Left 4 Dead 2
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Left 4 Dead 2'' is a 2009
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
developed and published by
Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...
. The sequel to '' Left 4 Dead'' (2008) and the second game in the '' Left 4 Dead'' series, it was released for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
and
Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...
in November 2009,
Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
in October 2010, and
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
in July 2013. ''Left 4 Dead 2'' builds upon cooperatively focused gameplay and Valve's proprietary Source engine, the same game engine used in the original ''Left 4 Dead''. Set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic
pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...
, the game focuses on four new Survivors, fighting against hordes of zombies known as the Infected, who develop severe psychosis and act extremely aggressive. The Survivors must fight their way through five campaigns, interspersed with safe houses that act as
checkpoints Checkpoint may refer to: Places * Border checkpoint, a place on the land border between two states where travellers and/or goods are inspected * Security checkpoint, erected and enforced within contiguous areas under military or paramilitary cont ...
, with the goal of escape at each campaign's finale. The gameplay is procedurally altered by the " AI Director 2.0", which monitors the players' performance and adjusts the
scenario In the performing arts, a scenario (, ; ; from Italian , "that which is pinned to the scenery") is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the ''commedia dell'arte'', it was an outline of entrances, exits, and actio ...
to provide a dynamic challenge. Other new features include new types of Special Infected and an arsenal of melee weapons. The game made its world premiere at
E3 2009 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 (E3 2009) was the 15th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 2, 2009, and ended on June 4, 2009, with 41,000 total attendees. Majo ...
with a trailer during the
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
press event. Prior to release, it received mixed critical and community reactions, and attracted an unusually high volume of controversy about its graphic content. In response, alterations were made to the cover art, but both Australia and Germany refused to rate the unmodified edition at the time of release. Despite this, the game was met with positive critical reviews, and is considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made and one of the best multiplayer games.


Gameplay

Like its predecessor, ''Left 4 Dead 2'' is a
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
with a heavy emphasis on cooperative gameplay. The game presents five new campaigns, each composed of three to five smaller levels. As in the first game, each campaign is presented in menus and loading screens as a film starring the four Survivors; and features, upon completing a campaign, a faux credits screen which acts as the final scoreboard for the players and recaps certain performance statistics for the group. In every campaign, most levels involve the Survivors attempting to reach a safe room and close the door once they are all safely inside. However, the final level in each campaign requires the Survivors to call for rescue and either survive a prolonged onslaught until rescue arrives, pass through an especially challenging gauntlet of Infected to reach an escape vehicle, or collect and utilize fuel cans to enable their escape. Each Survivor can carry one each of five categories of equipment: primary weapons, secondary weapons, throwable weapons, major medical supplies (which also includes ammunition upgrades) and minor medical supplies. Primary weapons are broken down into four tiers based on their availability and attributes. Tier one weapons (such as the '' SMG'' and ''Chrome Shotgun'') deal damage relatively slowly and serve as basic offensive weapons. Tier two weapons (such as the ''Assault Rifle'' and ''Combat Shotgun'') deal damage faster and often appear in later maps of each chapter. The two tier three weapons (''
Grenade Launcher A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially designed, large caliber projectile, often with an explosive, Smoke screen, smoke, or tear gas, gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary gre ...
'' and '' M60'') differ from tier one and two weapons both because of their rarity and because players cannot refill their ammunition from ammunition dumps. They deal damage quickly at the cost of limited ammo. Tier four weapons are all mounted weapon systems and carry unlimited ammunition. The mounted weapons deal damage the fastest, but at the cost of overheating after a period of non-stop use, being stuck in place, and not being able to defend from behind. The mounted weapons are in set positions in maps and have a fixed arc of fire. They cannot be given ammunition upgrades like other weapons and players cannot utilize the laser sights attachment with them. There are three types of secondary weapons available: melee weapons, small caliber pistols (that can be dual wielded) and large caliber pistols. Although melee weapons cause extra damage to Infected when struck, the Survivors can use any other weapon or item for weaker melee attacks that can push the Infected back. Players also carry a flashlight with infinite battery life, the use of which enables players to see in the dark (with the downside of the player gaining the attention of the Infected much faster). They may also carry a single
first aid kit A first aid kit or medical kit is a collection of supplies and equipment used to give First aid, immediate medical treatment, primarily to treat injuries and other mild or moderate medical conditions. There is a wide variation in the contents o ...
, special ammo pack, or a
defibrillator Defibrillation is a treatment for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, specifically ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib) and non-perfusing ventricular tachycardia (V-Tach). Defibrillation delivers a dose of electric current (often called a ''count ...
in their major medical supply slot; in addition to either pain pills or an
adrenaline Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, is a hormone and medication which is involved in regulating visceral functions (e.g., respiration). It appears as a white microcrystalline granule. Adrenaline is normally produced by the adrenal glands a ...
shot in their minor medical supply slot. They may also carry a single throwable weapon—
Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a Fuse (explosives), fuse (typically a glass bottle filled wit ...
s to set an area on fire;
pipe bomb A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device (IED) that uses a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively larg ...
s to attract any nearby Infected to the flashing light and sound it makes until it explodes; and jars of Boomer
bile Bile (from Latin ''bilis''), also known as gall, is a yellow-green/misty green fluid produced by the liver of most vertebrates that aids the digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In humans, bile is primarily composed of water, is pro ...
, which attracts Common Infected to whatever it hits (e.g. fires, Special Infected, each other). To enable situational awareness of other Survivors, players are shown the health and status of their fellow survivors. If a player does not have direct sight of another Survivor (e.g. a wall is blocking their view of the others), they will be shown the Survivor's highlighted silhouette. The Survivors are also susceptible to friendly fire, forcing players to exercise caution when shooting or swinging their weapons. As Survivors take damage, they move more slowly; if a Survivor's health drops to zero, they are incapacitated and left to fight off the Infected using a handgun until rescued by another Survivor. If a Survivor dies, they remain dead until the next level, unless revived by a defibrillator, or, in Campaign or Singleplayer mode, reappear in a "Rescue Closet" to be freed by other Survivors. Should all Survivors die or be incapacitated, the game will end, at which point the players may restart that chapter or quit the game.


