The single player and online co-op campaigns have players fight their way through a multi-level shopping mall, an amusement park, a mucky swamp snd other settings. The missions often have objectives that go beyond blasting away zombies, like being filling up a car with gas to escape or holding off zombies in a stage filled with pyrotechnics. Each of the five campaigns are generally short, and we were able to complete all of them in about six hours under Normal difficulty. Of course, half the fun is in replaying these levels and learning to master them, but it still would have be nice to get more length out of some of these missions.

Mission complexity is one thing, but Left 4 Dead 2 also adds quite a bit to the zombie survival arsenal. Players have access to more powerful handguns and a variety of machine guns, shotguns and grenade launchers. Let's not forget about the melee items like baseball bats, guitars, swords and more. The number of ways you can shoot, slice, bludgeon or even blow up zombies is tremendous. There are also options to give some weapons a little extra kick with explosive or incendiary ammo. While health packs make a return in the sequel, the defibrillator is a handy alternative used to revive a dead teammate.

The zombies in Louisiana have brought in some extra bosses to deal with. In addition to the four bosses players are familiar with, there's the Spitter with her and toxic area attack. There's also the Charger is a faster but less tough variation of the Tank that grabs up players and takes them out of play repeatedly slamming them against the ground. The Jockey is a variation of the Hunter, but instead of leaping and pinning you down, the Jockey takes control of the character and tries to move them into zombies mobs.

As with the original game, Valve's AI Director tries to make the game challenging by determining when zombie horde attacks appear. You never know when the next attack will come or when the Tank will make an appearance. This makes up for the fact that the AI for the zombies is pretty predicable, but then again, they are zombies after all. Players looking for a greater challenge will probably be interested in trying out Realism mode. In it, players must shoot zombies in the head to kill them and the only way to get killed players back is by using the defibrillator.

Competitive verses gameplay is pretty much the same as the first game, with the exception of the new boss classes and a the all-new Scavenge mode, where humans try to fill a generator with gas special infected players try to stop them. Survival mode is included out-of-the box in Left 4 Dead 2, and players will need to work together to survive for the longest amount of time. Even with these additions, competitive play options still feel a bit skimpy, but the content is very well designed and polished.

Graphically, Left 4 Dead 2 won't win any awards. The levels for the most part are pretty confining and the visuals show off the limits of Valve's current Source engine. Animations are well done and the human characters are fun to watch sometimes in between zombie attack. In this day and age it's good to know that PC players of Left 4 Dead 2 have access to a dedicated server just in case they don't want the random matchmaking that's also available. Steamworks achievement, leaderboards and more are also a part of the game. And while they haven't been released yet we suspect that mod tools for Left 4 Dead 2 will be made available in the very near future.

Ultimately, Valve's first try at a quick-to-release sequel succeeds on nearly every count. Left 4 Dead 2 has more of what made the original game work for the same price as the first game did. We wish that the game looked a bit better and had a longer single and co-op campaign but the new zombie bosses, the new weapons and items, and the new multiplayer modes should assure that the game will be played online for a long time to come. However, it's too close to being like the original game to justify the full $50 price tag. So, if you're not a die-hard Left 4 Dead fan (if you are, you probably already own it), we suggest waiting until there's a sale to make owning the game more enticing.