Action · 2009 · Valve · online
Left 4 Dead 2
Four survivors, five campaigns and a director that strikes somewhere new every time.
What it is about
Four survivors work their way through five campaigns in the American South, from Savannah to New Orleans. Each consists of several stretches with safe rooms in between for restocking and catching your breath.
What makes it special is an invisible director deciding anew every run where the horde appears, where ammunition lies and when a particularly unpleasant infected shows up. Among them the Smoker, who drags you against a wall from a distance, and the Hunter, who pins you to the ground — neither can be shaken off without somebody else.
You play with two to four people online or over a local network, or with a single copy via Remote Play Together. Bots fill any empty places. There are also modes where one side controls the infected.
Our verdict for couples
Fifteen years old and still the game every other one of its kind gets measured against. The reason is an invisible director: it decides afresh each time where the horde comes from and where the ammunition lies, so the same campaign never runs the same way twice. With two, bots take the other places, reliable enough not to get in the way and dim enough to leave you the interesting work. Run ahead alone and a Smoker pins you to a wall until the other one arrives — that is all the training required. No slider helps with aiming by mouse and keyboard, though: anyone who has never played one of these needs a few evenings before the first safe room even comes into view.
Pros
- Over Remote Play one copy covers distance too
- Every run is assembled differently
- Fifteen years of free workshop additions
Cons
- No local co-op
- First-person aiming is a barrier to entry
- Public games are thinly populated these days
Suitable from
Hobby
- Conflict potential
- Harmonious
- Cosiness
- Draining
- When you can stop
- After 30–45 minutes
- How long it lasts
- No ending
What other co-op fans say
After fifteen years the tone is almost touchingly steady: it gets described as a classic that has not aged, and in the same breath as something that works well with others. Recurring mentions go to the workshop additions and to friendly fire, evidently counted as part of the fun rather than an annoyance. The recurring objection is not about the game but its population: public matches are thinly attended these days.
- “A simply well made 4 player zombie coop survival shooter. Unfortunately, games like this are increasingly harder to find these days”
- “insane modding potential. extremely fun with friends and even strangers. worth every cent”
- “no english servers and nobody is playing it. left chinese people and servers around which have difficulty connecting to.”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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