Left 4 Dead 2 pre-order demo live

So Valve finally saw fit to drop their exclusive pre-order demo for Left 4 Dead 2 onto XBL,  and, as expected, it is awesome. For those of you who haven’t been hunkered down in their own personal zombie apocalypse, the demo starts in the final campaign of the full game, The Parish, and allows you to sample the whole of the first two levels.

Immediate impressions reiterate Valve’s improvements this time around. Dialogue between the survivors and the rescue boat that drops them into The Parish hints at the new cohesive nature of the linked storylines, and from there on in, as you progress through the land of Mardi Gras, the layers keep on revealing themselves.

All the new Special Infected are present in the demo (so the Jockey, the Spitter and Charger) and their game changing abilities (essentially to stop you hiding in the corner) are compounded by the new uncommon-common infected, manifested here as a Riot Cop who is only vulnerable from the back, who along with the seemingly serene daylight setting helps to instill a whole new kind of panic.

Still, the Survivors have new toys of their own to play with, and when you find that machete you’ll probably forget about the new sniper rifle, the AK-47, the Boomer Bile bomb, and the adrenaline injection that all make their way into the demo. Melee combat (the frying pan, night stick, electric guitar are in as well, among others), far from being the throwaway inclusion, is a game changer in both strategy and atmosphere, and is, well, great.

So, some brief impressions then. If you haven’t got access yet then you can either wait until November 3rd for it to go public (to XBL Gold members) or you could stomp into Game (or Gamestation) and persuade them that you need their help to smash in some brains. In the game, of course.