Left 4 Dead 2

The E3 2009 reveal did not go over well with some fans. They disliked the characters, visuals and music, and feared that a sequel so soon would split the community. A Steam boycott group gathered more than 37,000 members. Valve invited two of its leaders to play the game, and in October the group disbanded, its organizers saying Valve was keeping its promises for the first game.

In September 2020 the players themselves added to the game. The Last Stand came out, a community-made update with a new campaign and more than twenty survival maps. Valve accepted it as official, though it gave little technical help.

Reviewers praised the melee weapons, new Special Infected like the Charger and the Jockey, and the Southern setting, though one reviewer felt the core might have lost some of its newness within a year. Players give it 97% positive across 825,044 reviews, and critics 89 on Metacritic. Our Recommended Score puts it at 19 of 4,736.

Liked it? Try Left 4 Dead, with the original four survivors, and Back 4 Blood from Turtle Rock Studios, the makers of the first game, where you build a deck of cards before each level that changes health, damage and stamina.