The game is out on Friday, so I thought I'd post a few details that I've found on the new iteration (copied from the Steam L4D2 forums http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=884519):
Highlighted Features
■ 5 new campaigns, including Dead Center, Dark Carnival, Swamp Fever, Hard Rain, and The Parish.
■ New game mode: Scavenge! All game modes will be available at launch.
■ 4 new Survivors: Coach, Rochelle, Ellis, and Nick.
■ At least 20 new weapons and items. [Source?]
■ New melee weapons: axe, chainsaw, frying pan, baseball bat, cricket bat, katana, guitar, crowbar, machete, and tonfa.
■ New ranged weapons. Ranged weapons at least include new pistols (including a magnum), SMG, new pump and auto shotgun, grenade launcher, and at least a few new rifles.
■ More powerful AI Director 2.0.
■ New Infected types, including 3 new Special Infected (Charger, Spitter and Jockey) as well as a wandering witch.
■ Some daylight gameplay.
Storytelling
Left 4 Dead 2 is designed as a much more continuous story than the original game, with more tie-ins between campaigns. The team has expressed a desire to improve the storytelling without adding bulky narrative devices like a deluge of cutscenes. To do this, the Survivors will be round characters—over the course of the campaigns, their personalities and relationships will change. There will be more back-and-forth interactions and running jokes. Some lines or conversations will happen very rarely. Also, each campaign will have a brief introduction cinematic that helps to bridge the gaps.
The campaigns are set in the American Southeast, one week after the original game’s events. In some places, the infection is not as pervasive as in the Northeast, and at the very beginning, Savannah, GA (the location of the first campaign) has not been completely affected yet. The Survivors do not know each other at the beginning. They meet in Savannah and make their way west to New Orleans, LA, where they attempt to reach a military outpost.
The military takes a much greater role in the new storyline. The infection has progressed past the point of CEDA's control, so the military has decided to take more aggressive measures. There will be evidence of "humans turning on humans"viviolent tension between the military and survivors who wish to enter the safe zones. In some places, Survivors may see downed helicopters or uninfected human bodies. This comes in stark contrast to the current L4D, which has a decidedly bleaker outlook with no show of a cohesive defense.
Survivors
Coach
A high school defensive coordinator and health teacher with dreams of coaching professional football. During college, Coach was a skilled defensive lineman and intended to go pro until he had a career-ending knee injury. He's from the Savannah, GA area, and is used to dealing with (living) kids and parents. When the zombocalypse broke out, he lamented allowing himself to fall out of shape.
Coach wears a short-sleeved polymer sports polo. Originally, it was yellow and blue, but new gameplay footage shows him wearing purple and gold. He also wears khakis, white wristbands, a chrome whistle, a black belt, black shoes, and black weight-lifting gloves. Coach is overweight, and his rotund model sometimes clips weapon stocks.
Coach’s booming voice is brought to you by Chad Coleman, who plays Denise "Cutty" Wise from the TV series "The Wire". His mildly scornful personality and patronizing voice lines seem to be a reflection of the paternal nature of his job, his interest in sports, and his religious leanings.
Rochelle
A tough-as-nails northerner from Cleveland. After graduating from Cleveland State with a degree in communications, Rochelle pursued a career as an on-air news personality, but only managed to find work as an associate producer/intern. Two months later, after an outbreak hit Atlanta, Rochelle got her big break and was sent to the evacuation center in Savannah to produce her first big segment. If only she’d known that her biggest break would be out to kill her.
Rochelle wears a thin brown over-the-shirt belt and tight blue jeans. In the E3 demo and the teaser trailer, she wore a plain orange shirt, which differed from the rose-colored shirt she wears in the poster art. However, in more recent official screen shots, she can be seen wearing a rose-colored shirt with a Depeche Mode graphic.
Rochelle is voiced by Rochelle Aytes, an actress whose repertoire includes "White Chicks" and "Madea’s Family Reunion". She appears to be strong-willed and can be somewhat indignant.
Ellis
A smart, fun-loving, beer-loving, goofiness-loving mechanic with Southern flare. After finishing high school in his hometown of Savannah, he spurned thoughts of college, choosing instead to pursue his passion of working on cars. Ellis’ youthful exuberance and carefree nature allow him to remain upbeat even in the direst of situations.
In the most recent versions, Ellis wears a yellow T-shirt with the words "Bull Shifters" on it, plus a gray jumpsuit bottom.
Ellis’ voice actor is Eric Ladin from "Generation Kill", who voices the role with a moderate Southern accent. Ellis is the most helpful and good-natured of the group, and even his most aggressive lines only reach the point of humorous indignation. At the end of The Parish, Ellis utters the line every player has yelled into the mic at end of No Mercy at one point or another. You know which one.
A line we’ve heard Ellis say is that he loves horses. This makes us wonder if he’s the anti-Francis, dialogue-wise.
Nick
A gambler, petty conman, and consummate picaresque in a purportedly expensive white suit. Nick hails from the Midwest, but he’s a vagabond by nature, moving from place to place without settling down. He’s the most cynical and bitter of the Survivors, and is still trying to figure out the best angle on the recent upturn in the brain-eating market. Over time, he begins to trust and value his new compatriots.
Nick is voiced by Hugh Dillon, an actor from "Flashpoint" on CBS. As mentioned earlier, he’s the most cynical and distant of the Survivors. One of the lines Nick can be heard saying is "You’re going to shoot the guy in the $10,000 suit? Come on!" This is likely an allusion to Arrested Development, where Gob has an obsession with the ever-varying price of his suits. There may be multiple unique variations of this line, each with a different price degree of emphasis. The prices we’ve heard so far are $2000, $3000, $6000, and $10000.