The trouble with really excellent video games is convincing people they’re really good. I’ll get this out the way first; Left 4 Dead 2 is an excellent video game. But I know how to work a first person shooter and I’m used to shooting video game zombies. My thumbs are honed to the X and Y axis with the fine tuning of my thousands of years of human evolution-fuelled muscle memory. Most others don’t have this.
So trying to convince your random game-shy, horror fan of Left 4 Dead’s beauty falls flat when they’re pointing at the ground shooting mud while zombies rampantly eat their flesh off… In the game, obviously.
It’s like when I tried to teach my game-shy, European flatmate the beauty of the award winning and subtly perfect Portal. The brilliant physics engine, the subversive dialogue, the taxing puzzles; they all meant nothing because my flatmate couldn’t look in the same direction she was running. D’aarggh! So close.
Her mind was open but her lack of background knowledge kept her from one of 2007’s finest chunks of pop culture. Curse you years of shitty first person shooters for ruining that moment! Reminds me of ice skating - because I can’t skate I don’t know how much ‘fun’ I’ve missed over the years.
So, get over that hurdle and Left 4 Dead 2 is yours to start playing. Or, almost. This intrepid zombie shooter has nothing in the way of plot; get from A to B without being eaten. The single-player, off-line mode is mundane and uninteresting and it’s pretty difficult too. But worst of all; it encourages teamwork and co-operation. This is like encouraging your flatmate to do your dishes for you indefinitely - it’s counter-instinctive, it’s foolish. Or it’s brave. I’ll go with brave, because that’s what I was driving at.
In online multiplayer mode, 99 per cent of first person shooters ask you to shoot the shit out of the guys in the other outfits. Left 4 Dead 2 asks you to protect the other players and work your way to the next checkpoint (or ’safe houses’ as the game optimistically calls them). The game gives you awards for helping your buddy up or for stitching up someone’s wounds. Failing that, wandering off on your own gets you very-killed - a whole stage up from just killed. It’s an outrage, I tell you. If I want to shoot my fellow gamer’s character then I will. I will and I’ll ruin the whole game for everyone else and myself because sooner or later I’m going to need their help.
OK, I’ll play along. I always do (that was all rhetoric to prepare my point) because, get this, Left 4 Dead 2’s co-operation merit system works. And it’s a lot more compelling helping people. The only other game that comes close to doing this is Burnout Paradise, but with cars.
Of course, Left 4 Dead 1 did all this too. This sequel is really a 1.5 version - a quickly released follow up which the first one should have been. But it’s hard to hate this hippy of a video game - handing out flowers and teaching you how to help your fellow man.
THAT is what makes Left 4 Dead 2 so excellent. You bond with your team mates, you go through hell with them. And if you’re lucky you make a few new friends along the way. When you get three other good, mature, intelligent players on Left 4 Dead 2 alongside you and you share a journey this game becomes as compelling as any horror movie.
But you have to know the basics of first person shooting. Couple that with its under-powering similarity to the first one and you shouldn’t play this. So don’t, ignore the hype, unless you have master-thumbs like me. And if you don’t, go and learn, you’re missing out. If you do I’ll learn how to ice skate.
