Ramblings of a Moron: Left 4 Dead 2

Disclaimer

"Ramblings of a Moron" is a review series done by WSGF member Cynagen. While reviews from other sites focus on extensive play and detailed postmortem analysis, "Ramblings of a Moron" is a first impression "stream of consciousness" review. The grammar isn't perfect, and the prose can sometimes be disjointed, but these are the first impressions of a seasoned WSGF Insider. For more information, and for more Ramblings, see the complete list of Cynagen's offerings.

The Rambling

"Hey Coach, maybe the rescue helicopter is made of chocolate." This is only a sample of the dry humorless wit that L4D2 drips with, and you get to sample it before you're even to the main menu. The selection of new special infected, uncommon infected, and melee weapons add little to this now well-flogged, dead horse.

Once again, you return to the world of which has all but ended entirely, you, a survivor of the mutation that has afflicted so many, many, maaaannnny, others. There's one thing this game is never without, and that is a compliment of zombies, unless you play on easy. The new special infected, while you see more of them, don't exactly inflict the same type of fear as the originals, which have now been given the shaft and relinquished to the dark recesses from whence they came. The uncommon infected, like the armored infected SWAT personnel are actually a treat, as it forces you to deal with zombie hordes just a bit differently depending on the uncommons in the group.

Returning to my opening comments, the poor dialog, and dry humorless wit, is in my opinion, a huge downfall. The comic relief you get from hearing Francis say he hates something, simply because it's a deterrent to his surviving, was a nice uplifting laugh in an otherwise maelstrom of zombie shit flying/binding/dragging/puking/smashing/clawing at you. There is an upside to not having so much comic relief... The walk to granny's house is now relatively easy as pie. On normal, with a group of 3 random public players, we managed to run through the complete Parish storyline in just under 40 minutes, with loading screens and having to restart the last map.

There's a reason I say this is a well-flogged, dead horse of a game. There's nothing to it, it's L4D Junior Edition. Even if you're a die-hard L4D fan like myself, you will be sorely disappointed in this title.

P.S. I abstained from using the demo to give this review and waited till I got some serious face-time with the full version, and well... it didn't help it score much better.

Graphics: 9/10 - Models for original specials are redone nicely, new special and uncommons also look good, levels are indeed detailed.
Audio: 5/10 - I don't like the southern touch to the music so much, and the music department is pretty empty.
Action: 8/10 - Welcome to the Jungle, we got fun and games!
Re-playability: 8/10 - The new AI Director 2.0 does change things up quite a bit on multiple fronts.
Value to Cost: 7/10 - This really should have been an expansion to the original.
Overall Rating: 74% - ... Let's just say this, there's a lot of room for improvement.
Buy? Try It.