I remember back when everyone was all anti-L4D2 when it was first announced, and then people were later excited because of all the features valve promised sounded promising. And it did. One thing that caught my attention was that they promised actual dynamic paths that changes with each playthrough, meaning every time you play a campaign it won't the same, unlike the first L4D.
But enough about that, I should get to reviewing, and this is my first review so whoopie. I just wanted to fill up game reviews for this site.
I won't lie when I say this: Out of the 2 games, L4D2 is the better product than the other game overall. L4D was a great fun teamwork game that puts 4 survivors in a zombie apocalypse and has to survive through various campaign. L4D2 is like the first game with some additional icing on the cake. Some cool features Valve has added includes melee weapons, more special infected, actual campaign connection, some neat weapons, and a finale that actually gets you moving instead of camping in one spot. Despite the game having glitches here and there, the gameplay is smooth for the most part.
Since there isn't much of a "story" in this game, I won't talk about the story. But what makes this campaign different from the first one is that in L4D2, the survivors actually meet for the first time, which opens the door for some character development, and again, while the game lacks any real story, some development is noticeable, though its not much. Therefore, the characters in 2 feel more "real" than the 1st one, since in L4D, the four survivors already happen to know each other without any real reason.
But does that mean that I love the L4D2 cast more than the first? Not really. Francis, Bill, and even Louis added some humor to the game which is supposedly set in a dark post-apocolypse world. The only one I hated in 1 was Zoey *puts flame shield up* who IMO lacked any character. The cast in 2 however, are not as great as 1 IMO. Ellis' stories are great, but sometimes his lines makes me want to rip my ears off (not really). Coach and Nick were okay, but they didn't give me that feeling Bill and Francis did. (no homo). Rochelle, in my opinion, had more character than Zoey so thats a plus. Besides the main cast, there are NPCs like Virgil who I think should have been playable.
Overall though, I prefer the first one over the second game. And this is purely opinion but the atmosphere in one was more dark and felt more like a post-apocalypse world. In two, they introduced daylight, which honestly kills the whole point of a zombie game. Even Half LIfe had some spooky stage that felt more like a L4D stage, and the opposite is true for L4D2: Dead Center and The Parish felt too much like Half Life with more zombies.
With me complimenting the gameplay and the characters, you would think I would have given this game a much higher score, but why did I give it a meh? Well to be honest, Its more like in between Good and Meh. Francis you need to add more ratings.
Well for starters, they lied about the dynamic pathing. Every single playthrough feels the damn same. There is no real change. The only "change" is that one part in Dead Center 3 before the Crescendo event where you either go through the toy shop, or open the emergency door at the very bottom of the mall. With 6 short campaigns, there really isn't much replay value here, unless you play versus, but even then, theres that repetition in that mode.
Secondly, theres the water, a new feature in 2. While its great they added it so survivors can pick which way to go (through the water or over), whats the point in adding this feature if its not in Versus, which is what practically everyone plays in L4D2.
Really, the only thing features I didn't mind was the weather (which could have only been for cosmetic purpose, as its not really game breaking), and Scavenge mode, which is pretty fun and different from the other modes.
Conclusion: Keep in mind that L4D was in development for 3 years. L4D2 development started after the first, so one year. See its no wonder L4D2 is not as great as it should have been. It had potential, yes, but Valve ultimately blew it by rushing it and adding some pointless features. L4D2 feels like a rushed version of L4D, it feels like a beta with all the glitches and all. In fact L4D2 should have been called L4D2Beta and release the full thing in a few years.
Also I should mention the shitty so-called Left 4 Dead 2 community. Rages and whinings every where.
That reminds me, HL Ep 3 has been in development for like what, more than 3 years? Hopefully we will get a godly HL game that surpasses the original HL2 : )
More of a disappointment than bad
You countered almost every single one of your points.