In case you hadn’t spotted, the Left 4 Dead 2 demo is now open to all, whether you’ve pre-ordered the game or not. Which you could well argue is the point of a demo. It’s the first two levels of one campaign, so while not offering a big finish, will give you a taste for the new special infected, the melee weapons, and of course what it’s like to play L4D in the sunshine. They say to go to the official site for more details, but I can’t find any there. So instead open Steam. (Oh, and in exceedingly stupid news, if you pre-ordered L4D2 you will now also have a new hat in TF2. I feel like I’m writing news about a Barbie game.)
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As a huge fan of Left 4 Dead, I’m really upset about L4D2 being a full retail game and not a series of DLC. Since there is about enough content in L4D2 to make five or six $10 DLC packages, they could have gotten away with charging even more for it in entirety.
The funny thing about all this is the assumed morality of video game pricing. Maybe what some people mean to say is “I would have paid at most $30 for this,” but when they say “this SHOULD have been an expansion” they sound a little silly.
As to the quality of the new content, from the demo I already have a new favorite infected (Charger, I’ve been playing a lot with the vs mod, 3 vs 1 on normal works pretty well) and a new favorite gun (military sniper). And once I get the full game I’m pretty sure I’ll have a new favorite map (the videos of Hard Rain have me pretty excited). For someone that’s played L4D for a year without tiring of it, it’s pretty great that they’ve made weapons and infected that I prefer to my old favorites (I still prefer the old cast though and I’m hoping I’ll have the option to stick with them in versus).
And as to the quantity of new content, it’s going to ship with much more new content than L4D1 did, so that means it SHOULD cost more than L4D’s current retail price of $30. Judging by how much more content, about $45 sounds right. That’s my take on how video game pricing should go. :)
Melee weapons are completely different from right-click, which melee’s also have. I just finished playing through using only melee. It ain’t easy.
I found the machete to be best. The guitar is fun and the frying pan is amusing, but hte sound effects get old real fast. Machetes, however, make a nice *swish* sound.
One thing to note about the cornering: I find that melee weapons are really good for hordes, but if you stand to close you hit each other hard. So cornering is not really an option anymore.
Damn! Playing Dragon Age made me late to post a comment here… but better late than never!
BOYCOTT IT!!!!!
It was such a nice thread, too.
Had no ammo quite fast and ran about using the machete was pretty easy, but its very twitchy. Only a special could really stop or slow me down.
Who else played the jukebox?
Hopefully everyone played the jukebox.
Fun tip: If the jukebox is playing the “Re: Your Brains” song, hordes of zombies come streaming in when the chorus plays.
Agreed Frying Pan is absolutely the best weapon. 4 teammates + 4 pans + witch = SPANGING AWESOMENESS
Just played the demo and boy it’s got me excited for the release. One change I’ve been loving is the weapons, well not the actual weapons more how weapons are given out and the lack of ammo piles. By making ammo piles more rare (at least that’s what I’ve found) I’m picking up any weapons I stumble across to make sure I don’t run out of bullets. It forces me to use weapons I wouldn’t normally.
Thinking back to the original L4D I’m amazed I never noticed how lazily the weapons were handed out, just a table with ammo pile and all the weapons to pick and choose. However now I’m not spoiled for choice and picking up anything I can to survive.
I’ve noticed the random pathing (doors / arches blocked off) but I never felt hindered by it, barely noticed it much really. I never found myself going “damn this ways blocked now we’ve gotta go that way.”
Also the AI director seems to be more of a dick this time (which is a good thing), having a smoker death smoker hide the jockey and boomer in the alleyway. Meanwhile the AI bots do seem a little dumber, yes I know it’s meant to be played with others but still. . .
Hi folks,
so I downloaded the demo yesterday and played the campaign in coop on normal one time.
Am I the only one who thinks that the graphics are worse than in L4D? Maybe its because of the daylight but e.g. all the textures seemed very bland to me. I checked the video settings and everything was ok, is it that they are just keeping the graphics on low quality in the demo?
For the rest: seems pretty much like L4D to me, wonder how it will play in versus with the new special infected.
I’m attributing it to the daytime, as L4D’s graphics were far from top of the line. It’s definitely and upgrade, but the sunlight just isn’t being kind to the textures.
The textures really do seem flatter and more cartoony. It may well be the daylight, though. It’d be interesting to see them in one of the night campaigns as a point of comparison.
It seems marginally prettier to me, but I can’t pin down quite why.
better shaders, higher res textures (yes), multicore rendering, better models
Makes sense really.
Haha, I just turned the jukebox on that’s in a bar in the first level of the demo. I was very surprised when 2 buildings ahead I suddenly hear a song I know softly in the backgrouynd. I backtrack to the jukebox and sure enough, Jonathan Coulton’s – Re: Your Brains on the jukebox.
Awesome :)