Left 4 Dead 2 has become pretty infamous in the gaming world since it’s announcement at E3, never before has a sequel to a game generated so much negative buzz for begin released “too early”. Fans of L4D started a petition against purchasing the sequel when the game was announced, their argument begin that the original will be forgotten with no new content, and that most of the new features in the L4D2 could have been made available to part 1 through DLC. Well the petition which claimed to have several thousand signatures seems to have made little impact because Valve has just announced that the Left 4 Dead 2 has doubled the preorders that the original had. Keep in mind however that L4D was an original title and therefore didn’t have any fanbase to build those preorders off from when it was originally announced.
Now I know I’ll most likely get flamed for this but I’m actually going to defend Valve on L4D2. First of all Valve has made huge waves in the video game world from the original Half-Life to the Team-Fortress series, to Portal, if there’s any developer I trust it’s Valve. I know every time I reach for a game with the Valve logo on it I’m in for a quality gaming experience. For those who say that there is no need for L4D2 and that everything in the game could be done with DLC don’t you think that all of that stuff would approach the $60 price tag? The sequel promises the ability to use melee weapons, that’s a whole new gameplay mechanic, no developer would release that for free. Then there’s the new levels, at E3 Valve announced that L4D2 would have 5 stages, that would be about $10 each right there. Lets also not forget that the new game still probably has some features that have yet to be shown, so L4D2 looks like it’ll be worth the price.
So why do thousand’s of gamers don’t want the sequel? It seems like its more for the reason of feeling abandoned. The gaming world is filled with crappy sequels and casual games, but sometimes we get treated to an original title that reminds us of why we play video games and right away we feel connected to it and we know that there are developers out there who are thinking about us, the “core” gamer. Now all of a sudden the once original and unique game will simply become the first in a line of “rehashed” sequels only to be forgotten, just like every other video game out there. But it’s Valve here, this isn’t an average developer they know what they are doing and they have said that the original L4D will have it’s own line up of content soon. So I think we should warm up to the idea that a new wave of zombie destruction awaits the gaming community with Nick, Rochelle, Coach, and Ellis.
I will be getting this either way