What Makes Left 4 Dead 2 A Timeless Classic: Surviving The Apocalypse Throughout The Years
About The Game
Left 4 Dead 2 developed and published by Valve in 2009 as a sequel to another great game Left 4 Dead (2008). Before its release, it stirred up a lot of reactions from fans, both positive and negative due to it releasing 1 year after the first game's release. This caused a lot of backlash because fans are expecting more updates and content for Left 4 Dead (2008) but all they get was a Left 4 Dead 2 teaser trailer. Fans speculated that the reason behind this is the successful release of the first game, making Left 4 Dead 2 nothing but a cash grab move by Valve leaving fans disappointed and reasonably mad. A steam group called "L4D2 Boycott" popped up and released a statement that said "The announced content of Left 4 Dead 2 does not warrant a stand-alone, full-priced sequel and should instead become updates (free or otherwise) for Left 4 Dead." Despite the backlash, Valve didn't budge and still chose to release Left 4 Dead 2 on its scheduled release and seeing how Left 4 Dead 2 is in the top 20 of the most popular fps games in steam today and has 20,000+ players on its release day, I say it had a very successful launch and is still a popular game today.
The Fall of Humanity
The Green Flu
The aftermath of a worldwide pandemic of a disease called the "Green Flu" that rapidly mutates humans into what we called "zombies" that attacks anyone who is not infected. These zombies are capable of running, scaling tall buildings, and seemingly showing no signs of fatigue. The majority of infected resembles a human with barely no change physically, although there are counts of people that has been infected with a different mutated strain of the virus also called as "special infected". There are currently 8 known special infected throughout the Left 4 Dead universe: The Boomer, an extremely bloated infected who vomits bile. The bile attracts a horde of common infected on contact with survivors and also momentarily blinds them. The Hunter, an agile male infected that can pounce on and incapacitate survivors from great distances, tearing at them until the survivor dies or another survivor shoves him off/kills him. The Smoker, a male infected with a long tongue that it uses to ensnare survivors from a distance, continually choking them. upon death, he releases a cloud of smoke that can obscure the survivors' vision and cause them to cough, should they come in direct contact with the smoke. The Charger, a male infected with an enormous right arm, and can charge into the survivors, capturing and carrying one survivor away from the others, sending any others in his path flying to the side after a capture and stunning survivors upon hitting an obstacle in a charge. The Spitter, a female infected that spits out balls of stomach acid that splatter across an area, quickly eroding the survivors' health as long as they remain within it. She also leaves a puddle of goo upon death. The Jockey, a male infected that jumps onto a survivor's back and steers them into other Infected or environmental hazards until the player is incapacitated, killed, or the jockey is shoved off. The last two is however, one of the most difficult zombies you'll ever handle in this game, a crying Infected woman who, when provoked by either damage, loud sounds, light, or proximity of survivors, will attack the provoker and any other Survivors after her provoker is dead. She can incapacitate or even kill a survivor in one hit, called The Witch and The Tank, a gigantic, extremely muscular infected male with the strength to punch survivors off their feet some distance, as well as toss cars and concrete slabs.
Carriers' Relentless Hope
Dead Center
Our four protagonists meet at the rooftop of a burning hotel after being left by rescue helicopters. They decided to go to the local mall where another evacuation point is located. While waiting in the elevator the four protagonists introduced themselves to each other. Coach, a stocky high school football coach with a bad knee. Nick a pessimistic gambler and a con artist. Rochelle, level production assistant for a local television station that was reporting on the pandemic. Ellis, a friendly and talkative redneck mechanic who often talks about his friend Keith and their many misadventures. Upon reaching the mall they gassed up a stock car and have Ellis drive them towards New Orleans, rumored to be the last standing city in America.
Dark Carnival
The four survivors finds the highway ahead completely blocked by ditched vehicles, and are forced to travel on foot through an abandoned amusement park. After fighting their way to the park stadium, Coach made a plan to use the light show in the stadium that was left there by a band called "Midnight Riders" in order to signal a helicopter that passed by them earlier for rescue. After being rescued, they later discover that their pilot is infected. When the pilot starts attacking them, Nick is forced to kill him causing the chopper to crash into a bayou.
Swamp Fever
The gang finds dead military paratroopers, a crashed airplane, and isolated swamp settlements that had resisted the infected but were eventually overtaken while making their way through the wetlands. After spending the morning fighting through the swamp, the group arrives at a plantation estate and make radio contact with Virgil, a Cajun boat captain who can help them, however, his boat begins to run low on diesel fuel on the way to New Orleans.
Hard Rain
Virgil drops off the survivor in a dock near a burger chain restaurant. They make their way through an an abandoned and Witch infested sugarcane mill while the rain pours down. They eventually reach the gas station and get the diesel fuel for Virgil's boat. Heading back they didn't have anything to signal the boat, although they managed to light up the neon sign of the burger chain restaurant to signal Virgil.
The Parish
Virgil says his farewell to the four as they reach New Orleans, where the military appears to be evacuating civilians across a bridge. On the way there they find that the city is overrun with zombies and the military is preparing to leave the city. While trying to reach the bridge the survivors experience bombing from the military but they managed to contact the military on the other side of the bridge. Based on their conversation, the military pilots believe the survivors are carriers of the infection (a carrier is when someone is infected but doesn't show symptoms and can still infect other people) just like the original Left 4 Dead survivors. After securing their rescue helicopter, the survivors lower and cross the bridge, escaping on the helicopter just as the bridge is destroyed.
Live, Laugh, Love Left 4 Dead 2
I
have been playing Left 4 Dead 2 since I was 5 years old so it holds a
special place in my heart. As a kid, I remember being always scared
while playing this game especially because of the Witch's theme,
although that didn't stop me from completing the whole game. I was
always thrilled to play Left 4 Dead 2 nonstop almost everyday. Now that
I'm a teenager I can appreciate the different aspects of the game like
the AI bots whenever I'm playing alone, the sound design for everything
in the game especially the hordes and special infected, my favorite
theme of course is the Tank's theme because it truly makes it feel like a
boss fight and gives me thrills while still having fun. The survivors have some of the best personalities I've seen from any other games I've played,
they have some funny moments on due to their dialogues. I have played
this game with friends in computer shops whether it was versus mode or
campaign, both are fun and competitive enough. The best thing about the
game is the modding community, I truly appreciate Valve for letting
people to mod the game as it can continue to live on by people making
contents for it. I have played some custom campaigns myself and I can
say that the Left 4 Dead community did not disappoint by giving other
players quality content. To
put it simply, Left 4 Dead 2 is a versatile game that makes people with ages
ranging from teen to adult enjoy with one of the most interactive
gameplay there is, and that's what makes me play this game over and over again, up to this day.
That game is fun to play with friends
ReplyDeleteIt is, that's why it's my favorite game.
DeleteYour work is really good but I just noticed that the last paragraph seems to be indented while the previous ones are not.
ReplyDeleteFixed. Thank you for mentioning it.
Deleteyo dude, we should play sometimes!
ReplyDeleteWe should, if only I have some free time.
DeleteIt's been a long time since I played this game and it's funny how's that until now I didn't get to know this such informations in the game.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't know some not until I researched about it.
DeleteWow, thanks for the information about that game! And because of this I suddenly remember myself playing this game with my friends before
ReplyDeleteIt truly is amazing how a simple game give us such memories.
Delete