Game modes

''Left 4 Dead 2'' includes 4 core game modes: * Campaign: up to four human players fight against the Infected to make their way through Campaign stages; any Survivor not controlled by a human player is controlled by the computer. * Versus: up to four other human players take control of various Special Infected to try and prevent the Survivors from completing a stage. Special Infected are randomly assigned to Infected players; they cannot control the Witch or any Common Infected. Occasionally, as determined by the AI Director, certain players will become the Tank. The two teams swap sides once per stage, and are scored based on their stage progress as Survivors. If both teams make it to the saferoom with all four Survivors, a 25-point tiebreaker is awarded to the team that dealt the most combined damage as Special Infected. *
Survival Survival or survivorship, the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things ...
: a timed challenge where the Survivors are trapped in a section of the campaign maps, and try to survive as long as possible against an unending onslaught of Infected. * Scavenge: a new 4-on-4 mode that requires the Survivor players to collect and use as many fuel cans scattered about a level to fill up a power generator, while the Infected players attempt to stop them. ''Non-PvP modes can also be started as Single-player modes allowing players to play without intrusion from human players, playing with three computer-controlled Survivor allies.'' ''Left 4 Dead 2'' also features a Realism mode, which can be enabled at any difficulty for either Campaign or Versus. This mode removes some of the video-game aspects from the gameplay: Survivors cannot see each other's silhouettes, and dead teammates can only be revived with defibrillators and will not respawn later in the level. Weapons and other items will only glow when the player is within a few feet, forcing the players to search the levels more thoroughly. Body shots do less damage. In addition, the Witch enemy can kill any Survivor she would have normally incapacitated (on difficulties other than Easy). Designed to force players to work closely together and rely on voice communication, Valve created Realism mode to give players a way "to be challenged as a team" without having to increase the difficulty level of the game. Finally, in later versions of the game, there is a Mutation option, in which players can select from a menu of 30 variations, some singleplayer, some multiplayer (and some of the latter cooperative, some versus, or both). Each variation changes one or more major game dynamics, such as: constantly draining health, solo mode with no Survivor allies, death upon incapacitation, only one kind of weapon available, coop that later switches to versus, shooting or targeting constraints, an enemy type with increased power, increased numbers of Special Infected, etc. One of these modes, named GunBrain, is a weapons stats analyzer.


Enemies

While also referred to as zombies, the Infected are humans who have contracted a mutated strain of an infection, though neither the source nor nature of this "Green Flu" are made clear in the games. The most numerous Infected encountered by the survivors are the common Infected. Though individually weak, they can swarm and overwhelm the Survivors, especially when separated from their teammates. Damage to the Infected in ''Left 4 Dead 2'' is portrayed more realistically, with bullets and melee weapons ripping off bits of flesh and, in some cases, limbs. A new addition to ''Left 4 Dead 2'' is the Uncommon Infected unique to each campaign. By virtue of location and equipment worn pre-infection, they possess abilities that separate them from the Common Infected. For example, the ''Dead Center'' campaign introduces Infected CEDA agents in
hazmat suit A hazmat suit is a piece of personal protective equipment that consists of an permeation, impermeable whole-body or one piece garment worn as protection against hazardous materials. Such suits are often combined with self-contained breathing ap ...
s, making them fireproof; ''Dark Carnival'' includes clowns, whose squeaking shoes attract small hordes of Common Infected; and ''The Parish'' includes Infected private security contractors in
riot gear Riot control is a form of public order policing used by law enforcement, military, paramilitary or security forces to control, disperse, and arrest people who are involved in a riot, unlawful demonstration or unlawful protest. If a riot is sp ...
, making them bulletproof from the front. As in the first game, there are special Infected whose mutations grant them special abilities that make them highly dangerous, which act as bosses. The presence of such Infected nearby is hinted at by sound effects or musical cues unique to each type. The five Special Infected from the first game return in ''Left 4 Dead 2'', some with modified behavior and skin models: * The Boomer: an extremely bloated Infected who vomits bile. The bile attracts a horde of Common Infected on contact with Survivors and also momentarily blinds them. Upon death, they explode and can also spray bile onto nearby Survivors. * The Hunter: an agile male Infected that can pounce on and incapacitate Survivors from great distances, tearing at them until the Survivor dies or another Survivor shoves him off/kills him. * The Smoker: a male Infected with a long tongue that it uses to ensnare Survivors from a distance, continually choking them. Upon death, he releases a cloud of smoke that can obscure the Survivors' vision and cause them to cough, should they come in direct contact with the smoke. * The Tank: a gigantic, extremely muscular Infected male with the strength to punch Survivors off their feet some distance, as well as toss cars and concrete slabs. Unless the Survivors work as a team, they will be quickly incapacitated or even killed by the Tank's inhuman strength. * The Witch: a crying Infected woman who, when provoked by either damage, loud sounds, light, or proximity of survivors, will attack the provoker and any other Survivors after her provoker is dead. She can incapacitate or even kill a Survivor in one hit. ''Left 4 Dead 2'' introduces a variant of the Witch that wanders aimlessly in the open. ''Left 4 Dead 2'' also introduces three new Special Infected, voiced by
Dee Bradley Baker Dee Bradley Baker (born August 31, 1962) is an American voice actor. Much of his work has consisted of vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as '' Adventure Time'', ''American Dad!'', '' Avatar: The Las ...
: * The Charger: a male Infected with an enormous right arm, and can charge into the Survivors, capturing and carrying one Survivor away from the others, sending any others in his path flying to the side after a capture and stunning survivors upon hitting an obstacle in a charge. He may then pummel his captured Survivor into the ground, rendering that Survivor helpless until one of their teammates helps them by killing the charger or stunning it with frag rounds. * The Spitter: a female Infected that spits out balls of stomach acid that splatter across an area, quickly eroding the Survivors' health as long as they remain within it. She also leaves a puddle of goo upon death. The longer the goo lingers on the ground, the more damage it deals. * The Jockey: a male Infected that jumps onto a Survivor's back and steers them into other Infected or environmental hazards until the player is incapacitated, killed, or the Jockey is shoved off.


