It’s Halloween and Valve are in the mood for horror. In typical fashion Team Fortress 2 has rolled out the carpets with its second spooktacular fragfest, but new to the scene is the Left 4 Dead’s version of Halloween. Who does it better then?
Let us start with TF2′s update dubbed Scream Fortress running from October 28 until November 8. This year we have another halloween themed map (Mann Manor) that is suitably dark and littered with pumpkins of the explosive and non-explosive variety. To make things interesting they have released the first official boss character who roams the map looking for easy prey. He goes by the name of the horseless headless horsemann and he’s like Saxton Hale only on steroids. Every hit is a one-hit-kill and he has no qualms with which side he kills considering he is team purple.
The map itself is simple yet fun to roam as it sticks to a traditional haunted manor setting, along with tapping into the established canon surrounding the Mann family.
On top of this there are random spawning gifts that appear throughout the Manor which if collected reward you with one of nine paper masks. Collect them all and you get the fabled Saxton Hale mask usable all year round. It’s a good idea that adds a new scavenger hunt dimension to the game but at the same time it does also lead to broken hearts and squabbles over who should get the ghostly gifts.
To go with this a few new limited edition Halloween themed hats are in the store as well as a new axe for the Demoman, giving Valve a way to cash in on those few who must have every piece of headgear available. And finally there are a few new achievements.
So what does Left 4 Dead 2 have? A new haunted forest community map and some patches to the tank that were mentioned earlier this month. It’s better than nothing but as I’ve said before the L4D team shouldn’t try and compete with the willful imagination of the TF team. They just have the better game for seasonal adaptations and comedy.
If those two games aren’t your thing then there is also a Halloween sale on Steam. Games of particular note in the sale include Amnesia, one of the few games that has scared me in a long time, Dead Space and, for some reason, Bioshock. Happy Halloween.
