Left 4 Dead 2 takes place a week after the events that occurred in the original Left 4 Dead game. It continues the storyline of a world in which an infection has spread to the majority of the population which leaves them feral or grotesquely deformed and mutated. There are a few people who are immune to the pathogen, but they are also carriers of this insidious strain. It is imperative to locate these individual and carry them to safety in order to allow a cure to be developed. The immune people are still carriers, though, so every precaution needs to be undertaken to rescue the uninfected populace and hold the infected ones at bay. The Civil Emergency and Defense Agency has attempted to take the necessary steps in doing just that, however they have not done a good enough job in protecting the uninfected. The military has been called in to prevent further outbreak and have adopted a “shoot first” policy.

Faced with outcries, attempted boycotts and other such protests and controversies, Valve has brought us the much anticipated sequel to the hugely successful original game just a year later. Even within the fan-base of the game there seemed to be a rift in opinion; some believing the new game release was too soon and support for the old game would suffer as a result, while others felt that the second game should have been released as downloadable content for the first game at no additional charge. Was the sequel warranted? Was it too soon? Was it worth it?

The gameplay basics remain the same as in the original game but there is a lot of new stuff, too. There are fresh items and new weapons as well as new infected to add variety. The crescendo events have a new formula, you must move from point A to point B while fighting in order to complete them, whereas in the original game you could simply camp in a corner. You also can no longer push away the infected indefinitely; after a few hearty shoves you are faced with a cool-down timer. Valve took many thing into consideration and many steps in order to breathe new life into an old formula.