AI Director 2.0

As in the first game, an artificial intelligence system called the AI Director drives gameplay by procedurally spawning enemies, health kits or defibrillators based on players' performance during any given campaign. In ''Left 4 Dead 2'', the Director has been improved to encourage more participation by players, forcing players through difficult gauntlets to reach safety. It also has the ability to alter elements of the level, such as placement of walls, level layout, lighting, and weather conditions, making each play session unique. The Director now rewards players for taking longer or more difficult paths through each episode by providing useful equipment, such as special ammo packs or higher tier weapons.


Synopsis


Setting

Like its predecessor, ''Left 4 Dead 2'' is set in the aftermath of a worldwide
pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...
of a disease nicknamed the "Green Flu", which rapidly transforms humans into
zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...
-like creatures and mutated forms that demonstrate extreme aggression towards non-Infected beings. A few humans are immune to the disease, while some of those who are Infected have no symptoms. The Civil Emergency and Defense Agency (CEDA) and the U.S. military create safe zones to attempt to evacuate as many survivors as possible. ''Left 4 Dead 2'' introduces four new survivors: Coach, Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle, who are immune to the disease and have individual backstories that are provided through character dialogue. While the game is intended as a continuation of the original, occurring one week after the first game begins, Valve decided to create a new group of survivors due to the change in location. Like the first game, the five campaigns in ''Left 4 Dead 2'' take place across a story arc. Set in the
Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...
, the story begins in
Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...
, and ends in
New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
. The four survivors have to fight their way through hordes of Infected, using safehouses along the way to rest and recuperate in order to reach extraction points.


Characters

''Left 4 Dead 2'' features a new cast of four human survivors: Coach (voiced by Chad L. Coleman), a stocky high school football coach with a bad knee (although this does not affect gameplay); Nick (voiced by Canadian singer Hugh Dillon), a pessimistic gambler and con artist; Rochelle (voiced by
Rochelle Aytes Rochelle Aytes (born May 17, 1976) is an American actress and model. She is best known for her role as April Malloy on American Broadcasting Company, ABC drama series ''Mistresses (U.S. TV series), Mistresses'' (2013–16) and as the voice of Lef ...
), a low-level production assistant for a local television station that was reporting on the pandemic; and Ellis (voiced by Eric Ladin), a friendly and talkative
redneck ''Redneck'' is a derogatory term mainly applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the southern United States.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, ''Dictionary of American ...
mechanic who often talks about his friend Keith and their many misadventures. In addition to the four playable characters, ''Left 4 Dead 2'' also features two supporting characters in the form of Whitaker (voiced by Dayton Callie), a gun store owner, and Virgil (voiced by Randall Newsome), a Cajun boat captain who appears (voice only) in the game's final three campaigns. Two soldiers heard in the final map of The Parish, voiced by Bob Gunter and Bill Huggins, round out the NPC cast.


Plot

'' The Sacrifice'' takes place before the main events of ''Left 4 Dead 2'' and after the events of comic book of the same name. At the end of the first game, the original survivors—Bill, Francis, Louis, and Zoey—arrive at the portside town of Rayford in
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
in order to search for a boat that can take them to the
Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami a ...
. After finding an adequate sailboat, the survivors have to manually start up generators in order to lift a bridge for their boat to pass through. One survivor ( canonically Bill) sacrifices themself in order to kick-start a generator once it gives out, so that the others may reach safety. This is the end of Bill's story in the ''Left 4 Dead'' video game series. ''Left 4 Dead 2'' opens in ''Dead Center'' (set in
Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...
), where the four survivors find themselves abandoned on a hotel roof by rescue helicopters. They decide to head for the local mall, where a second CEDA evacuation point is located. After a brief encounter with a gun store owner, Whitaker, the survivors discover that the mall is overrun, with all CEDA agents having become either dead or Infected as well. Ellis helps the group use a
stock car Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses. It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It originated in the southe ...
to break out of the mall and travel towards New Orleans, rumored to be the last standing city in America. ''The Passing'' takes place between ''Dead Center'' and ''Dark Carnival'', and after the events of ''The Sacrifice'' campaign. The survivors arrive at the bridge in Rayford, where they meet Francis, Louis, and Zoey. As they need to cross the bridge to proceed, the Survivors need to find another way across to refill the generator with gas. After fighting their way through a wedding reception (complete with a Witch bride), the streets, and a historic under-the-river tour, they meet up again with the original survivors, who help by covering for the group while they fill the generator and lowering the bridge once it's full. At the start of the ''Dark Carnival'' campaign, the four survivors find the highway ahead completely blocked by ditched vehicles, and are forced to travel on foot through an abandoned (but still operating) amusement park. After navigating their way to the park stadium, Coach devises a plan to use a large-scale light show on the concert stage, which had been abandoned by a rock band called The Midnight Riders, in order to signal a helicopter pilot for rescue. After being rescued, they later discover that their pilot is Infected. When the pilot starts attacking them, Nick is forced to kill him (echoing a similar situation in ''Left 4 Dead''), causing the chopper to crash into a
bayou In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...
, which acts as the setting for ''Swamp Fever''. Working their way through the swamps, the group comes across a crashed airplane, dead military paratroopers, and isolated swamp villages which had held out against the Infected but were eventually overrun. After spending the morning fighting through the swamp, the group arrives at a plantation mansion and make radio contact with Virgil, a Cajun boat captain who can assist them; however, his boat begins to run low on diesel fuel on the way to New Orleans. As a tumultuous hurricane approaches (the titular ''Hard Rain'' of the subsequent campaign), the survivors go ashore at Ducatel in
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
, after which they make their way through an abandoned (and Witch-infested) sugarcane mill to a gas station to get diesel fuel, and return to signal Virgil using the neon sign of a burger chain restaurant. In the final campaign, ''The Parish'', Virgil drops the group off at New Orleans, where the military appears to be evacuating civilians across a bridge. On the way there, the four discover the city overrun with Infected and that the military is actually leaving the city as well as conducting bombing runs on roads and bridges presumably in order to stop the infected from migrating. The group manages to reach the bridge, where they make contact with the military. Judging from their dialogue, the military pilots suspect the survivors to be " carriers", similar to the original survivors of ''Left 4 Dead''. After securing their rescue helicopter, the survivors lower and cross the bridge, escaping on the helicopter just as the bridge is destroyed. While the survivors' fate is left unclear after this point, the game's writer Chet Faliszek stated in a 2009 interview that the military took survivors on cruise ships to the
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
in an attempt to escape the infection.


