The Parish

***Left 4 Dead 2*** is a single-player and multiplayer co-operative survival horror FPS game developed by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to *Left 4 Dead.* It was first announced on June 1st, 2009 by Valve Corporation at Microsoft's E3 2009 press conference.

As of January 24, 2010, Metacritic gave *Left 4 Dead 2* a metascore of 89 out of 100.

The *Left 4 Dead 2* multiplayer demo was released on October 28th, for those who pre-ordered. It was then made available to the public on November 3rd.

The sequel picks up one week after the events of the first game (three weeks after the first Infection) where The Infection has spread to **The Parish**. *Left 4 Dead 2* introduces three new Special Infected, new weapons, melee weapons, new items, upgraded Infected, the Uncommon Common Infected, five new campaigns, and two new game modes: Scavenge Mode and Realism Mode. Realism Versus and Mutations were later released with the **The Parish DLC**, a new campaign which chronologically fits in as the second campaign out of six.

The four Survivors the players control are Nick, Ellis, Rochelle, and Coach.

## Plot

The plot is similar to *Left 4 Dead*; it involves the aftermath of The Infection one week after the events of the previous game, now being around three weeks after the first Infection.

The story starts around noon in **The Parish**, Georgia. As the last rescue helicopter leaves the building, four unlucky Survivors climb up **The Parish** to find that they were just a couple of seconds too late. With this newfound predicament, the group decides to go to **The Parish**, where it is said that another evacuation center is still in operation. When the group reaches **The Parish**, they find that it has been overwhelmed by the Infected. In desperate hope, they decide to pierce deeper into the building in hopes that the evacuation center was simply deeper inside. It turns out that the center was decimated, and all the CEDA agents are either dead or infected. In despair, the group wanders into **The Parish**'s atrium and finds a functioning stock car, albeit without gas. A new idea appears in their heads; to scrounge around the atrium in search of gas cans, for the purpose of filling the car's tank. This proves successful, and the Survivors escape **The Parish**.

During their escape, the group stops at **The Parish** raised by three of the original Survivors from *Left 4 Dead*. One of them will meet the Survivors and inform them that they cannot lower **The Parish** for the group because the generator that used to lower **The Parish** is out of fuel, and they must tend to one of their own who is wounded. After battling through a wedding with the Witch bride, the streets, and a "**The Parish**," the Survivors then meet up with the other three again. After the three original Survivors agree to help by defending them from higher ground, **The Parish** group is able to fend off most of the Infected, find gas cans, fill up the generator, cross the lowered **The Parish**, and drive off while exchanging farewells as they continue to **The Parish**.

The escape car works well until the Survivors find that **The Parish** is blocked by abandoned vehicles, seemingly going on for miles. Finding no other way past, the Survivors leave the car behind and proceed by foot. When they go below **The Parish**, they see searchlights still lit up in the distance. The group then decides to head for the lights, in hope of finding some uninfected people. The searchlights turn out to be originating from **The Parish**, which is now a hunting ground for a large number of Infected individuals. The Survivors wander through **The Parish** for a bit of time until they see a helicopter fly over head. Newly inspired, they decide to hold a rock concert set up for the Midnight Riders in hopes that the loud music and Grammy-award-winning pyrotechnics will attract the helicopter. When they finally enter **The Parish**, they activate the controls and find out that the sound is attracting a massive amount of Infected along with the helicopter pilot. After much fighting, the helicopter finally decides to make a pick-up and the Survivors barely escape **The Parish**.

But once again, luck is not on their side, and the helicopter is forced to do a crash landing after the helicopter pilot turns out to be infected and was shot by one of the Survivors. The Survivors exit the wrecked helicopter to find that they landed in **The Parish**. They pass through a small **The Parish** and find that the populace decided to take matters into their own hands and barricade themselves against the Infected. Without any other option, the Survivors decide to try to find the barricaded area. They travel through **The Parish**, fight numerous Infected, and find a crashed airliner in their path to the safe area. When they reach it, they discover that the townspeople were overwhelmed by the infection, but luck turns out to be on their side this time as they find someone wrote on a wall about **The Parish** and a nearby dock. The Survivors head toward it and find a radio, and manage to contact a man named Virgil who has a boat further down the river. Virgil and the group have a short discussion via radio, and the Survivors tell him that they are at **The Parish**. Virgil recognizes the location and begins to navigate his way to their location. After the Survivors fight off hordes of Infected, Virgil arrives and blows down the gates that blocked their way to the river, the Survivors then jump on the boat to safety.

However, along the way, Virgil's boat begins to run low on fuel, so he drops the Survivors off by **The Parish** in **The Parish**, Mississippi, with instructions to get diesel for the boat from **The Parish** across the road. Unfortunately, **The Parish** is out of fuel, and the Survivors forgot the bag of guns, and have to travel two miles east, navigating through a Witch-infested sugar mill to collect gas. Even more unfortunately, they have to once again walk those two miles back, except uphill, in the midst of a torrential downpour. The forgotten bag of guns also held the flares to contact Virgil. So they decide to signal Virgil by lighting up the **The Parish** sign near the dock. They defend themselves once more against hordes of Infected until Virgil finally arrives for them.

