I don’t know how many of you saw Microsoft’s E3 press conference, but one of the bits of news to emerge from it was a sequel for Left 4 Dead. Actually, there was a trailer, but you probably already saw that in the post below this one.
Luckily, that’s not all there is to know about Left 4 Dead 2, because IGN.com released a gameplay impressions article and a few videos concerning the game. Now I’m not here to try to give you all the news and tell you about all the new features… I’ll let the professionals do that. I’m just looking to share my thoughts a little with the Left 4 Dead community, and maybe see what you guys have to say.
While I’m certainly interested in this sequel having thoroughly enjoyed the first Left 4 Dead, part of me is a little confused/annoyed at this announcement. First, I have to wonder, why does all this new content need to be its own separate game? I was feeling like Valve was just starting to pump out the new downloadable content for Left 4 Dead, and some of the things being talked about (melee weapons, new campaigns, new zombies) would all be welcome, and seemingly possible, additions to the first game.
I noticed in the trailer a brighter, slightly more cartoony look to the character designs, and maybe that is the main reason L4D2’s new additions wouldn’t fit into L4D1… but I’m not convinced. At the very most this feels more like an expansion pack than a full sequel.
There are many Valve franchises to make sequels to, so why did the company choose to make one out of a game that’s not even a year old? And it’s not like this is coming out in the far-off future; the release date is November 17! I’m sure Left 4 Dead deserves a sequel, but I’m not sure it needs one so soon. Instead, I would rather be playing Half Life 2: Episode 3, or Portal 2… games that fans like myself have been waiting years for. I’m not saying that Valve isn’t working on either one of those, because chances are, they have more than one project going on right now. I’m just saying that I would rather have more developers focusing on either of those two games.
Finally, I can’t help but comment on the second to last paragraph of the IGN article I linked to earlier. For those too lazy to read it themselves, it says that the developers are considering putting all four of L4D1’s campaigns onto the L4D2 disk, to eliminate the hassle of switching disks for the people who want to play a campaign from the first game. In essence, this would render the first one useless, as there would be no reason to ever play L4D1 again if you could just do everything in the second game. The fans, of course, would buy the sequel, and the online playerbase of the first L4D would die off before too long due to everyone moving on to the next game. Thanks for screwing us over, Valve!
Also, there’s the Left 4 Dead: Game of the Year Edition that came out recently. (On a side note, who decided that L4D was the game of the year? I thought it was either Grand Theft Auto IV or Fallout 3…) Who’s going to want to buy that knowing that by the end of the year, you’ll be able to do everything on that disk in the sequel. Oh, I know who will buy it… people that don’t realize Left 4 Dead 2 will really just be Left 4 Dead 1+2. The people who buy the Game of the Year Edition would be screwed over more than anyone else, as they would only have a few months before their $50/$60 purchase became content that was merely thrown onto the sequel, as opposed to the people who bought L4D1 earlier, because those “lucky” people would have had more months than the others.
Luckily, this is all still just being considered. The IGN article even says “user feedback would probably help sway Valve, so make sure to let the company know what you think.” Well, what do you think? I’ve given my thoughts, so I’m interested to hear yours. There’s no doubt in my mind that Left 4 Dead 2 will be a great game, but I can’t help but question what Valve is thinking.
