We all know by now that Left 4 Dead was a breakout success for software developer Valve, and was one of the premier multiplayer games of 2008. In many people's eyes, it is the perfect zombie videogame experience. From my point of view, however, there are a few things that are missing to complete the package. So without further ado, here the 5 things I would like to see in the sequel to make it the perfect zombie game.

1. Create-a-survivor (CAS)

I understand Valve's point of view with the four survivors you can pick to play as in Left 4 Dead. They represent many of your typical characters in a horror movie. But I can only pick between average black guy, wiley old dude, angry tough guy and random hot chick so many times before I get bored. The characters in the game don’t talk much, so it makes it hard for me as a player to get behind any of them. Plus none of them even remotely fit my own persona, which doesn’t help. I mean come on, the witty and sarcastic pudgy guy is a staple… even if he is one of the first to die in horror movies. So picture this for L4D2: Full survivor customization. It wouldn't have to be incredibly deep like that of the Smackdown series but it should have enough depth so that you could potentially make a believable version of yourself and your friends. I would get much more involved into a L4D campaign if I could turn around and actually see a reasonable facsimile of my buddies running alongside me. Every part and texture should also have a zombiefied opposite that you can't access in the creation tools. Whenever you play multiplayer on the zombie side, the game would do a palette swap for your current character into your zombie model. Those models can be faster, more durable versions of regular zombies, and have limited pouncing ability and enhanced strength. That way you can still have an advantage on the zombie side, but not be forced into a "special" zombie skin. Now you can actually see your best friends AND they're trying to kill you.

2. Built-in single player/multiplayer mods

L4D is a great multiplayer experience, but there’s no denying that its replay value will only hold out for so long with its current content. To help with this, I would like to see the sequel take a page right out of Counter Strike’s book and have mods built right into the game to spice things up. These would come in the form of checkboxes that would be located in the pre-game lobby. Want slow zombies and only headshot kills?  What about adding rain or snow to a level that will reduce your traction and possibly cause you to trip and have to be helped up by a teammate? Or if a zombie trips, you get to watch him scramble after you on the ground for added excitement? What about an infection mod, that instead of having you die if you get downed and don't get help in time, you turn into your new zombie character model and get to pursue your friends? Just click a few check boxes and completely change your experience.

3. More levels of decomposition and more gore

This is a zombie game, is it not? Pale average Joe zombies that run like madmen are nice and all, but we need more decay to ramp up the horror factor. I mean, the hand on the cover of the box is more weathered than any of the zombies in the game. If anything, this should be done just for variety’s sake, but it could be used for some interesting gameplay mechanics as well. How about legless zombies that can hide in small areas and trip you causing you to lie on your back and shoot until you're safe or a friend helps you to your feet. There could be armless zombies that can only bite you but when they do they latch onto you and slow you down? Now if we include the ability to blow off limbs during gameplay that would really increase the tension. Picture this: you and three friends just entered a room with a lone zombie in it and you take it down with a well placed shotgun blast. A few seconds later, the zombie that you thought was dead grabs you by the ankles and pulls you to the ground and starts to climb over you. All of your friends turn around a freak out as they try to kill the zombie that they already though was dead.

4. Context-sensitive environmental interaction

So you’ve just gotten to the end of your campaign, and are ready to fight off the zombie horde inside of a lake house. There are four of you, but six entrances to the home, and way more than six zombies coming your way. You run over to a large dresser in the upstairs bedroom, and try to push it in front of the window, sealing off one of the entrances. It’s too heavy for you alone, so you call one of your friends who runs over and lends his strength in sliding the dresser over. Instances like these could be implemented with the simple addition of an all purpose “action” button. Things like pushing over dressers, helping up a team mate hanging from a ledge, and pushing a neutral car down a street could all be achieved with one button and some scripted code. These could be used to add an element of strategy into the gameplay, and reinforce the game’s core teamwork structure. Also, I think Valve should throw in lots of traditional “shoot stuff to do stuff” environmental interaction and then not tell the public about it. Imagine being pursued by a zombie mob, and in accidentally shooting an electrical box on a pole while aiming for a hunter, you cause an electric wire zombie BBQ. You would flip out with surprise and excitement, and would start combing every level looking for more random goodies. This could range from exploding gas tanks to collapsing rickety scaffolding, and anything in between. It would add a certain “Hollywood movie” effect to the game as well.

5. Zombie apocalypse mode

This would run very similarly to Dead Rising’s survivor mode, only with more strategy, and with co-op. You and up to seven of your friends would get placed in a mall that would be designed to scale. This mall would include stores you could raid for supplies and weapons. The game would progress in a 15 minute equals one hour ratio, and would be purely a test to see how long you can survive. The first four hours of game time would be relatively slow, with only the zombies that were already in the mall to stand in your way. Using our new context sensitive actions, you can use materials gathered around the mall to barricade yourselves inside and start sealing off entrances even going as far as parking trucks up against the doors. You would have to systematically wipe out all of the zombies hiding in every corner of the mall, including any of our legless buddies hiding in the heating vents. Eventually the zombies would realize what’s going on and come after you, and you would have to start defending yourselves. You can continue to fortify the mall, and even potentially seal off every chance of the zombies sneaking in. All the materials would have an eventual breaking point, and you would have to keep repairing them, but they would be set to actually last a very long time, so you’re not constantly running all around the mall. There would be a limited (though plentiful) amount of ammo, and if Valve really wanted to get tricky, food. Yes, I am talking about having to eat to stay alive, and also sleep to stay rested.  You could choose to sleep as long as you wanted using the real time/game time ratio, but lack of sleep would make you sluggish and inaccurate. While you “slept”, there would be a bunch of zombie mini-games to keep you amused, ranging from just mindlessly blowing stuff away to “whack-a-zombie” carnival type games. You would have to communicate with each other who was going to sleep when, where and for how long, since having a man down could spell doom if the zombie broke through somewhere inside the mall. This mode would save every real time hour, and would be tracked on leaderboards on Xbox live.

I think with these five additions to L4D’s already stellar gameplay would take the game into a whole new level and give us the complete zombie survival experience. Most of these additions wouldn’t be too hard to implement because it would be using the existing code that the game is written on as it’s foundation. What do you guys and girls at Gamervision think?