Oh, would you look at that!: 01/06/12

Okay, so finally here's my take on my current favorite Xbox 360 game. Left 4 Dead 2 is much like the first, but with many new things such as game modes, maps, characters, items, weapons, and infected. It's easy to get attached to the new survivors Nick, Ellis, Rochelle, and Coach. The same goes for the new infected known as the Charger, Jockey, Spitter, and they even added a lady Boomer. So many new things, and improvements make this game more enjoyable than the last Left 4 Dead. Which is one of the reasons I like this one more.

This time the zombie apocalypse takes place in Savannah, Georgia. The first campaign is called "The Parish", where you are dropped off from the boat to the starting safe area. You have to make it through all 5 levels, and the finale on this one is intense. It's on a damaged bridge with lots of cars, and don't forget you have to fight a tank on it. Dark Carnival is a popular campaign, which people tend to always be playing. It starts on a highway with cars everywhere, as you make you way towards a motel. Then you slide down a big hill through a valley, then up another hill leading to the safe room. The other 4 levels in this campaign all take place in the "Dark Carnival". Leading up to the finale which is one of my personal favorites, because it's on the concert stage where the "Midnight Riders" perform. You must start the stage pyrotechnics, then proceed to fight off the horde until tank comes. After the second tank is defeated, the rescue helicopter comes to take the remaining survivors to safety. I love how the "Midnight Riders"(fictional L4D2 rock band) songs plays during the tank fight and all the pandemonium and all the madness makes it that much more intense.

All of the special infected from L4D1 are still there too, but they have an updated appearance. The Spitter is basically an anti-camper, designed to spit on a good sized portion of the ground, causing survivors standing in it to take damage . The longer they stand in it, the faster their health drops. Spitting upon a gas can will cause it to go up in flames, and when she dies a small patch of damaging spit is left in that spot. The jockey likes to hop around, and I say hop as in jump meaning, not pounce like the hunter does. When he lands on someones back, he can take partial control over the survivor meaning the survivor can fight against the direction they're being taken in. The jockey is especially useful when the survivors are near a ledge, as they can be taken off them by the jockey. Most of the time they will hang on the ledge until they either die or are saved. Sometimes they can be taken off the ledge completely to their death or a fall the will "break their ankles" as I call it, because it makes a bone cracking sound when they land. Crouch and look up while walking forward to do the jockey dance. I mean seriously look how funny the jockey looks when you do this lol. The last new infected is the Charger, my favorite new infected. He looks like a hillbilly zombie with a giant right arm, and a wittle teenie tiny tyrannosaurus left arm. With his big arm he charges at the survivors and bowls through them with great force, causing them to fly up into the air(sometime to their death if you knock them into to an area where they will fall further), and carry the target survivor away from the rest. Finally, he pounds them into the ground chipping away a good chunk of health each hit. He also has the strongest punch/scratch next to the tank. Making him good for punching down survivors with relatively low health. He has the most health besides the tank and witch, making him harder to take down. The most incredible thing about the charger is his ability to instant kill survivors. If he charges someone into the water or off a tall building like in the no mercy campaign, then that survivor is dead. If you charge someone off a high up ledge you can instantly incapacitate them, which is also useful.

Uncommon regular infected are introduced in this game. There's the new hazmat wearing zombies, which are fire proof and sometimes drop bile bombs. Another new uncommon is the clown who lures nearby infected toward it. The riot infected wears riot gear making it almost impossible to kill from the front, and they sometimes drop night stick melee weapons. Mud men are probably the most annoying uncommons, because they can run at you fast on all fours, even faster in water, and when they attack mud splatters on your screen making it harder to see. The worker infected wear ear protection, hardhats, and reflective vests making them more resistant to melee attacks and immune to being drawn towards a pipe bomb. An extremely rare uncommon can spawn on the finale of Dead Center, and you are very lucky if you ever see one, cause I never have. =[ It's the Jimmy Gibbs Junior zombie. He is immune to being lured by a pipe bomb or bile, fire, can splatter oil in your face, and on top of all that he has lots of health. There is only one type of uncommon infected in each campaign respectively.

