History VideoGame / Left4Dead2

'''Ellis''': Kill all sons-a-bitches. ''[[DramaticGunCock [racks shotgun] ]]'' That's ''my'' 'ficial instructions.

* SequelDifficultySpike: ''2'' has many more spawn points for hordes, discourages camping, its new special infected are even designed to punish survivors that stay ''too close'' to each other, rolling crescendos are much more challenging than the regular ones, and Realism adds another level of challenge even to the Expert difficulty.
** Several Mutation gametypes take this UpToEleven.
** ''The Passing'' and ''The Sacrifice'' DLC campaigns are '''much''' harder than others in spite of being shorter.
** And in most every campaign that has been ported over from ''1'' to ''2'', there are alterations to increase difficulty. In some cases this is simply to adjust for the new gameplay elements, but they overdo it in some instances.
*** Most notably in the Terminal of Dead Air, what was once a panic event was upgraded to a Rolling Crescendo. However, the developers did not remove the normal crescendo event at the beginning of the level, resulting in this one having two crescendos, with one being one of the hardest in the game (you have to cover a lot of ground unlike in Dark Carnival).

* PostApocalypticTrafficJam: One of the levels starts with the gang being unable to progress through an intense traffic jam cause via the zombie apocalypse. The final level has the protagonists have to make their way through a bridge filled with infected to reach a evacuation boat. Naturally there a few abandoned cars along the road with alarms to stir them if you misfire.

* BattleInTheRain: The ''Hard Rain'' and ''The Passing'' campaigns.
* BigDamnFireExit: Stage two of ''Dead Center''.
* BlackOutBasement: The official campaigns do a good job of averting this in favor of {{Chiaroscuro}} lighting, but all bets are off with custom campaigns (one of which is titled the exact name of the trope).

* BoomHeadshot: Played straight, to YourHeadAsplode levels with common infected.
** Mercilessly averted with the Tank, which receives the same damage from headshots as being shot anywhere else.
* BottomlessMagazines: The players must reload, but they've endless ammunition for their sidearms and supply caches provide infinite replenishment for your main weapons.
** Exaggerated in the ''Gib Fest'' Mutation gametype, which gives all four survivors [[MoreDakka an M60]] with infinite ammo.

* MoodWhiplash: Happens quite often, thanks to the automatic in-game dialogue.
--> '''Ellis:''' ...Y'all... Y'all, I'm hurt.... Look, guys, ''KIDDIELAND!''

** The M79 grenade launcher, which requires much practice to use effectively – that is, kill as many infected as possible without blowing your own team up in the process. It is the only weapon that has splash damage outside of grenades which in theory makes it great against hordes; additionally, it will one-shot most special infected with a direct hit and stagger them with a near miss. It also deals extra damage against Tanks, killing them in four hits on regular difficulty. However, the slow speed and arcing trajectory of its projectiles makes it difficult to hit moving targets at long range, and the explosion radius is just small enough to make it very easy to miss. Furthermore, it is a liability in close quarters: unless you are on elevated ground, you will likely end up hitting yourself and your teammates, and it reloads very slowly after each shot. As with all special weapons, the grenade launcher cannot be refilled at ammo piles, though its generous reserve of 31 rounds makes it rather more forgiving than the other two.

* AIBreaker: Tanks normally attack and chase the closet survivor. If said closet survivor is standing next to an incapacitated survivor, the Tank will choose to beat on the downed survivor instead while ignoring the healthy survivor. Players knowing this can use the downed player as a decoy while the rest wail on the Tank with melee weapons to kill it very quickly. This isn't as effective on Expert difficulty due to the Tank killing downed survivors very fast.

* OnlySixFaces: Averted with a better common infected random generation system.

