[Samon]

First impressions? Shrug. A tilt of the head. Hrm. It’s not bad; I didn’t hate it – far from – and I will certainly be playing the game on release, but I’m not entirely sure I was particularly enjoying myself all that much (at least for the most part). Those that held fears of it being expansionist in nature will find justification here in this brief demo sojourn, and I can’t say I blame them. It is, after all, Left-4-Dead. We’re operating within the same framework – a framework built on an existing, unaltered foundation. But we already knew that. It was just a case of expanding that framework, and for the most part, Left-4-Dead 2 does it very well. Not perfectly, and not really in any special way, but very well all the same.

Initially, I wasn’t in any way taken with the apocalyptic, zombie-ridden New Orleans that Valve had created. It was, as one player commented, almost sterile, and the daylight ambience was instantly targeted as the corrupter. I was inclined to agree. This lukewarm impression did not last long, however – as I grew accustomed to the surroundings, I felt myself falling into the decadence of this nightmarish district, the palpable morning heat growing as we progressed. Toward the end, the vistas start to open up, revealing the extent of the devastation – nothing at all new to L4D, but I found it all the more involving than previously. Distance had crept up behind me, something that the original never quite accomplished.

I really did intend to write more, but I am exhausted. Generally, I wasn’t too impressed with the gameplay as a whole; the weapons are intentionally clunky, but I find it unpleasant, and this impacts my enjoyment of the combat quite considerably. The only new infected to possess any panache would be the Charger – it’s a genuinely fine creation. I would probably go so far as to call the demo average if it wasn’t for the excellent finale: the reversal of the previous gameplay mechanic, and the idea of forward progress as opposed to the standstill, works, in every way. Jolly good fun.

-New characters are a bunch of clowns.