Leaving it 4 Dead, for now. Time to make this intersting again.

It's been over 3 weeks since my last update and my commitment to this journey has been a bit hit and miss. Games like Left 4 Dead, and by extension Left 4 Dead 2, don't really scratcxh and itch for me play wise. It falls in to a category similar to Dead By Daylight or COD Multiplayer.

While fundamentally it does differ from the others I mention above in that there is something of a story progression going on throughout the individual missions, it is in subcontext, the primarily driver behind the game is repeatable maps played in co-op. The story may move every so slowly forward, but the gameplay itself does not.

There is no character progression, no challenge to overcome. Every level is the same. Starts the same, ends the same, and other than the specific route taken, they journey is the same. This bores me, more than thought it would.

I didn't really notice it in the first L4D as it is only a handful of maps, but L4D2 is much bigger, and after the 4th map, it hit me. A realisation that I am just doing the same things over and over again in the same manner just in a different setting.

Many of the games I enjoy playing (Tomb Raider, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Dark Souls, Assassins Creed, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, GTA) have strong story progression but also character and skill progression. Either in the form of upgrades, gear, harder enemies, bigger bosses.

Take Silent Hill for example, you can beat most of them without every picking up a new weapon, just using the pistol and knife you get at the beginning, but you, the player, need to get better at the game to do it. Dark Souls has been proven many a time you can do it with the broken hilt sword or at Soul Level 1. But the game still gets harder, challenges you more, you have to become a better player to do so.

In left for dead, you can be as bad in the first level as you are in the last level and still beat it. Your gear and character is reset, there is absolutely no progression.

So, I am stepping away from the alphabetical order in which I have been running this challenge up until now, and moving onto a more rewarding approach. I am going to be playing the games I want to play, with the ones that have been festering in my backlog due to lack of interest sewn in as I feel justified to do so.

In terms of Left 4 Dead 2, I will finish it, but I may do a new level inbetween other games.

In this new approach, I am going to be looking at the remainder of my list and still going alphabetically, but more selective in what is my next big game.

To that end, I will be moving onto Portal 2. A game I have finished on Xbox360, and even completed most of the Co Op stuff with my son back in the day. So see you on the other side.