Alright, I gave a number of tries to the demo.
I'm not "extremely disappointed", I would say it's... ok, I'm quite underwhelmed however. I want to make this clear here, Valve says it's a sequel, but it's not. Well, probably it is, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the original content and the continuity of it that should occur in a so called "sequel".
It was obvious from the start, of course, seeing the different cast, but standing by the label of a sequel is ridiculous outside of the mercantile sense of such a decision by the developers. A proper sequel would have kept the original cast, and... who knows, Zoey would have had a baby with Louis, Bill would have grown a mutated beard and Francis might have taken him as a vampire by mistake and shot him dead, but something with them would have happened.
So... a sequel of what exactly is L4D2? Probably the sequel that tells the story of the evolution and change of the zombies and the special infected, and other than that, calling it a sequel makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Alright, now pointless point made, what did I liked and what I thought wasn't necessarily fun or "well made".
The positive points...
º The physics are better, damage on both regular zombies and special infected seems more precise and localized, when a pipe bomb explodes the zombies do so equally in gibs and proper ragdoll effects this time, contrarily to the "mist only" effect of the original.
º The more varied regular mobs and the updated more detailed special infected models is always a good thing to have, it's certainly better than the original.
º The day time setting is welcome indeed, it's not as bad as I thought it would be, but it doesn't fit the mood of the original's more darker/noir approach, but at least the day time setting helps L4D2 distinguish itself apart from the first.
º New guns, better "old ones" models, I guess that's good, I liked the AK47. Some of the new items seem fun, during one of my tries I used that new Boomer's bile bomb on a charging Tank, I thought it was probably the best part of the demo I had seen so far.
º New special infected, I thought that the Spitter is the best, it fits well, and does a good job doing to the Survivors what the Survivors do the the infected, namely throwing Molotovs and using gas tanks, I noticed that when the Spitter dies she leaves a very corrosive substance on the ground that has the same effect that the Molotovs had in Versus in the original L4D, it slows down the progression of the Survivors, or at a minimum it can force-split the team in two. I like that new one.
º The corpses from the regular mobs stay on the ground, nice touch, it helps adding to the atmosphere and the "I've clearly been there before" effect, it can even serve as a visual reference if the player is lost in the level (which I'd be surprised if it ever happened but it's certainly possible, I guess).
º Nice new little details I've noticed, such as the regular mobs having tougher variants now, like the bullet-proof police/SWAT type, which you have to shot at his back, although I think that emptying full AK47 clips on that thing and it not dying is still a bit exaggerated, bullet proof or not, but I like the "I HAVE to turn its back at me" provocation effect there, good addition indeed. Also their eyes have that new "glow" effect in darker areas, and at one point in the map I activated what I thought was just a static juke box, but to my surprise it actually had animations for the mechanisms inside and the music started playing, that's a good addition, which might have came from an old but then-very-popular thread for the original in which people suggested adding interactive props like radios and televisions around that would play some random "funny" and "unfitting" stuff as the players blew zombies left and right, I think Valve was perhaps inspired by those ideas, needless to say, I like details like that, I hope there's more than just that juke box in that map.
The "unsatisfying" points...
º The other new special infected, Charger and Jockey... not really fun, the Charger is I believe too powerful for its purpose, but I'm not a developer nor a tester so I'm wrong, I know. The Jockey, that thing is useless and extremely annoying in my opinion, it doesn't even have any humor factor thrown in which is what I thought he was supposed to do at least if not cause some damage, he has some form of a hysterical laugh, but other than that, it's just annoying.
º The music, I had to turn it off, I don't know if it's the same composer than the original, but at least the music from the map in the demo is very unfitting, also the new panic events and the "at the distance mobs wave spawn" sound were changed to a point that I really wonder what goal they tried to achieve by doing that rather than just using the existing ones from the original, other than perhaps making the incoming wave less intimidating.
º The sounds in general but especially from the special infected, except the few ones they did kept from the original, in my opinion, aren't unique enough. The Spitter doesn't have any very iconic sound effects other than the acid she leaves boiling the ground, the Jockey should have more than just one or two laughs, the Hunter... is different, why, I don't know, he just doesn't sound as aggressive as in the first (maybe I simply wasn't lucky enough to hear the original sounds if they did keep them), the Tank, also, doesn't seem to scream and yell as much as in L4D and the Charger... well, that's perhaps the only exception.
