[h1]A 2009 Game That Aged Like The Purest Wine[/h1]
You play as Coach, Ellis, Nick and Rochelle, four survivors trying to make their way through a zombie apocalypse from Savannah to New Orleans. Every campaign has its own personality through its environments, events, level design and atmosphere, and having the original Left 4 Dead campaigns included makes the amount of content even better. For a game this old, there's still an incredible amount to enjoy.
The gameplay is incredibly simple: shoot zombies, survive hordes, manage your supplies, deal with Special Infected and reach the next safe room. Yet this formula remains fantastic. There is no pointless progression system or grind. You get better because you become better at the game. You learn the maps, recognize threats, improve your positioning and learn when to use your resources.
The Special Infected are probably the best part of the game. Every one creates a different problem. Smokers drag you away, Hunters pin you down, Jockeys separate you from the team, Chargers slam you into walls, Boomers cover you in bile and attract hordes while disabling survivor outlines, and Spitters cover areas in acid that becomes more damaging the longer you stand in it. The Uncommon Infected are just as interesting: CEDA agents resist fire and make a funny noise when killed, Clowns attract zombies and honk when shoved, Mudmen use mud as camouflage, Riot Officers resist bullets and Construction Workers are immune to pipe bombs. There is a ridiculous amount of variety in something as simple as fighting zombies.
The Tank and Witch fit perfectly into this system. The Tank is an incredible threat when you're inexperienced, although after enough time he becomes predictable. The Witch is more dependent on where she spawns: sometimes you can simply avoid her, while other times she's blocking your path and has to be dealt with. Both still work as threats because they force you to react differently from how you normally handle a horde.
The weapons are great, and the melee weapons are one of L4D2's best additions. They're not just gimmicks; they're genuinely useful and satisfying to use. The game also encourages teamwork extremely well. Special Infected can completely disable or separate you from the group, so staying together isn't just good advice, it's necessary. The survivors even comment when someone wanders too far away. Playing with random people also keeps things interesting because every group behaves differently. Helping inexperienced players is fun, and the only time teammates really tend to cause problems is when someone decides to run too far ahead and gets themselves killed.
The atmosphere is fantastic. L4D2 actually feels like a believable zombie apocalypse, with abandoned locations, destroyed areas, barricades and environmental details such as graffiti left behind in safe rooms. The sound design is excellent, and the music gives Tanks, Witches, hordes and Special Infected their own identity. The survivor dialogue gives the game even more personality, especially Ellis. Even though I usually turn the music off, I still appreciate things like the music during the Dark Carnival finale and the jukeboxes in The Passing.
The campaigns are consistently memorable. Their finales can become somewhat repetitive mechanically, since many are variations of surviving for a certain amount of time or collecting gas cans, but the locations and set pieces make them stand out. The Parish's escape and The Sacrifice's actual sacrifice are good examples of finales that break away from the usual formula.
The Workshop is another huge reason this game has lasted so long. I always play with mods, including weapon replacements, character replacements, Infected replacements and texture mods. There are also custom campaigns and Mutations. Mutations are a nice bonus, with modes like Tank Run completely changing the normal gameplay loop, and the Workshop even allows people to create their own.
The game isn't perfect, though. My biggest annoyance is people abusing mods to spam survivor voice lines, especially death screams, over and over again. I wish Valve would patch that somehow. There have also been server problems discussed by the community, including DDoS attacks, although I haven't personally encountered those recently. Versus could also use better anti-cheat. I haven't played a huge amount of Versus myself, but I've seen plenty of examples of people getting kicked for making the wrong play, the right play, being bad or even being good.
And that's really my biggest criticism of Valve: I don't need them to add endless new content to L4D2. I don't need new weapons, campaigns or some giant update. The game already has an enormous amount of content, especially with the Workshop. I want Valve to maintain it. Fix the bugs, improve the anti-cheat, stop annoying exploits and make sure the game continues working properly.
For a game released in 2009, L4D2 has held up remarkably well. The gameplay is still satisfying, the Special Infected are still fun to fight, the campaigns still have personality, the atmosphere still works, and playing with different people keeps the experience from feeling exactly the same every time. Add the Workshop and its huge amount of community content, and there's still plenty of reason to come back to it.
That's why I'd recommend L4D2 even to someone who has never played it. You don't need nostalgia for the game or memories of playing it back in 2009. You can start playing it today and immediately understand why people are still playing it all these years later.
