When I first heard that Valve was developing a "zombie-shooter", way back in the early Summer of 2008, I was skeptical.  Although Valve was the creator of some of my all-time favorite games (i.e. the Half-Life series), I was never much of a zombie fan.  The mythology seemed a bit silly - slowing walking creatures of the un-dead, with a taste for brains?  In my mind, a zombie apocalypse could be simply avoided by walking faster.

Then I met Chet Faliszek, L4D’s lead writer, at the company’s booth on the first day of PAX 2008.  He led me and a handful of other journalists into a small, very dark room and handed us each an Xbox 360 controller.  Chet forever changed my opinion of zombies that morning.

But when Valve announced they were planning to release Left 4 Dead 2 so soon after the launch of the first, 364 days after the first to be exact, I was skeptical and even critical.  How could they have another game already?  Shouldn’t they be developing more, inexpensive downloadable content for the first instead of attempting to squeeze another $50-60 from their loyal fans?  Was this going to be an over-priced expansion?  It took only minutes playing the pre-release demo and my opinion was changed again.

The demo allows a lucky few (or those with the foresight to pre-order the game) to play through the first two portions of "The Parish" campaign.  The Deep South (of the United States) offers a unique, sometimes creepy environment in which to play this new, well-lit version of Left 4 Dead.  Crammed pack with new zombies, characters, weapons, game modes, and five new campaigns, L4D2 will not disappoint fans of the first game, while welcoming new players.