New items include the adrenaline shot, defibrillator unit, bile bomb, incendiary ammo, explosive ammo, and laser sights. The adrenaline shot allows you to perform various actions such as reviving, healing, or pouring a gas can in half the time it would normally take. It also gives you a speed boost, allowing you to rush through a horde of zombies with ease. The defib shouldn't need an explanation, but it revives dead survivors at half their health. A new interesting item added, was the bile bomb. You can throw it anywhere on the ground, or at an infected, but not at a team mate survivor(lol). This summons a horde to attack whatever was biled, even if was just at the ground. A good thing to remember is to NEVER throw bile after being boomed on. It does NOT help get the horde away from you, as it will only make the horde more annoying. Incendiary ammo and explosive ammo are self explanatory. When these are picked up, they make you drop your health pack, because they are carried in the same slot. You can carry it through the level, saving it for the time when you need it most. When deployed, the other survivors can grab from the special ammo once, where it is loaded right away into their main weapon. Then there's the laser sight, which adds a laser with the red dot pointing at the center of your cross hair. This makes your main weapon more accurate, UNLESS you are using a type of shotgun in which case it DOES NOTHING. All of these can be found throughout the levels, but are not guaranteed to be there.

A few new weapons are brought into this game to add more variety and stability to L4D. But the BIGGEST ADDITION to the weapons, is the inclusion of MELEE weapons(yay). The classic tier 1 weapons (uzi, pump shotgun, and hunting rifle) and tier 2 weapons (auto shotgun and m-16) return in this game. Along with some new tier 1 weapons including the chrome pump shotgun and the silenced uzi. Not really much difference from their counter parts here. The new tier two weapons will be recognized by most people. The AK-47 is a favorite among most players, with its balanced stats including a 40 mag and a 360 total capacity. There's the combat rifle(or scar as some people call it), which shoots in bursts of 3 and takes FOREVER to reload with its 60 mag capacity and 360 total. In the shotgun department you have the TIGHTEST spread shotgun, the combat shotgun with its 10 shell capacity and 90 total capacity. The tactical shotgun, or auto shotgun as it was known in L4D, has a wider spread shot with the same capacity as the combat shotgun. If you like sniping then you'll definitely want to try out the sniper rifle. It kills all common infected in one shot, is extremely accurate, and has a 30 mag size with 180 total capacity. I still like the hunting rifle better though. You still get your pistol, along with the ability to duel wield another pistol. However, a new sidearm with great accuracy was added to this game called the magnum. In the gun shop it's called the "Desert Cobra" (I call it the Dobra). This side arm is incredible with its 8 mag, and UNLIMITED AMMO. It can't be duel wielded, but it doesn't need to since its powerful enough to kill any commons in one shot. Even more advantageous is the fact that it's rate of fire and accuracy DON'T decrease while incapacitated, enabling you to cover teammates more effectively from the ground. If you like the unlimited factor, then you're going to love MELEE WEAPONS. The melee weapons available are the axe, baseball bat, cricket bat, crowbar, guitar, frying pan, katana, machete, and night stick. You can beat zombies to death forever with blunt objects, or you could hack/slash their appendages. Which ever one sounds better to you, personally my favorite melee weapon is the crowbar, since I find it easier to one hit kill special infected with it, especially the charger(which is an achievement). They all can one hit kill commons and most special infected, but some have faster swing rates or different arcs of swinging. Finally, there are two special weapons, with limited ammo since they are so powerful. The chainsaw is a special melee weapon you can find lying around sometimes. It has a limited supply of gas that will eventually run out after awhile(then its dropped for a pistol), but it does the most damage and has the fastest rate of attack out of any melee weapon. Plus it shreds the zombies to bits and splashes your screen with blood. Melee weapons make it so much easier to fight off horde. Then there's the grenade launcher, which fires explosive grenades where ever you shoot. It only holds one grenade at a time and has 30 nonrefillable ammo. Explosions cause all infected within its range to stumble. It's always fun to blast zombies to pieces.

