My thoughts on L4D2 Options

[MonkeyFiend]

Having now played a fair bit of L4D2, I thought I'd stick down my impressions so far:

To be honest I think they lost something from L4D1, the balance has changed. The technology and levels in l4D2 are indeed impressive, but I don't think they seem quite as well thought out as L4D1.

Playing L4D was an enjoyable way to spend a cheap weekend evening, but L4D2 seems to just be frustrating game after frustrating game... even when you're on the winning team. The increased damage of infected is countered by increased survivors medkits/pills etc., but this means the gradual wearing down of survivors by a string of attacks doesn't work anymore, instead the game requires devastating set piece attacks. (sewers on parish as an example)

The problem with this is that it's possible to take a battering if the other team are skilled/lucky without any means of getting clear e.g. a good boomer, followed by a spitter once the survivors are pinned. L4D relied on teamwork, whereas L4D2 is more affected by stronger or weaker players.

The next gripe I have with it is the length of the levels. For those of you in this clan who remember the BF2 days, you could literally hide in a bush (or despawn yourself) and take a 5 minute break without affecting the game too much.

L4D/L4D2 requires that all 4 players be present; you essentially start a game and coutesy dictates you play till the end. Personally I'm not keen on hour after hour of solid L4D, but then leaving can seriously screw your team. This annoyed me somewhat in L4D, I'd hoped with the guff that was crashcourse that valve had realised some people wanted some shorter games, however L4D2 is much longer than L4D hence compounding my original issues. They don't even give you the option of picking specific levels which would have been nice.

The problem is that while there are other game modes like coop, survival, scavenge etc., I've never been interested in them; for me the games are about versus and my opinion is that overall L4D2 just isn't as much fun as L4D1.