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Like its predecessor, Left 4 Dead 2 is primarily a first-person shooter, with some cutscenes presented in the third-person or using pre-rendered movies. The game presents five new campaigns, larger in size than those in the first game. Each will be playable in Co-op, Versus, and Survival mode. There will also be a fourth game mode that has not yet been revealed.[4]
In the main Campaign mode, up to four players can play cooperatively during a campaign, each with a number of chapters; the computer controls any survivors that are not being played.[2] In each chapter, the goal is to reach a safehouse location after fighting through hordes of infected mutants, with the ultimate goal of surviving the encounter to be safely rescued. In this mode, the game is guided by the "AI Director", an artificial intelligence engine that monitors the players' performance and alters the scenario to provide more or less challenge for the players as they progress. In Left 4 Dead 2, the AI Director has been improved to encourage more participation by players, forcing players through difficult gauntlets to reach the extraction point, and the ability to alter elements of the level such as placement of walls, lighting, or weather conditions.[2] The AI Director will also be improved to reward players for taking longer or more difficult paths through each episode by providing more useful equipment, such as incendiary ammo, along these riskier paths,[2] and even alter elements of the levels to create varied paths based on the choice of these paths.[3]
Players will have access to more and improved weapons, including new melee weapons such as a frying pan, an axe, baseball bat, cricket bat, and chainsaw,[2] and new projectile weapons such as scoped assault rifles and silenced submachine guns, in addition to new ammo types such as explosive rounds and incendiary rounds.[5] While the players will mostly encounter common infected, there are "special infected" that possess unique abilities that require unique tactics to defeat or avoid. In addition to those introduced in the first game, Left 4 Dead 2 includes the Charger, a larger infected with a malformed torso and arm that can move fast but with low health and can bash survivors out of the way, leaving the last player helpless. There is also the Spitter, which spews a ball of mutated phlegm which covers an area of ground and eats away at survivor's health for every second they are in it. The Spitter was introduced to hinder players who "camp" in the same spot for too long.[6] Existing specials will also be adjusted; for example, the Witch, fixed to a single spot in Left 4 Dead, will be able to roam during daytime levels, a feature referred to by Valve as the "Wandering Witch".[2] One more Special Infected has been confirmed, but no details have emerged beyond that it is designed to combine its attack with other Specials and that it is "just evil." Left 4 Dead project lead Chet Faliszek says on the third Special, "One of the things we always judge these things on is if you get a mad cackling laugh if you're doing it in Versus, it's a good creature." A fourth, Spitter-based Special is under consideration but might not make it into the game. [7] Left 4 Dead 2 will also feature "uncommon common" infected, which will be common zombies having special characteristics related to certain levels and areas of the game, as the "mudmen", or "mudders", in the Swamp fever campaign,[8] or the "Hazmat" zombies in the Parish campaign.[9]
In the main Campaign mode, up to four players can play cooperatively during a campaign, each with a number of chapters; the computer controls any survivors that are not being played.[2] In each chapter, the goal is to reach a safehouse location after fighting through hordes of infected mutants, with the ultimate goal of surviving the encounter to be safely rescued. In this mode, the game is guided by the "AI Director", an artificial intelligence engine that monitors the players' performance and alters the scenario to provide more or less challenge for the players as they progress. In Left 4 Dead 2, the AI Director has been improved to encourage more participation by players, forcing players through difficult gauntlets to reach the extraction point, and the ability to alter elements of the level such as placement of walls, lighting, or weather conditions.[2] The AI Director will also be improved to reward players for taking longer or more difficult paths through each episode by providing more useful equipment, such as incendiary ammo, along these riskier paths,[2] and even alter elements of the levels to create varied paths based on the choice of these paths.[3]
Players will have access to more and improved weapons, including new melee weapons such as a frying pan, an axe, baseball bat, cricket bat, and chainsaw,[2] and new projectile weapons such as scoped assault rifles and silenced submachine guns, in addition to new ammo types such as explosive rounds and incendiary rounds.[5] While the players will mostly encounter common infected, there are "special infected" that possess unique abilities that require unique tactics to defeat or avoid. In addition to those introduced in the first game, Left 4 Dead 2 includes the Charger, a larger infected with a malformed torso and arm that can move fast but with low health and can bash survivors out of the way, leaving the last player helpless. There is also the Spitter, which spews a ball of mutated phlegm which covers an area of ground and eats away at survivor's health for every second they are in it. The Spitter was introduced to hinder players who "camp" in the same spot for too long.[6] Existing specials will also be adjusted; for example, the Witch, fixed to a single spot in Left 4 Dead, will be able to roam during daytime levels, a feature referred to by Valve as the "Wandering Witch".[2] One more Special Infected has been confirmed, but no details have emerged beyond that it is designed to combine its attack with other Specials and that it is "just evil." Left 4 Dead project lead Chet Faliszek says on the third Special, "One of the things we always judge these things on is if you get a mad cackling laugh if you're doing it in Versus, it's a good creature." A fourth, Spitter-based Special is under consideration but might not make it into the game. [7] Left 4 Dead 2 will also feature "uncommon common" infected, which will be common zombies having special characteristics related to certain levels and areas of the game, as the "mudmen", or "mudders", in the Swamp fever campaign,[8] or the "Hazmat" zombies in the Parish campaign.[9]
