This post began on October 9, 2010, but I have only just now completed it today. I have, many a time, partook in the year old argument (stemming from the Boycott), of the similarities and differences between Left 4 Dead (1) and Left 4 Dead 2 (to which I will refer as L4D and L4D2 respectively), along with which constitutes as a better game.
Read my BioShock 2 review for my abbreviated synopsis of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.
Plot
The first and most important aspect of both L4D and L4D2 easily identifies as plot, followed by character development. Left 4 Dead was known as a game with no plot. The player could decide for him or herself the predicament of the survivors. The player could either think of the campaigns as a chain, a series of separate events all linked up, or individual instances of "What would happen if?" scenarios, such as, "What would happen if the survivors were stranded in an urban area at the time of the outbreak?", or "What would happen if the survivors were stranded in a rural area at the time of the outbreak?".
The Left 4 Dead comic portrays a time-line of No Mercy, Crash Course, Dead Air, Death Toll, and then Blood Harvest (The Sacrifice, The Passing) based on this page, which contradicts the inevitable storyline caused by the Crash Course DLC: No Mercy, Crash Course, Death Toll, Dead Air, and finally, Blood Harvest (The Sacrifice, The Passing) based on this webpage. The Crash Course DLC also leaves Dead Air and Blood Harvest swappable, without the influence of the comic.
Left 4 Dead 2 has no such freedom. All campaigns have a regimented connection with the other campaigns. The survivors start at Dead Center, (meet the original survivors in The Passing,) take Jimmy Gibb's car to Dark Carnival, crash the helicopter in Swamp Fever, get gas for Virgil in Hard Rain, and have the military pickup in The Parish. Because of the control Left 4 Dead gives the player over deciding the storyline for oneself, it has a greater plot, a great plot in no plot.
Character Development
Now it may not be fair to compare the original survivors to the new survivors seeing that the original have a comic and an ending to their adventure, so I will try to constrain characters to the game and DLC.
Simply put, the original survivors have very general personalities that can be applied deductively to the player, whereas the new survivors have very specific personalities that, to the contrary, cannot be applied inductively.
For instance, Bill is a old military veteran; he represents the leader and veteran gamer type or simply the senior member of a team. Francis is the dark-humored biker who represents the trolls and punk gamer types, or a player with a darker sense of humor. Louis is the light-hearted minority who can represent either the minority gamer or players who play games to have fun. Finally, Zoey represents the casual gamer or the female gamer.
Left 4 Dead 2 can have no such comparisons: Coach is a high school football coach, Nick is a gambler, Ellis is a redneck, and Rochelle is a news reporter. There is no leader, no one character represents minorities, and Rochelle cannot represent the female gamer as a news reporter (female college students represent the female gamer best for obvious reasons). Nick is closest in representing a character type with the mystery of his 'profession' similar to the mystery surrounding the Left 4 Dead survivors before the comic, as well as his pessimism. It is only to Nick that I will concede successful character development, which is why by this objective reasoning he is my most played character.
User Interface
Left 4 Dead 2 tries to look the part with a rugged, bloody, and raw interface. The consequence is that it does not look as polished as Left 4 Dead's user interface. The first-aid kit and pain pills are much better looking in Left 4 Dead compared to Left 4 Dead 2. This is good for comparison.
In addition the user loses small things such as not being able to see his or her feet in Left 4 Dead 2, as well as the 'vocalize' command. Left 4 Dead 2 also has the 7/8 glitch, where a server reports to Steam that it has 7/8 players but upon connecting to the server the server believes it is full and kicks that player.
Sound
Left 4 Dead 2 uses themes from Left 4 Dead's music except with a Georgian/Louisiana. This is disgusting not because of the region it takes after, but because Left 4 Dead 2 bastardized Left 4 Dead's music.
Gameplay
Just as two is better than one, seven is better than three. Left 4 Dead only has two tier 1 weapons: pump shotguns and submachine guns, and three tier 2 weapons: auto shotgun, assault rifle, and the hunting rifle, whereas Left 4 Dead 2 has four tier 1 weapons: pump shotgun, chrome shotgun, submachine gun, and silenced submachine gun, and seven tier 2 weapons: tactical shotgun, combat shotgun (SPAS), hunting rifle, sniper rifle, M-16 Assault Rifle, Combat Rifle (SCAR), and AK-47. Left 4 Dead 2 also has tier 3 weapons (special tier): the M79 Grenade Launcher and the M60 Machine Gun.
Left 4 Dead does, however, have superior pistols. The default pistol in Left 4 Dead 2 is the P220 and, when duel-wielded, the Glock as well. These two pistols are vastly inferior to the M1911 from Left 4 Dead, as they usually are in modern warfare games as well. The Magnum almost makes up for this when incapacitated, but when standing duel-M1911s dominate overall.
Left 4 Dead 2 obviously has the addition of melee weapons, so no comparison can be made. No comparison can be made to laser sights, incendiary ammo, or explosive ammo either. It did, however, add bile bombs on top of molotovs and pipe bombs.
Everything health-related is multiplied by two. In addition to health packs are defibrillators and in addition to pills are adrenaline. Adrenaline is, in my opinion, the greatest addition to the Left 4 Dead universe. It is because of this and all the aforementioned additions to Left 4 Dead 2 that allow it to dominate over Left 4 Dead in terms of gameplay.
Scoring
Left 4 Dead's scoring system is based on survival and health. Health packs and used pain pills add onto your score once you've reached the safe room. This, in contrast to Left 4 Dead's system based on distance and survival, is far superior. Left 4 Dead 2's scores should have been hidden so that score is only shown at the end of the map, like Left 4 Dead. The result is that a player joins and sees his or her team down by 300-2000 points, which results in a 25-50% rage factor.
Community
The Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 communities have many of the same gamer types. Amongst L4D and L4D2 a gamer will find: hardcore (CEVO) players, casual players, griefers, exploiters, shortcutters, rushers, trolls, and punks. The difference is the quality and quality of such groups and individuals. Left 4 Dead 2's features such as Team Versus brought a plague of hardcore players along with the game appealing
To play a game a L4D or L4D2, a player not only has to ensure that his or her team wins, but that the other team does not lose so much that they leave. This creates a large difference between Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. In L4D, if the enemy team ragequits, the game goes on just as it would. In L4D2, if the enemy team leaves, the server shuts down. Thus, these two ways of playing identify as:
- A game to win.
- A game of politics.
If a good player or a good team wipes the floor with pubs, they disconnect and the server shuts down. Server shutdowns are the worst change between Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 that has only increased trolling and griefing.
Overall
In comparing Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, I grant each the following in which is better than the other:
| Quality | Left 4 Dead | Left 4 Dead 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Plot | ✓ | |
| Finales | ✓ | |
| Character Development | ✓ | |
| User Interface | ✓ | |
| Artificial Intelligence (AI) Director | ✓ | |
| Events | ✓ | |
| Sound | ✓ | |
| Gameplay | ✓ | |
| Gametypes | ✓ | |
| Scoring | ✓ | |
| Community | ✓ |
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