Left 4 Dead 2: A Gameplay-First, Zombie-Slaying Must Own in 2025 – Retro Review

First of all, I know what you’re thinking. I am too. It’s impossible for us older zoomers not to. I’m sorry, but like it or not, PS3 era games are now considered retro titles; now please excuse me while I crumble into a pile of dust, overcome with the existential dread that I’ve been a legal adult for eight full years. Maybe the real horror game was the time that passed along the way? But all jokes aside, I think it’s fair to say that many PS3 era games, especially ones from earlier in the console’s lifecycle, are now entering into the retro sphere. I know it’s a hard pill to swallow – it was a weird transition to a new console generation – seeing games like Oblivion and Assassin’s Creed 1 side by side, you’d struggle to believe they came out on the same hardware, let alone the same year.

I won’t pretend that Left 4 Dead 2 looks like the most modern game, because it absolutely doesn’t. In fact, I had assumed it was a PS2 game when I first played it, but in this business, looks ain’t everything. L4D2 still holds up as a very solid game in my opinion, easily dominating many a Discord game night over other, more contemporary options.

I honestly don’t remember how I came to own this game. I feel like it’s one of those titles that just kinda manifests itself in your Steam library one day like a mysterious odd sock from the depths of the dryer. If you go and check the game’s listing right now, I’m willing to bet that approximately every single person on your friends list has it in their library. I assume either someone bought it for me as a gift, I redeemed it for free once upon a time, or perhaps just nabbed it when it was a million percent off in a Steam sale – the source of the overwhelming majority of my collection.

But how I got my hands on the game is irrelevant – what matters is what I did with it. I have a lot of hours in L4D2, which were mostly with friends. It’s a great bonding game, fun and easy to get into, with heaps of replayability. The ‘overwhelmingly positive’ reviews on its Steam page speaks for itself, and you won’t catch me disagreeing with that community sentiment. It’s something I’ve played with a myriad of different friend groups, and is a great game to just default to if you want non-competitive, turn-your-brain-off fun for a few hours. 

Left 4 Dead 2’s Theme

Zombies. Hell yeah!

It would be funny if that was all I wrote for this section, wouldn’t it? I did half consider doing that, because honestly, it says everything it needs to. I grew up on zombie media, being a child and teen throughout the zombie craze of the mid 2000s-2010s. I hungrily consumed everything from Shaun of the Dead to the Dead Rising movie (I really should review that one day!), and basically anything else I could get my hands on. I’m a Walking Dead fan. Yeah, one of those Walking Dead fans – the psychos that watched it all the way to the end, and even managed to trudge their way through the increasingly cringe-worthy spinoff shows. If it had the TWD brand on it, I’d gobble it up like a good little consumer because honestly, zombies are awesome! The L4D universe carries deep thematic loyalty to the survival horror genre – it’s clear that one cannot survive alone, as many of the infected types in the game demand teamwork to counter. Lore is subtle but ever-present, painting a terrifying and satisfying vision of a world utterly and completely overrun by unrelenting zombie hordes. 

L4D2 leans in heavily not just into the theme of zombies themselves, but schlocky cinema in particular. Each campaign is designed like a movie – including a standard portrait poster, movie-style credits, and even stylish film grain effects. The game evokes the George A Romero era of zombie films, the 70s and 80s action-schlock apocalypse thrillers which cemented the idea of the modern, virus-based form of zombies that we’re familiar with today.

The game’s story is thin enough that it doesn’t even warrant its own section – this is a gameplay-oriented title through and through. While there will be rough story beats to keep the players moving through a campaign, the focus is definitely on having fun over storytelling – and that’s okay. Environmental storytelling does the bulk of the heavy lifting, picking up where a developed narrative is lacking. I think it should be viewed as a modern iteration of an arcade game – anyone booting up Pacman or Mr Do expecting a gripping narrative is somewhat missing the point. It’s actually quite fitting that Japan actually had L4D2 arcade cabinets, as it underscores my point quite well.

