I don’t want to repeat everything I said in my review of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, but there’s a lot to talk about.
The weather effects in the Hard Rain campaign are quite well done, and the hotel fire at the beginning of the first campaign actually makes you feel like you’re in a hotel fire – you feel the urge to run through as fast as you can to escape the flames, though they don’t actually ever cut off your path (at least not that I could tell).
There are two types of ammo that you can deploy: explosive, which stumbles special infected, and incendiary, which sets things on fire. That’s the fun one 🙂
There are also laser sight upgrades, which increase your weapon’s accuracy. They only apply to your currently equipped primary weapon, so if you change weapons you lose the upgrade.
As for the Infected, there are obviously the new Specials that I mentioned before – the Spitter, the Jockey, and the Charger – but there’s also a female version of the Boomer. I haven’t confirmed this, but the word on the street is that the female Boomer can move while she, uh, vomits at you. (She’s also supposedly louder, making her easier to locate.)
I mentioned the armored CEDA agents when I talked about the demo; there are also clowns (who make noise and attract more common infected), there are mudders (who crouch low to the ground and like to hide in muddy water), and there are guys in fireproof suits.
The new Scavenge game mode is extremely fun, and Survival and Versus are still just as awesome; Realism mode is extremely involving. I was so immersed that I actually ducked in my chair when a Tank threw a chunk of concrete at me.
My only gripe thus far is that today when I logged on, my achievements had been reset (I had 20-some already). It’s not too big a deal, but I guess that’s what happens during launch week. Maybe there were some cheaters and Valve couldn’t tell who had cheated and who couldn’t. I have confirmed that the reset was widespread, but I don’t know if it was global.
I’m going to echo Ars Technica’s review – Left 4 Dead 2 is well worth the money.