Games modes from the last game are back Single player(play with dumb bots), Campaign(best when played online with friends), Survival(gets boring quick), and Versus(best online multiplayer mode). Along with the new game modes Scavenge and Realism. Scavenge is a big reason I got Left 4 Dead 2, because I got so excited over hearing about a new competitive mode. It did NOT disappoint, while some(mainly versus players) complain scavenge is boring it's not. In Scavenge you must fill the generator(or Jimmy Gibbs Junior's race car if you are playing Mall Atrium) with gas cans which you collect throughout the area of the map the game is set in. It is unknown why you are filling these up with gas cans, but hey it's lots of fun. A game of Scavenge can be 1, 3, or 5 rounds long. In each round you get to play as survivors then infected to try and pour more gas cans than the other team did. If a tie occurs such as both teams collecting all the cans, then whichever team got them in the fastest wins. There are 16 cans in total scattered within the level, and they are always placed in the same spot so it's useful to memorize where they are. The starting safe area is always filled with a bunch of items like health, throwables, and weapons. There is a period of 30 seconds at the beginning of each round that the survivors have to get ready before the round actually starts. You are racing against the clock, as there is a time limit starting when you leave the safe area starting at 1 minute 30 seconds. 20 seconds are added to clock with each gas can that you pour into the generator. The goal of the infected is to try and stop you from gathering all of the cans, so they will stop at nothing to stop you from putting the cans in. The Spitter can spit on your cans and after a few seconds it will catch on fire, so WATCH THOSE CANS. Her spit also interrupts the action of pouring a can(unless you're on adrenaline), so just jump on the generator and pour so that the spit won't touch you. When the clock runs out or your whole team is incapacitated, then it's game over. Unless someone is holding a can, which means the game goes into overtime. While in overtime someone must always be holding a can or else the second no one is holding it's over. This requires to most team cooperation, since you must coordinate who will hold and who will shoot. Don't let the infected get you when you're the last one hold the can, do whatever you can to keep from being caught. Even if that means running around the level avoiding everything. To give your teammates enough time to get more gas cans if needed. Scavenge matches get more intense if you play a map such as the rooftop on the campaign No Mercy where there are even more cans to collect (21 in all), with the possibility of being charged off the building as the cans are on lower parts of the roof top where you are vulnerable to get charged off the building to your death. The DLC (DownLoadableContent) "Sacrifice" maps all have more than 16 gas cans to collect. Brick Factory has the most with 25 cans. Scavenge takes the most team work out of any other competitive game mode on L4D2, because you have two elements against you the clock and the infected. Then there's Realism which is just like campaign, but with without the glowing outlines around everything(communication is key), only head shots are one hit kills, witches kill you in one hit, witch CAN NOT be cr0wned(one shot killed),and you don't respawn in a closet if you die. Increasing the difficulty makes more horde, stronger infected, and more friendly fire basically. Playing Realism on Expert is about as difficult as it get, it's even an achievement. If you have "The Passing DLC" then you get the passing campaign, which includes the new game modes Mutation and Realism Versus. Mutations are alterations on a game mode such as Realism Versus combining Realism with Versus. This was the first mutation, and everyone liked it so much it was voted into being made into a permanent game mode. The mutation changes every 2 weeks. Sometimes you get to vote on which one you want. Some past mutations include TAAANNNKKK!(Versus with 4 tanks), Hunting Party(campaign with only hunters), Headshot!(only headshots kill), Versus Survival(Versus + Survival), Gib Fest (Campaign with infinite ammo M-60s[new weapons]), Follow the Liter(gas cans appear one at a time in a random order), and CONFOGL(super competitive mode with the favor balanced toward the infected side). Well, that about wraps things up. If you seriously read all of that I congratulate you. You must seriously wanted to know what I thought about Left 4 Dead 2. Well, now you know why it is my favorite Xbox 360 game, and why Scavenge is my favorite mode! Get your 4 and take me and my team on in scavenge. =]

9/10