Surely my life isn’t all work and no play – I occassionally get to spend some time decapitating zombies in the very amazing Left 4 Dead 2.  This is a game that may as well have been written explicitly for me.  I enjoyed (and conquered most of the Achievements for) Left 4 Dead, so I was worried that L4D2 wouldn’t crank up the tension enough.

Au contraire.

I’ve had more pants-crapping, adrenaline-fueled moments in L4D2 than I can admit to.  The additional of melee weapons makes the game exceptional visceral.  There’s something to be said for sniping your way carefully to safety – there’s something else entirely, AMAZINGLY FUN to be said about carving your way out of a rampaging horde of rabid zombies with a machete, or the satisfying *crunk* of head colliding with cricket bat, then detaching and flying into the distance.

L4D2 is so good, in fact, that its the first game I’ve played where cowardice seemed like the most viable option.  Recently, I was playing online with some friends (including Story Games guru Andy Kitkowski), going through the Swamp Fever campaign.  The climax of this campaign is a showdown at a gothic Antebellum mansion – and it’s easily the hardest of the endgame scenarios in both versions of Left 4 Dead.  The infected pour in from every direction at long range, and even with a well-knit group chances are that you’ll get overwhelmed.

We managed to make it through (barely) and absconded from the upper balcony to the gates where a boat is due to arrive and holed up there for the last couple of waves of infected, waiting for the real killers – two (!) Tanks – big, beefy ‘roid-raging zombies that can knock you into next week.  This is the only place I’ve ever seen such a thing, and the first time I realized there were two Tanks, I almost gave up the idea of finishing the campaign.  But again, we soldiered through and (barely) survived intact.  The gate blew, and I ran along with the Rochelle-player out into the water.  It was then that I noticed Coach went down.

I was almost on the boat, but I stopped, knelt and pointed my sniper rifle back to see what was going on.  Nick was still there as well, and the two of them were being swarmed.  I had the sniper rifle (so much fun!) and started cutting through the swarm by shooting just over Coach’s head.  It looked like Nick was going to be able to get him up, but then a big rock came out from nowhere and knocked him to the ground as well – the calling card of another Tank attack.  So I had a choice – try to wade in and save them both (possible, but unlikely) or save my own virtual ass and get on the boat.

Normally, I play with a chip on my shoulder.  I aim to win – not just survive.  But this was the first time I’d gotten to the damn boat, and that elusive Achievement called to me.  Then I watched another wave of infected burst through the gates, past the now-dead Coach and nearly-dead Nick.  I turned and ran like the coward I was.  The feeling as the credits rolled wasn’t mixed – I was elated.  And not because I’d actually survived – but because a game had given me such a visceral shock, caused me such trouble, given me such pause that at the very end, when I had the chance to play the hero I turned tail and ran from the sheer horror of it.

Oh, the beauty.