** The M60 machine gun fires bullets that shred infected, much like the mounted guns: its shots will gib common infected in one shot and pass through multiple bodies. Its high damage per shot, fairly rapid fire, and ammo capacity of 150 rounds will allow a player to fairly easily mow down an entire horde or tackle a Tank on their own. Its main drawback is that you cannot refill its ammo at all (not even with special ammo pickups) and you only get one full box. And once you run out, you automatically discard it, leaving you with only your secondary weapon unless a new primary happens to be on hand. In official campaigns, it is also perhaps the rarest special weapon of all, with only one guaranteed spawn in the Last Stand.

* GolfClubbing: And it has the same attributes as the {{Katana|sAreJustBetter}} to boot, and just like in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', it can decapitate if you aim high (you even get an achievement for beheading enough zombies with one). Unfortunately, it's only found in ''The Passing''.

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: There's a bug in the collision detection of the rescue boat that ends ''Swamp Fever'' and ''Hard Rain''; depending on where your character is standing, this can result in them drowning as it sails out from under them. It is both [[HopeSpot depressing]] and [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe hilarious]] to die in this way.

** The M79 grenade launcher, which requires much practice to use effectively –- that is, kill as many infected as possible without blowing your own team up in the process. It is the only weapon that has splash damage outside of grenades which in theory makes it great against hordes; additionally, it will one-shot most special infected with a direct hit and stagger them with a near miss. It also deals extra damage against Tanks, killing them in four hits on regular difficulty. However, the slow speed and arcing trajectory of its projectiles makes it difficult to hit moving targets at long range, and the explosion radius is just small enough to make it very easy to miss. Furthermore, it is a liability in close quarters: unless you are on elevated ground, you will likely end up hitting yourself and your teammates, and it reloads very slowly after each shot. As with all special weapons, the grenade launcher cannot be refilled at ammo piles, though its generous reserve of 31 rounds makes it rather more forgiving than the other two.

** The minigun and mounted M2 machine gun, which can shred oncoming hordes and Tanks like no other, are never positioned so they can effectively cover more than two of the generally five or so directions that zombies can come from in official maps. Additionally, the M2 is almost impossibly rare in comparison to the previous game's minigun, only showing up in two finales out of six.
** The M79 grenade launcher, which requires much practice to use effectively – that is, kill as many infected as possible without blowing your own team up in the process. The explosion radius is just small enough (and the projectile speed slow enough) to make it insanely hard to hit special infected with while also being just large enough to cause you to shred yourself and your teammates when used at close range. It also needs to reload after every shot and can't be refilled at ammo dumps.
** The M60 Machine gun fires bullets that shred infected, much like its mounted counterpart. The only caveat is that you cannot refill its ammo at all (not even with fire bullets) and you only get 150. And once you run out, you automatically discard it, leaving you with only your secondary weapon unless a new primary happens to be on hand.
** The Chainsaw that you can rarely find is the melee counterpart to the grenade launcher and M60 machine gun; it has limited "ammo" and cannot be refilled and is discarded. It shreds through infected like there's no tomorrow as it's effectively a rapid-firing melee weapon, and is one of the only weapons that can quickly and safely kill a Witch. However it also takes a long time to rev up, and attracts all nearby infected to you due to the noise. In addition, because it runs on limited ammo too, it's not advised to carry this weapon AND one of the above, as if you run out of ammo (much more likely than you'd think) for both before a resupply point, all you have left is one pistol.

* UnwinnableByMistake: There's a bug in the collision detection of the rescue boat that ends ''Swamp Fever'' and ''Hard Rain''; depending on where your character is standing, this can result in them drowning as it sails out from under them. It is both [[HopeSpot depressing]] and [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe hilarious]] to die in this way.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The mounted machine guns available in certain areas (most notably the finales of The Sacrifice and Swamp Fever) are bar none the most powerful weapons in the game, being able to take down Tanks in a short period of time, have unlimited ammo, and never need to reload. However, they're often placed in inconvenient locations, only swivel around a 180 degree arc (meaning that your backside is completely exposed), you must stand completely still to use it (leaving you at the mercy of Spitters, Hunters, Chargers in your blind spots), shooting it for too long will cause it to overheat and render it useless for an entire minute, and Tanks will ''still'' come after you and throw rocks at you, the latter throwing you off the machine gun and making you a sitting duck. In fact, Tanks are [[ArtificialBrilliance specifically programmed to go after the Survivor on the mounted machine gun ''first'',]] though [[ArtificalStupidity this can also be exploited to draw aggro.]] As a result, it's often more convenient to get down and dirty the old fashioned way, but Louis handles it just fine in The Passing. In short, use it if you can, but do so at your own risk.