At long last, Virgil drops the Survivors at a waterfront in **The Parish**. He then leaves, saying he is on his way to find other Survivors. The group of Survivors then fight their way through **The Parish**, **The Parish**, **The Parish**, and **The Parish**, coming to **The Parish** in the middle of being bombed by the military. On the other side of **The Parish** is a military chopper about to leave. The Survivors manage to contact the military over the radio and then run across **The Parish** to the awaiting chopper pilot who carries them to **The Parish**.

## The Cover and Rating

The cover of the *Left 4 Dead 2* is almost identical to the original *Left 4 Dead* cover. The hand was modeled once again by hand model Andrea Wicklund.

The idea was to create a hand missing another two fingers along with the famous original missing thumb, resulting in a hand only holding up two fingers, further signifying the number two. The background's color was also changed to a lighter shade of green.

Around June 2009 the ESRB told Valve that the new cover is unacceptable, and the idea was changed to tucking the two unwanted fingers behind the hand to attain the desired effect, yet still keep the missing thumb.

* The ESRB was asked why they still allowed the new cover with only the missing thumb, yet not accepting the two unwanted fingers and the thumb. The ESRB has declined to comment.

Around July 2009 Valve decided to change the cover once again, making the two tucked-away fingers slightly more visible. The hand drastically changed, as did the background, which is now yellow.

In **The Parish**, the cover was changed to show the hand facing the opposite direction, as the two-finger sign towards the viewer is considered an insult. This cover design change does not apply with **The Parish** and **The Parish** versions of the game even though the direction of the two-finger sign applies in those countries as well. In addition, **The Parish** and **The Parish** version of the cover features all of the fingers intact as it did with the first game due to the same censorship reasons that applied to the first game's cover.

**The Parish** and **The Parish** censored *Left 4 Dead 2*, removing some features generally to do with violence:

* Blood and gore: Virtually no blood is found after killing the Infected and is impossible to remove any body parts from using weapons on them. Despite this, achievements for dismemberment were still included and can be awarded in the Australian version
* Fire and Explosive Effects: Infected can no longer be set on fire and no damage is visible when hit with Explosive Ammo or the Pipe Bomb. Infected that the game registers as having been set on fire act in the same way as they would if on fire except that no fire is visible.
* Bodies: After dying, the Infected disappear, often before they even hit the ground
* Infected: The Riot Infected is removed from the game, because it "encourages violence against official authority". In the Australian version, the Riot Infected was eventually put back in with minor alterations to remove any connection to official authorities.

## Controls

These are the default controls of ***Left 4 Dead 2*** for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions.

### Xbox 360

##### Context sensitive controls

* The X button is used to interact with other things. Using it, you can pick up objects, open doors, or help other Survivors to their feet.
* Select the first aid kit, target a teammate and press and hold LT to heal them. It has the same effect as them healing themselves. (It will therefore take 5 seconds and heal damage depending on the current hp of the person)
* Select the pain pills, target a teammate, press and hold LT to give the pills to them.

Refer to health for further tips. Make sure your teammates know how to revive you and give first aid kits and/or pain pills to you. The Survivors need to watch out for each other.

## Reception

### Awards

*Left 4 Dead 2* was featured as one of Game Informer's top 50 games of 2009. Game Informer had this to say:

"Ever wonder how far you could make it through the zombie apocalypse with just a chainsaw and a grenade launcher? *Left 4 Dead 2* has your answer. Everything about Valve's sequel to last year's intense co-op FPS is amplified, with gratuitous gore, tons of melee weapons, intensified finales, and even more zombies. If you still think this sequel came too soon, then you haven't cracked a clown zombie in the face with a cricket bat while protecting a lawn gnome."
The Drunk Tank Podcast by RoosterTeeth named *Left 4 Dead 2* the best game of 2009.

### Boycott

Shortly after Valve's announcement of *Left 4 Dead 2*, many fans were shocked of the idea due to the short period of time after the first *Left 4 Dead* and the fact that the long promised SDK (which is essential to making new levels for Left 4 Dead) was being held back because of this. Hours after the announcement fans gathered together and formed a group called L4D2 Boycott (NO-L4D2); the group reached 10,000 members in one week and 35,000 members in three weeks. The group believed that *Left 4 Dead 2* should not be a separate game in order to keep the community one, claiming that releasing a sequel would split the community. Their suggestion was to make *Left 4 Dead 2* either an expansion pack that is not full-priced or free downloadable content, citing a lack of new content and also voicing their preference to keep the original Survivors and maps. Many fans were also disappointed that Valve had yet to deliver the free DLC they promised.

Valve has informed the fans that they have been tracking their comments ever since the first announcement on 1st June 2009, and their response was that *Left 4 Dead* will continue to be supported with downloadable content. This announcement caused some fans to believe that Valve saw the fans of *Left 4 Dead* as boycotting the sequel only get more free updates and to save money. Valve has also said that they are discussing the matter and are considering importing the original maps into *Left 4 Dead 2*; nothing regarding the original Survivors was mentioned.