Despite lacking a story more developed than a movie pitch written on the back of a napkin, the game has managed to birth a number of really memorable and beloved characters. I am someone with a bad memory for character names. Even for movies I like, and even when I am currently watching them, I will think of the protagonist only as ‘orange shirt guy’, or if they’re a famous actor, by their IRL name instead. The fact that I can rattle off names like Coach, Michelle, and William ‘Bill’ Overbeck without having to look it up or even pause to think says a lot about just how iconic the protagonists are. Just enough unique personality shines for every L4D character, despite them being little more than different skins with a few unique voice lines in terms of actual gameplay. Bill even made it into Dead by Daylight as not just a survivor, but a base game free survivor, and one of the first licensed characters added overall, all due to how iconic he is within horror gaming. 

Left 4 Dead 2’s Gameplay

Left 4 Dead 2 is a little bit of an exception for me. Usually, I have real issues with the type of game that is clearly designed to be multiplayer, and that essentially punishes you for playing any other way. Deep Rock Galactic is the biggest offender in this, but Payday 2 isn’t far behind. When you go to play single player, the interface will constantly nag and whine at you to play online – what do you mean you don’t want to enter matchmaking, heathen! – sure, they’ll allow you to play with bots or some kind of AI assistance, but the game will do all but outright plead with you not to do that, and do everything in its power to funnel you back into the online mode. But usually – I don’t want to play online! I’ve put tens of hours into Payday 2 solo with bots, and always saw the matchmaking page as more of an annoyance than something I’d ever actually use. Some might say this aversion to forced multiplayer is a skill issue derived from not having enough friends – but even when presented with the option of playing with real random players online, I had absolutely zero interest in doing that. 

L4D2 is the exception to this. I’ve still never had the slightest desire to matchmake with randos, and I highly doubt I ever will. If I’m going to play public matches in an online game, then goddamnit, it will be PvP solo, or a game that puts you in a large enough group that tightly coordinated teamwork isn’t a fundamental part of victory. But as I said before, Left 4 Dead 2 is one of those games that everyone owns. Sure, everyone owns Payday 2 as well, but there is something so simple and casual about this game that just makes it more accessible to me.

I do believe that the multiplayer-first nature of Left 4 Dead 2 is a genuine criticism point, and an issue that could be fixed by simply giving the AIs an IQ above room temperature. But still, at the risk of being a hypocrite, this is the one game that I still love, despite it railroading me into playing with other people. While this has soured my opinion of many other titles, L4D2 does it well enough for it not to impede the experience for me and remain a great game.

As I touched on before, teamwork is at the absolute heart of this game. It goes beyond just a theme for the story; it’s fundamentally baked into the gameplay, which is what makes the dumb-as-rocks AI players such a hassle to play with/babysit. Every monster is designed for the four-player system – the number 4 is in the title for a reason. Many zombie types will render players immobile or blind in such a way that help from a teammate is the only way to escape. Every mechanic was designed to match the theme and the concept – no bloat, no nonsense, just everything working together to make a streamlined, fast-paced product, intelligent in its simplicity.

A player’s health bar in the red. Luckily, the bots have medkits!

Great gameplay is what so many AAA video games lack these days. They put a lot, and I mean a lot of focus into having a memorable, cinematic story, but completely forget to make it fun (I’m looking at you, Ubislop games!). But L4D2 is a true video game, an arcade title that focuses on fast paced fun more than anything – and while I’m a sucker for a good story game, there’s something refreshing about a back-to-basics shooter that doesn’t mess around.

There are also a ton of different game modes to keep play fresh. Have a group of more than 4 people? You can load into Vs and play against each other in human and infected teams, expanding gameplay options and allowing for PvP gameplay. There are various difficulty options in addition to game modes which mean that the same maps and campaigns feel completely different when played in different ways. All the options add a ton of extra replayability and versatility to Left 4 Dead 2, and ensure that it never grows dull.

I think what makes this so good is that it’s an online game that’s actually fun without being a modern online game. There’s no battle pass, no seasons, no microtransactions, and no flossing Peter Griffin skins (not without mods, anyway!), just a fun game that keeps people coming back again and again on its own merits. It’s also still actively supported – I often boot up Steam to see a L4D2 update waiting for me, usually a few KBs patching an exploit people found. It’s a comfortable status quo; they make sure to keep the game playable without messing with its formula; they know they got the recipe right, they’re just making sure the expiration date is delayed to keep it fresh forever.