º The melee weapons, outside of the fun factor, in my opinion, are useless, at least they are in the demo, maybe other maps will offer higher challenges and make sure that the ammunition is a rarity, which I believe is still an existing issue in L4D2, but I did notice it being reduced when compared to the original, but then again, the original doesn't have melee weapons, and it does need ammo, or else. But, anyway, I found myself simply avoiding, ignoring, and being completely indifferent about them as I wandered around, to be honest I only picked one up, the Machete, for curiosity's sake, and I found a shotgun a minute later and left it behind me for the gun instead. But, yes, I'm aware that other maps might make melee weapons more "valuable" and useful. As of now I think it's there only for the fact that it's a "sequel" and that it had to have new items whatever the sense or nonsense they might have brought, it's a new game, so, whatever, let's add stuff left and right.
º The bots, A.I, is just as stupid, if not worse than they are in L4D. But then again L4D and L4D2 are both focused on multi-player, right? But then again, why bothering on the creation of A.I at all? Who knows... maybe because completing the game alone would be impossible. So, what if the player doesn't have Internet connection On and happens to want to play L4D2? He needs bots, right? Well, let's give them, and let's make them stupid... but OH! Yeah, that's right I forgot, it's NOT a game for single-player, but then again, why creating a single-player mode... hmmm... oh well. Very vicious cycle. But cynicism and sarcasm aside, it's just as bad as L4D's A.I.
º The so called new A.I Director being "smarter" and "reacting better" at Survivor's situations, "group endurance" and health, ammunition count, and so on, and spawning "more efficient" waves coming from "different directions each time"... all that stuff I remember reading about it, I DO wonder honestly if they DID include it in the demo at all, because without wanting to seem to complain just for the fun of doing it because it's L4D2, I really haven't seen anything different, in fact I still noticed some blatant "stuck" mobs on impassable terrain, some of them literally "floating" towards me without any proper running or walking animations (alright, that's not the A.I, got myself here) and the waves... there's MAYBE more of them, then what else exactly? What IS the "new" A.I Director doing that it wasn't supposedly able to do in the original, or that it wasn't doing at all for whatever reason? But I DID noticed that the special infected do spawn more often, but then again that's something I do all the time with simple console commands in my own games in the original...
º The map design and the demo's "finale". Was it an actual finale for that map? I hope not, because that map would end up being shorter than Crash Course. If however L4D2's maps offer "mini" finales here and there that end up being just as challenging as that one alarm thing in the demo then I would put this under the "positive points" category, but right now I'm not confused on that, it's just lack of information I guess, someone here feel free to enlighten me on that if you want to. And, well, in general that map feels more linear than anything in L4D with the exception of No Mercy, but L4D in general is also linear, so that's perhaps the point there, I think I expected L4D2 to be less so, with more wide open areas, I think I need to stop watching those 70's zombie invasion movies with invaded malls and outdoor parkings and city streets.
º The cast... the voice acting. I think, after reflexion on this point, that it is the most disappointing aspect of L4D2 overall. The character models themselves, I couldn't care less, it's just their "effect", they aren't archetypes or icons enough... it's actually tough to explain, for me anyway. It's perhaps a question of perception, but the cast from the original are iconic by now, I think they were even before the demo's release with the trailer alone and our good ol' Louis screaming and swearing at that Witch trying to get to him through that damn door. I liked Zoey and her B-zombie-movies obsession, I liked Louis with his constant nervousness and "on edge"-psychotic reactions to incoming zombie waves and how cool was his laughing.
I liked Bill and his cold-blooded ex green beret dialog, and I liked Francis and his love on hating everything, especially vans and him always saying vampires instead of zombies and how nicely Bill would remind him of the facts. And again, I think all of that has to do with the fact that L4D2 is simply not a sequel, L4D2 is to L4D1 what Blue Shift was to Half-Life, nothing less, and nothing more. It's just another point of view in the same context without touching the same known characters or protagonists, it doesn't "follow" nor "resume" anything, it just shows "more of the same", but differently. There's also an attachment factor from the original, some of us will never get used to the new cast as much.
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In the end, my conclusions based on the demo is that L4D2 is decent, it's not absolutely "sucky", it's not an "insult" of a game. It's o...k, no more, and no less. The demo does not convince me in any way, shape, or form that L4D2 is worth it at full price, but it simply tells me that if I ever want to experience more of the same but with new stuff at hand, then I have to buy it when I feel like it. In other words, L4D2 is merely something I will keep in mind when I happen to have about $25 or so left in my PayPal account that I don't know what to do with, and that I really... really feel like having yet another zombie game in my games collection, which quite honestly isn't something that I feel the urge to have.
I say... alright, I'll consider it, eventually, but I'm not in a hurry at all, and I will wait when its price is considerably reduced, very much so.