Left 4 Dead 2: Cold Stream Review

You know that feeling when you jump into a pool that’s heated to the perfect temperature? Swimming around feels like something you should have been doing your entire life, and it’s just plain wonderful. Cold Stream, Left 4 Dead 2’s new community-created map turned official DLC, is much less like its frigid namesake and much more like a soothing warm-water swim. It feels just about right.

You know Left 4 Dead 2. You know how great it is. You still shoot hundreds of zombies, co-op style, on your way through a series of maps to get to a safe point where you can rest and reload. Special zombies like the Spitter and the Hunter are still around to screw with your plans, Tanks will still ambush you at the worst possible moments, and setting off car alarms still draws the horde to the location of your oh-so-tasty brains.

So, you’ll likely still have a great time with Cold Stream. It’s a competently put together new campaign, and definitely scratches that new Left 4 Dead itch. But, there’s just something missing. It lacks the usual magic that Valve games tend to attain. I’ve been struggling to put my finger on exactly what it is, but it’s honestly fairly difficult to say.

Perhaps it’s the lack of new voice work for the campaign. The map’s creators very cleverly put together old dialogue to estimate more or less what it would sound like, but it’s just not the same.

Perhaps it’s the slightly uneven difficulty. In Valve-designed maps, you constantly feel one step ahead of death. The zombies bear down on you, and you barely survive each encounter. Those moments exist in Cold Stream, but they’re definitely not common. And when they come, they come with fury. There’s a moment early in the campaign where you’re forced to fight your way down a raging deluge of water, all the while fighting off zombies. It sounds thrilling, but instead it’s far too chaotic and far too difficult.

Perhaps, even, it’s notable lack of witches. It seems like a not-so-huge deal at first glance, but I really missed the moments of turning a corner and finding myself face-to-face with one of the terrifying she-devils. The air seems lacking in tension without her cries echoing in the distance.

None of this is to say that Cold Stream isn’t very good. In fact, quite the opposite. It’s still Left 4 Dead 2, and shooting, chopping, and chainsawing your way through is still just as much fun as ever. The new four-map set is varied, well-designed, and definitely gets the job done. It’s just not up to the level of the game’s other campaigns.

For the Left 4 Dead veterans, however, the true value of the DLC lies in the re-release of four campaigns from the original game. Crash Course, Death Toll, Dead Air, and Blood Harvest are back, along with Zoey, Louis, Bill, and Francis. I know right? I missed those guys too. Plus, you get to play with the new toys that Left 4 Dead 2 introduced, like melee weapons and the ever-useless defibrillator, all in an attempt to survive the new Special Infected that seem to have invaded the old areas. Fresh!

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New Super Mario Bros 2 Review

You know that fizzy feeling you get in your brain when you play a great Mario game? Where it feels a bit like it did the first time you ever played one, even though you’re so intimately familiar with it? New Super Mario Bros 2 gives you 80-odd levels of perfectly-pitched side-scrolling platforming with a smattering of new features, but it doesn’t give you that feeling. It’s a surprisingly conservative entry in this continually inventive franchise, and though it’s a masterclass in level design and eternally satisfying to play, it doesn’t move the series forward. When it’s as good as it was to begin with, though, it’s hard to find much else to complain about.

New Super Mario Bros 2 stars the Koopalings (Bowser’s long-neglected junior minions) as villains, who crop up in predictable but nonetheless entertaining boss fights at the end of each of the game’s worlds. Coin-collecting is the ancient video game principle at the heart of the game. Those shiny little discs of gold metal are everywhere, erupting in shimmering cascades from pipes and trailing in the wake of Cheep Cheeps underwater. The new power-ups mostly revolve around turning everything into gold; a golden Flower transforms Mario into a tubby little Midas, transmuting everything around him into coins, and coin blocks can be worn on Mario’s head, leaving a trail of twinkling currency as he runs and jumps.

Golden rings, meanwhile, temporarily gild every enemy in the level, giving you greater rewards for bopping them on the head and causing Koopa shells to spew coins in their spinning path. The game keeps track of your cumulative coin total, displaying it right in your face on the world map and popping up with little congratulatory messages when you reach a new milestone. Something happens when you reach one million, we’re told, but it’ll be a while before anyone finds out what.

There are plenty of old power-ups too, of course, like the Fire Flower, Starman and the Super Leaf, which turns Mario into Raccoon Mario (though the resultant powers of flight are tragically under-used for the majority of the game). The Mega and Mini Mushrooms from the original New Super Mario Bros turn up as well, but only once or twice over the course of the entire game, making them feel a lot less gimmicky than they did before.

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Unlike Super Mario 3D Land, it doesn’t feel built for the console

New Super Mario Bros 2’s primary-coloured, whimsical graphical style is as endearing as ever – the Koopas even do a little dance when there’s a trill in the music. Weirdly, though, the 3D effect doesn’t work well at all. Turn the slider up and the detailed 2D backgrounds get blurrier and blurrier, which creates a depth of field effect but also smears all the lovely artwork. Unlike Super Mario 3D Land, it doesn’t feel built for the console – there are no levels with nifty 3D effects, and it’s difficult to find a reason to turn the slider up.

Mario is such a joy to control that he sometimes feels like an extension of your thoughts. He has a perfect sense of weight to him, and the levels are exquisitely designed to take advantage of his acrobatic abilities. Each world has two castles to break up the normal flow, and some worlds have ghost houses that give Mario platforming a puzzley twist, with disappearing doors and mirrored rooms. There are a lot of secrets, too – some of the levels have second exits that lead you to a new place on the map (or a new world entirely), and you’ll constantly be scanning their perfect geometry for the inviting gaps in the scenery or slight anomalies that could point towards something hidden.

Difficulty-wise, New Super Mario Bros 2 is still a long way from the invigorating cruelty of the old 2D Marios, but you won’t be able to skip through the game without ever dying. If you fail a level more than a few times, the white Tanooki Suit – or the You Suck Tanooki Suit, as it’s more colloquially known – lets you run through the levels as an invincible white raccoon Mario, but that still won’t save you from death by deadly purple goop or falling into lava. The difficulty is offset by the sheer proliferation of coins, though – if you’re any good, you’ll have about 100 lives saved up by the time you’re halfway into the game.

The co-op multiplayer is fun, but inessential – on a small screen, the camera often has trouble keeping both of you in focus at once, and it doesn’t let you run off and explore separately. It feels like another missed opportunity, with no bespoke levels made for co-operative play. Where New Super Mario Bros Wii only really came alive when played with friends, the multiplayer here feels like an optional add-on.

Coin Rush Mode has a more competitive aspect, letting you challenge people via Streetpass to amass as many coins as you can without dying over three randomly selected levels – and under a time limit, too, as if that wasn’t enough pressure. This gives New Super Mario Bros 2 a little longevity, which is desperately needs; the single-player game barely lasts five hours on a first playthrough, though secret-searching and collecting star coins takes much longer.

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