I play this game for an entirely different reason than I would play Left 4 Dead 2. Both games are meant to be cooperative, but after getting rather good at L4D1, I feel that it's somewhat broken in terms of your partners being indispensable.

In L4D2, you absolutely need to work together as a team in order to accomplish your goals. If there's inexperienced people on your team or if you end up playing with bots, the challenge becomes much more difficult. Some of the guns have been nerfed in order to reinforce the need for partners. Also, you can't melee forever, like you are able to do in the first game. Your character eventually fatigues and your character will start to melee more slowly after a while. The maps are designed to prevent the group from hunkering down in a corner and waiting out the horde. Instead, you are meant to run and gun, trying to lessen the amount of damage you will take, since you can't hide in a corner and melee, which would allow you to prevent taking any damage at all. The finales are much more varied and definitely require some teamwork. Without human players backing you up, the finales on some of the new maps would be near impossible.

In L4D1, on the other hand, the infected are pretty easy to dispel if you stay in huddled in a single squad. All you need your partners for is to give you a shove to save you from the occasional special infected. As long as you stay in a team, you can save each other from any hazard. The game is simplistic and pattern based. All you need to do is follow audio cues to know what to expect. Hear some piano keys playing? A Hunter is nearby. Hear a howl? A horde of zombies is coming. It's at that point that you just look for the nearest building corner and crouch. Then, you melee and shoot until the horde eventually dies. The game is extremely simplistic, once you've learned how to read its cues. The finales are also a very simple pattern of horde, Tank, horde, Tank, followed by the rescue, at which point you have a horde and a Tank at the same time.

It's for this reason that I play it, though. I enjoy playing it while talking to friends or use it as an opportunity to make friends. I can spend hours talking to people while killing zombies. For me, it's like a chatroom with a teambuilding exercise built into it. When I play L4D2, on the other hand, I spend so much time focusing on the task at hand, that I can't stop and chat. Not to mention that it's an entirely different gaming experience, which I have yet to acclimate to. In other words, I still ♥♥♥♥ at L4D2, so I can't easily chat and play at the same time. So, for how I use it, I definitely recommend L4D1.

I play this game for an entirely different reason than I would play Left 4 Dead 2. Both games are meant to be cooperative, but after getting rather good at L4D1, I feel that it's somewhat broken in terms of your partners being indispensable. In L4D2, you absolutely need to work together as a team in order to accomplish your goals. If there's inexperienced people on your team or if you end up playing with bots, the challenge becomes much more difficult. Some of the guns have been nerfed in order to reinforce the need for partners. Also, you can't melee forever, like you are able to do in the first game. Your character eventually fatigues and your character will start to melee more slowly after a while. The maps are designed to prevent the group from hunkering down in a corner and waiting out the horde. Instead, you are meant to run and gun, trying to lessen the amount of damage you will take, since you can't hide in a corner and melee, which would allow you to prevent taking any damage at all. The finales are much more varied and definitely require some teamwork. Without human players backing you up, the finales on some of the new maps would be near impossible. In L4D1, on the other hand, the infected are pretty easy to dispel if you stay in huddled in a single squad. All you need your partners for is to give you a shove to save you from the occasional special infected. As long as you stay in a team, you can save each other from any hazard. The game is simplistic and pattern based. All you need to do is follow audio cues to know what to expect. Hear some piano keys playing? A Hunter is nearby. Hear a howl? A horde of zombies is coming. It's at that point that you just look for the nearest building corner and crouch. Then, you melee and shoot until the horde eventually dies. The game is extremely simplistic, once you've learned how to read its cues. The finales are also a very simple pattern of horde, Tank, horde, Tank, followed by the rescue, at which point you have a horde and a Tank at the same time. It's for this reason that I play it, though. I enjoy playing it while talking to friends or use it as an opportunity to make friends. I can spend hours talking to people while killing zombies. For me, it's like a chatroom with a teambuilding exercise built into it. When I play L4D2, on the other hand, I spend so much time focusing on the task at hand, that I can't stop and chat. Not to mention that it's an entirely different gaming experience, which I have yet to acclimate to. In other words, I still suck at L4D2, so I can't easily chat and play at the same time. So, for how I use it, I definitely recommend L4D1.