Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 76 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 563 Ratings

  • Summary: Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) is the highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning Left 4 Dead. This co-operative action horror FPS takes you and your friends through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns. Play as one of four new survivors armed with a wide and devastating array of classic and upgraded weapons. In addition to firearms, you'll also get a chance to take out some aggression on infected with a variety of carnage-creating melee weapons, from chainsaws to axes and even the deadly frying pan. You'll be putting these weapons to the test against (or playing as in Versus) three horrific and formidable new Special Infected. You’ll also encounter five new "uncommon" common infected, including the terrifying Mudmen. Helping to take L4D's frantic, action-packed gameplay to the next level is AI Director 2.0. This improved Director has the ability to procedurally change the weather you’ll fight through and the pathways you'll take, in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match your performance. L4D2 promises a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience every time the game is played, custom-fitted to your style of play. [Valve] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 76 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 76
  3. Negative: 0 out of 76
  1. 100
    L4D2 delivers multiple improvements over its predecessor, and I get to keep all my fingers and toes.
  2. 100
    Left 4 Dead 2 is the Empire Strikes Back of zombie games. The momentum has clearly swung in favor of the bad guys. But also much like Empire, this is clearly the best of the bunch and is a required purchase for fans of the genre.
  3. Left 4 Dead 2 took a great first-person shooter experience and added fresh new gameplay modes, loads of murdering and surviving accessories from melee weapons to adrenaline shots, all of which continues to satiate my desires for an FPS game that I can happily and easily spend a copious amount of hours on.
  4. 85
    This is a polished, more feature-filled version of the original game that adds enough new to make it worthy of purchase by fans of the series. Melee weapons, new modes and new zombie types make this a must have for those that adored the original game.

See all 76 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 63 out of 75
  2. Negative: 3 out of 75
  1. 9
    This is one of the best game ever. Plenty of fun with friends and a very enjoyable versus mode. The coop system is the best ever seen in the games history. The animations are incredibly fluid, some of the best I've seen so far in a game. The dialogues are great, the characters say a lot of different things and are never annoying or ripetitive. Definitely a masterpiece! Expand
  2. It's Left 4 Dead again, but with new guns, melee weapons, more hilarious characters, better maps and just more fun in general. If you like Left 4 Dead, you're going to absolutely love this game. Expand
  3. When I first heard about L4D2 I was skeptical and thought that it could have just as easily been DLC or an expansion pack that just added a few extra campaigns and some new weapons/enemies.

    It turns out that I was 100% right on this one, it's still Left 4 Dead (just as we know and love it), it just has...some extra crap thrown in to try and mix it up a bit (which it sorta does for a bit).

    The difficulty has gone up since the last game, although not always in the ways that veterans of the original would hope, (AI that will cheerfully ignore your pleas for aid as you have your kidneys being ripped out right next to them being something that I am still a bit sore about), sometimes the added challenge adds to the experience but more often than not it just strikes you as the game being petty and childish (was it really necessary to spawn five Chargers in the space of three minutes?).

    I guess my overall opinion is that if you liked Left 4 Dead then you'll like Left 4 Dead 2 because it's just more of the same with a slightly different colour palette and somewhat contrived anti-camping measures.
    Expand
  4. Disappointed to say the least. I've loved Valve right up to this point with Left 4 Dead. L4D was good, but nothing special to me, and then this mod came out and I lost all hope in Valve ever really redeeming themselves in the next 5 years... Expand

See all 75 User Reviews

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