By Alec Meer on September 27th, 2010 at 9:53 pm.
But which safehouseman? Or safehousewoman? That’s your problem, bucko. Your problem to solve as you play the latest DLC for Left 4 Dead on October 5. Or! As you play the latest DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 on October 5. Yes, yes, they’re doing that. All is fair in love and released-slightly-too-soon-zombie-sequels.
The Sacrifice, the tale of how [redacted] gives up their mortal coil to help [redacted] will be stuffed down Steam’s pipes for free next Tuesday, and will become a component part of both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. While the narrative, level-y stuff sounds as though it’ll be broadly the same for both games, it’s probably going to be the Left 4 Dead 2 version that draws the most admiring looks. It’s the first time the original survivors get to play with the nu-survivor’s toys – ‘Zoey with a chainsaw’, as Valve put it.
Which vainly fires up hope of getting the entirety of L4D1 ported over to L4D2, but no doubt that’s an enormous task that isn’t worth the investment. But The Sacrifice at least ensures the original Survivors, the ones who grew this game in our hearts, are not yet forgotten.
L4D2 is also getting the No Mercy campaign. Not entirely sure what that means for the widespread perception of Valve’s support for Left 4 Dead 1. Sounds as though that latter does fairly well out of it though, being promised Sacrifice maps in campaign, versus and survival modes. It’s billed very clearly as a separate download, so hopefully that means it’ll sport stuff that isn’t in L4D2.
In either case, the selling point is the players electing to choose who takes the bullet, who chows down on hot death, who embraces the reaper, who has a permanent dirt-nap, who gets horribly killed in the face and/or major organs in order that their chums may survive. The mechanic for that remains mysterious, and I look forward to the bitter voicechat arguments it will doubtless entail.
Mostly, though, I just want to read the rest of the expository comic. It’s been right good, that.
27/09/2010 at 21:57 Wipa says:
Nice, might make me install L4D again.
27/09/2010 at 22:07 dantokk says:
It’s a great game, shame about the community.
27/09/2010 at 22:02 Alexander Norris says:
I am vainly hoping that they patch in a random survivor dying into L4D2′s The Passing at the same time, even though I know that’s not going to be the case.
27/09/2010 at 22:07 Koozer says:
I should get round to playing The Passing one of these days…
27/09/2010 at 22:12 LewieP says:
This must win some kind of award for “most laboured pun in an RPS headline”. It’s pretty high up there.
27/09/2010 at 23:18 JonFitt says:
I thought it was a brilliant pun!
28/09/2010 at 00:41 Nick says:
Oh its only somewhere in the middle of the list of laboured puns =)
27/09/2010 at 22:27 The Magic says:
Boom diggedy
27/09/2010 at 22:37 Heliosicle says:
I’m a little confused, does this mean that l4d2 and l4d1 are getting the same dlc + l4d2 is getting the no mercy campaign? or are they getting 2 different dlc’s?
27/09/2010 at 22:37 Dominic White says:
Good as this sounds, Dead Rising 2 has come out of the blue and demolished my desire to play any other zombie game. It is the best zombie game.
28/09/2010 at 00:20 Mungrul says:
It’s like when Charlie Brooker tried to justify fast zombies to Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright and eventually admitted that yes, slow zombies are better :D
28/09/2010 at 17:58 pagad says:
Wait, he admitted that? If that’s the case then I’m disappointed in you, Brooker. I don’t suppose you have the source?
28/09/2010 at 18:59 Huggster says:
Okay now this is getting interesting.
I recently read “World War Z” by Max Brooks which is has one take …. definitely worth a read.
I think the idea behind fast zombies is that they have some intelligence left so can climb and whatnot – if so then they could be reasoned with? However “slow dumb zombies” are just relentless like a spreading mould ……
27/09/2010 at 23:05 Fumarole says:
No Mercy in L4D2 Realism Versus will be a blast.
27/09/2010 at 23:09 Vandelay says:
My excitement for the L4D series has really drained now. I had no real issue with them releasing two and I bought it not that long after it came out, then played it solidly for the next 3 or 4 months, even after my mates had stopped playing.
But now I just can’t muster any enthusiasm to go back for more. The continued release of stuff in TF2 always gets me coming back for more, but the highly linear nature of L4D just doesn’t lend itself to playing for that many hours, no matter how different the maps are (not that I’m complaining about the amount of time I’ve put into them; L4D2 alone I played for about 150 hours in total.)
It also has always suffered from so many little niggling problems that puts me off going back. Never being able to get a game with competent and/or friendly people. The server system still throws you into either heavy lag or heavily modded servers (no problem with mods, but sometimes you just want to play the game without game ruining things like experience points.) People still leave lobbies if they don’t get exactly what they want from it. No one ever stays for the full duration of a Versus game. etc. etc.
