Bad timing, Left 4 Dead 2 -- I made a conscious decision to get around to buying/playing you sometime next year. Well, unless some can't-beat Black Friday deal comes along. Then I'll buy you, but I still probably won't play you until 2010.
No offense. I loved your predecessor, and I play out zombie-apocalypse scenarios in my head every few weeks or so...just in case. From the preview version and the demo that I played, you seem like a decent enough game.
But here's the problem: You're following in the wake of some really revolutionary and addicting shooters, and on several levels, you just can't compete.
What you're offering is great, but these other games offer progression (and over 17 million carrots on sticks). You give me strong co-op play, yet since I'm not competing with anyone or trying to level up constantly, it really makes no difference to me whether I tackle your zombie horde today or six months from now. (Let this be a lesson for other game publishers when trying to figure out when to release a title amongst competing products....)
At the moment, I have this to deal with:
All my online buddies are still playing multiplayer, leveling up, earning perks, unlocking new gear.... That's serious peer pressure to keep up. I can't take time out to put down a few zombies, only to come back and see that Brett and Rich are blinged out with thermal scopes, super-sensitive hearing, and probably some magical device that allows them to kill me before I've even signed onto Xbox Live.
Plus, Modern Warfare's leveling-up system is wickedly evil. Each gun and perk has several Achievement-like goals within them, giving me seemingly unlimited objectives to tackle, not just to earn even more guns and perks, but to get bonus experience points, too -- which levels me up more quickly to get, guess what? Yup, more guns and perks.
Then the game offers a constant stream of new title cards and emblems that unlock under the most specific of circumstances, to show off your exploits or bad luck to the other players. I got "Martyr" for killing someone with a grenade that I dropped postmortem. I also got "Toxic" (with a picture of...funny enough, someone that looks like a zombie) just for dying in a nuclear explosion in multiplayer.
While I'm still not a proponent of rewarding better players with even more ways to make newbies' lives miserable, I've got never-ending stuff to earn and open up in MW2. I can't stop for zombies now.
Just when I thought I was out, Sony dumps double-cash weekend on us. If you're unfamiliar with the game, that's like saying "double XP" in a multiplayer setup where it actually matters (sorry, Halo 3). I have a lot of high-level boosters I need to buy still, and I'm sick of people killing me with perks I haven't earned yet.
I tried playing a little Uncharted 2 last night after god-knows-how-many hours of Borderlands and Modern Warfare 2, both of which have almost exactly the same control schemes. So yeah, I was getting my ass whipped good as I was relearning the game's ways. But even when I'm losing, I'm getting a decent chunk of change and leveling up toward bigger and better rewards.
So now this story is late going up on Bitmob because...well, let's just say it's not easy getting up to write a morning piece when you decided you're re-addicted to a shooter at 3 a.m.
Here's another one with a cruel setup for gamers with addiction problems. Reportedly 17 million weapon variations, tons of mini-"Achievements" (again with the short and long-term in-game goals to earn you bonus XP like in MW2), plus I can 'splode zombie heads now in the new downloadable pack?
Why do I need to play L4D2 again?
You never have to deal with as massive an undead horde in Borderlands' new DLC, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, as you do in Valve's shooter -- but the experience is still pretty similar. Defilers spew vile at you, Suicide Zombies rush you and blow up, and if you're not careful, the walking dead will swarm and overwhelm you, even attacking from behind when you're not expecting it.
As a pure zombie shooter, this add-on pack doesn't compare to L4D2 of course. But...17 million guns...those in-game Achievements -- Bitmob users know the deal. Until I find that sniper rifle with 400% critical hit, 20-bullet clips, 5x fire, and infinity damage, I'll keep on scouring the Borderlands.
