Left 4 Dead 2 - way better than the original

[Pratt]

There. I said it.

Two things of note:

#1 The demo for this game gave no real indication of what this game was like.
#2 After playing L4D2 for a couple of hours, its not difficult to see why L4D did not morph into L4D2. The games really do feel (and look) markedly different. Yeah, there are a lot of basic gameplay mechanics that will be familiar, but overall the game is just way different.

I still feel that the characters in this game aren't as likeable as the first.

There are a lot of items/characters in the game. However, it does force you to adopt a different strategy than the first. For example, as infected you're not going to have BOOMER, SMOKER, HUNTER, HUNTER or SMOKER, HUNTER, HUNTER, HUNTER every time (as a matter of fact, so far I have yet to see two of the same special at the same time in versus). You seem to have a unique combination of 4 out of BOOMER, SMOKER, HUNTER, SPITTER, CHARGER, JOCKEY (+TANK). Learning to play the different combinations in each circumstance could be interesting.

The maps are better. Oh so much better. Not that they were bad in L4D, but some of these maps are just plain gorgeous. I suppose taking away total darkness in each map kind of forces that situation. Quite a large percentage of the maps have their own objectives, and some of them are quite amusing (I won't spoil that any further).

Suffice to say, my first impressions of the real game are very good. ;]

[KillerPX]

I'm going to have to agree.. I was fortunate enough to try it out on a friend's account to see if they made it any better. Originally in L4D, and to answer your question in another post, Pratt, I thought infected characters were a little clunky to play.. the precision just wasn't there. It seems like it's pretty smooth now. I'll most likely pick this up around Christmas.

[Pratt]

Awesome. Let me know if and when you get it. Taking two weeks off in December and going to be down for lots and lots of gaming.