* TokenMinority: Averted.

In 2014, [[RemadeForTheExport a Japan-only arcade version, using the NESICA arcade board]] was published by Taito. It features Japanese voice acting, an entirely new cast of survivors, and unlockables including weapon skins, but [[{{Bowdlerize}} tones down the violence and gore to the same level as the German version of the original game]]. It was discontinued in July 2017 where existing functional machines can only play single player or local link multiplayer only.

On September 24 2020, Valve released (after a ''long'' ten year gap) a new mega update called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJMF-zxgbLc The Last Stand]]. Made by prominent modders and community members, it featured a new campaign, added dozens of Survival maps, two new melee weapons (the shovel and pitchfork), rebalanced PVP, improved AI, improved weapon models, new character animations, fully implementing the ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' weapons[[note]]Which Valve added to the German version of the game as a sort of apology for having to tone down the gore; they could spawn in the base game, but only if you were playing on a European server or used mods that enabled them.[[/note]], adding weapon skins as rare drop variants of existing weapons, and implementing in previously DummiedOut voice clips.

This was followed by the ''Left 4 Dead 2'' DLC "The Passing", which [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover brings the original survivors and the new ones together]] (well, three of them anyway) and "The Sacrifice" for both games, which lets players choose who makes [[HeroicSacrifice the ultimate sacrifice]] and was preceded by a [[http://www.l4d.com/comic/ free comic]]. The latter update also made "No Mercy" available in the sequel, complete with the original survivors as the playable characters. Cue rumors that Valve planned to make the entire first game [[EmbeddedPrecursor available for free in the sequel]] (which they did) and more cries of "ruined forever!".

On September 24 2020, Valve released (after a ''long'' ten year gap) a new DLC called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJMF-zxgbLc The Last Stand]]. Made by prominent modders and community members, it featured a new campaign, added dozens of Survival maps, two new melee weapons (the shovel and pitchfork), rebalanced PVP, improved AI, improved weapon models, new character animations, fully implementing the ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' weapons[[note]]Which Valve added to the German version of the game as a sort of apology for having to tone down the gore; they could spawn in the base game, but only if you were playing on a European server or used mods that enabled them.[[/note]], adding weapon skins as rare drop variants of existing weapons, and implementing in previously DummiedOut voice clips.

** If you play in single player mode often, {{Game Mod}}s such as [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2279814689 Left 4 Bots: Improved Bots]] are a good way to avoid breaking your monitor in frustration. They're still not nearly as good as good human players, though it helps that their reaction time to being pinned or snagged is shorter, they can grab and use throwables, share items, and even in custom maps they hardly get stuck because of bad path-finding. The linked mod also allows to have bots take over being the leader along with returning the leader role to player in case of getting stuck, and added feature for bots to be able to scavenge gas cans in campaign stages with scavenge objectives.

** If you play in single player mode often, {{Game Mod}}s such as [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2279814689 Left 4 Bots: Improved Bots]] are a good way to avoid breaking your monitor in frustration. They're still not nearly as good as good human players, though it helps that their reaction time to being pinned or snagged is shorter, they can grab melee weapons so that two out of four survivors have them for more combat versatility, adding support for using throwables, and even in custom maps they hardly get stuck because of bad path-finding. The linked mod also allows to have bots take over being the leader as well as returning the leader role to player in case of getting stuck.

