Otherwise our Left 4 Dead 2 experience was much like Left 4 Dead 1, but that's not a bad thing by any means as Valve has crafted a simple (on the surface anyway) gameplay design that just works. Having to help your teammates takes precedence above all else; indeed our first attempt through the Dark Carnival campaign ended with our entire four person team getting eaten.

With The Parish, Swamp Fever and Dark Carnival revealed, Valve has yet to show off the final two of the five campaigns in Left 4 Dead 2. There's no word yet on when those campaigns will be revealed (or indeed if they will be revealed before the game is released) but Valve is apparently planning to make some of the new melee items available as special pre-order incentives for retailers such as the American baseball bat.

Our time with Left 4 Dead 2 was brief but memorable and quite frankly we wish we could have continued playing the game for hours. With just over two months to go before its release and with the fall 2009 line-up of PC games lacking some of the major titles that were supposed to be released, there's no reason to think Left 4 Dead 2 won't be a huge hit.