Left 4 Dead 2

Remember when we ail hated Valve last time? When they bundled Steam with Half-Life 2, and you had to download their game from a bottlenecked server? It was a ham-fisted, invasive, and unjustifiable coercion. Valve were literally turning the entire world into their sexual playthings, using our desire to play their new stupid game to make us install a lump of free software.

We came around, and there's not many of us who'd be without Steam; and until 2 June, if you wrote the words "Gabe Newell" on a sack of potatoes, a legion of love-struck PC gamers would hurl themselves at it, trousers off. The depth of Valve's fans' devotion can be measured by the stunned backlash, and dozens of disorganised petitions (some of which have gained thousands of signatures, others gaining around seven) demanding that Left 4 Dead 2 be released as free DLC.

Personally, I'm torn between thinking "Well, they did say they'd work on L4D a bit more, I suppose," and "Where the hell did we get this wretched sense of entitlement from?"

But, the perception was that they'd broken a promise - a promise to deliver free DLC for the first game. Valve have built a pretty big rod for theirown.back, in terms of previous generosity - but judging from their response since the announcement, it's not a rod they resent. L4D isn't being killed off - far from it as with the release of the SDK, there's likely to be an explosive proliferation of maps, models and mods on the horizon. Sure, some of it might be crap - but if Valve wanted to migrate everyone like helpless automatons into their new game, that SDK release would be an odd gesture.

Well, we've got a long way into a preview without mentioning the game, but the backlash has been as interesting as the game itself. Because L4D2, as much new content as there is, is still L4D. If you've played the first game, you'll be instantly at home in the second.

Chet Faliszek's unapologetic about that "I hate it when people make a sequel, and ruin what was so good about the first game". But to justify such a rapid sequel - especially from Valve, the kings of delay - we should probably address what you'll be getting for your money.

New Is Old

The characters are different: stranded reporter Rochelle, untrusting conman Nick, good ol' Southern boy Ellis, and football coach, erm, Coach. And the setting's changed to the Deep South, rather than a nameless city. But while the characters and locations are different, you're still fending off waves of infected-likes, and despatching the special infected as they turn up.

So, what's new? Well, the level that was open for play at E3 was called The Parish, and knowing Valve, it was handpicked to give a little, but not much, away. We saw the newly-mobile Witch, and I'm ashamed to say that I did a tiny freak out, and shot her.

Then there are the "uncommon common" infected, as Chet calls them. These guys wear Hazmat suits, making them invulnerable to the gasoline fires. The Hazmat character is the first revealed - a hooded, misshapen character who's visible in a crowd. He can soak up a couple more bullets than his common-common counterparts, but his main distinction is that he can't catch fire. Their bizarrely inflated hunchbacks may look weird, but you need that visual clue to know these guys aren't going to be bothered by a carefully shotgunned gas puddle or thrown Molotov cocktail.

Then there's the Charger - a lop-sided creature with one withered arm. This fellow is vulnerable to fire. But that's not always a good thing, as he likes to sprint and ram himself into you, stunning you and sharing the flame. This means in the sequel, fire won't be the unequivocal friend it used to be.

Melee weapons are another big addition. It might not feel like that much - every weapon hard a right-click melee attack in the first game, right? -but this time, it'll be much more than a push back. You'll be able to crouch down and chop a infected's legs off them (dismemberment has been improved, too), and knocking the Hunter off a buddy with the axe will trigger a change of perspective. There's a frying pan, too -a bit of evidence that Left 4 Dead isn't taking itself that seriously.

Melee weapons aside - the chainsaw wasn't playable at E3, and I only managed to get my hands on a frying pan - you'll be rewarded for exploration in the new game. Not with collectible stars, but with incendiary bullets. This is why fire had to be slightly nerfed -because when you find the incendiary ammo, you're briefly transformed into a flaming hosepipe of death, pan-frying the necrotized flesh of your assailants. These bullets aren't just lying around - they'll be tucked away by the Director in a level's less accessible areas, making them available only to dedicated foragers.

The locations of the campaigns in the first game was never made explicit, although it had a definite feel, in the same way Half-Life 2 was "a bit East European". Left 4 Dead2 is explicit: you're travelling from Georgia to Louisiana, over five, much longer, campaigns. This time, it's not the standalone movie-spoof missions we know from L4D - this is an overarching story, spread over larger campaigns.

This'll give Valve a chance to explore the relationships between the characters. The tailored interplay between the characters was one of the high points of L4D - every person had something unique to say to every other character, in most situations. If those relationships change over the overarching campaign (and it's being hinted that they will) we can only doff our caps to the effort Valve put into the "nice touch" aspect of a game. Will Rochelle fall in love with Nick?

Miss Omniscience

But the biggest new start is the unseen Director - the malevolent, manipulative Al that ran its fingers down your spine, then yanked the veins from your forearms. She (I like to think of her as somewhere between GlaDOS and the Team Fortress 2 announcer) has been completely renovated. Her remit is no longer confined to controlling the ebb and flow of the hordes, and making a slight difficulty adjustment when you're really good or really pants. Now, she also controls the weather.

The action can shift from idyllic sunshine infected slaughter, to low-visibility thunderstorm infected slaughter in a matter of seconds. She can also change the layout of the level, making the route less straightforward, if it looks like you need slowing down.

Other differences feel a little more superficial, but do change the game: there are daylight campaigns, and the infected come apart in pleasing new ways. Chet seems keen on the idea of chopping an infected's legs off. These changes don't make the game any less tense - the first game wasn't tense because of the dusky purplish hues, it was tense because you had more infected than you could reasonably fend off, coming for your face. And that's not going to change. And remember, the Director could bring in the clouds for a mighty thunderstorm anytime... now.

Left 4 Dead 2 seems to be all about improving the first game; and Valve feel they've improved it so fundamentally, that it makes no sense releasing it as DLC for the original. And while the sum of $50 has seized the internet's imagination, Valve haven't set a price for it, yet.

Sometimes, the internet suffocates in its righteous idiocy, and sometimes, it has a point. But sometimes, it needs to acknowledge that it doesn't have enough information to fuel a justified rage. Like Chet's said - just give Valve a little bit of trust, at least until new information comes out.