Story wise it's very similar to the original with four survivors making their way through hordes of bullet fodder. We join them shortly after the last rescue helicopter from town dusts off, leaving them alone on a hotel roof. Like any good zombie movie they decide to move onto the shopping mall and it goes downhill from there, leaving just teamwork and a sharp aim to ensure you all get to the end in one piece. The team seems more fleshed with new characters Nick, Rochelle, Coach and Ellis chatting through the game offering snippets of story and advice.

 

 

There are five new scenarios to play through alone or with three others. Dead Center takes you through a shopping mall, Dark Carnival is a huge amusement park with a rollercoaster and zombie filled tunnel of love, Swamp Fever and Hard Rain are based outside which is even more unnerving than close quarters fighting indoors as it relies on the elements of each environment and The Parish involves a huge run across a decaying bridge. Each level is split into chapters, some are just to get from one safe house to the next whilst others have a mini task. In the mall you open a door that sets off an alarm, you then have to run up three floors with zombies going nuts for you. Later in the mall you also need to fill a cars tank with petrol, running around grabbing canisters and refueling whilst fighting hordes and the occasional tank. The run the gauntlet style events are a great new challenge as before you could bed down but now you have to move as a team to complete the objective. The levels play a lot more on the destruction caused by the zombies with raging fires, smoke filled rooms and buildings in complete darkness where your torch is the only light in the room, watching the zombies eyes glowing in the torch light is heart-pumping stuff. The maps are more maze-like than before, causing you to run down plenty of dead-ends and in circles until you get your bearings. This can be annoying but thankfully on occasion a team member will say "this way" or "up here", if not you can tell where you have been by the trail of the dead you leave behind.

 

Versus is also back with the 4vs4 play, each team having a go at the new and old zombies before swapping around for each chapter and the survival mode that was a late add-on to the original makes a return. An all new scavenge mode is another multiplayer gem where you take turns collecting fuel canisters to fill a generator, with the opposing team trying anything to stop you.

 

The zombies come in loads of new flavours, the common undead are more varied in looks and there are even a few location specific zombies like bog monsters and clowns and cops but it's the specials that cause the real damage. The Tank, Hunter, Boomer and Smoker are mainly the same with the Witch walking around this time, waiting for you to disturb her nerve jangling cries. New zombies include the Jockey who will jump on your head and lead you away from the team, the Charger who just runs into you all and starts pummeling you into the floor and the Spitter who is closely related to the Smoker but this time spits acid onto the floor.

 

The real star of the game is the AI Director, with it being even more evil than before. Having more specials to play with it is now spoilt for choice on how to punish the player and hits you with some serious combos that can split and wipe out the team in seconds. The difficulty of the game is very hard, I even had to go from normal to easy to complete one level as waiting for the rescue chopper to arrive at a music stadium took too long and we all got battered regularly. For the sadistic among us there is the realism mode, here you lose all HUD hints like location of weapons and team members, relying on communication alone, oh yeah and the zombies are even tougher with head shots being the only real way to dispose of them.

 

Even though only a year has passed the game does look different, it's still dark and gloomy but has more polished edges. The blood has also been given a retool with loads of blood splatters especially with the fire axe and chainsaw with each chop causing gore to spray into your face and impair your view.

 

 

The weapons have had an overhaul, again looking much better plus the addition of grenade launchers and new primary weapons which can be upgraded with fire and explosive ammunition and laser sights to improve aim. The dual pistols make a return with unlimited ammo however a choice is to be made as you can trade for melee weapons like a samurai sword, crowbar, chainsaw, frying-pan and a Shaun of the Dead style cricket bat. The melee weapons really change how you play as you are now able to confidently walk into oncoming hordes swinging these weapons around rather than rely on the weak push (which is still there) when surrounded. The health packs and pills also have a choice to be made as you can alternatively carry an adrenaline shot that ups your speed for a short time or a defibrillator for reviving a downed team member. The pipe-bombs and molotov’s have a cool new addition, Boomer Bile, certain zombies drop these canisters and can be thrown into large groups, just like with the Boomers special move it will attract other zombies and make them attack whoever is covered in its goo.

 

With the huge hype and anticipation of MW2 finally over most gamers can look ahead to other games, L4D2 offers loads of new ideas and really spices up the tried and tested multiplayer game modes. If this is the quality of future games I am more than happy to have this as a yearly release.