the game look more like a B-movie rather than a horror game is that the monsters just don't look menacing enough. In other games such as Killing Floor you have specimens that are chilling and terryfing to encounter and you can feel the adrenaline rushing through you while trying to escape their wrath. In L4D2 you know that you are vulnerable but death does not bring the amount of fear it should because the entire ambient setting is not moody enough to make you care.

There is a lot of campy humor which is excellent for this type of game, but due to lack of any real horror in the game, it turns into a comedy of sorts.
Replay ability is also very difficult since the setting is not inviting and it becomes really tiresome performing the same tasks because freedom of movement around the maps are not as vast as in other games. I must compare this game to its rivals, I am not a blind Killing Floor fan boy, but in my honest opinion KF nails the entire co-op horror theme much better than Valve's offering. In KF the entire setting is gritty and moody. You feel vulnerable, and the graphics even though they run on a less sophisticated engine than Source look overall better than L4D2, some shader effects are undoubtedly better in L4D2 but overall KF looks sharper and the recoil and weapons animations and overall diversity of weapons make L4D2 pale in comparison to KF. Also the perk and class system in KF makes for a varied game play, couple this with a better variaty of monsters and you are almost forced to see the flaws in L4D2. This game has excellent production value but it just doesn't pack the punch that KF delivers, and this is why you stay hooked on KF for a VERY long time.

Valve needs to introduce more atmosphere to their co-op horror games to be able to advance the series into a more atmospheric franchise, because the elements are there, zombie dismemberment in this game is the best of its kind, but variation in monster types and some much needed suspense would have made L4D2 a brilliant game.

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