LEFT 4 DEAD II

- The graphics requirements for this game is much more intensive than L4D. I could barely play it on my laptop. Bigger maps, more detail, more infected.

- Instead of the crescendo event and camping, you have to run through a gauntlet, and in the demo, turn off the alarm at the top of the barricade/maze.

- The AI director has much more leeway in choosing what locations and kinds of weapons to spawn. It also can control player paths as it can block off one path and force the survivors to walk through another.

- Get used to the new Southern music and know when the horde comes.

- Two new healing items in play: the defilibrator and the adrenaline shot. The defilibrator is basically a portable rescue closet. The catch is that you have to use it on the dead player’s body. I wouldn’t recommend carrying it unless someone does not a have a medpack. The other item is the adrenaline shot, which I think gives 25% health and allows you to move faster than normal in green. Like the defilibrator, the catch is that your audio becomes fuzzy/high-pitched/muted due to the effects of the adrenaline shot. I’d still stick with pills, but the adrenaline shot is next to none, and can be useful during the gauntlets.

- The Charger is like a different, less menacing breed of the Tank. The Charger is still dangerous in that it deals damage by grabbing a survivor and pummeling him/her into the ground, and its charge/pummel has an area effect that stuns nearby survivors. Meleeing it midcharge is useless, though when it is pummeling a Survivor, you can melee it with a melee weapon. A regular melee does not work. When shooting the Charger, if it is pummeling someone, for some reason a white targeting reticle appears onscreen, not that it does much. You can also avoid the Charger rush, and it won’t stop till it hits a wall, then turn around for another charge. It sounds like Tank, but higher-pitched and grunts more than a Tank. Be aware that it will sometimes attack using its arms like any normal Special Infected instead of it's pummel attack.

- The Jockey is dangerous if the person who is attacked gets too far away from the group. Otherwise, treat it like another Hunter. You can tell if it’s nearby through its chattering laughs, chuckles, and squeals. You can melee the Jockey off a player quite easily like a Hunter. I think this is just a dumb idea for a Special Infected.

- The Spitter is a new and decisive element in changing gameplay. You can hear her with her screechy and raspy voice, but sometimes she comes in silent, so be wary of a thin female zombie with smoke coming from her mouth. Her acid spit hurts and makes camping a bad idea sometimes if you're unlucky if you meet her during the horde. When she dies, she also releases a puddle of acid goo, so watch out for that too.

- The Hunter, Smoker, Boomer, and Tank have slightly new looks and slightly different sound packs. The Tank in particular has a more menacing growl and grunts whereas the Smoker and Hunter are higher-pitched. There are also female and male Boomers, but any obese zombie will be your clue.

- The Witch now wanders, but she still goes down with a shotgun blast to her face. Tried it myself using a tactical shotgun, even with a shitty vid card. She's not really a threat as long as you can avoid her, and you'll know when she's nearing through louder crying. Beware of horde rushes with a wandering Witch in the area.

- The Uncommon Common Infected are a pain in the ass. The Parish’s first two levels feature zombies in riot gear, which is annoying because no frontal assault will kill it – only shooting it in the back or meleeing in the back will kill it. I don’t know if flaming a riot police zombie will kill it, but I’m assuming it can because you have zombies in Hazmat suits that are flame-proof.

- Melee weapons: Starting with the melee weapons, there are 10 melee weapons: the katana, the baseball bat, the machete, the electric guitar, the frying pan, the tonfa/nightstick, the chainsaw, the cricket bat, the axe, and the crowbar. I personally don’t use these as I’m primarily a shotgun user which must be balanced by the long-range pistols, but it is recommended for players who have long-range weapons to take a melee weapon for close-range combat, and shotgun users stick with pistols. The melee weapons are fun though; it’s a new experience to smash in heads. Note that the melee weapon fills the same slot as your pistols; you cannot have both.

- Sidearms: The sidearms are improved to say the least. The rate of fire has increased somewhat and deal around the same damage that the old SA Colt M1911s did. The second pistol that you pick up will always be the Glock even if the image of the pistol on the ground is the SigSauer P220. It also features the 8-round “Desert Eagle” magnum that deals heavier damage and punches through normal zombies like a hunting rifle shot does. (Kills normal zombies in one shot too.) Rate of fire is somewhat slower but the reload time is around the same as a regular pistol. The magnum cannot be dual-wielded, so make your shots count. And I feel that the reload times of the pistols are slightly faster than that of the first L4D’s SA Colt M1911 pistols. I personally prefer the stopping power of the Magnum, but the dual pistols are just as good: the tradeoff of ammo vs. stopping power.

- Grenades: Molotovs and pipe bombs remain the same. The new addition to your grenade arsenal is the bile bomb. Yes, the bile bomb. Containing Boomer’s green vomit bile, it will attract Infected to the location thrown and will cause the Infected to kill each other too (slow though, so you’re better off shooting the zombies with your pistols to speed the process). This can also be used to confuse tier 1 Special Infected, like the Smoker, Hunter, Boomer, Jockey, Spitter, and Charger. Using it against a Tank or Witch is a waste of a bomb because of their health. The bile bomb can be considered a tier 2 grenade.

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- Tier 1 and Tier 2 weapons: You’ll find that ammo patches are more scarce throughout the levels, and changing your tier 1 or 2 weapons becomes a necessity due to ammo constraints. Left 4 Dead 2 will feature L4D weapons as well. I don’t think the damage they deal will differ at all from its counterparts.

- Shotguns: One of the biggest changes is its ammo holding capacity. Tier 1 shotguns (the Chrome and regular shotgun) hold 58 shells + 8 in the barrel. Tier 2 semi-auto shotguns (Auto/Tactical shotgun and the new Combat shotgun) hold 90 shells + 10 in the barrel. Big difference. Shotgun users should now watch their ammo more carefully. I feel that the reloading times for the L4D2 shotguns are slightly faster than those of the L4D shotguns, but this is unverified.

- Rifles/ARs: The Uzi and Silenced submachine guns now carry 650 round + 50 bullets in the magazine I think. The real difference lies in the assault rifles. The M-16 assault rifle makes its reappearance, with its regular 360 rounds + 50 bullets in the magazine. The new Combat SCAR Rifle is a semi-auto weapon with 360 rounds + 60 bullets in the magazine that shoots in 3-round bursts. Holding down the mouse button will make it continuously fire IN bursts, and is more accurate than the M-16 due to its burst-fire function. The last AR in the family is the AK-47, which holds 280 rounds + 40 bullets in the magazine. What it lacks in accuracy while moving (like the M-16), its stopping power is the greatest in comparison to the M-16 and Combat SCAR rifles. One shot or two will take down a normal Infected on Easy or Normal.

- Hunting/Sniper Rifles: The Hunting rifle is back, but you’re better off with the Sniper rifle. The Sniper Rifle however boasts 30 bullet magazine compared to the Hunting Rifle’s 15. They both hold 180 rounds and deal the same damage. The Sniper Rifle is more accurate than the Hunting Rifle when running’&’gunning, which is why the Sniper Rifle is better, though I heard the Sniper rifle has a slightly longer reloading time than the Hunting rifle.

- all other weapons like the grenade launcher and the new minigun are unavailable at this point because the demo does not feature said weapons.