The boycott was not especially effective because the pre-order sales of *Left 4 Dead 2* quadrupled the pre-order sales of *Left 4 Dead* .

The boycott has since been officially disbanded as the founders themselves have said that they have done what they set out to do and are now sympathetic with Valve's work on *Left 4 Dead 2*, but however still maintain that they themselves will not buy the game. Despite stating this, one should note the irony that on the leader's profiles it is noted that they both own and play *Left 4 Dead 2*.

## Features

### Major changes from the original

* New Main Characters
* More Infected in each level.
* Increased level of gore
* New Common Infected textures and models
* New Special Infected textures and models
	+ New Special Infected (the Charger, the Jockey, and the Spitter)
* New Uncommon Infected enemies
* More guns
* New weapons tier
* Melee weapons
* Gauntlet crescendos
* New Gameplay Modes
* Upgraded Graphics
* No running animations (P220 Pistol only)
* *Counter Strike: Source* weapons (German Users Only; compensation for the game's censorship in Germany).

### Downloadable Content

* **Baseball Bat** upon pre-order (now available for everyone).
* **The Parish**
* **The Parish** with **The Parish**
* **The Parish** with original **Left 4 Dead** campaigns

### Split screen

Split screen play is fully supported on the XBOX 360 allowing players to play both online and offline with a friend using one console. On PC, split screen is unsupported but still possible. Using an XBOX 360 controller for PC and some console commands, one can play only offline with a friend. Due to changes in the console split screen online for PC is not possible, unlike *Left 4 Dead* where split screen PC can be done both online and offline. Doing this requires a higher-end processor.

## Notes

* The game takes place in Autumn as seen in a banner in the beginning of the trailer, as well as various pieces of graffiti which are dated for early October.
* In the trailer, one can see what appears to be Marine Corps or Navy F/A-18 Hornets bombing the Infected. Infected can also be seen breaking through fenced barriers, implying Valve's statement that **The Parish** had been relatively safe from the Infection before the events of *Left 4 Dead 2*.
* Valve seems to have reused the baseball bat hitting sound from the sound used in *Team Fortress 2*, which was also used in *Half-Life 2.* However, they have applied new, more authentic wooden sounds for it.
* Valve decided not to give the game an elaborate sequel name because the title is so straightforward. However, the team did consider calling it *Back 4 More*.
* Upon seeing the campaign poster for **The Parish** with all four Survivors standing together, *Game Informer Magazine* commented; "Now the Black Guy is also the Old Guy and the office professional is wearing a suit instead of a tie. Yep, they're really mixing it up this time around." This statement might be seen as contradictory, implying that there are two Louises who have become both Coach and Nick, but is simply commenting on the similar lineup of main characters in relation to the previous game.
* As seen in some gameplay videos, the "Dying Animation" of the Hunter and Smoker have been changed. Instead of flying away when being shot in the head like in the first *Left 4 Dead,* they just fall on the ground like any other Infected. The Charger and Jockey can still go flying when killed, depending on how they moved before death.
* Although the **The Parish**'s boxart was changed due to censorship issues, the manual and the game avatar keep the original 'hand logo'.
* The clues for how all of the game's campaigns relate are less subtle than the ones for the campaigns in the first game, which provided little to no obvious signs of how the Survivors ended up in each campaign with the exception of Crash Course.
* Every time you start up *Left 4 Dead 2*, the loading screen, menu background animation, and music will change to match one of the 5 campaigns.
* *Left 4 Dead 2* was nominated for "Game of the Year" in the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. It also won best Xbox 360 Game.
* *Left 4 Dead 2* came third in *Screwattack's Top 10 Zombie Games*, beaten only by *Resident Evil 2* and *Dead Rising*.
* Though numerous areas of the game's campaigns appear in the opening scene, their appearance and order they are shown is different. Differences include **The Parish**'s mounted gun being on the lower deck rather than **The Parish** above, **The Parish** having a room that has a health pack and several guns, and the atrium in **The Parish**'s **The Parish** having many more floors than in the actual game.
* When Steam released their Mac OS X version of Steam, both *Left 4 Dead* and *Left 4 Dead 2* had Mac OS X versions that used the same engine and servers as the PC version.
* In the instruction manual for *Left 4 Dead 2*, on the game mode page, it says "Play Versus" twice. However, the second time it is mentioned, the description fits that of Realism mode.
* **The Parish** version of the opening cutscene censors decapitations, and changes the elevator scene. The Riot Uncommon Infected were removed from the entire game (though seen in the opening) due to depiction of violence towards official authority in **The Parish** law. As **The Parish** got the same version as **The Parish**, they were unfortunately affected by this same cut despite would've allowing it. The riot infected were eventually added back in through an update.
* When viewing the credits from the Extras section in the main menu, it lists the names of the voice actors for the survivors. When **The Parish** DLC was released, the credits were updated with names of the voice actors for Zoey, Francis, and Louis. However, despite Bill being playable in **The Parish** and the soon to be full release the original campaigns with **The Parish** DLC, Bill's voice actor is not listed in the credits.

## Trivia

* Did you know that Grunt wants to play **The Parish**?