Left 4 Dead 2 is still going strong on both the PC and Xbox 360 and Valve continues to give fans some of the best service in the industry. The newest content, The Sacrifice, adds a new campaign to the mix, allowing players from both games to play together. The end result is a unique idea that works extremely well and awards longtime players with plenty of new features.
What’s It About?
The Sacrifice takes place between the end of the Left 4 Dead 2 campaign and The Passing, the previous campaign add-on released earlier this year. However, players will once again assume the role of the original Survivors from the first game. For those fans who played The Passing, they learned of a tragic fate regarding one of the original Survivors who was found dead during one of the levels. How this Survivor died was always up to interpretation (with Valve teasing us along the way) but now you can take control and decide for yourself who must sacrifice themselves to save the rest of the team.
Why Should I Care?
There really isn’t much here in terms of diversity or level design, but the ability to play as the original Survivors in what is considered a Left 4 Dead 2 map is a nice bonus. The Sacrifice is much of the same for the first two maps, but once you hit the finale all hell breaks loose. In this scenario, players must race to activate three generators that will lower a bridge to safety, but activating each generator not only attracts a horde…but a tank as well. You can tackle these segments one at a time, or for the truly maniacal, all at once and fight off dozens of zombies and three tanks at the same time. It’s a frantic race for survival where teamwork is truly needed to kill everything coming after you.
Perhaps the biggest rush is Versus Mode, where players from both games can actually play together. Versus Mode ups the ante since you have to decide amongst your human companions who the chosen one must be to stay and fight off the horde so the rest can survive. Of course, with the numerous times I have played through The Sacrifice Versus mode, the end finale with the many tanks and hordes of zombies was sometimes too much for both teams to muster. Still, if you can manage to get to the very end you will surely have fun with the decisions you have to make as a team.
As an added bonus The Sacrifice also includes No Mercy, the highly popular map from the first game. For those of you who have never played the first game, No Mercy begins in a rundown alley-filled street, continues on through an underground subway and finishes off through the various stories of a hospital with a massive finale on the rooftop. No Mercy features some of the best level designs of any campaign from both games and the added bonus of including the new Special Infected zombies make this map even more enjoyable this time around. Before, teams could easily make it to the finale with thousands of points, with hardly a challenge waiting for them along the way. With the addition of Spitters, Jockeys and Chargers, as well as melee weapons, No Mercy is much harder to successfully complete but tons more fun to play.
Why Is It Worth My Time And Money?
You get a new campaign map in The Sacrifice plus the addition of an old favorite in No Mercy. Besides Versus Mode, various locations from both campaigns are also available in Scavenge and Survival modes as well, further enhancing the time you spend with the new content. The Sacrifice campaign itself is relatively short, taking only about half an hour to complete in single player or an hour in Versus, but the rush from trying to successfully conquer the finale will have many replaying the campaign over and over again.
Xbox 360 owners might find it hard to pay $5 for content that PC owners receive free, but in the long run the price is justified. The Sacrifice gives fans more of the same Left 4 Dead 2 frantic gameplay while adding a twist to the story and a chance to relive a past favorite with No Mercy. Valve continues to deliver great customer service to their devoted fans and until Left 4 Dead 3 eventually arrives, let’s hope we continue to play stellar add-ons such as these.
Title:
Left 4 Dead 2: The Sacrifice
Platform:
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Publisher:
Valve Software
Developer:
Valve Software
Genre:
First Person Shooter
Release Date:
October 5, 2010
ESRB Rating:
M
Left 4 Dead 2: The Sacrifice Review
Left 4 Dead 2 is still going strong on both the PC and Xbox 360 and Valve continues to give fans some of the best service in the industry. The newest content, The Sacrifice, adds a new campaign to the…
Left 4 Dead 2 is still going strong on both the PC and Xbox 360 and Valve continues to give fans some of the best service in the industry. The newest content, The Sacrifice, adds a new campaign to the mix, allowing players from both games to play together. The end result is a unique idea that works extremely well and awards longtime players with plenty of new features.
What’s It About?
The Sacrifice takes place between the end of the Left 4 Dead 2 campaign and The Passing, the previous campaign add-on released earlier this year. However, players will once again assume the role of the original Survivors from the first game. For those fans who played The Passing, they learned of a tragic fate regarding one of the original Survivors who was found dead during one of the levels. How this Survivor died was always up to interpretation (with Valve teasing us along the way) but now you can take control and decide for yourself who must sacrifice themselves to save the rest of the team.
Why Should I Care?
There really isn’t much here in terms of diversity or level design, but the ability to play as the original Survivors in what is considered a Left 4 Dead 2 map is a nice bonus. The Sacrifice is much of the same for the first two maps, but once you hit the finale all hell breaks loose. In this scenario, players must race to activate three generators that will lower a bridge to safety, but activating each generator not only attracts a horde…but a tank as well. You can tackle these segments one at a time, or for the truly maniacal, all at once and fight off dozens of zombies and three tanks at the same time. It’s a frantic race for survival where teamwork is truly needed to kill everything coming after you.
Perhaps the biggest rush is Versus Mode, where players from both games can actually play together. Versus Mode ups the ante since you have to decide amongst your human companions who the chosen one must be to stay and fight off the horde so the rest can survive. Of course, with the numerous times I have played through The Sacrifice Versus mode, the end finale with the many tanks and hordes of zombies was sometimes too much for both teams to muster. Still, if you can manage to get to the very end you will surely have fun with the decisions you have to make as a team.
As an added bonus The Sacrifice also includes No Mercy, the highly popular map from the first game. For those of you who have never played the first game, No Mercy begins in a rundown alley-filled street, continues on through an underground subway and finishes off through the various stories of a hospital with a massive finale on the rooftop. No Mercy features some of the best level designs of any campaign from both games and the added bonus of including the new Special Infected zombies make this map even more enjoyable this time around. Before, teams could easily make it to the finale with thousands of points, with hardly a challenge waiting for them along the way. With the addition of Spitters, Jockeys and Chargers, as well as melee weapons, No Mercy is much harder to successfully complete but tons more fun to play.
Why Is It Worth My Time And Money?
You get a new campaign map in The Sacrifice plus the addition of an old favorite in No Mercy. Besides Versus Mode, various locations from both campaigns are also available in Scavenge and Survival modes as well, further enhancing the time you spend with the new content. The Sacrifice campaign itself is relatively short, taking only about half an hour to complete in single player or an hour in Versus, but the rush from trying to successfully conquer the finale will have many replaying the campaign over and over again.
Xbox 360 owners might find it hard to pay $5 for content that PC owners receive free, but in the long run the price is justified. The Sacrifice gives fans more of the same Left 4 Dead 2 frantic gameplay while adding a twist to the story and a chance to relive a past favorite with No Mercy. Valve continues to deliver great customer service to their devoted fans and until Left 4 Dead 3 eventually arrives, let’s hope we continue to play stellar add-ons such as these.
Written by: Josh Schwartzman
Date published: 10/12/2010
3.5 / 5 stars
by Josh Schwartzman
As an added bonus The Sacrifice also includes No Mercy, the highly popular map from the first game. For those of you who have never played the first game, No Mercy begins in a rundown alley-filled street, continues on through an underground subway and finishes off through the various stories of a hospital with a massive finale on the rooftop. No Mercy features some of the best level designs of any campaign from both games and the added bonus of including the new Special Infected zombies make this map even more enjoyable this time around. Before, teams could easily make it to the finale with thousands of points, with hardly a challenge waiting for them along the way. With the addition of Spitters, Jockeys and Chargers, as well as melee weapons, No Mercy is much harder to successfully complete but tons more fun to play.