I will say that Valve’s admittedly dated Source engine does make the game feel very… not bad… but it’s unmistakably a ‘Source engine game of its era’. The movement and models all feel very floaty and somewhat weightless, which seems dated in a modern gameplay landscape, but not terminally so. I don’t hate how it feels to play by any means – there are no unskippable and repetitive character animations for specific actions like many modern games have, which is a definite plus, as these flashy animations are usually cool at first, but run their course after perhaps the fifth time. Even if you didn’t already know who developed it, I think it’s fair to say that L4D2 feels unmistakably like an older Valve game, for better or for worse. 

Not to be unfair to it, I think the game’s age is actually a positive in many respects. Even without considering how more pro-consumer the industry was back then, another huge boon is that pretty much everyone can run the game. Even if you have an old, crappy laptop or weak PC, you won’t have to worry about being left out of a group game night. This is a perfect game to play with friends not just because of the gameplay, but also because pretty much everyone already owns it, could afford it if they somehow don’t, and could run it without worrying about their PC’s specs. These are all important considerations when planning a group gaming sesh, so it’s good to know it has you covered.

Left 4 Dead 2’s Visuals and Music

Left 4 Dead 2 looks dated, there’s no way around it. Published in 2009, it came multiple years after many other, better-looking games, and from an AAA studio like Valve, I can’t really think of any excuses for this. Let’s just say that the graphics aren’t really the point. As I’ve said already, this is a gameplay game through and through. I don’t think it looks great, even for its era, but the only thing on trial here is the texture and model quality, which isn’t the most important thing.

Looks a little dated

What I love about the game’s visuals is the gore. Lots and lots of horribly wonderful, violent, sticky gore. Infected burst in all kinds of fantastic ways, from fully destructible limbs to exploding heads to guts spilling everywhere. The visuals (despite not being pixel-perfect) look very fun. They aren’t stylised as such; they are clearly meant to look realistic-ish, and while they might not reach that benchmark, it’s not all bad.

Gore!!!

So many little visual details add to the worldbuilding, from wistful graffiti left by downtrodden survivors to gory and grimy environments, the art design is fantastic even if pixel-perfect, ray-traced realism isn’t. Especially when reviewing a retro game, I think graphics are a bit of a nitpick. Sure, I think many ’90s and ’00s sprite-based games still look beautiful, since pixel art had a definite renaissance then, but on the whole, expecting old games to look good isn’t always entirely fair. While it doesn’t necessarily look like a modern game, the visuals are not really what this is about, and the intricate set design, stylised movie posters, and bloody action more than make up for a few blurry textures in my eyes. 

Environmental Storytelling

The music in this game is also great, it keeps to the theme of schlocky cinema well, preserving the old film score vibe while also having some face-melting rock and badass strings that match the ‘bad to the bone’ characters. The victory music that plays during the final credits is a particular favourite of mine. Hearing that upbeat, epic rock after you’ve just escaped an insane-sized horde by the skin of your teeth is always a thrill. 

Left 4 Dead 2’s Steam Goodies

Here’s a little secret about me – I’m a huge queen about my Steam stats. While I’m sure many people enjoy checking out their playtime every now and again, I get really into my profile. I love earning Steam trophies with the goal of getting a game to ‘perfect’, or at least as close to it as I realistically can. I love watching my play time tick up on games, to the point I’ll sometimes sink time into a game just because I want to watch it rise in the rankings or hit a certain hour milestone. And no, I don’t AFK to do it, that would be cheating. I once made sure to open Gmod 10 times per day for 100 days just so I could get the trophy for opening the game 1000 times, an undertaking that made a surprisingly large number of my Steam friends irrationally angry because of the ‘now playing’ popup. I love diving into the points store, getting the trading cards, the badges, and really just everything Steam. That stat stuff appeals to something in my brain in just the right way to drive me wild. 

