You can’t keep a good zombie down. And, as Left 4 Dead showed us last year, you also can’t survive very long when there are hundreds and hundreds of them constantly ambushing you at speeds approaching Mach 5, their claws and fangs scrabbling for your terrified flesh.

More than a few wags have suggested that Valve, a developer that once built its legend on the mods (modifications) fans lovingly spun out of Half-Life, the company’s most famous series, fast-tracked the L4D sequel to capitalize on its undead cash cow before the modders did.

Even if that’s true, it’s pretty hard to complain about the end result. Just about everything has been improved or augmented for the better.

Start with the campaign missions that find you, playing solo or with up to three friends online, scurrying through underpasses, a truly freaked-out carnival and a super-creepy swamp, complete with torrential downpour.

The missions now form a discrete story, focusing on a new quartet of survivors who can’t figure out why they are left out of the government’s iffy evacuation efforts.

All four are given great dialogue and character development this go-round, which adds to how much you care about them (and how hard you try to keep them from becoming zombie-fodder.)

The weapon twist is equally delish — access to an arsenal (cricket bats, crowbars, katana swords, and yes, a chainsaw) that let you get up close and personal with your zombie-mashing. A pickax is woefully ineffective against big-boy zombies like Boomers, Hunters and Smokers, so you’d better be sure somebody else in your party is packing major heat.

Three new brain-munchers join the fray, and you can fight ’em or play ’em, depending on the game mode: The Jockey, who jumps on your back and steers you into trouble; the Charger, who enjoys bull-rushing, all the better to use you as his personal croquet mallet; and worst is the Spitter, who spews green acidic goo that always seems to find your character’s Rockports.

Ewww and ouch, all at the same time.

We haven’t even talked about the range of new game modes, like the uber-terrifying Realism mode, which eliminates your ability to see your other party members through walls and turns off the re-spawn/revival feature. The first Left 4 Dead got a Game of the Year re-release that packed in additional content that made it better.

Left 4 Dead 2 won’t need that — all the good stuff is here already.

Left 4 Dead 2

Valve/EA

Xbox 360, PC

Rated: Mature

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