It’s been months since CS:GO last received an update worth covering. Then, SUDDENLY,
last night… they finally rolled out some new translations.
It’s clear to me that Counter-Strike’s dead, so from now on this channel’s going
to cover Left 4 Dead content instead. Starting with the Last Stand update!
It’s not like Valve made this either, since even this is ‘created entirely by the L4D
community.’ Here are the 30+ community members that Valve have worked with to create this
new update. Thank you! If only there was a community around CS:GO
willing to produce content for that game.
At the centre of the Last Stand is- unsurprisingly- the Last Stand Campaign. This is shorter than
most campaigns, being just 2 levels long. But the first level is a long one, and contains
many memorable and enjoyable moments. The second one isn’t quite so long, since most
of it is set around a lighthouse, waiting for rescue to arrive. Kind of standard for
the final level of a campaign really. This lighthouse level was originally an update
that was rolled out to the first Left 4 Dead. While with most campaigns, if you held out
for long enough then you’d eventually be rescued, the Last Stand was rather morbid
in that it had no end to it-players were expected to hold out for as long as they could before
finally succumbing to the zombie hoarde. A bit like CS:GO players waiting for an update
in 2020. The Last Stand was never considered a proper
part of the Left 4 Dead story, so I guess this made it a prime candidate for an overhaul
like the one we’re seeing here, where it’s been extended into a proper campaign, complete
with proper ending to it. So that the survivors live to die another day.
All in all, I’d say it’s a decent chunk of new content. I found the hold-out at the
end of it harder than with most campaigns since if feels like there are more stages
to it, and at the end of it you really have to run a long way to reach the boat, whereas
the zombies can simply dive off the cliff and get there in a matter of seconds. It makes
for quite an intense finale as you’re running about trying to pick up other players who
plummeted to their deaths, or who got stuck on that annoyingly placed boat in the entrance
to the shed and so on.
But this new campaign is just a FRACTION of what’s come out in this update! You have
26 new survival maps, which I refuse to call new content since all they’ve done is to
get pre-existing parts of the campaign levels and to cordon them off. But you know, it’s
there if you want them. And 4 new scavenge arenas, bringing the total up to 20. Again,
so many you don’t know what to do with all of them. It’s like trying to play every
level of UT2004.
The stuff I personally care more about are the tweaks and additions that change the campaigns.
The biggest change for me is the increased shotgun ammunition, from 56 to 72 reserve
shells. And it’s about time, because I’d almost always run out with that, while I’d
never run out with the SMG. So this should help bring balance to the force once more.
There are a few new melee weapons, like the pitchfork and shovel. You might think they’re
all the same but there are subtle differences between how they each operate. For instance,
the shovel has a wide attack range, while the pitchfork is faster which makes it better
for dispatching of lone zombies. There’s new, previously unused dialogue
between the survivors! A welcome touch for anybody who’s familiar with the characters,
and who thought they knew every Keith story there was to know.
There are new mutations, which are twists on the core gameplay to make it all feel fresh
again. I’ll admit, I’ve never actually played the game with mutations because I still
haven’t tired of the vanilla gameplay. But I had a lot of fun with the new Rocketdude
mode. You’re given a melee weapon and a grenade launcher and can use it to launch
yourself across the map. The grenade launcher has infinite ammo and fires… rockets, which
travel in a straight line. You won’t sustain any damage from the blasts, or from falling
damage. I felt like a God in this mode, diving from rooftop to rooftop, alerting witches
and teasing tanks. Definitely worth a go. And the other new mutation is Tank Run, which
shouldn’t exist and it really stupid. There aren’t any common infected- and all the
special infected are tanks, meaning you’re almost always fighting one of these things,
and have unlimited ammo to play with. I played it on easy mode and the tanks died really,
really quickly, but it was still annoying to have these things spawning in front of
me whenever I was trying to do something, so I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of
this mode. But hey, maybe you’re into being endlessly pounded by big burly men.
Oh and there are 30 brand new achievements as well. This whole update’s such a feature-dump
that it’s almost like going from Unreal Tournament 2003 to 2004. Yes that may sound
like an outdated reference but those games are only a few years older than Left 4 Dead
at this point.
There’s now a golden crowbar to find in all 22 L4D1 survival maps. Some of these are
quite sneakily placed, but you’re rewarded for finding them all with an achievement.
This could also be a call back to Unreal Tournament, which also liked to hide golden crowbars in
hard to reach places.
And onto the bug fixes. There are over 1000 of these, so this could take a while. Actually
it won’t because I’m not going to go through all of them. To summarise, they’ve fixed
literally EVERY problem anybody has ever had with the game. Left 4 Dead 2 is now completely
bug free, for ever! Or it might as well be, cos I never had a problem with it before,
and now it’s EVEN BETTER than that. You’ve got fixed exploits, improved bot behaviour
like only eating pills if below 50 health, or medic kits when below 30. Using medic kits,
not eating. Survivors who are knocked down while in the escape vehicle are now counted
as ‘rescued’. Thank Goodness for that. And for some reason, which I still don’t
get, Counter-Strike Source weapons are now available for all players, and can sometimes
be found in the regular campaigns. Why the game needs a low-poly AWP, I don’t know.
But hey, more content I guess.
Animations, map layouts, models and dialog have all been patched. Seriously, if this
was a CS:GO update where I actually knew what I was doing I’d be able to make a dozen
videos about this! But as it is I’m stuck reading off the a patchnotes. What a shame.
Lol, people who play this game on a controller will have improved support. PS5 edition incomingggg.
The Last Stand Update: a lot more content for Left 4 Dead 2’s many gamemodes, and
10 years-worth of bug-fixes. What it’s not is… Source 2. Or an update for CS:GO. Or
a promise that more might be coming later on. But it’s a sign that Valve moves in
unexpected ways. 2020: year of a new Half Life game, and new content for Left 4 Dead.
It’s proof that anything’s possible… aside from interesting new CS:GO content.
If you asked me what I’d want from a CS:GO update, I’d say I want the convincing movement
seen in Half-Life Alyx. That, and ‘more coop stuff’. The idea of a campaign that
players could work cooperatively to beat could perhaps heal the toxic attitude that’s built
up around the game. Something Left 4 Dead has never really suffered from. But then I
think to myself, if I want that, there’s always Left 4 Dead. They’ve even added a
‘rematch’ option at the end of versus survival matches, a far cry from what happened
to that feature in CS:GO. Give it a go if you haven’t already.
Looks like it’s currently full-price on Steam, which equates to about $10. Worth every
penny. If you’re new to it, I’d say just to boot
it straight up and to launch a campaign on easy or normal difficulty. The bots will help
you through it all, and it’ll gently introduce you to the game’s pacing, weapons and enemies.
And Ellis’s sick jokes.
Stylo reached out to let me know that he’s just finished a guide on it, which contains
all sorts of cool information about its development and the differences between different infected
and melee weapons. Although I’ve played the game extensively- and for long enough
to suspect certain aspects of the game’s mechanics- it’s interesting to be able to
see behind the scenes at how exactly everything works. Give it a view, link in the video’s
description.