Development

Development for ''Left 4 Dead 2'' started shortly after the release of the first game—following a short break—building on ideas from the development team to make the next game "bigger and better". According to Chet Faliszek in a 2023 interview, ''Left 4 Dead'' had been developed quickly to release as soon as possible that it left the game in a bad state that no one at Valve wanted to work on correcting the issues to improve the game. Instead of trying to fix features and include new features like mod support, the team opted to completely rebuild the game as a new title, properly addressing strong development steps to avoid the miscues from creating the first game. The game was given the code name "Carnation" by Microsoft to prevent revealing its details before its official announcement. Faliszek stated that ''Left 4 Dead 2''s story would explore more of the world of the game, and that Valve had created a full story for the cause and effects of the infection pandemic, including terms that they have used for the AI Director. Each campaign was purposely designed with a different feel; however, all five campaigns were mapped out at the same time by the entire team to provide the narrative flow and ensure the uniqueness of each campaign. The team used a ''Left 4 Dead'' dictionary developed to describe level design and flow within the game to provide a common language for developing the levels. ''Left 4 Dead 2'' contains about 7,800 unique lines of dialogue, a 40% increase over ''Left 4 Dead''. The writers designed the characters and selected appropriate voice actors who had natural accents for their lines and allowed the actors freedom to help authenticate the roles. They would attend recording sessions for the voice actors and allow them to ad-lib their lines for their characters, often getting new ideas for character dialogue to be recorded later, particularly in the case of Ellis (voiced by Eric Ladin) and Nick (Hugh Dillon). Randall Newsome, the voice of the boat captain Virgil, was a local actor from Louisiana who naturally spoke
Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Whi ...
and helped to embellish the role better than the writers could. Faliszek wanted to include a "no-nonsense" woman from a Department of Motor Vehicles, but this character did not make the cut. The developers solicited several bands to include them in the game:
Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...
responded eagerly, and allowed Valve to use its music and other imagery in the game, such as on Rochelle's T-shirt. In introducing the new Infected, the development team had to consider how the new abilities would mesh with the existing Infected and any changes they had made to them. One discarded idea for a new Infected included the "Leaker"; the creature, when having taken damage, would shoot out spouts of goo at the survivors, and then would be able to self-detonate like the Boomer. However, this sacrificial act would have given survivors time to escape, and the idea was dropped, though features of the Leaker were built into the Spitter. In development, the programmers wanted to find a way to provide more variation and visual effects for the players, although they were already strained by memory limitations on the Xbox 360 for ''Left 4 Dead''. One key development factor was recognizing a way to create greater variation in the appearance of the common Infected through a number of modeling and rendering tasks. Simple changes of the underlying geometry of the model, either the head or the body, with the resulting effects on the texture mapping was one means to create apparent variation. Another means was created by using different head textures along with various blood and dirt maps, and similarly different wounds applied to the body texture. A final means to alter the tone of both the skin and the clothing worn by the Infected. As a result, a single Infected model could have up to 24,000 variations within the game. This allowed Valve to effectively only keep two to six common Infected core models in memory for each level, leaving only the unique Infected for each campaign and the special Infected as their own unique models. As a result, the memory use for the Infected dropped by 50%. Valve's programmers also sought how to better represent damage the players did to the Infected by showing inflicted wounds in the appropriate location and in a manner based on the weapon used, allowing for the inclusion of more resilient Infected creatures in advanced game modes. They had simulated this in ''Left 4 Dead'' by having five possible character models that would result from a fatal attack but felt this could be advanced further. Already limited by memory concerns on the Xbox 360 that prevented further variations on the core Infected models, the team devised a system of using textures with transparencies combined with ellipsoid culling from any Infected character model to simulate the wounds, with several graphical process simplifications to avoid taxing the rendering system. This allowed the team to simulate up to two such wounds on each Infected using only 13% of the memory resources of the based system in ''Left 4 Dead''. Another visual aspect that the Valve team explored was the rendering of water, particularly in the "Swamp Fever" campaign, which takes place mostly in a large swamp area. Valve found early play-testers would become confused with the large, tree-covered map, but by adding hints of water movement in the direction they were to go, there was a significant reduction in players becoming lost on the map. The water maps were created by using the 3D animation tool
Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...
against its landscape maps to create realistic water flow patterns as surface maps. These surface maps were then applied in a "flowing" manner instead of the scrolling manner used in previous games. These water effects were further expanded upon for Valve's next game, '' Portal 2''. Doug Lombardi, vice-president of marketing for Valve, noted that the SDK released for ''Left 4 Dead'' would also be compatible with ''Left 4 Dead 2''.


