Left 4 Dead 2 video game review

Format: Xbox 360 (tested), PC
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: Out now
Score: 9/10

"They're coming!" yells Coach. Like we didn't already know. I can hear them above us as Rochelle and I hit the second landing in the shopping mall. They're bursting through vents and store windows, snarling and screaming as they home in on the sound of our footsteps clanking against the stairwell. My palms are wet, my lips are dry. Any second we're going to be surrounded by infected and Lord only knows what else is on the way. I crank a round into the breach of the auto-shotgun and get ready for the inevitable...

Perhaps reaffirming the hold that the undead has on gamers, the arrival of Left 4 Dead 2 within a year of its predecessor has prompted wry criticism from some quarters as well as a full blown boycott from others. One of the main complaints is the game doesn't really offer any major advances on the original's main gameplay experience. There's a kernel of truth in that, but this shouldn't detract from the fact that Left 4 Dead 2 is one of the best games of 2009. A year on from its first zombie shooter, Valve has released a title that tops its predecessor in nearly every way (the shock of 'the new' notwithstanding).

I cut down on the seething mass of infected as Rochelle lobs a jerrycan of gas down three floors into the food court. Across from us on a raised platform, Ellis has opened up with a machine gun. Rochelle is barely audible over the din of gunfire, but I don’t need to hear what she’s saying to know we’re in trouble. Down below us, the floor starts to rumble, and the familiar bellow of a Tank echoes through the mall. I’m going to need a bigger gun…

Valve has wisely kept everything that made Left 4 Dead so enjoyable and then built on its foundations; Left 4 Dead 2 has more modes, more maps, more guns, more ammo and most important of all, more zombies. The main campaign introduces players to four new characters – Rochelle (a former news reporter), Nick (a shady be-suited type), Coach (a burly older man) and Ellis (a baseball cap wearing hick) – and sets all of the action in the USA's deep south. Valve, once again, has made the zombie filled environments seem both fraught with tension and completely plausible while weaving in a great deal of humour. Players will learn more about the causes of the apocalypse in Left 4 Dead 2, but Valve's commitment to not allowing plot details to intrude too much on the action remains resolute. The five new levels in the campaign are shot through with US southern flavour and the players' adventures will take them from Savannah through to New Orleans, the city of mystery and voodoo. Once again, each level contains scripted events and most of them are virtually guaranteed to draw the attention of the zombie Horde. However, the design of a couple of set pieces offer new spins on this mechanic; one involves running along the tracks of a roller-coaster, while another sees players hurtling through a train yard to shut off an alarm. There are also a couple of levels where the time of day or the weather can play a part.

Coach scores a direct hit on the Tank with a bile bomb and the Horde switches targets. About time too. I'm down to my last three shells and was beginning to think that big freak would never go down. As the infected gouge away at their ugly big brother, I grab some fresh cartridges off the pile. Rochelle's patching up Ellis – he took the worst of it – and Coach yells at me to start using the jerrycans to fill up the car parked in the food court. For some reason, I remember Ellis saying this purple monstrosity used to belong to some famous hick driver. Then I hear a feral howling off to my left. I just have time to see the gigantic fist of a Charger close around my torso, pinning my arms to my side. And then I'm in for the ride...

The types of zombies the players will run into are more varied. While Tanks, Witches, Hunters, Boomers and Smokers all make a return from the first game, Left 4 Dead 2 introduces the survivors to three new special infected. The Charger is a lopsided, faster version of the Tank (fortunately easier to kill) whose primary function is to rush in among the players and send them flying like bowling pins. The Charger is also able to grab a survivor in its oversized hand and slam them repeatedly against the nearest hard surface until they're dead. The Spitter secretes a pool of acidic phlegm that can incapacitate any players that don't immediately take evasive action. The Jockey is an irritating, hunchbacked creature who leaps onto the head and shoulders of the nearest survivor and then steers them towards the nearest Horde zombies, while raking away at their face. The zombie Horde also contains a couple of newly augmented members; players will run into zombies wearing police riot gear (who are to harder to kill), radiation suits and then there are the Swamp Men, undead who can move at preternatural speeds through water.

