A Left 4 Dead 2 cinematic trailer has leaked upon the internets, spotted by Evil Avatar and Shacknews. And you’ll maybe not fall out of your chair in shock to learn: it’s a bit good. It’s below.
Clearly as a leak this isn’t the high quality version Valve would want us to be seeing first, but it’s good enough, and it’s damned funny. And super-gross. Man, the bit with the chainsaw. It’s a clever balance of threatening zombie movie themes and well timed humour. Less slapstick than the TF2 animations, more focused on the severity of the situation and the humour that’s born out of that. Have a look for yourself:
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Needs a scene where they defend a concert stage. Death metal, etc. The option to shoot all those annoying bastards in the first 20 rows – bliss
This just makes me want to preorder L4D2 even more. But I need the money to live at university so I can afford to buy food, booze, rent…. oh sod it, preordering now.
*PRE ORDERS IMMEDIATELY*
Gaaaaah. I’ll end up buying this, I know it, and it makes me sad.
WHERE IS MY INTEGRITY.
@Rudolfo
Perhaps because the idea of debating L4D2 /yet again/ makes those involved crave the sweet release of death.
Man they should just make an animated film and be done with it, that was great, esp the coach with the chainsaw when the door needed closing ;)
I guess I’m the only one that found this incredibly boring and cliche. oO;
To be fair, you tend not to look at cinematic trailers to see how a game plays.
There are gameplay trailers out too, after all.
It’s a game about zombies… isn’t it supposed to be cliche?
That would be because you are jaded / have forgotten how to have fun.
All I’m saying is that’s what I think the case would be with me (I’d be feeling jaded) if that’s what I saw in it (boring and cliche). Not trying to insult you.
What I DID see in it, however, was the potential for awesome fun times killing stuff with friends. It got me really excited. I don’t think it’s stupid to see that, either.
What want to know is why people think these new folks lack character from just a few minutes of video. Surely no one fully appreciated Francis until they knew the one thing he didn’t hate. There are thousands of lines of dialogue for each character people, give it time before deciding.
That is a FANTASTIC idea, seriously.
What a load of toss.
This video left me with a grin on my face.
OK, I officially like the new survivors now. Dibs on the redneck kid.
I was skeptical at first, but in theory, this is exactly what the first game needed to reach true greatness – more variety. But I miss the old cast, and I’m still going to wait for a discount weekend.
Trailer was good until it showed Coach slamming into the car from the explosion which was the exact same setup as Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 3. Kind of jumped the shark at that point but then redeemed itself with the tentacle chainsawening.
what are you talking about?
He’s talking about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKlgIsRIcpM#t=1m23s
I wouldn’t call that jumping the shark, though. I’d call that referencing a famous film that has a bit where a jet plane blows up a bridge while a dude is running along it.
oh it’s gonna be awesome
Remember everyone: (Act surprised.)
I remember. Was hilarious.
That was HOLY EFFING AWESOME.
To those who don’t like it – you are dead to me.
You aren’t, really. I didn’t mean it. Come baaaaack! :(~
The Redneck definitely reminds me of the Scout.
“THIS USED TO BE A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD”
Fuck man, valve are great at cinematics, they really are.
That was superb
Are Valve the new Blizzard? I mean, we haven’t seen the proper intro cinematics of SC2/D3 yet, right?
***Wulf dons his Devil’s Advocate hat, as he’s so prone to do.
I like these survivors much more than the originals, the only one I’m not sure of is Ellis (the one most people seem to like).
Want to know why? Probably not, but I’m going to tell you anyway!
it’s because these characters seem to have a mild amount of depth to them. I bought CO, and the characters always seemed flat, as flat as Alex Vance. Yes, Alex is flat, one dimensional, a caricature of a pancake, a pretty face that people are so taken in by they don’t really notice how dull she is. Eli interested me more than Alex, and it’s something else when you long for an old guy to be tagging along behind you instead of… well, Alex.
Bloody hell, Alex… the Vorts were more–no, I’m getting off track here.
The thing is, the original survivors were likeable, charismatic, and funny, but they were also incredibly shallow, and people I couldn’t stand being around for too long.
Bill: Hi, I’m the army guy, I have a militaristic mindset and a beret! I’m also very succinct! :D
Zoey: Hi, I’m Al–no wait, I’m Alex reskinn–no, they told me not to say that. Uhh… I’m Zoey! :D
Francis: Hi! I’m Francis and I’m a bad leather bear/biker gang parody. You can be too! :D
Louis: Hi… I’m Louis, I’m the only mildly interesting person here, and I probably work in accounting. :[
Gods that’s going to piss people off. Oh well.
The thing is, these new folks seem to have a much more grown up air to them, they seem like people and less one dimensional. I worry about Ellis, but he has this naive kid charm to him that just might work, as long as they don’t just make him a clone of the Scout, he could work out. The Coach, Rochelle, and Nick I’m actually fascinated by. They seem more like actual people, and they have more believable conversations.
“Run or shoot?!” was funny and all, as was “Pills here!”, but the original survivors never endeared themselves to me as real people. They were cardboard cutouts, they said stuff that I couldn’t really deign interesting. Well, except for Louis, Louis made me smile once or twice.
I don’t know, maybe reading The Walking Dead (Kirkman’s comic) has shown me how startlingly marvellous, touching, and even emotionally jarring a story featuring zombies can be. Kirkman can really write, you know? Post Kirkman, the original survivors amount to jack and squat as far as their writing is concerned.
This? This looks like they took a page RIGHT from The Walking Dead, which, consequently, also featured Southerners.
