I do not know about you, but, after reading the initial descriptions of Left 4 Dead 2, I feel more irritated and disappointed than excited and interested. The “sequel” looks, to me, like the product that should have been released last year – the product that they are expecting us to re-buy to get the new features, features that should have been in the original game or, at a minimum, patched into it at a later time. This is nothing more than an attempt to squeeze monies out of gamers who have already bought the first game, a game that is now going to obsolete is less than one year since its release. Nevertheless, you say, why would you think this? Well, let us examine the press release.
“…L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles.” Well, considering that Left 4 Dead is considered to be, by many, including myself, inferior to both the older Killing Floor modification and the newer retail release of the aforementioned modification, I doubt that Left 4 Dead 2 will contain anything that will drastically alter cooperative gameplay. As for the other promises, well, I am starting to doubt Valve will actually keep its word as they also promised features in Left 4 Dead that have still not been implemented.
“…the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more.” Oh Valve, why must you, seemingly, copy other games? Two of the three items that you listed feature prominently in the rival zombie co-op game Killing Floor, while the others are lifted from another competitive title, Zombie Panic – while this does not mean that you are intentionally plagiarizing content, all of the items mentioned are standard in any anti-zed armory, this, coupled with such things are the Left 4 Dead sale that just “happened” to be almost directly on the release of Killing Floor, looks really bad.
“Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance.” Hummm… Sounds to me like they made a few tweaks and decided to call it “2.0” – besides, I doubt those changes will make paying $50 for a game you have already bought any more appealing. The next point further shows us that this “new” game is, essentially, just DLC for the original: “Featuring new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.” In other words, they have taken the minimalistic Left 4 Dead and turned into what it should have been – and they want you to pay $50 -or however much they decide to charge for the update- for the privilege of owning the full version of game you already bought.
‘"Left 4 Dead was backed by our most aggressive advertising campaign to date, and resulted in a top 5 showing on two platforms during holiday 2008," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "Left 4 Dead 2 is a larger game and will be supported with even more consumer and retail advertising programs than the original."’ Well, judging from the player backlash you will need all of the hype you can get for many people, such as myself, are not planning on buying your so-called “sequel” unless you make some concessions for those who bought the beta version of the product. In other words, Valve has lost the goodwill of the fanbase and will have to work long and hard to get it back.