Luckily players also have a larger variety of weapons this time around; aside from all the firearms that appeared in Left 4 Dead, they'll come across new and bigger SMGs, machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles and grenade launchers. They can also augment these guns with laser-sights, explosive ammo or incendiary rounds. There's also a new thrown projectile, the bile bomb, which covers whoever it hits in Boomer bile and makes them the prime target every zombie in the area. Players are also able to wield mêlée weapons, and they'll find plenty lying around from flying pans to guitars to cricket bats to machetes. There's also a chainsaw – and the sheer delight in using this on an attacking group of undead cannot be overstated. Finally, there's a couple of items which players can use to heal themselves; an adrenalin shot can give a brief boost to both health and movement, and the defibrillator can revive dead team-mates - provided you can find their bodies.

My back feels broken. My bones feel bruised. Every part of my body aches and it hurts to breath. I prise the Charger's lifeless fingers from around my ribs and pull myself up on one arm. Infected are bearing down on me as I open fire with a pistol. I count three who drop but there are too many behind them. My gun clicks empty. A boot connects with my face. Then another. Then another. It's all going dark. I can't see. I hear a car's ignition sputter and then an engine roars to life. I can hear Ellis yelling my name. I scream at him and the others to get out of here. My eyes start to close involuntarily...

It's just as well that the players have an increased arsenal and first aids kit, because the AI director is far more merciless in Left 4 Dead 2. Crescendo events notwithstanding, players will find the Horde harder to deal with than before and the AI director can sometimes conjure up more than one or two special infected at any given point. In fact, the new game's AI director seems generally more erratic in its approach and the arrival of the Horde seems less geared towards the how the players are tackling the different levels this time around. Furthermore the overall difficulty of the game is far greater than that of its predecessor – we have battled to complete a level on Normal setting so we can only imagine what the game will be like on Expert. For veterans and experts, the game offers another kink in the Realism setting. This makes all the infected harder to kill, removes blue halos from around companions and white halos from around weapons and aid, forcing players to scrounge more.

Players can take on the campaign in single player mode (although why they'd want to is anyone's guess), as part of a four-person party or in versus mode, where they can play as the survivors or infected. Versus mode is just as enjoyable as it was in the past and the new infected offer a host of strategic possibilities for players who side with the zombies. Using a Spitter to cover a survivor who has been trussed up by a Smoker is quite satisfying, as is mounting a player with a Jockey and then steering them into the path of a Charger. There's also a Survival mode, in which players have to survive wave after wave of infected until they eventually die, and Scavenge mode which allows for a short session of either co-op or versus play based around accomplishing some sort of goal – filling a generator with petrol while fending off zombies, for example.

A body fall across my chest. Somewhere above the crashing sound in my head I can hear a buzzing noise. I open one eye and see the blades of a chainsaw slash through the pack of infected standing above me. Ellis is there, grinning from ear to ear. Rochelle appears at his elbow and she hands me a syringe of adrenalin. I plunge it into my chest without thinking. The pair of them help me to my feet and we hobble towards the car. More infected are pouring into the food court as Ellis shoves me into the back seat and slams the door behind me. He has the passenger door half closed as Coach guns the engine and the car lurches forward. We plough through the mall's doors, sending infected and glass splinters flying in every direction. We bounce down the steps and punch it through the parking lot. The last thing on my mind before I pass out is that they didn't leave me. I just met these guys and they didn't leave me. If that don't beat all...

Of course, the best reason to play Left 4 Dead 2 is that no other shooter of recent memory can inspire the same level of camaraderie in players, regardless of whether they're meeting online for the first time or lifelong mates. It's true that the multiplayer modes of games in the Call Of Duty, Gears Of War and Halo series offer varying degrees of appeal. However, the Left 4 Dead series' trump card over every single other shooter in the current market is the AI director, and the unforgiving emphasis it places on making the players act as a team. Whether they begin the game as friends or not, players soon discover that if they don't act together as a unit they will all die. Nearly every other aspect of the game (from the absence of plot to the paucity of ammo and health caches) informs and adds to this co-operative experience. So much so, in fact, that we're tempted to suggest that the game simply isn't worth buying unless you have the ability to play it online. The multiplayer isn't just a superb co-op experience, it's also the chief reason Left 4 Dead 2 (and 1) are so infinitely replayable; players create their own stories with every replay of the campaign. Until a group of complete strangers has risked life and limb to save you from a pack of attacking zombies, you simply haven't experienced the best this game has to offer.

Left 4 Dead 2 is easily one of the better games of this year to be sure; Valve has created a more robust version of its predecessor by offering a ton of new content while not losing sight of everything that made Left 4 Dead a sure-fire hit last year. The zombie apocalypse has never looked more appealing.