Spending some time with Left 4 Dead – part 2 that contains Swamp Fever and Parish campaigns, one may wonder if in case of a zombie apocalypse he should after all choose wilderness instead of city. The Swamp campaign is about survivors running to seek for a refuge in a community which refused the help of some military forces. In the first moments you live under the feeling that you are OK, but shortly after this you realize that actually you are in a swamp with all the locals watching. The Swamp is the only mission in “Left 4 Dead” – 2 with the settings belonging to nightmares images and they actually resemble to the images of the swamps from American South.
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You can escape from the zombies that populate the areas through the shacks that are able to take you up out of the waters. But the shacks don’t seem to be that safe since they are easily crushed by the zombie hoards, and as a character in the game you have to try to stay oh higher ground in order to stay alive. The levels are rendered by the Swamp or Parish plays which alters according to the type of the zombies. In Swamp the zombies are mud men with different skills, that force the player to be very cautious while wandering as they could have come out of nowhere and draw your attention in undesirable location, thus distracting you from your purpose. The Parish campaign features zombies in the form of biohazard suit infected and present immunity to the fire and this is a tough situation especially when relying on molotovs in order to feel safer.

Beside these zombies, there is also a Spitter infected which can perform a ranged attack over a group of survivors in the form of an area where once you are caught within its limits you are damaged, well, not entirely but yet you can get really hurt. The Swamp’s finale resembles the original L4D, whereas the Parish campaign shows a new type of climax with a change of pace, when the players meet situations otherwise common to be presented in a different texture, forcing the players to change strategy or to act very carefully. The perception of time while playing this second part is somehow different compared to the one you have while playing the first part of Left 4 Dead.

More than that, the addition of ammo packs and adrenaline meant that the team while playing is delivered new options when they have to face disastrous situations. The fans of the first part may be taken by surprise while encountering these new situations, but be sure that you will be into a lot of excitement and surprise elements that will you going; ah, and one more thing, after you’ll be done, properly (!) speaking, the L4D2 makes you think that there is not a spot to deliver safety to you.

At the price of $10.00 you can buy an online multiplayer shooter having eight special levels, featuring characters from comic books to play as, everything looks appealing and somehow of a decent value on the image displayed on the case for “The Punisher: No Mercy”. But while playing you discover that the first-person shooter is not too specially deep bearing a mark of ordinary in its definition. Next to this aspect we find the thrill only in the first half an hour of playing, for after that to be left in the hands of a repetitive series of shootings longing for a way to take your guns online.
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The online multiplayer mode of the game is the appealing thing followed by a total disinterest for those who need some practice in order to gain their skills that enable them to perform the challenges cast by the enemies in a competitive gameplay. The story is leveled on four stages revealing Frank Castle, a character who fights against the clones of his arch nemeses. Your opponents are stripped of tactical skills and health in this way player is left with no chance in being prepared for human-controlled foes. The play is separated in cooperative and competitive modes, but given the fact that your the artificial enemies present too much of a mentally retarded side you are left with the wish to fight against ones who can actually lead a fight.

The game offers various modes to choose from, but they are only mild diversifications of the well-known “deathmatch” formula, displaying also a monotony to predominate in the objectives field. The stages present plenty of dangerous situations watching behind the corners without revealing actually the reasons that determine you to guard your back. Each fight ends very fast, enemies being killed way before they have a chance to fight back, an aspect that is not quite that satisfactory for the proud of a gamer.

Maps are present also in the game, making room for a game for eight players, but it proves that cutting in the number in half is more funnier to play with. You have the abilities to gather health packs, to drop (apparently too often) the unreliable automatic weapons and reach for a rocket launcher, moment that is filled with noisy and big blasting where you need to wait and hope for the best to happen. Leveling up your guns through upgrading make you a better and more powerful shooter, but these upgrades slowly vanish as you die. However you can be rewarded with permanent abilities that are to be earned by playing longer, killing hundreds online, unlocking more powerful weapons. Upgrading as a way to stimulate a play is a good idea though the demands are too high, especially that a player has to spend long hours to see what is it in the game for him at the end of the play. But still you don’t know in the end if it was worth playing a character too superficial to keep you connected to the long displayed plot of the game.

How about a “free to play” game? Sounds great. EA has already made this move releasing “Battlefield Heroes” with some elements left out putting them aside for paying customers. You’ll say it’s not fair, and we have to agree with that, but think again and you’ll find out that is all about business; is all about promoting a product in whatever shape it is for in the end to get some money out of it, otherwise what will be the point of running it as a product?
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EA is doing this promotion with “Battlefield Heroes”, a cartoon war which has its own attractive design and a theme song that lasts in your mind long after you ended the game. As a battlefield game, the vehicular control seem to have the reins and for this part the game manages great. The vehicles present in the game can be handled very well responding prompt to every move you make. The elements that bring special powers and weapons are still present in the features of the game; gaining playtime and accomplishing missions enables you to be have extra powers and weapons to use in your further steps. The paid elements for the game get you avatar clothing, few upgrades for accessing higher level weapons, but you do not have to get angry; you have to keep in mind that you are actually playing for free.

The game starts right from the beginning with your direct involvement into the action and the moment you are in you have to stick to your position. To access the game you have to visit the site, login and when the big yellow button that says “play now” appears you just press it and there you are, right into the game. The problem is that while being logged in connection or server issues might occur but this is not up to you or to your game skills to prevent. The beauty of the game is that the killing element is present only if you are run over by a land vehicle, and this can not happen as long as you pay attention to the game. Everything you encounter is never hidden in the way that you might not be able to see it coming. The other shooting elements, such as sniper headshots, or grenade or dynamite are able only to take away part of your health.

These are the nice aspects of the game, but along with them can happen tricky things that create you a bit of frustrations, such as being caught in an ambush, or vehicle damages. The game also offers a feature called vehicle map, but no way to select it and play. The moment you press the “play now” button you are cast to a server that half of the time displays an infantry map; perhaps the presence of an option that enables you to list specific maps, for instance, wouldn’t be such a bad idea, after all. But considering that Battlefield Heroes is free to play game you can just sit down, relax and enjoy the trip in the world of cartoon visuals that the game offers.