I got together with a pal and played the whole game in one night, and rocked it… but it didn’t have the same excitement of the first one. Probably for the simple reason that the first one was FIRST. I’m not sure anything could have been done to suppress this feeling, because Left 4 Dead was mad original and L4D2… isn’t. They just improve on the zomb-splosions, melee weapons, some cool infected, that’s about it. The locations were FUN, but not as ‘realistic’ as the first – although maybe that’s just me from Toronto talking. Dark night city is classic, but it also fits. Zombies at an auto-play metal concert… is kind of a joke.

Melee is the best thing here. NOTHING like cutting zombies up with axes and swords and saws. The special infected all work. Zombie AI is better, teammate AI is worse. I also miss Zoey’s zit!

I would say I prefer L4D2 just these bonuses. Plus once you’ve played L4D to the point where you know the geography well, it loses some panache. But overall L4D is the one that will be remembered – and L4D2 as the cheery on top, if not a whole new dessert.