Marketing

PC and Xbox 360 players who pre-ordered ''Left 4 Dead 2'' through participating retailers gained early access to the game's demo, which was released on October 27, 2009 for Xbox Live and October 28, 2009 for PC players, and an exclusive baseball bat melee weapon to be used in game. Pre-ordering the PC version of the game through the Steam network also unlocks Bill's beret from ''Left 4 Dead'' for use in the PC version of ''
Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' (''TF2'') is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation in 2007. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video g ...
''. Also, when a person buys the game and starts up Team Fortress 2, they will get a frying pan as a melee weapon and Ellis' hat as an in-game hat. The demo became available for all PC and Xbox Live Gold users on November 4, 2009 with Xbox Live Silver users gaining access on November 11, 2009. The demo features the first two maps in "The Parish" campaign. On October 5, 2009, Valve announced that ''Left 4 Dead 2'' would be promoted by a $25 million advertising campaign, exceeding the $10 million that supported ''Left 4 Dead''. The campaign includes television advertisements during sporting events, on billboards and magazines; and more aggressive advertising for Europe.


Release

''Left 4 Dead 2'' was released on Steam on November 16, 2009. Retail copies were made available some days after, depending on the country. On December 25, 2013, Valve made the game for free for a limited time for new players. The Christmas update also included a special achievement called "Ghost of Christmas Present," awarded to veteran players who helped the free holiday players survive in the game's campaign mode.


Mac and Linux versions

In March 2010, Valve announced that it would be bringing the Steam content platform to
Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
computers, as well as providing native versions of existing Valve games, including '' Left 4 Dead'' and ''Left 4 Dead 2''. Both games support cross-platform play, allowing Mac players to play alongside PC players on the same servers. They also support Steam Play and Steam Cloud, allowing a player who has purchased the game on one platform to download and play it on the other platform for free, with their save data intact. The OS X client was released on October 5, 2010. With the introduction of a Linux client for Steam, Valve announced that ''Left 4 Dead 2'' would be ported to Linux. The port was released on May 3, 2013.


Arcade version

A Japanese
arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...
version of ''L4D2'' titled was developed and released under license by
Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, Toy, toys, arcade cabinets, and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, Vending machine, vending machines, and Juk ...
in December 2014. The arcade version featured a unique mouse-and-handset control scheme, exclusive skins and weapons, online and local connected play, and unique limited online events (with the online service ending in 2017). The plot and gameplay remains largely unchanged from ''L4D2'', streamlined and modified for a time-limited arcade environment. The game also features four exclusive survivors which replace the original survivors: , a Japanese schoolgirl visiting America on a school trip; , a Japanese college student on vacation; , a half-Japanese half-American tour guide; and , an American bartender and army veteran.


Additional content


Downloadable content

On December 14, 2009, Valve announced the first DLC installment for ''Left 4 Dead 2'', ''The Passing''. Though initially planned to be released sometime in March 2010, "The Passing" was released on April 22, 2010. The content costs 560 Microsoft Points ($6.99) for the
Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...
and is free for PC and Mac users. The campaign, taking place between the "Dead Center" and "Dark Carnival" campaigns, features the cast of ''Left 4 Dead 2'' meeting with three of the survivors from the original ''Left 4 Dead''. The new group learns that the fourth original survivor, Bill, sacrificed himself to allow his comrades to continue on safely. The title "The Passing" can be interpreted in several ways; to Bill's passing, the brief passing encounter between the two groups, and of the first group of survivors "passing the torch" to the next. "The Passing" contains references to other zombie-themed works, including the games '' Dead Rising'' (2006) and ''
Plants vs. Zombies ''Plants vs. Zombies'' is a video game Media franchise, franchise developed by PopCap Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA). The series follows the affiliates of David "Crazy Dave" Blazing as they use his plants to defend against a zombi ...
'' (2009), and the film ''
28 Days Later ''28 Days Later'' (sometimes stylised with ellipsis as ''28 Days Later...'') is a 2002 post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It stars Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to d ...
'' (2002). The add-on also features two new weapons, an
M60 machine gun The M60, officially the Machine Gun, Caliber 7.62 mm, M60, is a family of American general-purpose machine guns firing 7.62×51mm NATO Cartridge (firearms), cartridges from a disintegrating Belt (firearms), belt of M13 links. There are sev ...
which becomes unusable once depleted of ammo, and a golf club for melee. A prequel to ''The Passing'', titled ''The Sacrifice'', was released on October 5, 2010, as an add-on for both ''Left 4 Dead'' and ''Left 4 Dead 2''. This prequel ties up the story of the original game, showing the events leading to the meeting of the two groups of survivors in "The Passing" from the point of the ''Left 4 Dead'' characters. However, players can choose which character will sacrifice themselves for the others to safely continue on and not just the canonical choice of Bill. Valve also provided the full "No Mercy" campaign from ''Left 4 Dead'' as a ''Left 4 Dead 2'' campaign, which is playable with the original Survivors from ''Left 4 Dead''. Though the maps are nearly identical to their appearance in ''Left 4 Dead'', No Mercy in ''Left 4 Dead 2'' contains all of the enhancements of the sequel, including the new Special Infected, Uncommon Infected, melee weapons, additional guns, and the ability to use the new game modes, including Mutations and Scavenge mode. An additional community-created downloadable content package, called ''Cold Stream'', was released July 24, 2012 for Xbox 360 and PC. Valve announced testing had begun on the Xbox 360, as well as for all the original Left 4 Dead maps via the L4D Blog. The content was in public beta, available to players for testing and data collection on any issues, with a complete release date on 24 July. On July 24 it was announced that Valve did not send the downloadable content package to Microsoft. On August 1, 2012, it was announced that Cold Stream would be made available for Xbox 360 on August 3, at the price point of 560 MSP ($6.99). A community-made scenario, "The Last Stand", was released on September 24, 2020 with Valve's blessing as an official update to the game. The update includes a new campaign of the same name, over twenty new survival maps and several miscellaneous changes to the game. The leads on the community project had worked on levels and had pitched the idea to Valve around 2019, but at that time, the studio was in the final stages of finishing '' Half-Life: Alyx'', but gave the team permission to continue what it was doing, including providing a map of a lighthouse setting (the origin of "The Last Stand" name) that was used in the original ''Left 4 Dead'' as a Survival-mode exclusive map''.'' When ''Alyx'' was mostly complete, members from Valve took time to review the state of the project, and were impressed with its state. Valve subsequently provided minimal technical support in terms of Source engine support, leaving the community team to handle the rest.


