Left 4 Dead 2: Why It’s Not A Sequel
They say the video game industry has changed, as has the consumer, but to be honest I do find that somewhat insulting. Why? Well when Street Fighter was released on the Mega Drive back in the day me and my friends jumped all over it. And why not, it is still to this day a superb game (although probably not the preferable port), anyway as we all know many variations of the title followed.
As a young boy, without the internet it was hard to get my head around the differences between them all, “how are there so many sequels already?” I thought, well once I found out that these weren’t sequels at all, and as I had figured, just new characters, I refused to buy the full priced title. As far as I could see there weren’t actually anything significantly different, and thus stayed happily content with my original Champion Edition.
I later learned the notable differences but the point remains. I wasn’t about to be screwed over when I was seven, a decade and a half later, I’m sure not going to be screwed over now. Which leads us directly into Left 4 Dead 2, released merely a year after the original title. Many gamers couldn’t understand why Valve was asking us to pay full price for what seemed like a Game Of The Year edition more than a sequel.
And now the title is here, along with a ton of brilliant reviews, it does still beg the question, is Left 4 Dead 2 worthy of being called a sequel? And really it all depends on your own expectations of what a sequel should offer. Indeed from initial reactions it does seem that the title comes across as much like the first title, just with different additions, but not necessarily new ones.
We have got melee weapons and new boss zombies for example, but is another forty pounds worth that? The biggest attraction are the new campaign levels, but from initial play throughs the changes are not exactly engine rebuilding additions.
And that’s the biggest problem with Left 4 Dead 2, what you’ve got is the original engine with small tweaks and a completely new skin on what we got last year. Sure Left 4 Dead was, and is still an absolutely amazing game, and even then Valve have always been really good to consumers. From creating some of the greatest games ever made, right through to the unbelievable value for money package that is The Orange Box.
However, Left 4 Dead 2 just doesn’t tick all the right boxes to be called a sequel, maybe if it was marketed as a second episode Valve could’ve got away with it. We live in a different climate now to when Capcom could get away with what they did with Street Fighter II, and even they know it with the upcoming release of Super Street Fighter IV seeing a reduced price.
So why don’t Valve? After all the episode’s of Half-Life 2 had reduced prices and far more new features over Half-Life 2 compared to what Left 4 Dead 2 has over the original title. Let us know what you think, is Left 4 Dead 2 worthy of being called a sequel or even worse, barely worthy of being called downloadable content.
You sir are an idiot.
You sir are a HUGE idiot.
I completely agree with you. seems like they’ve changed their “business” model or something.
I agree. Really not worth $60 more. The new weapons are great, the new maps are great, but the rest of the game is the same.
I agree also, this should have been an expansion at best, and MOST of L4D2 was promised as DLC.
Fool. You get the 4 pack with 3 other friends. its 20 notes then. And it is BRILLIANT! Much harder, much shinier, more open, better weapons. There’s far too much to call it DLC.
And lets face it. you kids are only whining because valve usually gives you stuff free. Lets face it, team fortress is a completely different game nowdays, and yet you all got it cheap in the orange box!
This artical is completely biased.
My question is how is left4dead2 not a sequel? It was very evident that the guy that wrote this has not played left4dead2 yet. Left4dead2 is a sequel because it has a new story to tell with the 5 new campaigns, it has new game modes, new infected, new gameplay, new weapons and items, semi new combat system. I think left4dead1 shouldn’t have been released.
So…New characters, new infected, new weapons, new campaigns, new modes, and a more connective storyline isn’t a sequel? If it isn’t, I have no idea what a sequel would be then. I don’t know about you, but I would NOT want to download all of the things in L4D2 as DLC for L4D. Considering the demo took some time, just think about how long the whole thing would take. Any memory in any Xbox would also be filled quite a bit. So why are we complaining? Valve pretty much saved us un-needed time spent downloading these things along with not having to buy another memory device. L4D2 is a sequel. Simple as that.
hey, some good points here. There is an awful lot of work and enthusiasm that has gone into this package that we tend to forget. Wether the gameplay is substantially better or not!
And I love supporting Valve anyways. They have been so so generous over the years. I’ve played Team Fortress 2 almost every night and almost exclusively to any other game for nearly 3 years now. And all the time free updates. Not to mention that their games are among the very most innovative…
There’s a bliondingly simple solution here. If you’re determined not to buy L4D2, don’t!
New campaigns that are much longer (and harder) that the first. Melee weapons. Redesigned damage modelling. New modes. Faster loading. These are all hallmarks of a bigger game, a sequel.
The article cites Street Fighter. Street Fighter eventually got mauled for the amount of ‘updates’ numbers two and three got, most are so intermingled the average gamer doesn’t even know which version they’re playing. No company in their right mind completely rewrites an entire engine if the first outing is so critically acclaimed.
I’d also like to know which version he’s referring to. The console version COULD NOT have realistically been a DLC update. Look at Burnout Paradise; 2gb of mandatory updates on the hard drive, plus anyone who paid the eye-watering amounts for the DLC as it was realeasd got royally screwed the by 29.99 ‘ultimate’ edition EA are so fond of.
PC gamers have bigger hard drives. Many get very expensive GPUs. They already get the games cheaper than consoles. Not only this but the community at large then goes and mods everything! 70% of ‘Oblivion’s modded material DID NOT come from Bethesda, no one was complaining that it should have been mapped onto ‘Morrowind’.
If you want to avoid it on principle, fine. If you want to moan about how the PC version should have been DLC, or that Valve have been nice in the past, I can’t stop you (although I could point out this is a rare policy for gamer devs). But don’t spoil the party for the console gamers or the people who haven’t played the first. I’m very happy with this second version, I know many people who are. Balance you views, because their YOURS, not the entire gaming community’s.
Where the f*** does this article state that it should be DLC? It mentions how the game would’ve been better off if it wasn’t marketed as a sequel, which it f***ing isn’t any idiot (aside from you) can see that. How about you read something before you begin to think you have an opinion on something.
I agree… that you are an idiot. Not only is there plenty of in game items to make this a sequal, there are a SHIT ton of behind the scenes fixes and upgrades with the A.I. director that simply could NOT have made this DLC for the firts one. Any DIE HARD player of L4D knows that L4D2 is by far a sequal with a LOT of polishing and add ons.
I love the game, and don’t feel I lossed any money on this purchase at all.
I played both titles and think they are great games… but what I think Valve should have done is included all of the maps from L4D1 in L4D2 so that they can be played with the new content. What pisses me off the most about sequels like this is that the original maps are never included.
Hi I think the game is really good and fun
Its always difficult to feel a sequel is such when it uses the same graphics engine as the previous game, however I suspect Valves hand was forced by the cross platform nature of L4D and the huge issues encountered in trying to deliver free content to X Box users as seen in the Survival Pack and Crash course. Microsoft simply wont allow free content to be distributed across there network and as a result a semi squeal seems the only way they could have launched the content to the whole player base…
As for me, I suspect I will be playing L4d2 for well over 50hrs and at £26 on steam this is great value for money. The game builds on the original L4d with some excellent level design, polish, and difficulty increases. I love the bew levels, especially the closing level to the Parish chapter.
Money well spent x
You’ve misused the phrase, “begs the question.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question