As we chainsaw our way through the festive season it s good to think of those less fortunate than us. Those who do not have anyone. Who may be alone at Christmas. Who may be cold and hungry. Especially hungry. And angry. Hungry and angry.
I am referring of course to zombies.
For zombies Christmas is just another day a day when they prowl abandoned cities and burned out towns wondering where the next meal is coming from. Will it be a human leg or a human arm When will they get to eat a friendly face In short life for a zombie is tough. And during the holidays when families gather together lock their doors and put aside disagreements to watch each other s backs life gets tougher still.
The pain is real. The hunger is real. But the hope is also real. And Valve have joined in with the festive spirit by offering Left 4 Dead 2 their 2009 cooperative zombie shooter for free through the Steam download store. With Left 4 Dead 2 installed players can finally give zombies the gift that they really need this holiday the gift of lead.
All I want for Christmas is BRAINS
Although Left 4 Dead 2 is certainly long in the (rotting) tooth it remains one of the most satsifying zombie killing experiences in gaming especially when classic campaigns and characters from the original more atmospheric if less feature rich Left 4 Dead were reinserted into the game.
Until 10am PST on the 26 December anyone left on the planet who has not already purchased the game is free to download it with nothing more than a Steam account. In practical terms this has the potential to bring more consumers into the store at the height of Steam s winter sale. Economically Left 4 Dead 2 is effectively a spent good the number of potential buyers left who would be interested in paying more than a nominal fee for it when more modern shooters exist is approaching if not zero then a small enough number to make the hypothetical loss of sales here nugatory. And of course the distance to making a purchase is significantly narrowed by rewarding a customer for navigating to the store with the promise of a free game.
Economics aside however what is perhaps more important is that Left 4 Dead 2 is still a really good game. In single player mode it is a diverting if sometimes easy stroll through an atmospheric post apocalypse. Until The Last of Us Left 4 Dead 2 was arguably the most well constructed zombie apocalypse around a particularly impressive feat when it is primarily a setting for frenetic gunplay and exploding heads rather than the backdrop of a BioWare RPG. From the too little too late government advice posters to the arguments conducted in graffiti across the walls of safe houses the world created by designer Mike Booth and writer Chet Faliczek is both a commendably orthodox Romero hellscape (despite the presence of fast zombies or strictly speaking rabid infected ) and occasionally a genuinely creepy experience. The AI director which schedules zombie attacks differently from game to game remains a best practice example of adding replayability through randomness. And despite its age a modding community continues to create new content.
None of which however is as visceral an argument for the game as the dread and frantic discussion that ripples through a multiplayer party when the dissonant brass stab announcing the arrival of a mutant Tank is heard or the hair prickling tension of creeping flashlights turned off past a sobbing lethal Witch or the intense satisfaction when playing one of the Infected of leaping onto a player in the dark and seeing that Witch nicked by a bullet meant for you ploughing screaming into the survivors.
Steam s servers are struggling with demand but if the front page is inaccessible it may be more profitable to go to the page of an already owned game from your library and use the search box to get to Left 4 Dead 2 from there or to use this link. The game is available for Mac Linux and Microsoft Microsoft Windows.
Now shoulder your shotguns and have a peaceful happy and hopefully uninfected holiday.
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