@Wulf, Re: characters deep
I have the doubtfull luck to no speak english. So I have no idea what the characters say. I have to get track with visuals. And the visuals have some problems, and some Glory.
First, visuals are a bit cartonized now. The coach guy looks somewhat like the Heavy of TF2, and the scout Dude looks like the Scout dude of TF2. Maybe the smoothtalking guy in white gear is different. This is the cartonification. The glory thing is the epic size of events. Now we see whole cities, whole bridges exploding, … L4D video is like “28 days latter” and L4D2 is somewhat like “Aliens 2″. If you know what I mean.
Anyway, this is a video, not a game. It seems that everything will change, but the game, that will be the same. I have flashbacks to the Gatopardo. …
I love cinematic trailers, and I refuse to be ashamed of that.
Must. Have. L4D2. Now.
No I haven’t Maybe I should. You kind of know that that is the direction Valve will ultimately take with the series. I suppose it is the next big step.
Nicely done Valve, as always. You really can do top notch animation and epic scenes (the bridge explosion,sweet )
Though, this one was more of a show off , due to the somewhat serious nature of L4D series, and a bit cliched. The humor was subtle not just everywhere, like in the TF movies.
It didn’t bother me.
I have a right L4D2 on now.
And I will have it all day, until I see my borderlands pre load finish then I’ll get all excited about that.
If only that much teamwork would be found in-game.
Somewhat unimpressed, compared to the L4D Trailer/intro movie. That both taught you how to play the game by watching it as well as being very, very intense, much like playing the game was. This was a fairly uninteresting montage, although it does make the new game look like it has a lot more dramatic moments than the first one. Not sure if that is a good thing though, and I still don’t like the idea of all the campaigns being part of one longer story. I’m much happier with the idea of a bunch of “what ifs” for the first L4D. We’ll see how this one works out in campaign structure.
Who is it who says “I have not. Come this far. To die now.” at the end? It didn’t sound like any of the survivors to me, which means it could be a zombie overlord (should such a thing exist).
Also, did anyone notice that it was always the cocky kid who got nabbed by boss zombies?
I think it’s the dude in the Linen suit, I don’t know the names – presumably Ellis?
Nick, the gambler.
as deduced from the long and exhaustive studies on zombie locomotion at universities all over the globe.
Thought that looked pretty cool, cliche isn’t a bad thing when it looks that badass.
I want a helicopter made of chocolate :(
See.. I told you guys that even zombie women have droopy boobs
Just seeing that is worth the price of admission…
Don’t forget that here in Australia we’re getting a toned down version of the game – here’s the trailer for our version.
We are boycotting your demo.
I’m banning Australia
You know I’ve really warmed to these characters now, their facial expressions and behvaiour completely sets them apart from L4D’s now frankly flat and generic characters. In l4d 1 they felt like video game characters, here they feel like real people, or at least film characters – from a good film.
Just a simple thing like Coach eating a chocolate bar instanly adds a far more human asspect to him, just because you see him consume food which apart from in STALKER no other video game has done… as far as i can remember. The realistic banter, that INSANE chainsaw! This far surpases nearly anything else valve have done.
Err, you do understand that this is a pre-rendered cinematic, not actual game play footage, right?
People eat food in all sorts of video games Fullbleed I dunno where you come up with that just off the top of my head Oblivion is a good example people eat food and drink from mugs / bottles and that doesn't make them any more realistic.]
I do like the new characters however. I didn't actaully like any of the ones from L4D I found myself looking at them thinking "I don't want to be ANY of these people" I normally ended up picking Louis or Francis.
I really liked the facial animations in this movie they seemed very life like, I can't wait until they get that sort of animation INTO the game itself . I would also really love to get that sort of chain saw cutting into the game.
Ok i was fully expecting to be made an idiot after that statment, and yes I’m fully aware that Coach wont eat chocolate bars in the game.
I still think it makes him seem more life like, acting like an ordinary human being and not a stereotyped character, I imagine fighting the zombie apocalpse is hungry work. I also really like the way the woman (cant spell rochell) pushes the gun away when reading the map, something subtle like that adds so much to her character showing she really doesn’t want to be there and that she shuns violence unless nessecary, completely setting her apart from most female characters in games. She’s not a Lara Croft cold bitch who wears impractially skimpy slothes, she listens to Depeche Mode!
Also the day light setting feels like an improvement, the other L4D never actually felt like a zombie apocalypse.
Yes there is something about the day light that really brings it all home. at night it seems like it could all be one long nightmare but when the sun comes up and there are still infected people every where you know you're in trouble :P (if you didn't believe before) Which is kind of reflected when Rochelle keeps saying "This isn't happening, this isn't happening"
Francis is essentially Jayne from Firefly. Grumpy, gruff, crude, mostly trustworthy but not always, wants to be mucho macho badass but is saddled with a “sissy” name that he feels rather subconsciously insecure about.
At any rate, that’s how I saw him. Figured the Valve writing staff are big Firefly / Whedon fans.
I’ve been saying this for a while now. Incidentally, Francis is my favorite character.
Wrong.
Jayne is the best character, by far, in Firefly.
Francis is the worst, by far, character in L4D.
And the useless big lummox looks just like a zombie.
AAAARGH! Why can’t this bloody comment system show me the first page of comments?!
I agree, it’s really odd, it’s like coming in at the end of a conversation!
Also does anyone else think that Nick really looks like Tim Roth?
Daniel Craig, I was thinking.
Nice trailer. I daresay the L4D2 trailers will be more enjoyable than the actual game.
Not really impressed, the first game’s video showed a consistent story and this one is like a bit of every part they could grab. Will rather wait for a discount weekend.