And Left 4 Dead 2 approaches this in about the most perfect way imaginable. It makes sense, right? A Valve game on Valve’s own platform would probably go above and beyond the regular trophy page, and boy, does it ever! Unlike most games, you can actually find a super detailed breakdown of pretty much everything you can think of. It will track which character you played as the longest, what weapon you used the most, how many times you’ve used each healing item and powerup, how many bullets you fired from each gun, and how much damage they dealt. It goes into insane, granular detail in a way it absolutely doesn’t need to, but that I’m so grateful it does. These stats for nerds are a lovely little touch that won’t anger anyone – at best you’ll ignore them and not care, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll find them a delight, poring over them to see what you should spec into next. 

My L4D2 Weapon Usage Steam Stats

But unique stats aside, it gets pretty much everything else about Steam right too. The game has a lot of trophies. Not thousands of them like some titles have that make them feel like perfecting it would be completely impossible, but still over a hundred so you feel like there’s always a new challenge on the horizon. These range from easy ones you’ll earn by accident, all the way up to hyper-obscure and difficult challenges, a great balance for people to test their mettle and earn that perfect game. While I’ll probably not unlock all of these personally, especially as many of them are for playing unpopular or overly difficult game modes, I still appreciate a range of skill level trophies to keep people coming back time after time. I’ll admit, I have suggested playing this game to friends on multiple occasions just because I wanted to grind for a specific trophy, and always went on to have hours of fun.

There is one cardinal sin the game commits which I will criticise it endlessly for – there is one trophy that’s time sensitive, and can only be earned on one specific day in 2011. According to a forum post, it is still possible to get the trophy by changing your PC’s date to 2011 then opening the game in an obscure dev mode, but honestly, most people don’t have the time or technical know-how for that. All a time-sensitive trophy like this does is lock the average, non-cheating player out of 100% completion, which is a crying shame. My solution would be to allow people who have already earned the trophy to keep it, but remove it from the list of earnable trophies for modern players so that you can achieve 100% without it. This is how Dead by Daylight treats chapter-specific trophies whenever a DLC is removed from sale, and it’s a good compromise between pleasing the people who had a chance to earn it, and not completely locking newcomers out of the challenge.

The game also has points shop items and trading cards – this pretty standard Steam fare, but not every game on the platform takes advantage of these features, and they’re worse for it. I’m pleased that I can appeal to my inner Steam nerd with this game, and they really took the time to go all out with it. Bravo!

Modding Community and Support

I’ll be the first person to admit that I don’t often see the appeal of mods. This has actually been the cause of many an argument where my friends have accused me of “hating” mods, when the truth is, I generally just don’t really see the point of them. When it’s a content expansion, I feel that I liked the game with the content it already had. When it’s adding goofy new skins or characters (such as Shrek or Peter Griffin), I feel that it somewhat takes away from the immersion and gravitas of the game as it was created. While I have sometimes played with minor quality of life mods (most notably one to give me PS4 controller button prompts in a game coded only with Xbox ones), I generally never mod my games. 

But this is a game of exceptions in more ways than one. L4D2 commits so many of my gaming pet peeves and yet somehow manages to transcend them by just doing it all so well, and mods are one such example. As much as I don’t generally like to distract from the spooky horror atmosphere, I have played many a cursed mod pack recommended by friends in my time. These include options that replaced the special infecteds’ models with everything from Nikocado Avocado to the Kool Aid Man, a Morbius themed main menu, and even a mod that replaced every single texture in the game with unmentionably adult femboy furry art. I don’t think there is a single meme, character, or concept that hasn’t been modded into this game in some capacity.

A completely Normal Left 4 Dead 2 Loading Screen

And if the cringe meme mods aren’t your speed, there are plenty of perfectly normal, thematic mods lovingly crafted by the community. There are entirely new campaigns to play through which keeps the story and gameplay fresh – entire DLCs worth of content that’s all community-made and available for free. One of these became so popular that it was even added as a base game campaign by the developers later on. There are extra/expanded weapons, graphical overhauls, alternative zombie skins, the list is truly endless. 