Mutations

Mutations are modifications on ''Left 4 Dead 2''s game modes, which have been offered every week after ''The Passings release; these game modes alter the conditions of play. All Mutations are now available through an update, making them selectable in the PC version. At this time Valve added the "Realism Versus" mutation to the game as a permanent game mode. All Mutations became available for Xbox 360 users with the release of Cold Stream.


Community mods

Similar to ''Left 4 Dead'' and other Source Engine-based games, a number of players have constructed new maps, campaigns, and other variations for ''Left 4 Dead 2'', supported by Valve through their
software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific t ...
for the game. With the kit, players have found ways to include the original ''Left 4 Dead'' campaigns into ''Left 4 Dead 2''. Players have also found ways to increase the number of survivors up to 16, duplicating the graphics for the existing survivor characters as needed. In August 2010, Valve announced that it will promote selected community generated maps, one every two weeks, both by blog posts on their official site, and by offering the map on a number of their dedicated servers. Valve updated the game in January 2013 to include support for Steam Workshop, allowing users to create and share new scenarios, maps, characters and weapons, and to create Mutation-like changes that can be applied to existing maps. A further patch in February 2013 introduced a new scripting system, Expanded Mutation System, that gives programmers more control and options to create new Mutations that can be played across any map or to customize behavior in specific campaigns; one such user-created Mutation creates an experience similar to the Zombie mode in '' Call of Duty: Black Ops II'', allowing players to buy weapons and barricades to fight off waves of zombies.


Related media

A proposed content package and tie-in for the 2012 horror film ''
The Cabin in the Woods ''The Cabin in the Woods'' is a 2011 science fiction comedy horror film directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut, produced by Joss Whedon, and written by Whedon and Goddard. It stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchis ...
'' was in the works, but the project dissolved after the film's original production company,
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
, filed for bankruptcy. The film's director, Drew Goddard, commented on what the downloadable content would have included, stating: "The game was gonna be amazing. You were gonna be able to play in both the upstairs ''Cabin in the Woods'' world and the downstairs 'facility' world with all the monsters. Believe me, I HATE all video games based on movies, they always suck, but porting ''Cabin'' into ''Left For Dead'' felt like the right fit. It pains me that it didn't happen." Valve did allow the filmmakers to include the ''Left 4 Dead 2'' bosses as monsters to populate some of the scenes in the film despite the failed project. On April 4, 2013 a '' Resident Evil 6'' crossover DLC was released for the PC version. It adds the main characters and two monsters from ''Left 4 Dead 2'' to the PC-exclusive The Mercenaries: No Mercy mode in ''Resident Evil 6''. Also three monsters from ''Resident Evil 6'' are added as replacement skins to existing monsters on the PC version of ''Left 4 Dead 2''. On August 20, 2015, an update for the game '' Zombie Army Trilogy'' was released, which imported the eight survivors from both ''Left 4 Dead'' games into ''ZAT''. In 2021, the characters were added to the games sequel '' Zombie Army 4: Dead War''.


Reception


Critical reception

''Left 4 Dead 2'' received "generally favorable reviews" across both platforms according to
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
. Game journalists praised the changes made with the new melee weapons and firearms, the new strategies introduced through the new special Infected, and the details of the southern locale and individual campaigns compared with the campaigns of the first game. ''
Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...
'' praised the game's replayability and the attention put in every detail. ''
Libération (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...
'' also praised the game, commenting that Valve was one of the last game studios making games geared toward hardcore PC gamers. ''
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
'' considered that the game improved on the first in every way, and that anyone who liked the concepts introduced by the first game should buy the second. ''
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...
'' also praised the game, and considered that it was "overflowing with personality". ''Left 4 Dead 2'' received the Best Xbox 360 Game award at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. During the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (now known as the D.I.C.E. Awards), the game has been nominated for " Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering", " Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay", and " Action Game of the Year". In 2016, it won the "Better With Friends" Award in the first-ever Steam Awards.


Technical issues

The Xbox 360 version of the game was noted at launch for having serious issues with lag and slowdown in online game modes, the majority coming from using the game's dedicated servers. According to Valve, these problems were due to an unexpectedly huge number of players online on Xbox LIVE. It was shortly fixed after release by a server infrastructure change and adding new dedicated servers.