* BlatantItemPlacement: Zigzagged. A lot of guns are found by dead survivors, Whitaker's gun store, security room gun lockers, or a suitcase that contains money as well as pistols, explosive items are usually found near generators, and axes, crow bars and guitars spawn where they'd be used. But on the other hand, a lot of items spawn in very ''illogical'' places. There's massive heaps of Ammo in meeting rooms, sewers or in a certain bathroom, pills can spawn in urinals, a motel is full of jars of bile and pipe bombs, the store next to Whitaker's usually has a Molotov. There are entire lockers full of Molotovs or Pipebombs in various buildings, and just past a wedding are several tents full of guns. Whispering Oaks has a bizarre number of guns for a kids theme-park, explosive ammo and incendiary ammo just spawn in the back of trucks, there's almost no reason for a katana to spawn ''anywhere'', the list just goes on.

** This goes for the survivor bots too, as they have aimbot accuracy, and cannot directly cause friendly fire(being able to literally shoot through others). [[JustifiedTrope It works]], as a half-decent human player is still more efficient overall (due to other factors like bots not being able to use grenades or any particular strategy beyond shooting things), yet a team isn't completely screwed if a player leaves mid-game.

* {{Griefer}}: Per [[ForumSpeak G.I.F.T]], you're guaranteed to come across them in public matches. The most common type of griefer are players that shoot their own teammates to death, which is ''extremely'' common on Expert difficulty games due to the sheer friendly fire damage.

** Averted in the final chapter of each campaign after the rescue vehicle has been summoned. Dying means you get KilledOffForReal.

** [=TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNK!!!=] plays it for fun, by removing AI-controlled special infected and having players only be survivors or Tanks. This can actually make the game much easier, as survivors can [[LeeroyJenkins just run like hell through the level]] without having to worry about being grabbed by a special.

** The infected can never trigger car alarms, despite the undead jumping all over cars on the regular. Likewise, Tanks can't trigger car alarms if it punches one and the alarm is destroyed instead.

** The infected can never trigger car alarms, despite the undead jumping all over cars on the regular.

** Played straight with Cold Stream and The Last Stand, which don't fit into the canon of the story and are considered "what if" scenarios. Both of them are community-made campaigns that were added to the game by Valve.

** If you play in single player mode often, {{Game Mod}}s such as [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121071938 Improved]] [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121071656 Bots]] are a good way to avoid breaking your monitor in frustration. They're still not nearly as good as good human players, though it helps that their reaction time to being pinned or snagged is shorter, they can grab melee weapons so that two out of four survivors have them for more combat versatility, and even in custom maps they hardly get stuck because of bad path-finding.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The mounted machine guns available in certain areas (most notably the finales of The Sacrifice and Swamp Fever) are bar none the most powerful weapons in the game, being able to take down Tanks in a short period of time, have unlimited ammo, and never need to reload. However, they're often placed in inconvenient locations, only swivel around a 180 degree arc (meaning that your backside is completely exposed), you must stand completely still to use it (leaving you at the mercy of Spitters, Hunters, Chargers in your blind spots), shooting it for too long will cause it to overheat and render it useless for an entire minute, and Tanks will ''still'' come after you and throw rocks at you, the latter throwing you off the machine gun and making you a sitting duck. In fact, Tanks are [[ArtificialBrilliance specifically programmed to go after the Survivor on the mounted machine gun ''first''.]] As a result, it's often more convenient to get down and dirty the old fashioned way, but Louis handles it just fine in The Passing. In short, use it if you can, but do so at your own risk.

** ''Swamp Fever'' has "Mud Men", who can move more quickly than other zombies and can obscure your vision with mud.
** ''Hard Rain'' has infected sugar mill workers, whose ear protection gear prevent them from being lured to pipe bombs, and whose hard hats make them more resilient to melee weapons.
** ''The Parish'' has infected riot cops, whose body armor makes them invincible to all attacks from the front.

* UselessItem: The oxygen tank is an explosive item that goes off a few seconds after it is shot. The infected generally won't wait for the tank to explode, making it nearly worthless to use effectively. The Last Stand update gave the oxygen tank a secondary effect where the hissing it creates after being shot will attract nearby common infected towards it like a pipe bomb, making the item more viable to use.