Hands-on: 'Left 4 Dead 2' (PC, 360)

Some things never change, and one of them is Valve's time keeping. Arriving a few days later than planned, Digital Spy has gone hands-on with the timed-exclusive demo of the much-debated Left 4 Dead 2. Although the teaser only covers a couple of stages (around twenty minutes of play time) you can instantly recognise the numerous changes they've made, all of which adjust the way you play, yet effortlessly slot into the existing template established in the first game.

The most obvious addition is the new special infected, which are cleverly designed to put you in harm's way as much as possible. The Charger looks like a pint-sized Tank, with one hulking shoulder that can quickly pick up a player (and send others flying) and carry them before smashing them into the ground. They are far easier to defeat than their larger, nastier cousins, taking just a handful of shots, and are designed to split up players that fight of the hordes by bunching close together.

The Jockey, perhaps the most devious of the bunch, jumps on your shoulders and directs you away from the group and towards other enemies. While he seems to have a similar job to the Charger, the fact that he can lead a member astray in such a short span of time causes you to stick closer together as a group in case he makes an appearance. The AI Director knows exactly what to do with him too, by planting people in the middle of hordes, or in the path of other special infected such as the Spitter, who vomit puddles of corrosive bile that's hazardous to touch.

The regular special infected all make a come back, although in lower abundance to give the new guys some prominence. (We didn't see a single Tank in our three playthroughs, for example.) While they're still up to their old tricks, the Witcher can now wander around in daylight, and reacts in the exact same deadly manner when disturbed. The standard infected have also received a touch up, where certain infected come dressed in bullet-dampening police armour, sprint in more of a zig-zag motion to avoid fire, and are now liable to shed limbs from inaccurate shots.

Another addition is the melee weapon type, where frying pans, electric guitars and machetes can be found alongside the standard ammo caches. While you'd think they'd have nothing on using a semi-automatic rifle, a swing at a swarming horde does a much better job than manically firing into a crowd. Since standard infected are downed in a single swipe, they come in handy for taking out singular zombies in less crowded areas. And although it replaces your pistol as a secondary weapon, you can still whip out the trusty side piece when downed on the floor.

Structurally, the first level lasts just a few minutes, making your way from a ferry and through several sun-lit backstreets to a safe house, which leads you directly to a 15-minute slog through a wide open park and a makeshift treatment centre. It also removes the points where you defend an area as the hordes swarm in, instead having you run to a certain point to switch off an alarm while fighting off countless infected. The elongated isles to the certain structure that houses the alarm switch have zombies jumping from fences and an overhead freeway and on one playthrough, it stuck a wondering Witch halfway down the path, completely stalling our progress while the special infected arrived to break us up and finish us off. The director is still just as chaotic and scheming as ever.

The Deep South setting brings more unique locations and a new set of musical cues, where harsh jazz tones alert you to oncoming hordes, and the new cast members give a pleasant country twang and a wider range of sparring dialogue. The full game features five campaigns, from a supermarket to a fairground, along with the return of Versus and Survival and the addition of the fuel-hunting Scavenge mode. Set to boast far more content than the first game, and changes that subtly adjust the way you approach each and every situation, it pretty much gives you everything you'd want from a sequel. What's all the controversy about?

Left 4 Dead 2 is released on November 17 for PC and 360.