Sales

Pre-release sales estimates for ''Left 4 Dead 2'' were positive. As of July 2009, ''Left 4 Dead 2'' ranked first in purchase intent out of all upcoming games, with 9 out of 10 polled stating that they would buy the game. According to Lombardi, pre-orders for the sequel within the month following the announcement were double those for ''Left 4 Dead'' at the same time relative to release date. In a press release on October 5, 2009 Valve announced that, based on the strength of pre-orders, they expect ''Left 4 Dead 2'' to be the fastest selling product in the company's history, with the game's pre-release sales averaging 300% greater than ''Left 4 Dead''. In an interview in November 2009, Chet Faliszek claimed the number of pre-sales of ''Left 4 Dead 2'' were four times that of the original game. On December 1, 2009, Valve reported that more than two million retailed copies of ''Left 4 Dead 2'' were sold in two weeks, which represents "more than double" the sales of the original game's two week debut. According to the NPD Group, the Xbox 360 version was the fifth best-selling retail title for consoles in November 2009, with over 744,000 copies sold. In February 2010,
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
, ''Left 4 Dead 2'' retail distributor, revealed that the game had sold 2.9 million on retail so far while
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
wrote that more than 4 million copies were sold at stores in 2009. Over two weeks in July 2010, approximately 12,000 owners of '' Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'' were mistakenly banned by Valve's-Anti-Cheat system. Those affected received a free copy of the game, which could be sent as a gift if the user already owned a copy. On May 10, 2011, Doug Lombardi mentioned that each of the ''Left 4 Dead'' games had sold three million copies on the Xbox 360. In September 2012, Faliszek, in an interview with ''
VG247 Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British digital media company based in London. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and ot ...
'', said that the series had sold over 12 million in total. The game was offered free for a day on Steam during
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
2013.


Competitive play

On PC, the original competitive modification named "Confogl", was created by community member ProdigySim. It is now a playable mutation included in the game. Confogl is a set of rules for competitive ''Left 4 Dead 2'' Versus mode which standardizes certain elements and changes the distribution of items and weapons. It tips the scales toward the Infected. Tournaments have been held utilizing the Confogl modification, such as the CEVO tournament.


Controversies

''Left 4 Dead 2'' has been a central issue in a number of critical discussions regarding its timing and its graphic and mature content. John Walker of UK-based gaming website ''
Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC game, PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017. History ''Rock Paper S ...
'' has theorized that this is due to higher expectations for Valve, given the perception of its status as an industry leader.


Boycott

The weekend following the game's announcement at the 2009 E3 Convention, some ''Left 4 Dead'' players called for a boycott of ''Left 4 Dead 2'' and formed the
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
community group called "L4D2 Boycott (NO-L4D2)" which grew to over 10,000 members by the end of that weekend, and reached more than 37,000 about a month later. In addition to a lack of further ''Left 4 Dead'' content, they were concerned with the characters, visuals, and music shown in the E3 demonstration video, feeling these were inappropriate to the first game's aesthetics, and that the release of the sequel so soon after the first game would fracture the community. In response to these complaints, Valve marketer Doug Lombardi stated that the announcement of ''Left 4 Dead 2'' at E3 should not be taken to indicate that Valve would no longer support the first game. He asked the community to "trust them a little bit," and told them that while their team was eager to get new material to players of ''Left 4 Dead'', they determined that a sequel would be the best option for several reasons: the demand for new campaigns, enemies and weapons could not be met as a simple DLC; both Faliszek and project lead Tom Leonard found that too much of the content relied on each other, making it very difficult to release incremental patches in the same style as ''
Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' (''TF2'') is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation in 2007. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video g ...
'' (2007); the development team liked the idea of rolling up the content into a sequel to be released a year after ''Left 4 Dead''s release. Faliszek stated that Newell was skeptical of the idea when the team brought the sequel forward, but still allowed the project to go through. In September 2009, Valve flew two of the boycott group's most prominent members to Valve, in order to playtest ''Left 4 Dead 2''; the two felt that the sequel was well done. This event, through a series of correspondences made in jest, shortly led to Valve's
Gabe Newell Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), also known by his nickname Gaben, is an American video game developer and businessman. He is the president and co-founder of the video game company Valve Corporation. Newell was born in Colorado and ...
and designer Erik Johnson flying to Australia to visit "Joe W-A", a ''Left 4 Dead'' modder. Newell jokingly reported that Valve was "boycotting" Joe's new mod for the game when Joe asked when he would be flown to Valve in the same manner as the ''Left 4 Dead 2'' boycotters, but whimsically offered that if Joe was to pay to fly him to the country, he would take a look at it. Joe was able to raise the required funds, US$3,000, through donations through his website, though ultimately Newell paid for the trip himself, with Joe's collected donations going to the Child's Play charity. On October 14, 2009, the initiators of the boycott group announced that they had ended their boycott and were shutting down the 40,000-plus group because Valve was retaining their promise of additional content and fixes for ''Left 4 Dead'', such as the recent release of the "Crash Course" campaign. These gamers also believed that the group itself, losing its purpose, was now being used just to bad-mouth Valve, their staff and other players. In a video interview posted on October 29, 2009, Gabe Newell said, "for people who joined the Boycott Group on Steam ... they're actually pre-ordering the product at a higher rate than Left 4 Dead 1 owners who weren't in the boycott".


Cover art

Valve was forced to alter its original cover art for the game by the ESRB; the original image depicted the series' hand with its
little finger The little finger or pinkie, also known as the baby finger, fifth digit, or pinky finger, is the most ulnar and smallest digit of the human hand, and next to the ring finger. Etymology The word "pinkie" is derived from the Dutch word ''pink' ...
,
ring finger The ring finger, third finger, fourth finger, leech finger, or annulary is the fourth digit of the human hand, located between the middle finger and the little finger. Sometimes the term ring finger only refers to the fourth digit of a left-ha ...
and the
thumb The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...
torn off, which would thus have the
index finger The index finger (also referred to as forefinger, first finger, second finger, pointer finger, trigger finger, digitus secundus, digitus II, and many other terms) is the second digit of a human hand. It is located between the thumb and the m ...
and
middle finger The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, typically located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is al ...
remaining. It was deemed too explicit, and to appease the ESRB, Valve changed the image so that the fingers were merely bent back instead, but the company was still able to include the torn-off thumb in all regions except for Japan and Germany, where it had to be censored. The cover was further changed for release in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, as the two-finger sign with the back of the hand faced toward the viewer is considered an
insult An insult is an expression, statement, or behavior that is often deliberately disrespectful, offensive, scornful, or derogatory towards an individual or a group. Insults can be intentional or unintentional, and they often aim to belittle, of ...
; the UK cover features the hand facing the opposite direction to avoid this, making it instead the more optimistic gesture for "victory".


