Left 2 Dead 2 Demo Review

I got the chance to play the L4D2 Demo early because I pre-ordered it and I felt like sharing my experience. The Demo runs you through a small portion of the campaign The Parish. You start out being dropped off on a dock in the middle of the day and the survivors have made it their mission to escape by any means neccessary. My group and I picked up our first aid kits, and had the option of picking up either a modified uzi with silencer, a hunting shotgun and a police beating stick (My name for them) as a melee weapon. One interesting feature is you have to pick between having a pistol or a melee weapon. If you have a melee weapon, you can't pull out your gun unless you're in critical state like L4D1. I chose to keep my handgun and wait out for a better beat stick. I was very satisfied by the new zombie disfigurement system. If I shot off a zombie's arm, his arm came off and he kept coming. If I shot one in the back, I was rewarded with lots of gore. Heads exploded magnificently.

There are three new special zombies introduced in L4D2. The Spitter is an ugly zombie that spits noxious acid out of it's mouth. The acid covers a fair ammount of ground and can hurt pretty badly. The Jockey is an annoying zombie like the Hunter. It sneaks up and jumps on you. This zombie doesn't attack you though. It jumps onyour back and procedes to lead you in any direction it wants...like a horse jockey...hence the name. The last new special zombie is the Charger. This guy looks like a tank reject. He's got one HUGE arm and leg and one small arm and leg. He charges at the nearest survivor and continues to plow them into whatever solid wall is behind them. Once there he likes to grab you and slam you repeatedly into the ground like an upset baby and it's doll. The old special zombies got a small redesign, mostly to make them fit the New Orleans setting. The Hunter didn't change much and the Smoker is just WAY uglier. The Boomer however apparently got married. L4D2 sports a female Boomer now!

After killing lots of zombies and making our way through the city a little bit, we ran into a cafe with a nice easter egg. There's a jukebox in the room and you can click e to turn it on. There's a few jazz trakcs on it, but after a few song changes I was delighted to find it playing "RE: Brains" by Jonathan Coultan. This is a great song about zombies and brains. Check it out if you havn't heard it before. After we left the cafe we got to hear the new swarm music. All the music ques in the game sound like the old but with a jazzy tone to them. I have to admit that I enjoy them more then the old ones.

Next we found some new weapons!!! Throughout the whole whole demo I found two types of shotguns, an AK-47, military sniper rifle, one uzi with a silencer and one without, an MP5, M-16 and the hunting rifle and aut-shotty from the first game. Along with my new military sniper rifle I picked up a new melee weapon....a guitar! Hitting zombies with the guitar made an interesting thwang noise. The other melee weapons I found throughout the demo were a skillet, machete and police batton. The skillet is my favorite becuase it makes a great sound when I hit zombies that makes me smile every time. Most people prefer the machete however. This is becuase cutting up zombies with the machete covers you screen with blood the more attack. At one point, I found it hard to see because my entire screen was just pasted with blood. I should also metion the three other new items I ran into. The adrenaline shot which boosts your running speed, firing rate and reload speed for a short period of time takes up the space pills usally would; Another decision you have to make. The defibrillator can take the place of a first aid kit and can bring a survivor back to life wherever they are. This is nice if you can't wait for a respawn. The last new item I ran into was the Boomer Bile Bomb. This is a grenade type like the moltov and pipe bomb. The Bile Bomb works just like a Boomer's bile, whatever gets covered attracts zombies to attack it. You can cover the ground and blast the zombies as they attack nothing or use it tactfully and cover a special zombie like the Tank.

After some more zombie killing we came up to the first event. We ran into a safe-room trailer and loaded up on adrenaline shots. A sign on the exit door told us an alarm would sound if we opened to door...great. We opened the door, injected the adrenaline and took off out the door. Out side was covered with gates that created a bit of a maze for us to run through while zombies filed inn from every direction. At the end of the maze we climbed some ladders, shut off the alarm and took out the last 200 zombies. the rest of the map was fairly clear. We ran through and hit the safe-room that ended the demo.

I'm a little dissapointed in the length of the demo as I feel the L4D demo was alot longer. I was however impressed with the implementations in L4D2 and cannot wait for Novemeber 16 when I can pick up my full copy. L4D2 will include 5 new campaigns that all tie together with a story-arc unlike it's predecesser, even more new melee weapons and guns then what is found in the demo and five different game modes: Campaign, Survivor, Versus, Scavenge and Realism. So that's what I have to say right now. Feel free to give you're two cents to the review, the your experiences with the demo if you've played it or whatever you want that's L4D centered.