With its tongue-in-cheek humor and thousands of zombies waiting to tear you apart limb-for-limb, Left 4 Dead 2’s addictive gameplay and intense survival antics pick up right where the first game left off making it the perfect gift for any gamer or post-Y2K/pre-2012 sap this holiday season. The title’s bountiful additions of weapons and items, gameplay modes, zombie types, and characters earn its status as a standalone title as opposed to any form of downloadable content (DLC).

Dropping wave after wave with gun and flashlight in hand, I had forgotten just how impressive Left 4 Dead’s simple concept was. The premise is largely unchanged from the first game, with the exception of one aspect I’ll get to later, but somehow L4D2’s newest additions up the stakes so much I’m not sure I can go back to playing the first game. A defibrillator completely changes the dynamic of any cohesive group in versus mode, and I wonder how I ever went so long without being able to shoot a tank with incendiary bullets. Well never again I tell you – never again.

Multiple guns, such as the AK47 and combat shotgun, are essentially mocks of the assault rifle and automatic shotgun, respectively, but weapons such as the automatic sniper rifle and Magnum certainly make your weapon selection process a little more difficult. The biggest change players will notice, however, is the addition of melee weapons. The unmistakable sound of a chainsaw revving or the sound of an axe amputating its way through the horde of undead completely changes the game forever – for the better.

The new zombie types: charger, spitter, and jockey, make for some mighty formidable foes in both single-player and multiplayer. Jockey’s will commandeer (yes, commandeer) any survivor hanging too close to a ledge or fire, the spitter will let out a noxious acid that will almost always temporarily divide the group into pieces, and the charger will, well charge you. While the jockey concept is a bit similar to the hunters, I don’t think you will find many people who have any complaints with the new classes.