Valve has released the demo for those gamers who pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2 on the Steam PC and Xbox 360 platforms.  The demo for the rest of the public will be available on November 3rd.

We will be previewing the Xbox 360 Left 4 Dead 2 demo in this article.  The 1.6 gigabyte demo features two levels from the Parish Campaign where you fight your way through a New Orleans style city with tons of infected, more infected than the last game it seems.  It is very close to the E3 demo that Valve showed off a few months ago.  This demo has local split screen co-op and up to 4 players online co-op in Campaign mode only.

The first thing you notice in the game is the graphics are much better looking then the original game, the zombies are much scarier, the graphics are sharper and you can blast off almost all limbs of the zombies.

Speaking of zombies, you’ll now be able to experience first hand the Charger who will make a mad dash at you and pound you into a wall.  The new scarier walking Witch with a brand new cry that will be sure to send chills down your spine.  The Spitter is a close relative to the boomer, but this time it sprays acid all over you and the ground injuring you.  The Jockey is the most annoying of them all, if you are alone and this zombie manages to get on your head, it’s pretty much over and you’ll be dead!  There are also some “regular” infected who are harder to take down, you’ll be trying to flank the new zombies who are in riot gear and bullet proof vests that you must shoot from behind.  Special infected zombies look better including the hunter, boomer and smoker that we all love to hate. 

The four new survivors have all new catch phrases and even trade insults with each other.  Coach is the big tough guy who is no doubt a football giant, Ellis the redneck who seems to pop in with interesting stories every now and then, Rochelle is the tough girl who won’t take any crap from anyone and of course the slick con man Nick.

The demo levels are long enough with two safe houses to get to, the first part of the demo shows you getting off a fishing boat and saying a fond farewell to the skipper to saved you (odd, where are the passengers from the first Left 4 Dead, still on the boat?).  You fight your way through the city streets which are littered with zombies, you’ll start soon discovering cool melee weapons such as guitars, frying pans and the really bloody machete.  One cool new scenario in the game they showed off in the demo was an abandoned staging area to evacuate the uninfected; you had to get through a security door that was alarmed.  However, the switch to turn off the loud alarm is up top on a guard tower; this forces you to run like mad toward the guard tower and up two ladders while the infected are all swarming at you because of the alarm. 

If you happen to die, you will now need to use the defibrillator to revive your dead comrade, no more being stuck in closets.  There are also new adrenaline shots that give you a cool “bullet time” boast for a short period of time, very useful if a horde of zombies is coming right at you.

What is a game without new weapons?  There is a new shiny chrome shot gun, two types of assault rifles and a new and improved hunting rifle.

All in all, the game is looking great…it definitely does NOT feel like an expansion pack but a well worthy sequel to the original Left 4 Dead.  The full Left 4 Dead 2 game for the PC / Steam and Xbox 360 will be released on November 17th.

By the way, play with the juke box in the beginning of the demo in the bar 😉