Racism accusations

Willie Jefferson of the ''
Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...
'', after seeing initial promotional material for the game, considered that several of the Infected "appear to be African-Americans" implying a
racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
approach to the game, and also noted that "setting the game in a city that was a scene of dead, bloated bodies floating by" some years after the impact of
Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...
was "a bad call". Faliszek, commenting on Jefferson's claims, considered the supposition to be "utter insanity", and commented that the Infected are a mix of all races, and that the game's version of New Orleans is "not a brick-for-brick representation" of the city and were not trying to make any statement about it with the game. A writer for ''
Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...
'' considered that Jefferson "seems to me to be picking a fight where none exists." Others noted that the appearance of
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
Infected simply reflected the racial diversity of New Orleans.


Australian ban and unbanning

''Left 4 Dead 2'' was refused classification in Australia by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). It failed to gain an MA15+ rating, the highest possible rating for video games in Australia at the time of release. This prevented the sale of the original game within the country. In its report, the OFLC cited the reason for refusing classification as "realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence". However, a small number of members of the OFLC board believed the game could merit the MA15+ rating which was used to publish the first ''Left 4 Dead''. It was expected that changes could be made to the game to allow the game to be classified as MA15+ and thus sold in Australia. Both Lombardi and Newell were "surprised" by the classification refusal. Valve appealed the OFLC's decision about a week after being notified of the ruling, comparing the sequel to its predecessor, which had been classified as MA15+, and the mature ratings the sequel had received from similar rating organizations around the world. However, as the appeal process, expected to end on October 22, was close to the planned release date, Valve submitted a modified version of the game for classification addressing the concerns the OFLC has stated. This version, which no longer contained images of "decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies", was classified as MA15+ by the OFLC, thus allowing for the game's release in Australia, though Valve and Electronic Arts still hoped to have their preferred, unmodified version classified by the OFLC for release. The appeal of the decision to deny classification to the unedited version of the game was conducted by the independent Classification Review Board, and resulted in the previous ruling to deny classification being sustained. The Classification Review Board cited "insufficient delineation between the depiction of zombie characters and the human figures" as one of the key factors in its classification refusal. ''Left 4 Dead 2''s classification refusal, as well as for other games from this era, such as '' Fallout 3'' (since rerated MA15+ having the same version as other countries) and '' Aliens vs. Predator'' (since appealed and rerated MA15+ uncut), reignited debate over the prohibition of sale and exhibition of video games for mature audiences. In mid-December 2009, the Australian government sought public opinion on the adult classification rating for video games, despite statements by South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson believing the issue to only affect a minority of the country's citizens. Following Atkinson's decision to leave the Attorneys General to be replaced by John Rau, who was reportedly in favour of an R18+ rating, Valve revealed that, should the bill be passed, they planned to release an uncensored version of ''Left 4 Dead 2'' for PC in Australia. The Australian Federal Parliament passed legislation allowing an R18+ classification for video games on January 1, 2013, and Valve stated they would explore legal options of resubmitting the uncensored version of ''Left 4 Dead 2'' following this change. On August 29, 2014, the uncensored version was reclassified R18+, effectively unbanning the game, five years after the original release, with Valve adding in the availability to switch to the uncensored version as
downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...
for users who had purchased the game before the ratings change.


German ban and unbanning

In order to achieve the highest possible rating given by
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
's Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (''Freigegeben ab 18 Jahren gemäß § 14 JuSchG'', meaning "Restricted for those below the age of 18"), Valve had to heavily censor the game's violent content similar to the Australian version. However, the international (and thus uncensored) version was indexed by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons on December 1, 2009 in order to prevent sellers from advertising or selling it to minors. On February 15, 2010, the '' Amtsgericht'' Tiergarten confiscated all European PC versions for violation of § 131 StGB (representation of violence), meaning they may not be sold; however, it is still legal to import (with the risk that the game is confiscated by customs) and own the game. The court said that the game trivializes violence due to its high killing rate and explicit graphical representation of mutilation. They also sensed a strong cynical attitude behind the game's concept. On January 29, 2021, the uncensored version was released for Germany after a re-evaluation from German authorities. Users in Germany who had purchased the game can switch to the uncensored version as downloadable content, similarly to Australian consumers.


References


External links

* * {{Video game controversy 2009 video games Asymmetrical multiplayer video games Cajuns in video games Censored video games Cooperative video games First-person shooter multiplayer online games First-person shooters 2000s horror video games Left 4 Dead (franchise) Linux games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer online games Obscenity controversies in video games Post-apocalyptic video games Race-related controversies in video games Source (game engine) games Southern United States in fiction Survival video games Valve Corporation games Video games set in cemeteries Video game sequels Video games about viral outbreaks Video games about zombies Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring female protagonists Video games scored by Mike Morasky Video games set in 2009 Video games set in amusement parks Video games set in Georgia (U.S. state) Video games set in Mississippi Video games set in New Orleans Video games set in Pennsylvania Video games using Havok Video games using procedural generation Video games with commentaries Video games with Steam Workshop support British Academy Games Award for Multiplayer winners Video games featuring black protagonists