27/09/2010 at 23:12 Skinlo says:
I’m more the other way round, I play TF2 a lot when something new comes out (20 hours or so), then suddenly I find it gets boring. L4D2 I always seem to be coming back to, played 250 hours so far.
28/09/2010 at 02:25 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
It helps to have a circle of friends to prevent the need to “go public.”
27/09/2010 at 23:43 rocketman71 says:
The original survivors can hardly be forgotten when the new survivors are so forgettable.
28/09/2010 at 00:42 Nick says:
Nick was awesome.
¬_¬
28/09/2010 at 02:27 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
Ellis > Everybody else.
28/09/2010 at 11:17 sana says:
Zoey, Louis, Francis and Bill > all of those thwerps.
27/09/2010 at 23:45 airtekh says:
Haven’t played much L4D since the Passing came out.
I’m getting right fired up at the moment however, what with the comic and all.
I’m still confused over what each DLC will contain, but I’ll probably end up playing both anyway. :D
28/09/2010 at 01:54 Pope Guilty says:
The original campaigns have already been ported to L4D2. I guess at least now everyone will have them.
28/09/2010 at 02:03 Vodkarn says:
“The original survivors can hardly be forgotten when the new survivors are so forgettable.”
Oh come ON – Ellis probably has the best one-liners of any of the eight survivors.
28/09/2010 at 03:19 Polysynchronicity says:
ONE-liners? Ellis could talk for hours!
28/09/2010 at 03:59 Chris says:
L4d2 is getting a new mutation, the sacrifice DLC, and no Mercy. L4d1 is getting the Sacrifice DLC.
GG Valve.
28/09/2010 at 04:38 Moronic squarlarq says:
Nick and francis are alot alike ‘-’ And beside’s zoey is forgettable. She was only ingame for eye candy for the perverted player’s. And louis is so plan i want to cut myself because of it.
28/09/2010 at 06:55 pipman3000 says:
yeah.
the only reason the fans prefer zoey over rochelle is because they can’t jack it to a black woman. everything else is superficial or a flat out lie.
28/09/2010 at 09:31 DeepSleeper says:
Zoey was -supposed- to have the whole “smart media Troper girl” thing going on. She didn’t because no one in that game really talks a lot about anything but PILLS HERE.
I was pretty let down at the lack of personality on display by the characters in L4D 1. 2 sounds better about characterization, but after being burned on the first I don’t think the second is worth my time.
28/09/2010 at 06:06 Earl_of_Josh says:
When is L4D 3 coming out, isn’t it about time?
28/09/2010 at 07:18 P7uen says:
Zombified troll is zombified
28/09/2010 at 09:30 Alexis says:
lol nice pun on the title i’m reading death of a salesman for school right now what a coincidence XD
28/09/2010 at 10:05 The Sombrero Kid says:
If they integrate l4d1 into l4d2 i might pick it up, otherwise i kinda lost interest in it since the sequel was announced, it’s confusing & messy what they’re doing with these games.
28/09/2010 at 10:23 Ravenger says:
This new campaign probably makes integration of the two games possible, as it fully adds the original survivor assets to L4D2. From what I’ve read The Passing didn’t have a full set of models and anims for the original survivors so it wasn’t possible to use them fully in L4D2 campaigns.
28/09/2010 at 11:10 Rivking says:
Your friends list should show you who is a good player (otherwise they wouldn’t be on your list). If you want to be sure to get an unmodded server then host your own game (official dedicated). Versus, again your friends list. Survival, take a guess, yep! friends list. I have fun unwinding after work and taking some casino induced frustration out on the undead. Always end up laughing somewhere during play. I have had so much fun playing both games in this series and will play a 3rd if it is made. Really looking foreward for ‘The Sacrifice’ release.
28/09/2010 at 15:47 Dave Bott Hates L4D1 says:
well all i can say is what a load of shite bring out l4d3 screw l4d1 its getting boring now…..cya
28/09/2010 at 19:55 Comment System says:
cya
28/09/2010 at 16:21 branislav bruder says:
Fuck,when i saw the newest poster i was like a 5 year old waitin for either Justin bieber concert or going to disneyland to see mickey mouse xD
28/09/2010 at 21:29 Gill says:
I think everyone should shut up about l4d1. Seriously, why not just download community made ports of the l4d maps into l4d2 if you love it so much. If your going to say “The old characters aren’t in it” DROP THEM. They are just characters, surely its about the gameplay not the characters? If you don’t do that because you won’t buy l4d2 that is just stupid.
29/09/2010 at 08:13 Corrupt_Tiki says:
I won’t buy L4D2 because they decided to censor all the violence out of it in my country, what is the point of a zombie game with no violence? fuckin bullshit
29/09/2010 at 11:02 Neko says:
I HATE WALLS AND DOORS