Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) Demo Impressions

Earlier this week I finally got around to trying out the Xbox 360 demo of Left 4 Dead 2, and I can honestly say that I was really underwhelmed. The major problem I saw was that the demo played almost exactly like the original game.

Now, I know a good sequel takes the strengths of its predecessor and builds upon them while leaving things familiar enough so fans of the previous entry will feel right at home, but aside from the fact that the demo's two levels were in the day time, I could use melee weapons, and there were a few different kinds of Special Infected, it really felt like _exactly_ the same game!

I've heard the retail release features some great weather effects and cinematic-styled sequences, but these weren't featured in the demo which leaves me wondering why. The point of any demo is to inspire someone to go and purchase the retail product, and based on the demo for Left 4 Dead 2, I see no reason to recommend it to someone over the original game, or if they're dying for their Co-Op zombie apocalypse fix, to not urge them to buy the original game at over half the cost instead.

Very disappointing Valve.

I personally didn't notice any huge visual upgrades, and the Source Engine is showing its age far more now than a year ago. The game relies on many of the same music cues as the original title, and the Melee weapons demoed were fun, but very powerful unless you're trying to free someone snagged by a Smoker. The new Special Infected added a little more variety to the general humdrum of the swarms, but nothing too fantastic as far as I'm concerned, and the flaming ammo we've seen in videos wasn't present at all unless I missed it.

Generally speaking, my impressions of this demo are much the same as they were with the original game's demo, which you can read right here.

Well, I did win a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 in the recent Xbox Canada Community Birthday Party, and I'm still deciding whether I should give it a whirl when it arrives or if I should just sell it at reduced cost or flat out give it to a buddy.