The game enjoys fantastic modding support from Valve, making it easy and fun to expand the game from both the modder and modee’s perspective. This further shows their commitment to not over-monetising – so many skins, voicelines, and extra campaigns would be paid microtransactions or DLC in a modern game, and yet Valve lets you mod them in for free. Many of the cosmetic audio and visual mods are even client-side, meaning you can still play online with randos without them all having to download the same Hawk Tuah mod as you.

Even if mods aren’t entirely my jam, I have to commend the game for its pro-consumer stance on them, and allowing the community to just go nuts and have fun, rather than using punishing DRM/anti-cheat to clamp down on extra content and fun skins. The L4D2 community is one defined by modding, and I think that’s part of its charm. It’s also a big reason why the game has persisted and remained fresh for well over fifteen years after its release, despite many more modern, regularly updated games coming out since then. Mods are good, clean, ridiculous fun, and Valve isn’t trying to nickel and dime you for them (Bethesda!!!). 

Left 4 Dead 2 Value for Money

An important thing to consider when buying a game is how much you’re getting for the price. I don’t mind paying more for a new game with a lot of content, but charge too much and consumers may begin to feel ripped off. At full price, you can pick up a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 for £8.50 (about $10.50 USD), and even for a game that’s looking at its fifteenth birthday in the rear view mirror, I’d say that that’s still an absolute bargain. 

It has a very active community – on the day of writing, it had over 30,000 players for its 24-hour peak, and according to the monthly averages, it’s often higher than that. If anything, playership has picked up during the years, with the game having more concurrent players now than it did ten years ago. It’s still making money, still popular, and I don’t see any reason why Valve would stop supporting the servers any time soon, especially since it’s a first-party game on their platform.

Still going strong

Considering the game’s age, those are some seriously impressive numbers. That’s ten times the player count of the game’s ill-fated spiritual successor Back 4 Blood, as well as that of recent popular RPGs like Dragon’s Dogma 2 and the newest Dragon Age game. There were some months where it even outperformed critical darling Elden Ring for peak player count, and it beat out Dead By Daylight’s peak Steam player count for a full 4 months in 2023. Whilst DbD obviously counts other launchers and consoles among its playerbase not visible on SteamDB, it still goes to show that Left 4 Dead 2 is not to be overlooked. In a world of modern life service games, it’s a grandpa and a veteran, holding onto its position with an iron grip, its consumer-friendly practices dug into the earth and refusing to go away. While it doesn’t get a ton of active discussion compared to more modern titles, this game is racing towards twenty years old and is more popular than it’s ever been.

So, I think it’s fair to say that if you buy the game, you’re not at risk of being left with no one to play with, or of them Thanos-Snapping the servers at any moment, killing the game forever. L4D2 is packed with content, provides a great teamwork experience for friends, and is endlessly replayable. It also regularly goes on sale for a million percent off, as is the Steam way, with the developers using it more as a way to keep people on the platform than anything else. Even for full price, I think that this game is more than worth it, and if you grab it when it goes on deep discount, consider yourself to have the deal of the century. 

I have 46 hours in this game, a time I expect to only rise over the years – meaning that even if I bought this at full price, I’d have only paid 22 cents per hour for it. If you consider a trip to the movies is 2 hours of entertainment for about $7 per hour, I think 22 cents to be entertained for that long is fantastic value for money. 

Conclusion

Left 4 Dead 2 is the perfect online game. Entirely playable in single player, great with friends, and boasting easy-to-join public lobbies, there’s always a way to play. Fantastic mod support keeps the community alive and means that new great, funny, and scary content can be added by anyone with a good idea. The servers are well populated despite the game’s age, it’s easy to run, and it avoids the many pitfalls of predatory monetisation that plague modern gaming. 

I think the only fair rating I can give is to go with the flow of the ‘overwhelmingly positive’ Steam reviews and award this game a 5/5 star rating. It may not be my favourite game of all time or anything, but it’s an absolute classic, a shining example of its genre, and still way better and more playable than modern games that try to copy its formula. Truly timeless!