Left 4 Dead 2 -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Left 4 Dead 2 with the full one-thousand points. Left 4 Dead 2 is surprisingly a real mixed bag. For the most part it's an entirely superior game to the original. The graphics are about the same level as the previous game. That's to say they look decent and are fully functional but they're not top of the line. The sound quality is the same. Great voice work, great infected sounds, great weapon sounds and the same great musical cues only this time reworked with a southern flair. The control is identical to the last game. No problems there. The new special infected are great. They all work well within the game. They did a really good job differentiating between the campaigns this time around. They've gone a long way to make each campaign feel unique, especially in the crescendos and the finales. From Dark Carnival's rock concert finale to The Parish's mad dash across the bridge to Hard Rain's finale in hurricane level weather. The campaigns are truly distinct. The game offers up plenty of variety in its online modes as well. Campaign, versus, survival, and scavenge all offer up interesting things to do. They really handled that side of things well. They didn't do a very good job in a couple of other areas though. One of those is minor. And that's this group of survivors is less interesting than the original group. They're just not as funny or endearing to me. As I said, that's a minor complaint at best. The other thing they didn't handle that well is more of a major complaint though. The game is incredibly unbalanced. When playing at the expert difficulty level with four living players the game is nearly broken in how it just eternally throws numerous special infected at you with an essentially never ending horde. While I'm sure the campaigns are technically possible to complete at that setting there just isn't a single ounce of fun to be had doing so. At the normal and advanced difficulties the game is the same fun it ever was. Expert used to be fun, it's not anymore. The balance issue really mars what should have been an entirely superior sequel. I'm giving Left 4 Dead 2 an 8.5. I'm hoping for a patch that adjusts the balance issues before the inevitable download content packs arrive.