You can barely hear Ellis shouting at you over all the screaming. It’s echoing all over the room, spaced out with bursts of gunfire or the bass boom of the shotguns. How did it come to this? Coach is off grabbing pills, always complaining about that bum knee of his, and you can’t help feeling bad for taking a crack at Rochelle after she saved your ass from that jockey.
This could be any one of several scenarios you step into when you fire up Left 4 Dead 2. While most people were complaining that Left 4 Dead 2 was going to be more like an addon to the first installment, I worried about whether or not I would like these characters. So much of that game is stepping into the shoes of the people I control (that is, after all, a common theme in Valve games). So it’s refreshing that these characters are likeable, believable and quotable at times.
One of the things I admire most is the way the dialogue changes depending on the situation. Frantic screaming might accompany a huge flood of zombies breaking through a doorway, for instance. Wisecracks add color to the world through the culture of the characters. All of this adds up to you caring about the people you are playing through the eyes of.
